Hi All, Some of the 268 frames from Sortie US7GR_1746 [06-JUN-1944] are currently marked as 'un-locatable' in the NCAP database, so I had a look to see if some of these lost souls might be found. A hour's searching tonight has located six in a run over Gare de Lison Railway Junction and Station: 3076 (northernmost frame) 3077 3078 3079 3080 3081 (southernmost frame) Below is the GE finder chart: More follows... Regards, Pat
RE: Recon Sortie US7GR_1746 [06-JUN-1944] Hi All, Five more located running southwards towards Saint-Lo Railway Station: 3082 (northernmost frame) 3083 3084 3085 3086 (southernmost frame) Below is the GE finder chart: More follows...(slowly but surely ) Regards, Pat
RE: Recon Sortie US7GR_1746 [06-JUN-1944] Hi All, These four were a bit daunting until I recalled the unusual alinement of the buildings in the Lisieux Railway Yard as seen in frame 3004 at centre-right. It looks like there has been a raid on the yard just prior to, or during the run by the reconnaissance aircraft. 3001 (northernmost frame) 3002 3003 3004 (southernmost frame) Below is the GE finder chart: I geo-positioned frames 3001 and 3002 by offsetting the same amount as that seen on the ground between frames 3003 and 3004. In other words, the two northern frames frames, 3001 and 3002, being substantially filled with dust and smoke, are estimates only. I believe however that the offset amount between each of the four frames is pretty consistent. More follows... Regards, Pat
RE: Recon Sortie US7GR_1746 [06-JUN-1944] Hi All, Another 9 frames have been found this afternoon on a long run south westwards from east of Sainte Etienne la Thillaye to Glanville, Calvados. The pilot, Captain Hubert M. Childress, appears to have made a turn to port (southwards) at the end of the run and then began another run commencing with frame 3014 over very similar ground but I cannot pick up his second run just now. However, the initial run of 9 frames are as follows: 3005 (northernmost) 3006 3007 3008 3009 3010 3011 3012 3013 (southernmost) Below is the GE finder chart: Being confined to a width of 800 pixels for posting purposes, the GE finder chart is a little on the small side for location purposes on a long distance run like this, so I have uploaded the full original jpg version here (1.12MBs). As a nice addition to this thread, I tracked down a group shot of 7th PRG pilots on Fold3 here and I see that someone has added the three names. I assume the names are correct and the centre pilot is Captain Hubert M. Childress, the man who flew sortie US7GR/1746: Now if I can only figure out where Captain Childress began his next run after the turn to port following frame 3013. Regards, Pat
RE: Recon Sortie US7GR_1746 [06-JUN-1944] Hi All, When working on post #2 above I should have coped that the five frames found at and to the north of Saint-Lo Railway Station had overlapping frames from the port side camera. The five partners now located are 4086-4090: 4086 (northernmost) 4087 4088 4089 4090 (southernmost) Below is the GE finder chart: The road running north/south through all five frames is the D974. Five more in the bag Regards, Pat
RE: Recon Sortie US7GR_1746 [06-JUN-1944] Hi All, I have discovered that by using Google Maps in place of Google Earth, inland water features stand out in blue very nicely, particularly river bends, which for the most part, have remained unchanged since 1944. A dual monitor system is a great addition when using this search method as you can have the NCAP frame open on one while scanning Goolge Maps for the correct 'fingerprint' bend(s) on the other. The next six 'un-locatables' were found using this method and the extract below from Google Maps shows the six bends downstream of Varaville which brought home these latest additions to our 'trophy room': The six new frames found are : 3031 (southernmost) 3032 3033 3034 3035 3036 (northernmost) The GE finder chart for the first two frames, being the western leg towards the village, is shown below: Captain Childress appears to have been looking for traffic on the D27 and D513 roads leading into Varaville when he made this run of two frames, east to west towards the village and then northward towards the coast after a sharp turn to starboard. The northern leg of four frames towards the coast is shown below: There are 268 frames total from sortie US7GR/1746 in the NCAP database. A high proportion of this total, 46%, is marked as 'un-locatable' and with this latest find, we can now claim credit for finding 28% of these lost souls. A work in progress... Regards, Pat
RE: Recon Sortie US7GR_1746 [06-JUN-1944] Hi Pat, You are doing fantastic work on finding these un-locatables. Keep up the great work here! John
RE: Recon Sortie US7GR_1746 [06-JUN-1944] Hi John, It gets kind of addictive after a while I am working on another batch just now (01:27am) and I keep telling myself '...just one more...' Some people do Sudoku to keep the Alsheimer wolf from the door...I do this Regards, Pat
RE: Recon Sortie US7GR_1746 [06-JUN-1944] Hi All, The latest trawl has produced another five 'lost souls': 4014 (easternmost) 4015 4016 4017 4018 (westernmost) The GE finder chart is below: The first three frames seem to have been fired off by Captain Childress over the D675 road east of Annebault, and then he interestingly appears to have done another short burst of two frames along the same road, west of the village following a turn in flight direction. I wonder what he saw to necessitate the second run? There does not appear to be any traffic on the road while zooming the frames on the NCAP site but you need to view the full resolution versions of these to be sure. Regards, Pat
