TIMELINE - British
Aerial Photography and Photographic Interpretation on the Western Front
(1914-1918)
1914
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The
first use of a squared map prepared by Lieutenant D. S. Lewis of the RFC was
noted in September 1914 during the initial attempts to control artillery fire
from the air using wireless.
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Sept 1914
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On
15 September 1914 Lieutenant G. F. Pretyman, a pilot from 3 Squadron, took
five photographs of German artillery positions on the Aisne
with his own hand held camera.
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By
the end of 1914 the squared map system had been accepted and adapted and
covered the whole of the British front.
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End 1914
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1915
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From
early 1915, the Royal Engineers were being trained to use aerial photography
to support cartography.
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Jan 1915
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The
first aerial photographic mosaic was completed during January 1915 by Lt
Darley.
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A
RFC experimental photographic section was established and sent to First Wing,
by the middle of January 1915.
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Within
the month (Jan 1915) the experimental photographic section at First Wing was
declared a success and following the section’s report recommendation a
photographic section was established at the HQ of each of the now three RFC
Wings.
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By
the end of February 1915 the RFC’s First Wing photographed the entire German
trench system in front of First Army to a depth that ranged from 700 to 1,500
yards. The result was a fairly
complete picture of the German tactical dispositions. This tactical picture, which was regularly updated,
was used by Haig to plan the Battle of Neuve Chapelle. Additionally 1,500 copies of a 1:5,000
scale map overlaid with an outline of the German defensive system were
specially printed and issued to each of the attacking Corps.
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Feb 1915
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Lieutenant
Colonel J. Charteris used photography in planning for Neuve Chapelle - (diary
entry dated February 24 1915)
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Between
July and September 1915 Topographical Sections were created at Army level.
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Summer 1915
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During
the summer of 1915 Alan Lloyd was appointed as an intelligence officer on the
staff of First Corps where he was made responsible for the Corps aerial
photographs.
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This
issue of map currency was appreciated as early as the battle of Loos in 1915
when copies of aerial photographs were circulated so that staff and
regimental officers could make hand written amendments to their maps. During Loos, Romer (First Army Maps and
Printing Section 1915) had his section working through the night producing
and printing special map sheets showing the new detail derived from that
day’s aerial photographs; these sheets were sent by dispatch rider to the
affected units.
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Sept 1915
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The
Canadian Corps when formed in September 1915 established a new GSO, Second
Grade, to command the intelligence service within the Corps ‘. . . a small force of draughtsmen and
assistants working on aeroplane photographs, which were then beginning to be
used extensively . . .
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Second
Lieutenant Laws returned to Britain
in September 1915 to establish the RFC’s School of Photography
at Farnborough.
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Nov 1915
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In
November 1915 Alan Lloyd gave a lecture on aerial photographs to his Corps
Commander.
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Dec 1915
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Third
Army set up a Compilation section under the control of its Topographical
section in December 1915. This
Compilation section was headed by Lieutenant Goldsmith. As well as the study of air photographs,
Goldsmith’s stated role was to synthesise and record the counter-battery
intelligence from all sources and to disseminate, in INTSUM form, lists of
German artillery positions derived from Third Army’s observation and flash
spotting sections that he had correlated with the other intelligence sources.
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By
the end of 1915 Third Army’s Topographical Section, at the request of the
Army Staff, had begun to include the German trench system, including barbed
wire, and known German artillery battery positions as overlays on the newly
created 1:10,000 map sheets.
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End 1915
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By
the end of 1915 a newly created series of 1:10,000 base map sheets
overprinted with the tactical detail of the German defensive positions had
been produced.
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Not
until the end of 1915 was the counter-battery role recognised as a separate
tactical operation of the artillery requiring special organisation and
co-ordinated intelligence support.
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1916
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From
early 1916 counter-battery intelligence was rationalised and coordinated at
army level.
