P0065 = Colleville-Montgomery Hi All, still not fully recovered after changing to a new PC. However frame P0065 was resolved to be a view south to Colleville-Montgomery. Frame P0065 shows almost at bottom center a 'white area' with 2 parallel lines which I think was the AoI. Frame P0065 pairs with S0046, Bancs-de-Riva-Bella. This pair of oblique frames is a stand-alone frame-set, no shot with a high resolution (1.5K) nor a lower resolution overview frame (8K). Image credit: NCAP. Frame P0065 Frame S0046 On the way towards Luc-sur-Mer the recon-plane had to pass Collevillette while taking these oblique pictures. I placed the 2 frames into GE to visualize the location. Image credit: NCAP and GE. Although US7 1730 did not capture this AoI with a 1.5K or 8K frame RCAF 400/0240 did. See the frame 4002. West of the small wood is the 'white area' with the 2 parallel lines visible. An IGN cover from 1945 has captured this area as well. See the picture and the AoI at 9PM. I copied the AoI from frame 4002 into the high-res IGN cover from 1945. Image credit: IGN and NCAP. Zooming into the high-res IGN cover the structures in the northern field and from the 2 parallel lines seem to be removed. Maybe some sort of radar installation.
Port and Starboard frames between Carcagny and Brouay Hi Everyone, I am coming back to post 71 and post 74. The pictures were taken alongside the D613 between Bayeux and Caen. I have done the overlay work and resolved Port and Starboard frames belonging to the main recon frames. One of the port frames is the 'famous' frame P0049 showing a 2nd plane. See post 1 from June last year. Here is the overlay in GE. Sources: GE and NCAP. Here are the related frames: Frame pair 3034/4039 near Carcagny. Port frame P0048 at Martragny. Starboard frame S0034 at Carcagny. Frame pair 3035/4040 near Saint-Leger Port frame (this one!) P0049 at Martragny. Starboard frame n/a Frame pair 3036/4041 near Loucelles. Port frame P0051 near Coulombs. Starboard frame S0035 near Le Bas d'Audrieu. Frame 3037 near Brouay. Port frame P0051 near Le Petit Pre Starboard frame S0036 near Brouay. Here an detailed overlay of the frames related to Carcagny and Saint-Leger. Source: GE and NCAP [img=900x799]http://i1382.photobucket.com/albums/ah267/hajothehh/USAAF/US7_1730%206June1944/GE%20NCAP%20Overlay%20Carcagny%20-%20Saint-Leger_Detailed_zpsrh7ajlmq.jpg[/img]
Excellent work Hans, All the better because of the poor quality of images and heavy cloud cover :exclamation: Very well done. Pat
Frame 4036 and 8042: Le Mont Saint-Pierre Hi everyone, I found the last unresolved frame connecting Englesqueville with Bayeux. Frame 4036 shows a location close to Le Mont Saint-Pierre next to Aignerville, west of Bayeux. This frame is associated with frame 8042. See the different overlays. Here is the overlay in GE with the IGN cover from 1947 and frame 4036 position in it. Sources: GE, IGN Cover 1947 and NCAP Here is the stack of GE, IGN cover from 1947, frame 8042 and frame 4036.Sources: GE, IGN Cover 1947 and NCAP With this frame I can now overlay the whole sortie starting with Grandcamp Maisy and ending in Bernieres-sur-Mer. Sources GE, IGN Cover 1947 and NCAP. Here is the stretch between Grandcamp Maisy and Englesqueville-en-Bessin. Sources: GE, IGN Cover 1947 and NCAP Here are close-ups of Grandcamp Maisy, Cricqueville-en-Bessin, Englesqueville-en-Bessin and Bayeux. Sources: GE, IGN Cover 1947 and NCAP. Resolved are the frames 4036 / 8042 and the starboard frames S0028 / S0029 both viewing southwards from Grandcamp Maisy. S0030 / S0031 both viewing southwards from Cricqueville-en-Bessin and S0032 the frame shows a view southwestwards from Englesqueville-en-Bessin. S0033 with a southward view from frame pair 3033 / 4038 and port frame P0047 with a northern view from frame pair 3032 / 4037 Frame S0028 is a view showing the battery south of Grandcamp Maisy at vT533918 as referenced in the 'Green Library' section under German Coastal Defenses, part 3 on page 80/98 at Latitude : 49.37622° & Longitude : -1.06134°. Source: NCAP
