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WW2 Aerial Photographs Go Online

Posted by michael on from the bird's-eye dept.

aquarium writes "The Guardian Unlimited reports that unique aerial photographs of some of the key events of the Second World War are to be made available for the first time over the internet. The photographs are being made available through a website created by The Aerial Reconnaissance Archives (TARA) at Keele University - an official place of deposit for the National Archives at Kew, West London. The entire archive of more than five million aerial reconnaissance photographs, shot by the RAF over Western Europe during the conflict, is going online starting Monday. They include American troops landing on the Normandy beaches on D-Day, the seizure of the Pegasus bridge by British paratroops, the aftermath of the first 1,000 bomber raid on Cologne, and the German battleship Bismarck as the Royal Navy hunted her down. The multiple photographs taken by the high resolution cameras meant they were able to create 3-D images through an instrument called a "stereoscope". The technique was used to construct a detailed picture of the Normandy terrain ahead of the D-Day landings."

11 of 556 comments (clear)

  1. New Additions to the archive... by Kotukunui · · Score: 5, Funny

    Aerial photographs of their servers being "slashbombed" and crashing in flames.

    1. Re:New Additions to the archive... by tarquin_fim_bim · · Score: 4, Funny

      Remembering the total fiasco Kew Public Records Office made of putting the 1901 UK census records online using IIS, it'll probably take them 3 months downtime to realise that they should have used SCO/Linux servers.

    2. Re:New Additions to the archive... by TedCheshireAcad · · Score: 5, Funny

      I mean seriously - is it fair to post an article on Slashdot that centers around photographs? It's just taunting everyone because we all know we'll never get to see - as the server is having its shit ruined.

      Guess its time to subscribe.

  2. Slashdot Blitzkrieg by Fnkmaster · · Score: 5, Funny
    That server surrendered faster than the French! Okay, it's just a joke, we already settled it yesterday, the French fought valiantly in WWII.


    But seriously, the archive sounds like a great idea. There should be more historical material of this sort accessible online.

  3. Server Age by RoadkillBunny · · Score: 2, Funny

    I think the server hosting the pictures was from Second World War too...

    --
    Cheers,
    RoadkillBunny
  4. Way to go by gwernol · · Score: 5, Funny

    Great, now we've Slashdotted the Second World War. Do you have any idea what we might have done to history? Doesn't anyone watch quality movies like Timeline anymore?

    --
    Sailing over the event horizon
  5. Re:uhm, by LearnToSpell · · Score: 4, Funny

    Well, that's stupid. How can we slashdot it when it's not even up yet? *sigh* I'll just keep clicking reload until it's up and I can't connect, I guess. At least we'll be able to smash it when the dupe story comes along tomorrow.

    --
    Haida Manga
  6. Re:fp lol omg wtf? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    I wasn't aware that they did aerial photography using ASCII during WWII.

  7. This is their server's finest hour! by Monkey+Liar · · Score: 3, Funny

    Never has so much bandwidth been sought by so many, from so few.

    --
    He who fights with Monkeys must take it upon himself not to become a Monkey.
  8. Re:Checking for unexploded ordinance by gnu-generation-one · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Most unexploded ordnance is found the old fashioned way"

    When it stops being unexploded?

  9. Re:They kept that well hidden. by Adlopa · · Score: 2, Funny

    Wow, two mentions of Stoke in one story on ./ in one day. As I live and breathe...