Two Reconnaissance Photos on Ebay

Hi Guys,

Thanks to Niels providing the link, I have located the two reconnaissance photographs currently on sale here on ebay. Below are two versions I grabbed and rotated to north:

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I put a watermark on them to protect the seller's interests.

Here is the GE finder chart. Note Boutteville at centre left:

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As you can see they are obviously from the same sortie but perhaps taken through different focal length lenses. If you use the ebay zoom tool, you can get a pretty good view of each photo - note especially the Horsa fuselage lying across the D424 circled in red above.

I wonder have we finally found a good location candidate for the Horsa wreck visible in the background of the Hoatson footage - see the screenshots on the 'Hoatson Horsa Wreck' thread. Below is a GE 'street view' looking east on the laneway:

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The ebay seller is looking for $120 for the pair. I sent a message this evening offering $70 :dodgy:

Let me have your thoughts guys - we will keep this in the 'Green Room' for now. Thanks again Niels for the heads up on this sale.

Regards,

Pat

 

Hi John,

Thanks for the offer - we will see what the seller comes back with.

What I like about them is that they appear to be very sharp; perhaps first generation copies from the negs. The versions shown have been sharpened excessively though but that is presumably for effect in a web browser.

I am a little doubtful about the location being good for the Hoatson site as the background Horsa wreck in the footage seems to be resting on top of a manicured hedge and that does not appear to match what we see in this new aerial cover. Also, the Hoatson wreck itself is not showing but it may be back westwards, perhaps at the T junction leading up to the village of Boutteville. I don't see anywhere else on the lane where rolling the wreck would allow traffic to pass.

Still, they would both be welcome additions to our library.

Regards,

Pat

 

Thanks Niels,

I suspect the captions have been removed so I cannot identify the sortie or date. I presume it's early in June as the Horsa fuselage across the D424 laneway has not been cleared. In addition, the parachutes appear to have supply cannisters still attached in a lot of cases, so the sortie may have been flown shortly after one of the resupply missions.

Regards,

Pat

 

OK,

I got them for $85 :shy:

There is a third photo included but it may not be Normandy related.

Now to polish the scanner bed

Regards,

Pat

 

Hi All,

I felt sure that the two photographs would be in the post this evening when I got home but instead I got a demand for the new property tax which my Government has so kindly introduced this year

Worse still, I got this message from the seller tonight:

Life is not always smooth :s

Regards,

Pat

 

Hi Don,

Yes, the guy emailed again last night saying that they were now resent using priority airmail...next week hopefully

My other concern is that they are packaged correctly to ensure good quality scans.

Regards,

Pat

 

Finally, they have arrived

I have scanned each at 1200dpi, rotated to north and uploaded to my ADrive account thus:

• Glider Photo (282.6MBs)
• Parachute Photo (279.1MBs)

Unfortunately, the black borders and captions have been cropped so I have yet to establish sortie and frame numbers. I can tell that they are USAAF as opposed to RAF by the appearance of the half black arrows visible on the sides.

There appears to be four Horsas and five Wacos in the glider photo and the Horsa wreck across the laneway is clear enough to say that the fuselage seems to be pointing in a northerly direction. However, I can see no good candidate for the Hoatson Horsa.

When I first looked at the Wacos, I noticed the USAAF stars on the port side wings appeared to be duplicated, with one star slightly off centre of the other. I then wondered if this might indicate some sort of 3D effort in the printing of the photographs but having tried my two cent 3D glasses from last Saturdays trip to the cinema with the kids, I now think the duplication is caused by camera shake :-/

The parachute photo shows numerous supply canisters still attached to their chutes and also extensive weapons pits or searchlight positions, some with the camouflage still in place. Extensive slit trench works are also visible in the same field which leads me to believe that this was an important flak battery position. Note this location is only a few fields away from the Brecourt Farm Battery.

I'll add some screenshots tomorrow as I am caught for time tonight.

Just a few first impressions - do please add your thoughts and observations.

Regards,

Pat