Mapping Battle of Britain crash sites

[Chris Going]

Folks,

I have become embroiled in a work project which involves creating some seamless digital datasets (electronic photo-mosaics, to normal people) of Luftwaffe reconaissance sorties taken over the UK in August-October 1940. I've begun the process copying several which track across the London-Essex-Suffolk regions on August 30th, August 31st, September 3rd, September 5th, September 7th, and September 17th. The imagery varies in photoscale between c 9,000 and 30,000. To cut a long story short, the best imagery is being digitised at a pixel resolution of c 25-50 cms, while the remainder will give resolutions of c 75cms-1m. This means that some crash sites will, if their locations are known, be visible -if I know where to look-. There are, for example, two belly landed Heinkels III's in the areas covered by the imagery.

Now, I have gone through Narrow Margin, Mason, BoB Then and Now, and so on, and created a crude list which gives place names, and sometimes closest farms, etc. But I am looking for NGR's, preferably six-eight figure, based either on the records of recovery teams (then or postwar), photos, or whatever. It does not matter if they are Current OS, DMS, or wartime grids. If we have them we can map them. Then I can look for them on the imagery.

You will see the results I promise -its for a television programme. Something similar was tried in D Day the Lost Evidence and the recent Pacific War Lost Evidence series which went out in the US before Christmas.

Best wishes

Chris Going

[Frank Olynyk]

Chris,
Air Britain, in their Aeromilitaria magazine, has been publishing a list of aircraft crashed during WW2. They are well into 1941 by now, if not 1942 (I don't have my copies handy). They give the date, type, serial number, and location. This would at least give you a fairly complete catalog of crashes to work with.

Frank.

[JackoGZ]

Chris

Try the Kent and Essex County Council War Diaries from their local archives, which give eye witness reports - including locations and occasionally grid references - for all aircraft seen to go down.

Regards

JackoGZ