Hi Res V Weapons Sites (Noball)
 

I have started a new set for V Weapons sites aerial photos. They were taken by pilots of the 7th PRG stationed at Mt Farm, UK flying Spitfire MK XIs and F-5s (P-38 variant).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2455401...7610565917649/

Re: Hi Res V Weapons Sites (Noball)
 

Do you know the significance of the letters Q and P ? Otherwise, these images are quite remarkable. Were the Germans aware of the overflights? It seems that some type of camouflage netting would have been used when the sites were not in operation.


Thank you,
Ed

Re: Hi Res V Weapons Sites (Noball)
 

Hello Ed

The letters P and Q definitely had significance. One was for the launch ramp I am pretty sure. There are books out there which cover this topic of which I am unfortunately not very much in the know. The Germans were aware of the overflights however the targets were very well hidden by trees and innocent looking buildings that they were very hard to find. My Father states that they were among the hardest to find of any photo recce targets.

Regards
Scott

PS: Try googling "Spitfire 944"

Re: Hi Res V Weapons Sites (Noball)
 

Thank you Scott.



Ed

Re: Hi Res V Weapons Sites (Noball)
 

Ed, there was a TV program on just recently, King and Country iirc, that showed the original hard shelters that the V-1 used. The item mark 'Q' looks like the curved assembly building (camouflaged). One end of 'Q' is at one end of 'P', so would hazzard a guess and say 'P' is the launch ramp.

http://www.bunkerpictures.nl/datashe...on-cappel.html

The pic on the left is the launch ramp.

http://atlanticwallbelgiumboulogne.1...siracourt.html

Re: Hi Res V Weapons Sites (Noball)
 

Hello Scott!

For your information, the picture "near Frévent" shows the Bonnières-Beauvoir "Versorgungstelle nr 1003" (advanced V1 depot).
Not visible just over the top of the picture is located the V1 launching site ("Bois Carré" type, Nr 654) of Beauvoir. The rather "clean" taxiway one can see (when not bomb-obliterated) in the lower half of the photo is the NW part of the peripheral taxiway of the Beauvoir airfield (origin BEF, closely followed by lengthy German tenure). The airfield had a concrete runway located just below the photo frame...
Needless to say the airfield was one of the most damaged ever, considering its close proximity to no less than two heavy Noball targets!
The very visible runway often served as a good clue to the US and RAF crew coming to bomb Beauvoir Bonnières (and this happened many times!)...
Today most of the two Noball sites installations are still visible; next to nothing is left of the airfield.
The intensity of the successive bombings is still noticeable on aerial photos as well as on the ground, 60 years later...

I am trying to identify the unknown Noball target, but short of testing the 96 possibilities one by one, it will be hard...

Amically,

JV

Re: Hi Res V Weapons Sites (Noball)
 

Thanks JV

I changed the photo description accordingly to reflect Beauvoir Airfield and V-1 site. I have several other photos like this where there is significant bomb damage. I will scan a few of them and add them to this set.

Thanks Again
Scott

Re: Hi Res V Weapons Sites (Noball)
 

Hello Scott!

I still was not able to identify the unknown Noball site (photo N° 7)...any info you could get would help...

The photo N° 10 shows the Noball site "Mimoyecques" a.k.a. V3 Vergelstung Waffen (projekt "Hochdruckpumpe"). The pen mark delineates the enormous concrete slab with the 3 openings across which for each one a multiple propelling charges cannon would have been firing.
The concrete slab is still there to this day...and there is a museum in the main subterranean gallery of this enormous installation.

The photo N° 12 shows a V1 launching heavy base, but the english photointerpreter mistook the name of the wood: this is indeed the Bois de Radinghem. The Bois de Coupelle has disappeared long ago...Some concrete left, this base was almost obliterated and very much hidden by dense vegetation.

In the ETO set, The photo N° 18 shows the Noball site "Wizernes", actually the area just West of the V2 site (it just beyond the right edge of the photo!). Some "Tallboy" bomb craters are visible (also on "Mimoyecques"photo: the central slab is damaged by one such bomb, and another just missed it by few meters).

Cordially,

JV

Re: Hi Res V Weapons Sites (Noball)
 

Thanks Again JV!

I will change the descriptions accordingly as time permits. I have also posted a few more V Weapons site photos including two which are unidentified.

Regards
Scott

Re: Hi Res V Weapons Sites (Noball)
 

Hello Scott!

