RAF's wartime reconnaissance photos go online in new archive

[Kiwichap]

RAF's wartime reconnaissance photos go online in new archive

Dramatic pictures illustrate Allied assault on D-Day and bombing raids over Germany. By Lewis Smith

Bombs, bullets and rockets were the usual weapons on aircraft flying over Europe during the Second World War but it was often the camera that proved the most deadly. Photographs provided the generals and intelligence officers with vital information that they used to direct their forces or to out-guess the enemy.

Thousands of the photographs aircrew risked their lives to bring back are now being made publicly available for the first time. The first batch of 4,000 pictures that have remained in storage since the war go online today in a project to make up to 10 million air reconnaisance pictures available.

Images that can be seen include photographs showing the progress of the Allied invasion forces on D-Day, 6 June 1944. So detailed are the photographs that individual vehicles can be seen leaving landing-craft.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/rafs-wartime-reconnaissance-photos-go-online-in-new-archive-1825926.html

Here is the site: http://aerial.rcahms.gov.uk/

I searched 'Auschwitz'. This is all they have I think.

Auschwitz Concentration Camp (Auschwitz-Birkenau)

Unique photograph shows clouds of thick smoke rising from the Auschwitz camp. At this stage in the history of Auschwitz, in the final months of the war, we now know the number of people being killed was so high that the crematories were unable to burn all the corpses.

This image graphically illustrates, the burning of these mass funeral pits. When viewed at high-resolution, prisoners can be seen on roll-call. The camp commandant, Rudolf Höß, testified at the Nuremberg Trials that up to 3 million people had died at Auschwitz.

http://aerial.rcahms.gov.uk/database/results.php?PHPSESSID=s3heiftqu37on3k7sd4ukqnsd2&search_term=Auschwitz&QUICKSEARCH=1

Do we have a handle on that smoke? Is that the janitor burning rubbish again? It's right in the corner where I'd put the incinerator. I don't remember seeing that on Balls site. Then again, it's hard to tell with black & white photos. Too bad it's not in colour. That could be Aunty Esther going up in smoke.

[Kiwichap]

Ya just gotta laugh, don't ya? They say 10 million air reconnaisance pictures available" And then: When viewed at high-resolution, prisoners can be seen on roll-call.

Ok, but wheres the millions lined up for the gas chamber? Ha ha.

Question? Did Auschwitz Birkenau have hot water? Did the Guards quarters and hospital have hot water? If yes, was it generated by electricity or a boiler? I have no idea but I'm thinking boiler.

[tyger]

And two days later the mass funeral pits appear to have vanished.

http://aerial.rcahms.gov.uk/database/record.php?usi=006-001-008-388-C&searchdb=tara
http://aerial.rcahms.gov.uk/database/record.php?usi=006-001-008-390-C&searchdb=tara

[Kiwichap]

Brzezinka, Lesser Poland Province, Poland, Sortie 60PR_0694, Frame 4186

Vertical aerial image taken near Brzezinka, Lesser Poland Province, Poland. Image taken on 25 August 1944

http://aerial.rcahms.gov.uk/database/record.php?usi=006-001-008-388-C&searchdb=tara

Plawy, Lesser Poland Province, Poland, Sortie 60PR_0694, Frame 4188

Vertical aerial image taken near Plawy, Lesser Poland Province, Poland. Image taken on 25 August 1944
http://aerial.rcahms.gov.uk/database/re ... rchdb=tara

There goes the boiler. I knew it was Wednesday, and it was the janitor burning the rubbish. http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=1944&country=8

[Kiwichap]

Err... what happened to Frame 4187? I'm no photo expert, but do I have to show close ups? Take a look at the shadows on the bottom edges of the 23rd and 25th photos. Yeah, the 23rd must be Frame 4187, with added smoke for effect.

[jnovitz]

what struck me was although these photos are probably snapped only seconds apart, only one has thick billowing smoke, the other two appear...smoke free.
Would you agree?

Sometimes you just have to say, tell the truth....its easier.

[gbrecht]

I'm amazed they didn't use the old, "As you can see here the chimneys from the crematories are pumping out huge amounts of smoke!"

(Even though crematories don't give off smoke )

[Pappy Yokum]

Do we have a handle on that smoke? Is that the janitor burning rubbish again? It's right in the corner where I'd put the incinerator. I don't remember seeing that on Balls site. Then again, it's hard to tell with black & white photos. Too bad it's not in colour. That could be Aunty Esther going up in smoke.

Yes. We have a handle on that smoke. That photo is from 23 August 1944. It was taken 5 days after the RAF told Churchill and the fine folk at the Jewish Agency that their idea of bombing the Auschwitz gas chambers was a waste of time and would endanger planes and crewmen for no purpose. They described the idea as "fantastic" and not in a good way.

