Hi Res V Weapons Sites (Noball)

[jvmasset]

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

[blythsco]

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

[blythsco]

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

[dickwebs6]

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

[Pete63]

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

[edwest]

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

[Marcel Hogenhuis]

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

[blythsco]

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

[John Manrho]

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

[Larry deZeng]

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.