USAAF Reconnaissance Photography During WWll …

[Mark Allen M]

If you have a few free hours (many hours actually). Open the link below. Go to ‘United States Army Air Forces Collection’ and click on any location on the map. Zoom in and click around to view some really amazing photos of wartime UK.

https://historicengland.org.uk/images-b ... al-photos/

[quemerford]

Nice one Mark. One thing I've noticed - if you find an airfield, it will undoubtedly be packed with aircraft (not a great surprise), however a few I'm familiar with show dispersed types dotted around the periphery of the airfield but outside of the defined/recognized bounds. I'm sure a lot of this is new: it looks in many cases like the perimeter hedge/fence had a gap dozed in it and then aircraft dispersed in large numbers away from the airfield itself.

This is distinct from satellite landing ground (SLG) or relief landing ground (RLG), which were often close by existing aerodromes but not usually linked in this way. Even a good example of a linked dispersed site (Yatesbury, with dispersed aircraft storage at nearby Townsend Farm) was not established in the same way as some of the 'hasty' dispersals shown.

Sadly Yatesbury isn't shown in the coverage but there are many fields that are. For me, it's not the front-line airfields that are most interesting: I'd expect large amounts of materiel there. It's the secondary sites (Kemble and Hullavington for example) which are most surprising, showing large numbers of bomber types, dispersed in the 'hasty' manner described, and presumably stored.

Also even a look at random countryside will often show dispersed military vehicles and encampments. Being familiar with some of these localities I know that not only is there nothing left in the present to show what was there in 1944/45, but in many cases no record of anything ever being there.

So this set of photography is a goldmine for WW2 researchers.

[Dave Smith]

I did see that last week and have yet to have a close look, but thanks for thoughtfully giving us a heads-up on it Mark. For Quemerford, the Maintenance Units often requisitioned farmers' fields close to the airfield for further dispersal of aircraft, literally making a gap in the hedge/fence for access. At Hawarden here in North Wales, aircraft were parked in fields a good mile and a half from the airfield site, as well as much closer farm fields. This was apart from the 'official' off-airfield dispersals which usually had concrete access tracks and parking areas.

[RyanShort1]

This is great.