Eyes in the Sky – Aerial Reconnaissance Photography

One of my favourite resources is the superb collection of Allied aerial photo reconnaissance images at http://www.wwii-photos-maps.com/aerialnetherlands/September%201944/index.html

It’s a fantastic free-to-use asset and I can’t praise the guys behind the website enough. The following are three photos I use on the ground to give our guests a sense of where they are in relation to the events of September  1944.

Above: In the foreground is LZ-S and the gliders of the 1st Airlanding Brigade. The Horsa gliders nearest the camera are those of the 7/KOSB who were to move to the North West to secure the drop zone at Ginkel Heath. Slightly further away are the gliders of the 1/Borders who were to move southwards into Renkum. Across the road in the top right of the photo are gliders that have landed at LZ-Z bringing in units such as the Divisional Recce Squadron. Just visible in the distance is the Lower Rhine itself.

The burning buildings are the home for the blind and the mental institute. They were bombed on the morning of 17 September in the belief that they were housing German troops.

This next photo (above) is again taken over Wolfheze.  Dead centre of the photo alongside the railway line is the scene of the ambush of the Recce Squadron by the Krafft Battalion on 17 September. It’s also possible to see the track emerging from the culvert under railway embankment that was used by the 4th Parachute Brigade on its withdrawal into the Oosterbeek Perimeter on 19 September. Careful observers will also notice the marker panels on LZ-L to the east. This was the Landing Zone to be used to bring in the heavy equipment of the Polish Independent Parachute Brigade on 19 September.

This final photo shows in the centre DZ-Y, the drop zone used by the 4th Parachute Brigade on 18 September. The smoke is from fires started by incoming mortar and tracer fire as the zone was being attacked during the drop. To the bottom right can be seen DZ-X, used by the 1st Parachute Brigade on 17 September. To the centre right is the western edge of LZ-S.