|
Re: PR photo that almost stopped operation Market-Garden
Adriano, You are quite right -some RAF aerials have time, aircraft identity letter, pilot name etc, axis of attack, etc, but these are images taken by slave cameras during bombing raids. They existed in the thousands, like US SAV images.
Reconnaissance imagery titling is a small-print interest: it was however highly formulaic, with Frame Number and camera position (3xxx for port, 4xxx for starboard usually; 0xxx for forward facing oblique, etc); Sortie identifier, (eg 106G; US7; 7PG, 15SG, etc, then date, then camera focal length (eg 6" 12" 20" 36" and occasionally even 40"), direction of film (often mistaken for a north arrow). There are lots of slight modifications depending on theatre etc.
I spent a lot of time trying to work out this film. There was a detachment of 16 Sdn at Northolt and it was almost certainly one of these. There is the possibility it was the Sdn CO, who was later killed, I think. Sixteen Squadron have a small but active veterans assoc, with which Jimmy Taylor is associated, and have been themselves working on this problem. Worth talking to them.
The 16 Sdn 'Line book' is interesting in this context too.
Oh yes -Dirk Bogarde's recent biography includes an interesting piece: in one of his autographical books puiblished years before he'd noted how he'd identified German tanks on some images taken in Normandy which weren't where they were suppoosed to be, and some years later had received a letter (and copied of the photos) from a High Ranking, retired Canadian who in effect said -you were the guy who saved my bacon.
I'll try to get the name of the Pilot. The point of this is that this information may only have existed as a line or two in a flash or first phase report, and that looking for a separate report wont get you very far, alas.
Military importance does'nt necessarily guarantee a sorties' survival -who has the prints from the amazing Geddes standoff sortie on June 6th? No film appears to exist, and I have only found one reduced print set. (No its not at Keele or JARIC).
best
Chris Going
|