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Early 1916
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Jan 1916
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The
new RFC brigade formation came into effect on 30 January 1916 and by the
start of the Somme there were four RFC
brigades, one for each army, and a Headquarters Wing attached directly to
GHQ. Under the new organisation each
Corps now had an attached RFC squadron under its control and the Corps staffs
were responsible for photographic reconnaissance tasking along the Corps
front up to a depth of 5,000 yards.
Beyond this aerial photography was the responsibility of the Army
wing.
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The
Army Topographical sections had expanded and were subsumed within newly
created Field Survey Companies (FSC) in February 1916. Within the organisation of a FSC was a
Compilation section that had the role of synthesising the artillery
counter-battery intelligence at army level.
Goldsmith described as ‘one of
the pioneers in the scientific study of air photographs’ was a compiling
officer in Third Army’s Compilation Section.
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Feb 1916
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Apr 1916
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By
the spring of 1916 the demand for photographs was overstretching the
capabilities of the Wing photographic sections causing unacceptable delays in
print delivery to demanding units. The
solution enacted in April 1916 was to decentralise and establish a small
photographic section, comprising a non-commissioned officer (NCO) and three
men, at each of the Corps squadrons and in each Army reconnaissance squadron.
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During
April and May 1916 the 1st ANZAC INTSUMS provided little more than
‘shopping lists’ of available photographs that could be ordered by
subordinate units from First ANZAC Corps intelligence.
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From
May 1916 with the weekly (Active
Hostile Batteries) lists growing longer and taking more time to plot the
details were also transposed onto a counter-battery target map and
represented graphically.
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May 1916
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From
mid 1916 Recording Officers (RO’s), of Captain/Lieutenant rank, began to be
appointed in RFC squadrons. The RO’s
acted as intelligence officers and the squadron Adjutant and were tasked with
debriefing aircrew collating the information gathered and forwarding anything
of value to headquarters. In addition
the RO’s in the Corps squadrons took on the artillery and infantry liaison
role to reduce the burden on the Squadron Commanders.
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Jun 1916
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From
June 1916 onwards every two or three days the INTUMS started to contain
textual summaries outlining the activity observed on the photographs taken in
the intervening period. Between June
and early November the fidelity of the reporting also changed.
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Jul 1916
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Early
in July 1916 Moore-Brabazon, dissatisfied with the use being made of the RFC
photography by the BEF’s intelligence elements, produced and circulated six
copies of a photographic interpretation guide.
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Aug 1916
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August
1916 Francis Law, an Irish Guards infantry officer being given a rest from
the front, reported to Headquarters IXth Corps. His role for two months was as the Corps
artillery intelligence officer where one of his jobs was the interpretation
of aerial photographs.
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A
British study of the French intelligence system published in September 1916
highlighted the advantages of integrating an intelligence specialist at
squadron level.
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Sep 1916
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From
October 1916 the Army Printing and Stationary Service (AP&SS) had set up
a section in Amiens
that could produce 5,000 prints a day.
By the end of the Somme each army had
its own AP&SS section bulk reproducing prints and specialist products.
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Oct 1916
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October
1916 Trenchard, now the Major General in command of the RFC in France,
proposed that intelligence sections be established at squadrons and wings
with reconnaissance and photographic responsibilities ‘where the Intelligence Officer could be in intimate touch with the
flying and photographic personnel’.
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From
late October an experimental intelligence section commanded by Captain G. T.
Tait, an attached Intelligence Corps officer, was established at 3 Squadron
RFC, the squadron subordinated to First ANZAC Corps during the latter stages
of the Somme.
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.
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Nov 1916
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Lloyd’s
guide reproduced as the first British photographic interpretation guide ‘S.S. 445 Some Notes on the Interpretation
of Aeroplane Photographs’ in November 1916.
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From
late November 1916 the textual summaries in the 1st ANZAC INTSUMS began
to be provided alongside the list of photographs they related to.