Hi Hans, Great job on finding the location of all these frames! I think that frame S0028 is a significant find because of the debate over the importance of the Maisy Battery and the role that it played during the invasion. Its capture is also an interesting story. Well done! John
Hi John, can you let us know more about the debate and the 'interesting story', please? I am interested. Hans
Overlay work at Utah beach Hi Everyone, I have done some more overlay work at Utah beach. Some more starboard frames resolved, too. Here is an overview including the path of the aircraft. The port and starboard frames included are starting with 3009 / 4010 down to 3020 / 4021. Here is a close up from the series of starboard frames (S0010 / S0011 / S0012 / S0013) including the port frame P0012 and 8017. The frame P0012 was taken while the aircraft was heavily rolling to port. The sky visible in the port frames before and after is missing. While rolling to port 8017 allows a view in the channel opposite of Utah beach. The group of 6 ships in the center of the frame 8017 is the same group of ships visible in S0012. I have made a side by side comparison and tilted 8017 to match the direction of S0012. The overexposure in S0010 to S0013 ties them all to 8017. The frame pair 3018 / 4019 shows a heavily defended place at La Madeleine including (most likely) a radar installation. One can see a star-shaped defense line around the group of buildings including a white circle with a structure in it. Another starboard frame S0014 is related to frame pair 3015 / 4015 and points southwest to the village of Foucarville. tbc
UTAH Beach - Update Hi Everyone, some additions to the overlay for UTAH Beach in my previous post. Here is a detailed view of the following frame pairs showing Bancs de Grand Vay: Frame 3009 / 4010 Frame 3010 / 4011 Frame 3011 / 4012 and Frame 3020 / 4021 The position of all frame pairs was made with the overlay of IGN 1947 and the low res frames from the 8K series of this sortie. So I think the individual positions should be accurate. I am showing them w/o any supporting overlay. The frame pair 3020 / 4021 was shot when the aircraft turned south following the coastline towards Le Grand Vay. So starboard was facing ~west and port ~east. While going this direction the following starboard and port frames were shot: Starboard frame: S0017 shows the marshes behind UTAH beach (known already) and port frames P0021 and P0022, which are new discoveries. Here is P0022 just as an example (Source NCAP) Both frames P0021 and P0022 showing the western coastal line of the Grandcamp Maisy area. Here is some evidence. The water the channel du Carentan shows some texture forming an 'U' in the middle of the water way. Here is the shot from an IGN cover from 1947 which has the same 'U' type texture. The 'U' shape is near the area of Le Grand Vay. Also looking to the frames P0021 and P0022 at high res than is seems that almost in the middle of the area trees are starting to appear and filling the right half of the area shown. Here is another IGN cover from 1947 which has marked with an arrow the row of trees which I think can be seen in both frames as the initial and starting line with trees. If I extrapolate the center line positions of the starboard frame S0017 into the waterway and place onto this line port frame P0021 than (for me!) the Grandcamp Maisy area can be seen in the frame P0021 and in P0022. The placement of both frames P0021 and P0022 in the waterway are best estimates using the distance of the center of S0017 to the assumed path of the aircraft. This series of frames completes the 1st pass travel over UTAH area for this sortie. Next is OMAHA which I have also some updates I will share later.
