Coldly magnificent, and erie.
Ever thought how much history is 'forgotten' because there aren't pictures?
As far as I know, there are no photos of the Photo Reconnaissance Unit aircraft 'contrailing' on their pre-and post raid reconnaissances.
I understand they could pull a contrail without realising, and their Camotint camouflage wouldn't be much use then. They had no guns, a 'plane full of fuel or vapour and they would be drawing a big 'here I am' arrow at themselves. Yes they were high and fast, but not always, nor always high enough and fast enough.
It's notable the NMUSAF has two British built US used PR aircraft on show, but as they were semi-secret during the war, in all Allied services, they've never got the credit they deserve.
The PR boys were the original 'Alone unarmed and unafraid'. But in reality they were alone, unarmed, and fools if they weren't aware of the risk they ran. They all had friends that just didn't come back; and that usually meant someone else had to go until someone
did get back. They were also cold, de-pressurised and at the risk of sudden death from all sorts of unexpected sources, but that doesn't make a good unit patch.
"Oh, they flew a Spitfire without guns? Hmmm." I've heard. Quiet heroism takes many forms.
Over St Paul's Cathedral, London, in 1940, they were new, and the marks of a new battlefield:
And St Paul's was image of the centre of 'home' to those fighting for the future of civilisation.
Quote:
On 29 December 1940, Daily Mail photographer Herbert Mason braved an air raid to spend the night on the roof of Northcliffe House in Fleet Street. He captured what became the defining image of the Blitz - St. Paul's emerging defiantly from the smoke of surrounding burning buildings. The image appeared in the Daily Mail two days later, with evident retouching, under the headline 'St. Paul's Stands Unharmed in the Midst of the Burning City'. Ironically, only four weeks later, the photograph was reproduced by the Berliner Illustre Zeitung who used it not to show the resilience of the blitzed city, but to show that London was burning to the ground.
Official War Artist Paul Nash put contrails in his painting as we might show something that's shatteringly new today.
Paul Nash, Battle of Britain, 1941, Imperial War Museum IWM16756 © Imperial War Museum.
Without aircraft to stop the Germans that high...
Without the Battle in 1940...
Without Britain's intransigence, in the face of the Blitz...
Without the USAAF by day and the RAF by night...
Without the knowledge from photo-reconnaissance...
We would have lost.
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