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Although
not officially authorised until January 1917 the first Corps Topographical
Sections appeared in Fourth Army in December 1916.
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Dec 1916
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During
December 1916 instructions were issued to form Branch Intelligence Sections
(BIS’s) at the headquarters of each corps squadron and each army wing.
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Late 1916
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Not
until late 1916 was photographic interpretation incorporated into the
syllabus of the 10 week Intelligence Corps Officer training course run in London near Wellington
Barracks.
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From
late 1916 Intelligence Corps officers, trained to interpret aerial
photographs, began to be attached to Divisional Intelligence sections.
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From
late 1916 the newly appointed Intelligence Corps officers at both Division
and the BIS’s had either been trained at the Intelligence Corps training school
in London or in the case of reassigned officers, had attended the newly
established eight day course on aerial photography run at Army level in
France.
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1917
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As
a result of the lessons from the Somme a
Counter Battery Office (CBO) commanded by a Counter Battery Staff Officer
(CBSO), a Lieutenant Colonel, was formally established by GHQ at each
Corps. The Intelligence officer in the
CBO was one of the new War Office sanctioned Royal Artillery Reconnaissance
Officers (RARO) also newly established, at Army, Corps, and Corps Heavy
Artillery Headquarters, during the winter of 1916/1917. The intelligence officer’s declared role
was ‘. . . to carry out special
artillery reconnaissance, to study and collate the information derived from
aeroplane photographs and maps so far as it affects the artillery, and to
keep in close touch with the Royal Flying Corps.’
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Early 1917
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From
1917 on, a soldier at platoon level could expect to carry out trench raid
mission rehearsals behind the British line in an exact replica, derived from
aerial photography, of the German trench system he was going to raid.
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In
early 1917 Rory Macleod, who had been the liaison officer between Fourth
Brigade RFC and Fourth Army’s Counter Battery Intelligence Staff in 1916,
produced a book on the interpretation of aerial photographs for Fourth Army’s
Artillery School.
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The
success of the CBO initiative was clearly evident at Vimy Ridge in 1917.
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Mar 1917
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Vimy
Ridge March 1917 the Canadians built a scale model of their assault area
based on aerial photographs.
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March
1917 the Intelligence Staff at GHQ had taken ownership of the photographic
interpretation manuals and had issued S.S.
550 Notes on the Interpretation of Aeroplane Photographs which was
distributed down to Battalion, Machine Gun Company and Trench Mortar Battery
level.
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Jun 1917
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By
June 1917 S.S. 152 Instructions for the
training of the British Armies in France (Provisional) advertised
numerous training courses that contained aerial photography in their syllabus.
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At
Messines in June 1917, aerial photographs of the German defences were taken
every day during the preliminary bombardment, and the known artillery
positions every two days.
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Aug 1917
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Haig
in his diary entry for the 28 August 1917 recorded:
‘Trenchard reported
on the work of the Flying Corps. Our
photographs now show distinctly the ‘shell holes’ which the Enemy has formed
turned into a position. The paths made
by men walking in rear of those occupied, first caught our attention. After a most careful examination of the
photo, it would seem that system of defence was exactly on the lines directed
in General Sixt von Armin’s pamphlet on ‘The Construction of Defensive
Positions’ . . .
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End 1917
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By
the end of 1917 personnel with a remit to carry out photographic interpretation
were located on the Intelligence Staff at Infantry Brigade and Battalion
level.
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1918
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Feb 1918
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The
GHQ issued photographic interpretation manual was updated in February 1918 S.S. 631 Notes on the Interpretation of
Aeroplane Photographs.
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May 1918
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In
a lecture given in 1920 H. R. Brooke-Popham stated: ‘As regards photographs, our best day’s work was May 3rd, 1918, when
4,090 new photographs were taken.’
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Aug 1918
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Amiens in August 1918 saw
a proliferation in aerial photographs being made available at company level
for study before the attack.
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