Great work again Hans, I cannot zoom 8017 from my work PC just now, but there appears to be a warship in the top right corner of the frame. Does this ship look like the Royal Netherlands Navy sloop HNMS 'Soemba' by any chance? I have been trying to locate a photograph of this ship at Utah Beach for some time now - see the dedicated thread '[Not] One of 'The Terrible Twins'?' for two known photographs for comparison. Thanks Hans, Pat
Hi Pat, I was after a different ship. USS Nevada. See frame 8038 This frame was shot on the way back to the Grandcamp Maisy area after UTAH 2nd pass-through and it is the last frame before touching ground at Grandcamp Maisy area. I think the St Marcouf Islands can be seen at 11 O'Clock. The 'bottom' island has the waxing moon shape in this view so it must be a shot ~ west-north into the Channel (I think!). From the 2 ships in front of St Marcouf Island (closer to the coast) I was after the most western and checked the Green Library AA report from USS Nevada. Their war diary did disclose a position for D-Day but this position is north of St Marcouf Islands. So I put this aside. After your comments I checked today again and did scroll through the USS Quincy war diary. Page 6 and 7 may help in your query. Both are showing a map of the area around UTAH with ships, swept channels and coast lines, target definition and target accomplishments on page7. South-east of the assault boat lane for UTAH within the map of page 6 (not sure if I can post here a small section of the map to make is easier for the readers), well ahead of the area designated for the big ships like USS Nevada, are two ships placed on the map with their names: 'Hobson' and with some 'good will' in reading 'Soemba' as the more western one in front of St Marcouf islands. If my reading is correct in respect to HNMS Soemba (my resolution is not good enough to be sure) chances are high that one of the 2 ships in frame 8038 is worth a detailed checking. Here is the most I can get out the the frame (5x; Souce NCAP): Both ships seem identical in structure and type. The more western one points with the bow (?) to ~east the other to ~west. Out in the channel I think we can see 3 bigger ships. From the frame both ships close to St Marcouf island seem to be on a 'guard' position. Looking to the pictures in the thread you posted for HNMS Soemba I am not sure if the size matches with the ones in the frame 8038 but it is worth a discussion here. Maybe a new threat in the Green Library under Naval Forces and we can post the maps and other elements of information from the Green 'Room' without restriction.
Many thanks Hans, I think we can post the map extracts in the public thread '[NOT] One of 'The Terrible Twins'?' I'll do up some screenshots when I get a chance. As far as I can recall, HNMS Soemba was positioned such that her fire could be called for from either Utah or Omaha beaches. Her excellent gunnery skills were well known from actions during 1943 in the MTO. Regards, Pat
USS Shubrick DD639 Hi Everyone, I have again looked at frame 8038. Looking to the St Marcouf islands and the ships in far distance is not the whole story. In the middle and especially at the bottom of this frame one can see 2 lines of marks, traces in the water. The traces are getting more and more visible towards the bottom of the frame. Given the overall location with a view out into the channel than these 2 lines must be traces left in the water by landing crafts towards UTAH beach within the transportation line. These traces as an indication for a view onto the transportation line than in my view exclude HNMS SOEMBA being the vessel to the right in frame 8038. This screen of a map is from a online preview of the book from Joseph Belkoski with the title "UTAH Beach". This map shows left and right nearest to the transportation line USS Hobson and USS Shubrick. Eastern and next to USS Shubrick DD639 is USS Herndon DD638. The ships nearest to the beach are USS Corry, USS Hobson, USS Shubrick and USS Herndon. HNMS Soemba is to far away to be captured in a frame showing UTAH beach transportation line. Interesting though is a look to the frame P0034. The frame is shot at almost the same location and time with the same type of over exposure. Knowing what to look for as the writing is concerned, than the name for ship next to the transportation line (map from USS Quincy) is more likely to be SHUBRICK than SOEMBA. IWM has more pictures from the vessel HNMS SOEMBA. Some links as ref: Link to the USS Shubrick Home Page with pictures and personnel war diaries. Link to the Destroyer History Home Page
Frame 8038 Details Hi Everyone, I was given the opportunity to try zooming functionality. I did this with frame 8038. As I mentioned in my previous post frame 8038 shows the same scenery as the ablique frame P0034. This means for the time when frame 8038 was shot, the aircraft was rolling heavily to starboard allowing the shot into the channel. This is something not normal and happened before just with the frame 8017 at roughly the same location. Let see with the zoom function what we get out of this frame: 1. This detailed view confirms it is the St Marcouf island we see in the frame together with USS Hobson. 2. This is a detailed view USS Shubrick. A nice match with the pictures from USS Shubrick from my previous post. 3. Here is USS Nevada to the left and out in the channel a faint view to UTAH transportation area early the morning. I can't tell which troop carrier we see out there but I think I can identify 3 of them. They lined up as drawn on the map from Joseph Belkoski. This frame captures the full view of early D-Day ship-line up, starting with the screen support through the destroyer USS Hobson and USS Shubrick, the big ships for firing support, here USS Nevada as the one with the most clear view upon, and out in the distance the transportation area with the troop carriers.