The reason for the smoke really is outdoor cremation of the dead, but not because the industrial murder machine at Birkenau was glutted with gas chamber victims. Coke was no longer being delivered to the crematoria because Germany was losing the war and running out of fuel. The dead were burned on pyres in the yard near Krema V. Carlo Mattogno discusses this in his book AUSCHWITZ: Open Air Incinerations [ 137pgs, 2005]. It should be available for download from VHO.org here http://www.vho.org/GB/Books/aoai/#download

[Pappy Yokum]

[Hannover]

Ah yes, these again. The aerial photos alone refute the absurd & laughable tales about Auschwitz 'gas chambers'.

See these for more:

Altered Aerial Photos and the Shadows of Doom
http://forum.codoh.com/viewtopic.php?t=3249

Altered WWII Aerial Photos - The 'Smoking Guns'
http://forum.codoh.com/viewtopic.php?t=506

This is too easy.

- Hannover

[Kiwichap]

I have blown those pics up to two feet wide. To my untrained eye the photos are essentially identical. Every little spot, dot and shadow. I was trying to find the prisoners lined up for roll call, or a car on the road, a tractor in the fields to see if they were still there two days later. No luck. The pics are essentially identical.

I hear what you say Pappy Yokum, perhaps the fire had burnt down after two days, which doesn't fit well with "At this stage in the history of Auschwitz, in the final months of the war, we now know the number of people being killed was so high that the crematories were unable to burn all the corpses."

That smoky bottom is very similar after a couple of days huh? Or do you think the fire just died down?

The only difference between the two photos taken apparently 2 days apart that I could spot was the size of the smoke. I still think the 23rd photo belongs between the other two. Plus the caption on the 23rd is not present on the others, neither is it framed as the others, It has been cleaned up.

[Pappy Yokum]

I have blown those pics up to two feet wide. To my untrained eye the photos are essentially identical. Every little spot, dot and shadow. I was trying to find the prisoners lined up for roll call, or a car on the road, a tractor in the fields to see if they were still there two days later. No luck. The pics are essentially identical.

I hear what you say Pappy Yokum, perhaps the fire had burnt down after two days, which doesn't fit well with "At this stage in the history of Auschwitz, in the final months of the war, we now know the number of people being killed was so high that the crematories were unable to burn all the corpses."

That smoky bottom is very similar after a couple of days huh? Or do you think the fire just died down?

The only difference between the two photos taken apparently 2 days apart that I could spot was the size of the smoke. I still think the 23rd photo belongs between the other two. Plus the caption on the 23rd is not present on the others, neither is it framed as the others, It has been cleaned up.

I am not an air photo expert. Dino Brugioni in his book PHOTO FAKERY says there are four ways to fake a photo, and I think these categories of fakes apply to any sort of document: Information can be added to a photo; It can be taken out of a photo; A photo can be assembled from several sources to make a montague; An unaltered photo can be given a fake caption (i.e. given a fake context.) Brugioni, who ironically, or maybe not so ironically, was involved in a 1978 CIA retrospective analysis of USAAF photos taken of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944-45. Seeing how he professes to be an expert in fake photos, or faking photos, it gives one pause when reading his report. John Ball is convinced the photos in the Brugioni CIA report were faked.

Brugioni makes a strong argument in his book against using photographs as evidence in court due to the fact that computer technology has made fabricating them very easy to do. His book also covers the history of faking photos which is as long as the history of photography. Photos were being altered from the very beginning.

As for the two photos, if they were actually two photos rather than one photo that was later altered to add smoke, I would speculate that corpses were not burned every day. In fact, there are few pictures that show smoke coming from the crematoria area at Birkenau even though the camp was overflown every week or two that whole year either by the British or the Americans.

In his book NIGHT, Elie Wiesel relates that he was told by another prisoner that conditions at Birkenau had really improved from the previous year. In 1943, people were dropping dead from disease frequently. Wiesel was sent to Auschwitz with other Hungarian Jews in the spring of 1944. So, he would have been there when these photos were taken.

Not being able to determine the authenticity of a photo, I have to rely on the credibility of the source. That means, pictures can be interesting, but their value as evidence is limited.

[jnovitz]

Oh I see, these photos arent from the same series of two different days.

The overflight seems to have taken exactly the same field of view and same angle, but thats all possible I suppose.
We should expect to be able to see the ´neighbouring frames of the "smoke" photo which should also show smoke....if any one can be bothered to go Scotland. The only Scottish person I am in online contact with is a miserably unhappy bastard but perhaps they arent all like that.

[Kiwichap]

jinovitz: "The overflight seems to have taken exactly the same field of view and same angle, but thats all possible I suppose."

Not only the same FOV and angle, but also the same TIME. Check out the shadows. Of course, if the sun rises 4min later each day, then the pic had to be taken about 48hrs + 8mins to be exact.

[Wahrheit]

Do we have a handle on that smoke? Is that the janitor burning rubbish again? It's right in the corner where I'd put the incinerator. I don't remember seeing that on Balls site. Then again, it's hard to tell with black & white photos. Too bad it's not in colour. That could be Aunty Esther going up in smoke.

Mattogno acknowledges that the Aug 23 aerial picture shows an outdoor cremation. Certainly the reason behind the cremation is the contested point.