INFO 284: Managing Photographic Collections
Record and Weapon: Aerial Photography in World War I and World War II
November 27, 2021
In World War I and II, new technologies defined how conflict was waged, from tanks and chemicals to aircraft and reconnaissance photography. Aerial photography, in particular, changed the way battles were conducted and military leaders made strategic decisions. Photographs also provided a grim record of human loss.
At the start of World War I (WWI), aerial photographs were challenging to take and often blurry, shot with cameras that were designed to be used from the ground. Even so, they played a critical role in tracking enemy movements and supplies and identifying strategic targets for bombing. The necessities of war accelerated innovation in camera technology. By the war’s end, cameras no longer used glass plates but film negatives. They could be used at higher altitudes and had faster shutters, allowing for sharper images that captured more information. Each nation processed millions of photographs in its scramble for better military intelligence.
Post-WWI, aerial photographers recorded the mass destruction of villages and cities across Europe. Bird’s eye views of the hollowed remains of buildings symbolized human suffering on an unimaginable scale. These photographs were then used to guide rebuilding efforts and became a tool for future urban planning.
During WWII, the militaries’ use of aerial photographs remained fundamentally the same, to gather intelligence. Aerial reconnaissance tracked and targeted enemies, and military leaders used exhaustive land surveys to plan attacks, like the atomic bombing of Japan. However, with faster shutters, aerial photographs recorded active battles across the different fronts, from Normandy Beach to the Pacific Ocean. They also recorded the atrocities of war. The vertical views of the Auschwitz I and II extermination camps revealed their size and calculated orderliness. Before and after pictures of Hiroshima, Japan documented the planning and devastating consequences of the atomic bomb. Photographs such as these not only reconstruct war strategies and outcomes, they help us better comprehend the full scale of the devastation across the world.
Department of Defense. Defense Audiovisual Agency, Aeroplane Graflex Camera in Action, ca. 1917 – ca. 1918 The National Archives at College Park, Still Pictures, Web link
Ly. Dutkewich, S.C., 111-SC-22585, October 18, 1918, The National Archives at College Park – Still Pictures, Web Link
Oversized aerial survey photographs were constructed from mosaics of overlapping negatives. Surveying flights could take one day or several months depending upon the size of the land survey and weather conditions.
War Department. American Expeditionary Forces. Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff Second Section (G-2), Cunel, France, 1918, The National Archives at College Park – Still Pictures, Web Link.
View of the village ruins of Cunel, France post-bombing.
Department of Defense. Defense Audiovisual Agency, View of ruins in front of the Cathedral of St. Quentin. France, October 14, 1918, The National Archives at College Park – Still Pictures, Web link
War Department. American Expeditionary Forces. Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff Second Section (G-2), Panorama of Krupp's Works, Essen, December 1915, The National Archives at College Park – Still Pictures, Web link.
Photographs such as these were used to determine strategic bombing targets in enemy territory.
The Krupp’s Works factory in Essen, Germany manufactured steel, munitions, tanks, submarines, and warships. During WWII, the factory exploited slave labor from thousands of people conscripted from across Europe.
Department of Defense. Department of the Navy. Naval Photographic Center, Capt. Edward J. Steichen, USNR, (Retired), Photographic Expert, ca. November 1943, The National Archives at College Park – Still Pictures, Web link.
While Britain, France, and Germany had been using photography to gather military intelligence from the start of World War I, the U.S. had little experience with aerial cameras and reconnaissance. Capt. Edward Steichen was a pivotal figure in establishing a photography division in American Expeditionary Forces and developing the K-1 camera.
Department of Defense. Department of the Air Force, An Aerial Photographer Checks His K-20 Camera While En Route To The Target In A Martin B-26 Of The 386Th Bomb Group. Europe. (U.S. Air Force Number 70268AC), circa 1942-1944
The National Archives at College Park – Still Pictures, Web link.
The Fairchild K-20 camera was used throughout WWII to take oblique photos. Most infamously, it captured the 40,000 feet high mushroom cloud from the atomic bomb detonated above Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. The initial explosion and effects of radiation ultimately killed more than 140,000 civilians.
Charles Kerlee, Department of Defense. Department of the Navy. Naval Photographic Center, [SBD]'s attack Wake Island, Oct. 5 and 6, 1943, The National Archives at College Park – Still Pictures, Web link
Department of Defense. Defense Intelligence Agency. Central Imagery Processing and Reference Division, Auschwitz Extermination Camp, September 13, 1944, National Archives at College Park - Cartographic (RDSC), Web link.
National Security Council. Central Intelligence Agency. Directorate of Intelligence, Auschwitz I Main Camp - Oswiecim, Poland, April 4, 1944, National Archives at College Park - Cartographic (RDSC), Web link.
Department of Defense. Defense Intelligence Agency. Birkenau Extermination Camp, May 31, 1944, National Archives at College Park - Cartographic Division. Web link.
Auschwitz II – Birkenau Extermination Camp in Brzezinka, Poland.
Department of Defense. Defense Intelligence Agency. Central Imagery Processing and Reference Division, Spot Number D7183, Exposure 6, June 6, 1944, National Archives at College Park - Cartographic (RDSC). Web link.
View of Coutances and Saint-Nicolas, in Lower Normandy, France on D-Day.
Department of Defense. Defense Intelligence Agency. Central Imagery Processing and Reference Division, Spot Number D7183, Exposure 25, June 6, 1944, The National Archives at College Park – Still Pictures, Web link.
View of Ver-sur-Mer / Pointe du Connebar in Lower Normandy, France on D-Day.
War Department. U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey. Pacific Survey. Physical Damage Division, [Pre-attack mosaic view of Hiroshima, Japan.], 1947, The National Archives at College Park – Still Pictures, Web link.
The vertical photographs of the pre- and post-atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan and the Atomic Cloud are part of the series Photographs Used In The Report Effects of the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, 1947 – 1947.
Mosaic maps were constructed from multiple negatives taken during flights over a region. Depending on weather conditions, photographs were taken over a single flight or multiple flights.
War Department. U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey. Pacific Survey. Physical Damage Division, [Post-attack mosaic view of Hiroshima, Japan.] , The National Archives at College Park – Still Pictures, Web link.
Department of Defense. Department of the Air Force., At the time this photo was made, smoke billowed 20,000 feet above Hiroshima while smoke from the burst of the first atomic bomb had spread over 10,000 feet on the target at the base of the rising column.Two planes of the 509th Composite Group, part of the 313th Wing of the 20th Air Force, participated in this mission, one to carry the bomb, the other to act as escort., August 6, 1945, National Archives at College Park - Still Pictures (RDSS), Web link.
Office for Emergency Management. Office of War Information. Overseas Operations Branch, Photograph of the Atomic Cloud Rising Over Nagasaki, Japan, August 9, 1945, The National Archives at College Park – Still Pictures, Web link.