IWM VIDEO 'AIR PHOTOS IN WAR'

The Imperial War Museum (IWM) collection includes the digitised cine film on the subject of photo reconnaissance. (IWM DRA 1121)

www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060027802

At 04:55 a vertical of an airfield appears. Unsurprisingly, it can be identified as RAF BENSON but at 05:10 the orator refers to an anti-aircraft gun site which is suspicious in its plan form. I can find no record of such a site in that area and assume that this has been 'spoofed' in for the purposes of the film.

Skipping ahead to 09:16 there appear the tail end of a Valiant aircraft with hangar in the background, almost certainly RAF WYTON. A tractor is towing a Valiant camera crate mounted on a Standard Airfield Bomb Transporter (SABT). Almost hidden on the right side of the aircraft is a dreaded Neil Gantry the original bomb-loading hoist for Valiant and Victor replaced in 1959 by the Simon's Hoist mounted on a 3 ton Bedford chassis.

At 09:20 I am intrigued by some background action involving 3 men atop a latticework column part hidden behind an adjacent building. What are they doing do you think?

Thanks Peter. It is not listed on the Defence of Britain website. It looks as if it was demolished early '50s assuming it was a proper HAA site and not a temporary one. Neither, I think, is it recorded in Dobinson's book.

I just located some 1943 verticals in my record and there is no sign of a permanent build HAA site.