Interesting RFC and RAF Aerial Photographs

[brindlerp]

"Welcome to the,

WW1 R.F.C. and R.A.F. TRENCH PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION by BRAD CHAPPELL"

Check out > http://www.capefam.freeserve.co.uk/trench.htm

regards

Richard

[stevew]

Wow...............

Personally, I find these quite impressive!

[burlington]

These look really good.

Is it possible though to use thumbnails so that people have the option to look first before downloading the fairly large file.

Martin

[brindlerp]

Regarding my first post above, the aerial photograph of BUTTE de WARLENCOURT -

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~m...ges/warcout.htm

is a particularly impressive panoramic picture.

Does anyone have any similar quality panoramic battlefield photographs of the Western Front where the British fought (there must have been plenty of them taken).

I am particularly interested in:

1914 Ypres battlefield around Zillebeke - Hooge - Gheluvelt

1914 Le Maisnil - Bois Grenier

1915 Neuve Chapelle

1915 Loos - Vermelles - Citie St Elie/Hulluch/Quarries

1916 Somme - Sierre - Beaumont Hamel and 7th Divisions front at Maricourt/Mametz.

The 20inch Zeiss Triplet lens camera takes very impressive pictures, I wonder where it was made?

regards

Richard

[Dolphin]

What marvellous photographs!

I wonder if the wrecked BE2c shown in the Contalmaison photograph might be 2481 of No 4 Sqn RFC, 2Lt G V Randall (KIA) and 2Lt G M Angier (Injured), which was damaged in combat and forced to land on 20 July 1916, ie the day before the photo was taken.

[salientpoints]

The 20inch Zeiss Triplet lens camera takes very impressive pictures, I wonder where it was made?

As far as I am aware all the Zeiss lenses were made in Germany.

Ryan

[bmac]

I found these photos a couple of years ago and contacted Mr Chappell as I was interested in the Gommecourt pictures. At the time he was a 20 year serving officer in the RAF based in Bosnia on photo reconnaissance. I was interested in getting some proper copies of these photos and he advised me to contact the people at Cosford. The curator of the RAF Museum there told me that they did not hold these photos and he also asked the curator at Hendon who also knew nothing. The guy at Hendon thought they might come from an archive held by the Joint School of Photography (also at Cosford). Unfortunately contact with Brad Chappell then lapsed but he gave the impression that, in early 2002, there were various developments going on at Cosford and that the Museum and JSOP weren't necessarily aware of each other's resources.

I never contacted the JSOP but, if somebody wants to, the details are: Officer Commanding the Joint School of Photography, RAF Cosford Wolverhampton, WV7 3EX. If you make contact and these (and any other photos) are available as proper prints please let me know as I would love copies!

[brindlerp]

Bill, thank you for the information.

Found

" Joint School of Photography

The Joint School of Photography (JSOP) is the largest purpose-built photographic training school in Europe. Personnel from all three Armed Forces are trained in every aspect of photography or associated imagery from a range of thirty available courses categorised as career, specialist or pre-employment."

at http://www.raf.mod.uk/cosford/jsophoto.html

then I found

"The Joint School of Photography becomes the Defence School of Photography

After some thirty years as the JSOP the title for the school changed to DSOP on June 6th 2003. It also came under the "virtual" management of the Defence Intelligence Services Centre (DISC) based at Chicksands in Bedfordshire. The school remains located at RAF Cosford for the present time. A final decision is to be made by the Defence Training Review (DTR) team, some time in the future. A very good case for the continued location of the school at RAF Cosford has been put forward to the team and it is hoped that this will be a major influence on the final outcome. At the official changeover ceremony on June 6th, Captain Patrick RN confirmed that the strongest possible case had been presented to the DTR, which included a detailed report of all available facilities being realistic, relevant and valid to the current and future training needs of the military photographer and the most cost effective option."

at http://www.rafbepa.co.uk/The_Mag/the_mag.html

The plot thickens...

regards

Richard

[brindlerp]

For those interested the Australian Memorial site has a very interesting collection of photographs.

http://www.awm.gov.au/database/collection.asp

Collections search

Search our collections of:

 Art

 Photographs

 Film

 Sound recordings

 Private Records

 Military Heraldry

 Military Technology

Books, journals, maps and sheet music.

A link to National Archives of Australia RecordSearch database.

Browse images of selected Australian Army unit war diaries from the Second World War.

I entered 'AERIAL PHOTOGRAPH' and 'FIRST WORLD WAR, 1914-1918' and received 'Viewing records 1-25 of 564'.

A lot of records are marked 'Electronic image currently unavailable' or 'Prints or scans not available - original negative undergoing preservation', however a significant number are available covering all theatres.

regards

Richard

[Robert Dunlop]

I am particularly interested in:

1914 Ypres battlefield around Zillebeke - Hooge - Gheluvelt

1914 Le Maisnil - Bois Grenier

1915 Neuve Chapelle

1915 Loos - Vermelles - Citie St Elie/Hulluch/Quarries

1916 Somme - Sierre - Beaumont Hamel and 7th Divisions front at Maricourt/Mametz.

Richard

I am not sure if there will be much before Neuve Chapelle. Photographs of the latter, plus Loos, the Somme - La Boisselle and Flers/Courcelette are available in:

'The Western Front from the Air' by N Watkis (ISBN 0 7509 1338 X).

Yesterday, I saw copies for sale in a discount bookstore for around 7 quid.

It is interesting to see how little effect the shelling had at Loos and in the early phase of the Somme.

[brindlerp]

Robert

Many thanks for the book information and reference.

regards

Richard

[bmac]

It is interesting to see how little effect the shelling had at Loos and in the early phase of the Somme.

Exactly. A close study of the Gommecourt aerial pictures taken on 30th June 1916 shows precious little damage to trenches except for two strongholds at either end of the 56th Division's area. Another one, in the middle of the attack zone (and which caused major problems when the assault here failed) is barely scratched. Not surprising really given the inexperience of the gunners, the inadequacy of the shells and the breakdown of the equipment. But quite how senior officers can have concluded from these photos that the attack would be a walk-over through pulverised defences is beyond me. These are nothing like the photos from later in the Somme where there are rim to rim crater fields.

It is also interesting to note the scrape marks left by RFA shrapnel where they attempted to clear the wire. Some of these photos revealed the failure of the wire cutting in key areas - or the abilities of the Germans to repair it in the added-on days before the attack when artillery activity plummeted.

[Guest]

I have several copies of the CD containing the full 69 images plus cross references to the Naval and Millitary Press Trench Map CD where I have been able to locate the image on the map. The images on the CD are very high resolution scans, I have printed them out at 34" longest size without any loss of definition. If anybody is interested in a copy (there is a small fee) of the CD please contact me (off list).

Further to Bill's message earlier in this thread, JSOP now DSOP (Defence School of Photography) were at the time clearing out their private museum to make room for more classrooms and handed everthing over to the RAF museum at Cosford, who, as I was lead to believe, were going to open a display of military photography. I'm not suprised that the museum were unaware of this as communication between a*s* and elbow has never been a strong point of the military.

Regards

Brad Chappell