Gość: dokt0r
IP: *.pth0304.pth.iprimus.net.au
18.01.04, 07:30
W poniedzialek zostana opublikowane na stronie www.evidenceincamera.co.uk
zdjecia lotnicze z 2 WS. Na zdjeciach beda miedzy innymi Oswiecim, ladowanie
na plazy podczas D-Day, statek Bismarck w Norwegii, szybowce, i wiele innych
wczesniej niedostepnych zdjec.
Zdjecia zostana opublikowane 19 stycznia na www.evidenceincamera.co.uk
Z wiadomosci ABC: www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1027206.htm
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More than five-million detailed aerial photographs from WWII go onto the
Internet from Monday (UK time), giving the public their first views of some of
the most dramatic and grisly moments of the conflict.
From the smoke billowing from the incinerator of the Auschwitz concentration
camp in which millions of Jews were murdered by the Nazis, to the US landings
on Omaha beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944, the pictures tell dramatic stories.
"These images allow us to see the real war at first hand," project head Allan
Williams said.
"It is like a live action replay.
"They were declassified years ago, but it takes days to find an individual image.
"Now they have been digitised and will be on the Internet, it takes seconds,"
he told Reuters.
Wartime planners depended heavily on aerial photography and in particular, the
specialist photographic interpreters who spent hours after each sortie poring
over the pictures seeking evidence and clues to pick their targets.
"The pictures were vital to the war effort," Mr Williams said.
"For example for years before the final choice of beaches was made for the
D-Day landings, photographic interpreters had been watching the whole
shoreline of northern France," he said.
The pilots who took the highly detailed pictures were some of the most daring
in the skies, flying unarmed, unprotected and alone often at very low level to
fulfil their missions.
Hundreds never returned from their perilous missions.
In the Auschwitz pictures, prisoners can be seen queuing up for roll call, and
in the D-Day pictures bodies can be seen floating in the sea.
Apart from these gripping images - some of more than 40-million taken over the
years and lodged in the National Archives, there are also pictures of the
German battleship Bismarck hiding in a Norwegian fjord.
Seven days after the picture was taken in May 1941, a combination of Royal
Navy bombardment and Royal Air Force attacks had sunk the most feared German
surface raider of the war.
There is also a picture showing in stark detail the devastation wrought by the
mass bombing raids on the German city of Cologne.
Other pictures show gliders next to Pegasus Bridge, stormed by British
airborne troops before dawn on the morning of D-Day in the first action of the
Allied invasion to liberate France.
But the images are not just of historic interest.
They are still used in the frequent discovery of unexploded bombs left over as
deadly mementos of the war.
"We are often contacted when an unexploded bomb is found," Mr Williams said.
"We see if we have aerial reconnaissance photographs of the area and send them
over so they can see if there may be any more."
The images will be available on the Internet from Monday, January 19 (UK time)
at www.evidenceincamera.co.uk
