Historic Aerial Photo Resources

Accountants, I bet! Higher fees reduced service - goals met. This of course ignores the fact that this is essentially a public service first and foremost (slightly tautological I know).

I intend to order another coverage soon, so I will report back. If it proves to be then permanent situation I will definitely make waves. Questions will be asked in Parliament!

The quality is very mixed and I suspect as they are taken from prints that may be the source of the problem in some cases but I have had some so clear they almost looked like scans.. I normally ignore the lower quality ones in their letter code system but I did have an AB, which is normally okay with a slight puff of cloud right over the bombing target I was after. It was a genuine cloud too. On the other hand I was forced to accept a cloud cover one as it was the only one for that area and hey presto a hole in the cloud showed what I was after. Luck certainly plays a part.

P.S. Is my memory playing tricks or were photocopies originally free many years ago?

And so is NCAP. Must have been planned.

kebecker wrote:

Peter wrote:

A bit alarming, Both NCAP and Britain from above are down! Both show "This site cannot be reached". I wasn't aware of any planned downtime. Shame as I had settled down for a Bofors session. BfA was down last night as well but NCAP wasn't. I know both are hosted by the same organisation.

As at 10:15 Wednesday 7 March 2018

BFA working now

Canmore and PASTMAP were also playing up yesterday.

I did complain about the speed drop on NCAP and a reply earlier this week stated that it was being looked at. The speed is now acceptable although selecting an individual frame to view is still a lot slower.

I also found out the the apparent drop of around 20,000 photos over the UK is due to their dropping of the Britain from Above and Canmore photos. The BfA ones I can understand as you can view them free on the BfA site at high resolution. The Canmore ones I don't think you can view at high res without a subscription so that is a shame. The good thing is that nothing has been taken away from online availability.

Historic England are currently quoting 6 weeks between sending a request and getting the availability list due to the surge in requests. I don't know if there will be a further six weeks to get the copies.

I don't know what the reason is for the increased number of requests or if there have been any staff cuts but it adds one hell of a lot of time to research as every organisation has recently slowed down a lot and in one case (RAFM) stopped until the autumn! Hopefully some extra student help can be used during the summer recess!

The excellent "Scotland from the Sky" series showed all the sites that were found through aerial imagery.

Makes me wonder how many more would be found if high resolution imagery was made freely available online.

Having mentioned NCAP elsewhere recently in connection with USAAF aerial photos I cam across this example, which I suspect was a "waster" to finish a roll.

ncap.org.uk/frame/1-1-70-1-464

Taken on 6th June 1944 it is not a particularly clear photo but it shows quite a lot that I found interesting. Apologies to those who don't have subscriptions.

1) Airfields - It shows Tangmere, Merston, Westhampnett, Bognor ALG Ford (part), Selsey ALG (very small part)
2) Mulberry harbour and breakwater sections off Pagham Harbour
3) A curious pier between Selsey and Church Norton which is possibly Mulberry connected
4) Pagham Harbour bombing range and the reason why the offshore target was not used during this time.
5) Chichester fuel depot is also in shot but too small to see.
6) Probably loads of defence structures as well but also too small to see.

I'm not sure what sort of quality is obtainable on the original so I can't check to see if the target rafts are still in place.

NCAP have added more German Luftwaffe recon photos of the UK on the quiet. Mainly covering May to October 1940 but with a few from 1943. Many frames offer a reasonably close views when zoomed in, but some are high level so not good for any detail but interesting anyway. A few highlights are:-

1) A July 1943 one covering Manston during the early stages of ELG construction.
2) A lovely one of Coltishall from September 1940 (ncap.org.uk/frame/24-1-2-5-19?pos=0) and part of a long run from London to Norwich that crosses over at least six airfields that weren't even a twinkle in the Air Ministries eye at the time - good "before" shots.
3) Horsham St Faith with the new dispersals but still awaiting enlargement.
4) A 1943 shot of Lydd ALG under construction
5) Ford looking odd without runways and still in its WW1 form

Plus many before during and after bombing raids. Before you get excited it will cost a subscription to zoom into any detail.

I haven't looke at many AA sites but those that I did look at seemed to be under construction during the Battle of Britain. The big ex Naval gun that was used opposite where I was brought up in New Eltham had not yet been installed so AA sites and other large defences may require a more detailed look.

Hopefully there is a lot more to come and that there will more coverage outside of the London/Kent/Sussex area.

Another tranche of ex Luftwaffe/NARA aerial photos have been released I have attached a zip file of the relevant KMLs covering each sortie. They date from 1940 and 1943.



It is stiill mostly the south of England but there is an East Anglia run that passes over several sites of future airfields. The 1943 coverage includes Appledram and Coolham under construction and a set from 10 May 1940 that show Tangmere and Ford a few months before they were bombed.

Also not publicised are some USAAF sorties from March 1944 These cover some of the airfields in the East plus some great coverage of part of Oxfordshire whick included Benson, Chalgrove, Abingdon, Harwell, Culham (part built) and Stanton Harcourt. It also covered Marcham and Warpsgrove bombing ranges and has solved the mystery of Warpsgroves arrow site but creted one for Marcham which shoews a differnt location to the 1946 coverage I have. The range was obviously enlarged. More detective work I think.

The USAAF ones are not in the zip file but if you use the following in the search box you should get the UK coverage. There is a lot more overseas stuff! This too was sourced from NARA but I am unclear if it was also held at Historic England as well.

US30/LOC/0021/LIB
US30/LOC/0022/LIB
US10/LOC/0019

PS. The 10 May 1940 Luftwaffe coverage shows just how many defence were yet to be built in the areas they covered. Or at least that is my impression.