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Operation Crossbow: The Untold Story of Photographic Intelligence and the Search for Hitler's V Weapons - Softcover
The untold World War Two story of Operation Crossbow and Operation Bodyline. How the top secret Aerial Reconnaissance unit at Medmenham in Buckinghamshire found the V-1 and V-2 sites at Peenemünde.
The story of the aerial reconnaissance operation at Medmenham in Sussex, also known as MI4, is one of the great lost stories of World War Two. As the great RV Jones, Chief Scientist, British Government 1945 said, 'We might possibly have won the war without Enigma but we couldn't have won it without the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit.'
During the War nearly 300 million photographs, the majority stereoscopic, were taken by allied reconnaissance aircraft. At Medmenham's peak in 1944, nearly two thousand people were employed to interpret photographs and send out intelligence to front-line commanders in all the European theatres of war. Such as their skill and professionalism that it as said that an aircraft could land, the photographs be developed, plotted, interpreted and a brief be on the front-line
commander's desk within two hours.
Their finest hour came in 1943 when a small team headed by the redoubtable Miss Constance Babington Smith found a strange and unknown line of buildings being constructed inland from the Atlantic coast. She and her team under the code names Operation CROSSBOW and BODYLINE found the first V-1 on imagery, thus revealing the true extent of development of this 'Vengeance' (Strictly translated 'Reprisal') Weapon. Through their skill and dedication and the heroism of the allied pilots, 92 of the 96 sites were found and destroyed in 1943, delaying the deployment of these weapons until after D-Day certainly saving many tens of thousands of lives, allowing the invasion of Europe to actually take place and as a consequence contributing significantly to the winning of the war.
This is a wonderful human story of derring-do told for the first time.
The story of the aerial reconnaissance operation at Medmenham in Sussex, also known as MI4, is one of the great lost stories of World War Two. As the great RV Jones, Chief Scientist, British Government 1945 said, 'We might possibly have won the war without Enigma but we couldn't have won it without the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit.'
During the War nearly 300 million photographs, the majority stereoscopic, were taken by allied reconnaissance aircraft. At Medmenham's peak in 1944, nearly two thousand people were employed to interpret photographs and send out intelligence to front-line commanders in all the European theatres of war. Such as their skill and professionalism that it as said that an aircraft could land, the photographs be developed, plotted, interpreted and a brief be on the front-line
commander's desk within two hours.
Their finest hour came in 1943 when a small team headed by the redoubtable Miss Constance Babington Smith found a strange and unknown line of buildings being constructed inland from the Atlantic coast. She and her team under the code names Operation CROSSBOW and BODYLINE found the first V-1 on imagery, thus revealing the true extent of development of this 'Vengeance' (Strictly translated 'Reprisal') Weapon. Through their skill and dedication and the heroism of the allied pilots, 92 of the 96 sites were found and destroyed in 1943, delaying the deployment of these weapons until after D-Day certainly saving many tens of thousands of lives, allowing the invasion of Europe to actually take place and as a consequence contributing significantly to the winning of the war.
This is a wonderful human story of derring-do told for the first time.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Book Description:
Told for the firsrt time, the real story behind the top-secret World War Two operations Crossbow and Bodyline. How the photographic interpreters at Medmenham discovered the network of V-1 and V-2 sites throughout Nazi-occupied Europe.
About the Author:
Allan Williams is the curator of the National Collection of Aerial Photography (NCAP), which holds over 10 million aerial photographs from Medmenham that record many key moments of Second World War history. A leading authority on the history of aerial photography, Allan undertook much of the research for the landmark BBC documentary Operation Crossbow, in conjunction with the Medmenham Collection, which protects and encourages work on the Medmenham legacy. He lives in Edinburgh.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherPreface Publishing
- Publication date1999
- ISBN 10 184809308X
- ISBN 13 9781848093089
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages416
- Rating
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