RE: Recon Sortie US7GR_1746 [06-JUN-1944] Hi Folks, The thought has struck me that perhaps it's time to allow readers a better overview of the various 'un-locatables' found to date for sortie US7GR/1746. I have therefore uploaded my working copy of the GE kmz file which I am using to track these locations. The file (updated to today, 10th August) is downloadable from my ADrive 'cloud' here (14.9KB). You obviously need to have Google Earth installed to view it The green map pins were produced by the NCAP guys, one for each known frame. The blue icons are the locations found by us - one icon per location, regardless of the number of frames found. Clicking a blue icon opens an info window and therein is a link back to the particular post referring in this thread. The eastern most icon for frames 4011-4013 is not 'wired' with a link yet because, although I have found the location this afternoon, I am still working on the GE finder chart in Photoshop. Anyone with download issues, please let me know here. Regards, Pat
RE: Recon Sortie US7GR_1746 [06-JUN-1944] OK, Here are the three additions referred to above: 4011 4012 4013 Below is the GE finder chart: Obviously part of the same run made over the D675 as shown in the last location found. I'll have the updated kmz file uploaded shortly. Regards, Pat
RE: Recon Sortie US7GR_1746 [06-JUN-1944] Two more... These are from the same run westward along the D675 road and appear to be the two last frames shot by Captain Childress in the sequence: 4019 4020 Below is the GE finder chart: Before I update the kmz file, I'll post the next batch found on a long run exposing frames 4021 to 4030 which I located this afternoon. Regards, Pat
RE: Recon Sortie US7GR_1746 [06-JUN-1944] Hi All, Another ten located. This run is about four miles long from roughly the hamlet of Grangues westward to the River Dives. The frames found are: 4021 (easternmost) 4022 4023 4024 4025 4026 4027 4028 4029 4030 (westernmost) The GE finder chart is shown below: Captain Childress picked up a stray British 6th Airborne Horsa glider on the first three frames of this run, probably unintentionally. Despite the heavy cloud cover, the Horsa can be seen clearly approximately 700 meters south-southeast of Grangues, in a field which is over five miles from the nearest British Airborne LZ. This is by far the furthest British stray I have come across. Anyone any knowledge of this glider? Of the 123 'lost souls' in sortie US7GR/1746, we now have located 55 or 45%. I am leaving the frames with 10/10 cloud until last The kmz file will be updated in the next hour. Regards, Pat
RE: Recon Sortie US7GR_1746 [06-JUN-1944] Latest kmz file (15.4 KBs) now available for download here. Regards, Pat
RE: Recon Sortie US7GR_1746 [06-JUN-1944] Hi All, These next two frames seem to be an extension of Captain Childress's four mile run to the River Dives as shown in the last lot of frames found above. I missed them because he is making a turn to starboard and northwards as the frames are captured. The two 'curve balls' are: 4031 4032 The GE finder chart is below: I have two more lots to post in the morning before I update the kmz file. Regards, Pat
RE: Recon Sortie US7GR_1746 [06-JUN-1944] Hi All, The next four frames located are from a run north-westwards from Petiville to the Merville Battery, a distance of just under 3 miles. These four 'un-locatables' are: 4033 (southernmost) 4034 4035 4036 (northernmost) The GE finder chart is below: Note the Merville Battery is just inside the north western boundary of frame 4036 but cannot be seen due to smoke and dust. One more to add in next post before I update the kmz file. Regards, Pat
RE: Recon Sortie US7GR_1746 [06-JUN-1944] One more... Heavy cloud cover, or smoke from shore bombardment, gives frame 4037 an air of mystery but its not as difficult as it first seems. The location was found simply by offsetting it from it's know neighbour, frame 4038. The location is Luc sur Mer: 4037 4038 (Location Known - For Comparison Only!) The GE Finder Chart is below: I have indicated the known location of frame 4038 with the red shading and used the three road junctions, A, B and C, to tie it to the cloud or smoke filled 'un-locatable' 4037. See below for locations of these ties on frame 4037 pulled from the NCAP site: Image Credit: RCAHMS/www.ncap.org.uk This preview copy of 4037 is orientated on the NCAP site with east at top and so it's not immediately possible to compare the two. Not much use for research purposes but still its good to tag the location for the sake of completeness. It also brings us to the half way mark - 62 frames out of 123 now located New kmz file on the way. Regards, Pat
RE: Recon Sortie US7GR_1746 [06-JUN-1944] Our half way kmz file (15.5KBs) is now available for download here. Regards, Pat
RE: Recon Sortie US7GR_1746 [06-JUN-1944] We're on the downhill slope now...point of no return The next four found are the port side camera frames from the run by Captain Childress over the Gare de Lison Railway Junction and Station which we saw in post #1 of this thread. These new discoveries are: 4080 (northernmost) 4081 4082 4083 4084 4085 (southernmost) The GE finder chart is below: Those readers with a NCAP 'zoom' account might be interested in having a closer look at the NW corner of the northern frame 4080. It looks to me like there are tank tracks in the field beside the railway track. Does anyone know if there was a German armour formation in this area on or just before D-Day? If you don't have a 'zoom' account, you can purchase one for a very reasonable £20 per year - see the Subscriptions Page here for details. Regards, Pat