Oct
10
5:00pm
Virtual Lecture: Aerial Photography: An Under-Studied Role of an Air Force
By RAF Museum
On Thursday 10th October at 6pm, Dr John Peaty will consider the role of aerial photography in supporting air forces victories. This virtual talk will be live-streamed via Crowdcast.
Talk Outline
One of the most important contributions to the great victory at Alamein in October-November 1942 was the block-plot. Though largely unknown, block plots were used by the Royal Artillery to improve greatly the accuracy of counter-battery fire before and during the battle. To create a block plot it was necessary to have high quality air photos, preferably proper overlapping survey photos.
Unfortunately, the Desert Air Force devoted little effort to this task: the ill-equipped 60 Squadron South African Air Force and 1434 Flight RAF. While a very great deal was accomplished with the very limited means available, all the block-plots used before and during Alamein were created from ordinary recce photographs. Block-plots could have been created much more quickly and have been much more accurate if survey photos had been available. Montgomery highly valued block-plots and when the first Mosquitos arrived, they were used by 60 Squadron, at his personal request.
In January 1943 the senior land and air commanders in the theatre (Montgomery, Conningham, Tedder and Alexander) fell out over the lack of dedicated air photography suitable for block-plots and engaged in an acrimonious debate. Historians of Alamein rightly regard it as the exemplar of air-ground co-operation. However, this little known debate shows that in one important respect it was not. That the land and air commanders fell out after Alamein (and that their relations were strained for the remainder of the North African campaign and indeed the war) is well known. That they fell out as early as the beginning of 1943, that the causes were a lack of understanding by the air force of the army’s artillery-based modus operandi and the lack of the dedicated aerial photography it required, are not well known.
About Dr John Peaty FGRS FRHistS FSAHR
John Peaty is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and of the Royal Historical Society. He holds a PhD and MA in War Studies from King’s College London, where he also attended the intelligence studies programme. He serves on the Committee of the British Commission for Military History and has done so for many years, including in the post of International Secretary. He is a founder member of the Royal Air Force Historical Society. He is a Fellow of the Society for Army Historical Research, on whose Council he served for many years as the Chair of the Templer Medal book prize. He is the Convenor of the Historical Military Mapping Group and a Council member of the British Cartographic Society, a Committee member of the Royal Engineers Historical Society, a member of the National Army Museum’s Research and Collections Advisory Panel and a life member of the University of London’s Institute of Historical Research. He has lectured widely to both specialist and non-specialist audiences, both in the UK and overseas. He has published articles, chapters and essays. He worked at the Ministry of Defence for many years, including at the Army Historical Branch, the Defence Evaluation & Research Agency and Defence Intelligence. He was closely involved with the British Army’s commemoration of the centenary of the First World War. He has guided both military and civilian groups around battlefields across the globe.
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