Photo Nr 15 also shows Wizernes area, but this time the northern part. The small marshalling yard (fully visible on the photo Nr 13) is here visible for a small part in the top left corner. The V2 base is invisible, just to the left center of the photo frame :).
Finally the photo Nr 14 still shows Wizernes area but this time the southern part, with Helfaut village at the bottom of the picture. The V2 base is invisible, just to the right top of the photo frame...

I am sure one of your photos must show the V2 base...:)

Cordially,

JV

Re: Hi Res V Weapons Sites (Noball)
 

Hello again Scott!

I have identified the remaining Noball photo (photo Nr 7). It shows the Battery Command Post installed at the Chateau de Bosmelet. The Chateau grounds are on the left with the tree-lined entrance alley going from the road toward the Chateau in the middle left of the photo. The buildings on the extreme left are the Chateau commons, and the farm on the other side of the road is the Bosmelet farm.
Just south of this alley one can find a not-yet-finished partially dug below ground level command building (no roof); 200 m north of the alley is another command building, with its roof.
This was this feature which allowed me to identify the location: only few noball sites were BCPs, and all of them are known.

JV

Re: Hi Res V Weapons Sites (Noball)
 

Thanks so much JV

I renamed the Wizernes photos 1, 2 and 3. I believe that La Coupole d'Helfaut at least is found on photo 1 and I have placed a note there. This is according to what I could determine from viewing the site with Google Earth. Thanks again for your excellent work IDing this target.

Regards
Scott

Re: Hi Res V Weapons Sites (Noball)
 

Hello again JV

Concerning the Mimoyecques V-3 site I was wondering if you know anything about the flak batteries defending this site? My father says that he experienced very accurate flak when approaching this target. They were doing a very good job of tracking him and managed to follow him through a number of evasive manouvres. He finally aborted the run and headed back to the Channel. He then flew south towards Abbeville then turned inland and approached the targets from the east. BTW he was flying a Spitfire MK XI and was easily overtaken on his trip across the Channel by an RAF Spitfire MK XIX that was apparently covering the same targets. The MK XIX was headed for home before my father reached the French coast!

Regards
Scott

Re: Hi Res V Weapons Sites (Noball)
 

hi jv
Did you know that the initial success of the allies with Noball prompted the Germans to build simplified V1 sites which were even more difficult to find.
In the end the germans operated from sites near Amsterdam. i have seen noball picture of those sites. Even knowing were to look I could not see the well camouflaged steel "werfers" (45 mtr long)!

dweb

Re: Hi Res V Weapons Sites (Noball)
 

Hi guys!

Great pictures..!

'P' indicates the ski-ramp for launching V-1 doodlebugs,
'Q' must be the 'Richthaus' or demagnetised building (in French; batiment amagnétique) in which the compass was aligned with the direction of the ski-ramp.

You will see that the line running from the rear of the Richthaus to the opening (front) is exactly lined up with the direction of the ski-ramp... (You can draw parallel lines to check this...)

With kind regards,

Piet Bouma
The Netherlands

Re: Hi Res V Weapons Sites (Noball)
 

Here is an article where, in the last three paragraphs, explains a lot but adds the mystery of mobile V-1 launchers. I thought all of the V-1s needed a relatively small but heavy, concrete launcher with a built-in catapult system. Any details or photos of these mobile launchers out there?


http://www.b24.net/stories/Keilman6.htm


Best,
Ed

Re: Hi Res V Weapons Sites (Noball)
 

Hello Scott, Piet and others,

The Q building is definitely the 'Richthaus' which appears in several, slightly different looks but - in most cases - nearly identical dimensions.
On Venlo airfield, the remains of one such Q building still exists and as far as I know this is one of or perhaps the sole example left so far north on a Dutch airfield.

All the best and a happy new year! Marcel o

Re: Hi Res V Weapons Sites (Noball)
 

Happy New Year to All

Thanks for the renewed interest in these aerial photos. Some of them made a brief appearance in a BBC documentary in 2010 titled "Operation Crossbow." This documentary is still available I believe through BBC or You Tube.

The photos are best viewed in "original" size on a good quality display. Also note that it is easy to change languages at the bottom left of the Flickr page.

Cheers

Scott Blyth

Re: Hi Res V Weapons Sites (Noball)
 

I also think these pictures are really exceptional, extreme good quality and very interesting to compare them with the current status of these sites.

