I found this location which isn't well organized but has a large number of aerial recon photo runs of the Canadian sector for France. http://lmharchive.ca/france/calvados/ The link goes to the D-Day sector but they also have sections following the Canadian army in France, Germany and Italy
Thanks for posting Dale, Hopefully they have some new cover which is not duplicated by the NCAP archive. Regards, Pat
I have managed to locate a few on GE in the Falaise area - For example http://lmharchive.ca/GalleryUploads/Box0104_1of4/content/Box_0104-05-Aug-1944-3075_large.html Note the "jackboot" shaped area in red and the "binoculars" bomb craters On GE at 48°51'47.06"N 0°13'46.21"W, we see the two craters are now a small pond (note also the very faint positions of the small arc of craters C1,2,3 to the left) Is this sort of thing helpful to anyone? Phil [hr] Being a newbie I dont seem to have the hang yet of posting images inline...any suggestions? https://www.dropbox.com/s/nv5k7ttcp5o696v/falaise1.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/8czzvl13sz68sk7/falaise2.png?dl=0 Phil
Hi Phil, You are doing fine! Have a look at the screenshots and instructions I done up for Charles in the 'Inserting Photos into Post' thread. If you are still having problems, just send me a PM or email me on pat@whitebeamimages.ie. Here is a useful reference page for formatting posts. Looks like you have the same bug a lot of us have here regarding reconnaissance cover I presume you are aware of the NCAP guys in Edinburgh - see their site here if not. Let me know how you get on. Regards, Pat
I have completed the location of frames 2-80 of box104 (1of4) the coverage is around Falaise, coverage is as shown below: I have created a kml file which maps each to google earth, accounting for skew, height, declination etc KML frames 2-80 Each is included as an image overlay, I find it best to select the frame of interest in the sidebar, turning all others off, then right.click for properties and vary the opacity (transparency) which allows you to fade in and out between 1944 and now Still having problems with inline images...maybe its just dropbox, or could it be a size issue? I shrunk the pic to 850px wide... Hope people find this useful! [hr] I think my problems have been "a dropbox thing". I have uploaded pic to my own server: Im in business!
This mission was probably carried out by RCAF 400 Squadron. A bit about them here. No 400 (City of Toronto) (Eagle) Squadron Formed as No 10 (Army Co-operation) Squadron in 1932, it was re-numbered as No 110 in 1937. It arrived in Britain on 25 February 1940 and was posted to the RAF's home of Army Co-operation, Old Sarum in Wiltshire. It was equipped with Lysanders but was too late see action in France and settled down to a routine of exercises and AA co-operation. On 1 March 1940, the squadron was re-numbered as No 400 and the following month, it began to re-equip with Tomahawks, although it did not become operational until November. It carried out Rhubarbs over France and Populars over the channel until late December and did not resume operations until May 1942. In July 1942 the Tomahawks were replaced with Mustang Is and these were used to cover the Dieppe landing in August. The squadron reverted to Rhubarbs, Jim Crows, Populars and Insteps for the remainder of 1942 and early 1943. In April the squadron began night rangers and also carried out daylight photo recce missions. New equipment arrived in January 1944 in the shape of Mosquito XVIs and Spitfire XIs and now became a photo recce squadron. Following the invasion on 6 June, the squadron's 'B' Flight moved over to the beachhead on 1 July with the rest of the squadron following in August. As the Allied armies advanced through France and the Low Countries, the squadron following close behind providing both high level and low level tactical reconnaissance. The squadron disbanded at Lüneburg on 7 August 1945. I am looking for more info on the squadron to track down missions so they can be correlated to the 'boxes' on the site. Edited to add: Amazing what happens when you explore around awhile on a site. I found their Air Photo finding aid has some additional information to make searching easier. http://lmharchive.ca/second-world-war-air-photos/air-photo-finding-aid/
Hi Phil, Great work on finding these frames - have you contacted the site owner(s)? I am sure they will want to credit you with the discoveries. I have a particular interest in any frames you might locate around a small village in your current AoI named Pierrefitte-en-Cinglais. It is circled red below with your northwestern most frame just visible at lower right: If you come across any coverage of the village, please let me know. Somewhere around the 8th to 10th July 1944, two SOE agents, Maurice Larcher and Jean Renaud-Dandicolle were trapped by the Gestapo in a farmhouse at St Clair, near Pierrefitte-en-Cinglais. In the shootout that followed both men were killed along with F/L Joseph Cleary of No. 602 (City of Glasgow) Squadron who was evading in the same area. Haven't got the full story yet, but I would be very interested in any 'air' of this area. The farmhouse was burned down by the Germans after the firefight. BTW, do either of you mind if I move this thread out into the public area of the Forum? Thanks, Pat