OMAHA Updates Hi Everyone, I have resolved some more of the 'unlocatable' frames and I am now able to reconstruct the fly over OMAHA beach with all frames. Here is the list of frames which mark the path from UTAH to OMAHA and back to UTAH. Leaving UTAH 3030 / 4021 / 8024 / 8025 / P0021 / P0022 Arriving OMAHA xxxx / xxxx / 8026 / 8027 / S0018 / P0023 / P0024 Down the beach xxxx / 4022/ 8028 / P0025 Turning back xxxx / xxxx / 8029 / S0019 3022 / 4023 / 8030 Arriving Pouppeville at UTAH beach 3023 / 4024 / 8031 This section of sortie US7 /1730 was 'recorded' not with a full set of all types of frames but rather with an 'incomplete' mixture of vertical frames with high (1500) and low resolution (8K) as well as oblique port and starboard frames. Here is the overlay of all frames relevant for the section of the sortie concerning OMAHA. Sources: GE and NCAP I used several 'linkages' to be able to assign all frames above into this section: Port frames P0023 and P0024 do show 2 landing crafts passing each other. Frames 8026 and 8027 have captured the same detail. Here is a detailed zoom in: I think P0023, P0024 and P0025 are from the same run-down identified by a cloud formation (I think). I could not find any supporting ship details to be more sure however it is for the only option to put the frame P0025 into the context of an OMAHA run-down. For the audience to comment. The other linkage ties the following 3 frames together: 8030 to 8029 and a detail of the shoreline from 8029 can be seen in S0019 as well. The 'oversea' path into and out of OMAHA beach back to UTAH is an assumption and it is there to connect the different sections of the sortie.
Great work Hans! No 'unlocatable' is safe now that you can zoom I have lost track - how many frames are still outstanding from Sortie 1730? Kevin has informed me by email today that this sortie is the biggest challenge of all their D-Day missions. Regards, Pat
US7 1730 Path Hi Everyone, after closing the gaps around Omaha and a few other tweaks I am now able to reconstruct the path of US7 1730. OK, a few of those 'un-locatables' still exists but these are the 'ship' frames at the very beginning of the sortie and hard to catch. 4/69 port frames still have no location (~6%) and 5/110 starboard frames have no location (~5%). From the 8K series are 6/97 unresolved (~6%). So a balance of ~6% including all which were already tagged with a location and those which I was able to find. From the oblique port and starboard frames are unresolved the roughly the same amount, however not all documented in GE. Here is a latest find at Omaha from the very beginning of the sortie. Frame 8009 and P0006 can be tied together with the group of fast approaching landing crafts. One other 'artifact' I found is here in frame P0041 over Grandcamp Maisy. I may be wrong but it looks to me like a Spitfire.
Traversing from UTAH to Grandcamp-Maisy Hi Everyone, work continues here as well. I think I found and can prove 7 port frames to show the path from UTAH to Grandcamp-Maisy after the 2nd sweep through the marshes behind Utah beaches. P0034 / P0035 / P0036 / P0037 / P0038 / P0039 / P0040 I do believe P0034 and P0035 are connected by a similar view onto the horizon (=overexposure) and USS Nevada visible next to Saint Marcouf in P0034 and a faint view of the vessel behind one propeller blade in P0035. I made some concatenations and insertions to show the results. Source NCAP When leaving UTAH area the aircraft was rolling to starboard (P0034 has mostly clouds) and after this shot the aircraft was leveled again and flying towards Grandcamp-Maisy, passing the UTAH transportation area. The next couple of frames have good connections so I am showing them compressed: P0035 / P0036 / P0037 (Source NCAP) P0038 (not shown) / P0039 / P0040 are completing the run. (Source NCAP)
JUNO and GOLD Beach Hi Everyone, I have been working over the past weeks to locate the frames from the beginning of the sortie US7 1730. The sortie starts with frames showing landing ships at high speed approaching the coast, followed by the beach at Bernieres-sur-Mer, the harbor from Courseulles-sur-Mer, followed by a series frames showing landing crafts and support ships and afterwards landing crafts at Les Mouilins. Bernieres-sur-Mer Although I could not overlay any of the frames I am confident the following frames are showing landing crafts approaching Bernieres-sur-Mer and the related transport area (S0003): 3001 / 4001 / 8001 / 8002 / S0003 Here is why I think I am on the right track. I could link 8002 and S0003 with the following details I marked on the frames. 