Broadsword56 Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 Maybe someone has posted about this before, but it's a new discovery for me... Last night the American PBS network aired "3D Spies of World War II," a fascinating documentary about photo recon over Europe. They showed images from what they said was the world's largest archive of wartime aerial photos, many only recently declassified. It's in Edinburgh, Scotlland, at the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments. I looked it up online, and was amazed not only to find an easily searchable database of images, but also that they've already been hyperlinked to map pushpins and on Google Earth, with the boundaries marked out! Here's the URL for the photo archive -- lots on Omaha Beach area, Cherbourg, and Caen (although not much for the areas just W of Caen): http://aerial.rcahms.gov.uk/ 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergei Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 Nothing new there, you will have to pay a good deal for the photos. (insert Scot joke here) I recall it's also limited in scope to the British sectors, not surprisingly. A more useful source for hobbyists is the French national geographic institute's site where they have free air photos from the 1940's, as well as current topographic maps. http://loisirs.ign.fr/accueilPVA.do Just type in the location you want to find. It helps if you have just slight understanding of French, but you should be able to get the information regardless. "Téléchargeable gratuitement" means "downloadable free", that should get you going. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 Nothing new there, you will have to pay a good deal for the photos. (insert Scot joke here) I don't think that's completely true anymore. The ones that are online are, well, they're online. For instance, this picture of Vierville from RHACMS, taken 27 June 1944: I recall it's also limited in scope to the British sectors, not surprisingly. Again not completely true, although tactical coverage does tend towards British areas. But I'm not sure if that's a function of what was photographed, or what's been digitised so far. See also above picture of Vierville, at OMAHA, for example. A more useful source for hobbyists is the French national geographic institute's site where they have free air photos from the 1940's, as well as current topographic maps. Concur. Geoportail is an incredible resource. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broadsword56 Posted January 19, 2012 Author Share Posted January 19, 2012 And some of these aerial photos in the Scottish archive are particularly remarkable because they were taken within days of -- or even during -- battles. This page on their "features" section about Operation Goodwood actually has some images showing Tiger tanks as they're crossing a wheatfield during the battle, etc.: http://aerial.rcahms.gov.uk/database/record.php?usi=006-000-001-172-C&scache=22e2o1b95d&searchdb=tara_scran Pretty amazing stuff, even if you just want to look at it and not map it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergei Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 I don't think that's completely true anymore. The ones that are online are, well, they're online. For instance, this picture of Vierville from RHACMS, taken 27 June 1944: But are there higher resolutions available for free? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 But are there higher resolutions available for free? Dunno - you have to register to zoom, and I couldn't be bothered with that for the purposes of this thread Even un-zoomed, they'd be usefull for gross mapping. Where are the field edges? Where are the tree-belts and forests? Where are the roads? etc. Those questions even the un-zoomed images can answer. To put my post another way: Geoportail is superb, but RHACMS isn't useless, even if you only want free stuff. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Canadian Cat Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 But are there higher resolutions available for free? I looked into it - a yearlong subscription costs 12 or 18 pounds (sorry I forgot which). Which is pretty reasonable but I do not know how high a resolution that is. They say it give you access to four levels of zooming. I did not pull the trigger since I don't have a tonne of spare time right now. I did however save the link away. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broadsword56 Posted January 19, 2012 Author Share Posted January 19, 2012 Dunno - you have to register to zoom, and I couldn't be bothered with that for the purposes of this thread Even un-zoomed, they'd be usefull for gross mapping. Where are the field edges? Where are the tree-belts and forests? Where are the roads? etc. Those questions even the un-zoomed images can answer. To put my post another way: Geoportail is superb, but RHACMS isn't useless, even if you only want free stuff. Yes, Geoportail is amazing and it's what I use most. But those are from 1947, so if you want something from during the war, even if just for comparison, the Scottish images are valuable. For example, seeing the D-Day beaches a few days before the landings is good because all the German emplacements and positions were still there. After D-Day and by 1947, a lot of that had been obliterated by all the Naval shelling, postwar rebuilding, and passage of time. And IMHO the fact that the Scottish images are linked to their areas on Google Earth makes them especially helpful, since you can see them matched to the present-day features as well. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 IIRC, Geoportail has pre-1947 images (including a 1944 set, I think) but ... you have to pay for them. Even the 1947 set is highly valuable, since the terrain in them is an awful lot closer to 1944 that G-maps or G-earth. I was saved from putting a honking great highway right through the middle of one scenario by the Geoportail 1947 photos Otherwise: yes, agreed. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GerryCMBB Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Thanks for the great map links. Will be a great help when reading this history. Gerry 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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