John

Re: Hi Res V Weapons Sites (Noball)
 

Scott -

Are these historically valuable photos that you have installed on Flickr just those taken by your dad? Or, do they include all of the PR photos taken by his squadron or group?

In the past, you had some that were taken of Luftwaffe airfields in France and elsewhere. Some of these same photos appear in the microfilmed Air Ministry A.I.2.(b) enemy airfields files that I have, but they are all unusable because they could not be reproduced on microfilm. I am guessing that they are all negatives as I know these do not reproduce when microfilmed.

L.

Re: Hi Res V Weapons Sites (Noball)
 

I found the following on another site:

"I have a copy of a document from the NA that gives details of all NOBALL sites.
AIR 40/1674."


And although in French, this book may be useful:

http://www.aviationmegastore.com/v1-...d=1&art=101774


Ed

Re: Hi Res V Weapons Sites (Noball)
 

Hello Larry

My father brought two big boxes of photos back from the war. One of them was lost at sometime unfortunately. The remaining box contained a number of original prints of the aerial photos. Most of them were taken by my father and most of them were high altitude photos taken from a Spitfire MK XI. These original prints are roughly 7 inches by 8 inches. The photos from the F-5 P-38 variant are square and are approximately 10 inches by 10 inches. In this set of Noball photos I have connected the pilot/photographer to the photo whenever possible. This is based on the sortie numbers written on the back of the photos. Unfortunately I haven't been able to make a connection in all cases. This set represents a very small number of the Noball photos taken by 7th PRG pilots BTW.

If you are interested in the airfield photos they can be found in other sets. Try Googling sgblyth flickr Halberstadt for example.

Cheers

Scott Blyth

Re: Hi Res V Weapons Sites (Noball)
 

Thanks for the elaboration, Scott. Your dad and his fellow PR colleagues were real busy over northern France Feb-Aug 1944, not just on the No-Ball sites but on the field airstrip satellites the Germans were building in great numbers. The Allies seemed to catch scent of them through ULTRA and the next day the PR boys were sent over to photograph them. They had to act fast because it only took the Germans about two weeks to clear and level a runway and then build some aircraft blast bay dispersal sites in an adjacent woods.

I will work on that Google link you provided and see what I can find.

Thanks again!

L.

Re: Hi Res V Weapons Sites (Noball)
 

Ed (and anyone else interested in V-1 operations),

This book is an absolute 'must have' in which the author Mr Delefosse has made this second edition as a completely reworked edition with lots of detailed drawings and many photographs on the subject of the V-1..!

It compares then and now, there are lots of different photographs and drawings of the buildings, ski ramps, etc.

I bought this edition last summer when we were camping near The Blockhaus d'Éperlecques in the Saint-Omer region... I picked my first edition up at Helfaut-Wizernes at the book shop of La Coupole some three years ago, this newer version in the bookshop next to the bunker at Éperlecques last summer. No need to hesitate - a much improved version of a fantastic first edition..! The only disadvantage of the book - it's in French and there are probably lots of people who don't speak that language... But for them - the photographs and drawings (some of them in 3D..!) will make up for that, I guess...

Happy New Year..!

Piet Bouma
The Netherlands

P.S. If you get the chance to visit one of the sites mentioned here, they are both worth a visit..!

Re: Hi Res V Weapons Sites (Noball)
 

Hello Scott, hello Larry!

Happy new year!

Concerning the field airstrips there is only one related photo in Scott's collection, this is the one indicated by "LW Aircraft Near Orleans France"

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2455401...57609636214338

This was created either as a far away camouflaged dispersal area or a bona-fide satellite or subsitute to Bricy. The clarity of the photo allowing to see the tracks left by the aircraft on taxi toward the airbase, alongside the road makes me think the former...

Concerning a former intervention about "V1 mobile launching site" it is a mistake of the B24 website writer: there was no such thing...these sites were just having a much smaller footprint than the ski sites they replaced and were better camouflaged, often using a farm or hamlet to that purpose.
Also the standard payload of a V1 was 1800 lbs, not 1000 lbs...no wonder it was so destructive! The V2 pushed it to 2200 lbs (again, not 1000 lbs!)

JV

Re: Hi Res V Weapons Sites (Noball)
 

Hi JV - many thanks for pointing that out! Yes, that's a good example of what I was describing. The Luftwaffe started building these dispersal and satellite strips in France in February 1944 and they were still working on them as late as Aug 44. They did the same thing in Germany, too, as well as Belgium and Holland.

L.