8002 S0003 Here is the detail in a 1-to-1 comparison. In post #114 I was able to locate the last 3 frames of the sortie at Bernieres-sur-Mer. Frames 3002 / 4002 / 8002 are at the starting point of the sortie and are identified to show the beaches at Bernieres-sur-Mer. It looks to me this village was the planned entry and exit point of the sortie. Also with time pressing to start and to run down the sortie my assumption here is the landing crafts are related to the beaches captured in the next frames and this would place them in front of the beaches from JUNO. Between Mont Fleury and Asnelles The other series of frames showing landing crafts and support ships are related to GOLD beach somewhere between Mont Fleury and Asnelles. A view into the transport area is captured with the frames S0004, S0005, S0006, S0007. 3004 / 4004 / 8005 / 8006 3005 / 4006 / 8007 // S0004 / S0005 / S0006 / S0007 3006 / 4007 / 8008 Here is a GE overlay of frame pairs 3002 /4002 and 3003 / 4003. Source is GE, IGN, NCAP) The plane is touching ground over Bernieres-sur-Mer, rolling hard to starboard over Courseulles-sur-Mer and is again off to the see. What follows are frames 8005 / 8006 / 8007 / 8008 capturing a landing scene on a more or less straight line. I added all 4 together in a pano. I massaged it a little bit to show the frames connecting smoothly. This scene has to be placed somewhere between Courseulles-sur-Mer and Les Moulins because 8004 shows clearly Couseulles-sur-Mer and frame 8009 was identified to show Les Moulins. I have ruled out Les Moulins. Les Moulins is very cloudy and the central piece of the landing scene has almost no clouds. Here is 8009 and P0006, showing landing activity at Les Moulins combined. Could coverage can be seen. (The frame currently shown as P0006 at the NCAP website for sortie US7 1730 is actually frame 8028 or 8029. The original P0006 is not shown anymore. I am showing what I have stored some time ago as P0006) (Source is NCAP) Looking to S0004, S0005, S0006, S0007 I can see the same trend starting cloudy and ending at S0007 somewhere cloudless. S0004 S0007 S0004 to S0007 are connected and showing the same transport area. S0004 and S0005 are linked with the 2 ship detailed at the bottom and frame S0005, S0006 and S0007 are links via the 4 transport ships detailed at the top. Following the frames from starboard the next 2 are S0008 and S0009. Both showing a great coverage of clouds and it makes sense for me to put them into the scenery of Les Moulins and Colleville. I also ruled out the area between Courseulles-sur-Mer and Mont Fleury. In the last section of this sortie the focus was clearly around the area between Mont Fleury and Asnelles and no landing activity was captured between Courseulles-sur-Mer and Mont Fleury. It must have not being worth the effort spending frames. I can't present hard prof-points however all the many little observations like change in cloud coverage, 4 frame for the landing scene and 4 frame for the transport area, frames later in the sortie showing heavy landing activity at the beaches in the AoI I am trying to locate, all that is pointing for me to the area between Mount Fleury and Asnelles in the GOLD landing section.
Hi Everyone, some recent discoveries. 1st a link between starboard frame S0009 and low res 8K overview frame 8010 at Vierville-sur-Mer from 1st OMAHA over-pass. Frame 8010 Frame S0009 Detailed comparison With this link we can safely place both frames S0008 and S0009 together in front of OMAHA because of the cloud coverage visible in both frames. Also we can have more confidence in placing S0004 - S0007 in front of GOLD because this series of frames starts with a partial cloud coverage and changes to almost no clouds, which contrasts the OMAHA frames. I have also resolved almost all of the remaining unlocatables. S0044 is a view east down over Merville-Plage. The frame was taking while overpassing La Roque. Frame S0044 Here the same view in an IGN cover from 1947. Next we have S0049 showing a scene starting with Saint Aubin-sur-Mer railway station at center down to the beach. Here also is a IGN Cover from 1947 detailing the the railway station. S0060 and S0061 are clearly tied together showing landing ships at GOLD between Asnelles and Mont Fleury. S0064 is a view south at the position of Arromanches-les-Bains gun batteries, the frame taken on the way back towards GOLD. S0072 (Le Val Saint-Gerbold), S0073 (Vaux) and S0074 (Graye-sur-Mer) are the final starboard frames concluding the sortie. S0072 IGN Cover from 1947 for S0072 Le Val Saint-Gerbold S0073 IGN Cover from 1947 for S0073 Vaux S0074 IGN Cover from 1947 for S0074 Graye-sur-Mer