Thanks Dale, Phil's work deserves to be seen by all readers and there are no sensitive issues in the thread which would warrant retaining it here in the closed 'Green Room' area. However, if Phil is happier working here, I will leave the thread where it currently resides. Regards, Pat
Pat, I came here to share - move the thread where you feel it is best. BTW I have done some more work, and I now have the whole box done, I will be publishing the final result soon, I'll do it once you have moved the thread. Phil [hr] Pat the frame you want is 3095 - the village is almost dead centre, is also appears on the frames either side of 3095 Hope this is useful Phil PS this frame is aligned roughly E-W ie, youd need to rotate it about 90deg CCW to make it point north
Youtube vid showing how its done Aologies if this is teaching anyone to "suck eggs" but I thought it might help anyone else wanting to get into Google Earth Image overlays... Youtube HOWTO video
Here's part 2 of the video tutorial, including a brief tutorial on IGN Geoportail Google Earth overlays part 2
I couldn't wait: The completed box 104, frames 3001 - 3149 Coverage: and the full kml file: Google Earth KML file
Great job Phil - well done! This archive is a great new resource which complements the NCAP collection hugely. However, without the locations it would be far less so and we are indebted to you for completing the geo-positioning of box 104. Below is the orientated location of your frame 3095 from sortie 400/650: As you will see from the 'SOE Shoot Out at Saint Clair' thread, we have narrowed the possible farmhouse location to the area circled yellow above. The NCAP archive has one frame digitised from sortie NCAP_ACIU_US7GR_2806_4149 covering the AoI, flown on the 8th August, a month after the firefight. I would be very interested to see if there is any cover in the LMHA archive flown prior to the 8th July before the house was burned down. If such cover exists, it might hopefully show the same location without any apparent burn marks, thus helping to confirm (or correct) the current, unsubstantiated location. No such pre 8th July cover appears to be digitised in the NCAP archive. If your travels take you westward to the Brittany Peninsula, I am also researching another SOE/SAS location somewhere between the villages of St Marcel and Malestroit at a farmhouse called La Noucee. Here, on the 18th June, a much bigger battle was fought throughout the day when the Germans located the SAS camp. The battle was of such magnitude that air support was called for and duly arrived in the form of P-47 fighters which helped where they could but the close proximity of the opposing forces negated their ability to deal a decisive strike against the German attackers. There may well be bomb craters visible near the farmhouse in any post 18th June aerial cover. Thanks Phil, Regards, Pat
Thanks for the encouragement, Pat - Im very happy to be able to contribute. There seem to be quite a few boxes that relate to "Falaise Area" which as you can see from the coverage of box 104 is a fairly loose term! Now that I know of your interest, I will concentrate on trying to find coverage of the farmhouse. I must have a sort of "pattern recognition brain" as after doing the box, I was browsing around the web for some other aerial photographs, and I saw one which wasnt even annotated and immediately recognised is as Pont D'Ouilly...sad, I know, I need to get a life! I also managed to locate several key frame around Breda, Netherlands within about 15 minutes - dont ask why or how...I contacted the site to see if they were interested in having my KML file(s), but I haven't had a reply yet. Phil
Phew! I have now finished parts 2 3 and 4 of box 104. I have used the "cheating" method of finding the key frames at the start and end of each "run" then drawing in a rough flight path. This means that while I have examined all 600(!) frames in box 104, only the first 150 are fully located. The remaining 450 are "key frame" located and this means that if you have a POI anywhere on the flight path, I can rapidly locate the exact frames you need. I will publish the key frames / flight path pics tomorrow - I'm pooped and my eyes are going square and I could probably draw you a map of the Falaise area from memory... Phil
Thanks again Phil. Can I ask you to add La Noucee Farm to your list of places to see. It's spelling is slightly different on the IGN map, but I am pretty sure the SAS CP farmhouse is shown centred here. Note the large pond for reference. There is a huge memorial at lower right which adds to my suspicion that this is the correct location. Regards, Pat
Ok folks, heres the final results of box 104, parts 2 3 and 4: box 104 2of4: KMZ file 2 of 4 box 104 3of4: KMZ file 3 of 4 box 104 4of4: KMZ file 4 of 4