Fascinating WW2 photos from a Leica

[Muggins]

Well, I had to add the Leica bit to get the Leicaphiles to look! Hopefully this is news here, but if it's already been posted... well, they're too good not to shout about!

Over on Flickr anyjazz65 has posted a fascinating set of pictures largely taken on and around the USAAF base at Bassingbourn, England, during WW2.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49024304@N00/sets/72157608125792619/

There's lots of notes about the lenses making it clear that the photographer had a lot of Leica kit, and a self-portrait near the end shows him with his Leica. Unfortunately the film is utterly unmarked - possibly cut down from USAAF cine-camera film - but I'm sure there's people here who can tell him a lot more.

Happy looking!

Adrian

 

[Benjamin]

Fascinating WW2 photos from a Leica.. in what respect are they fascinating? Serious question.

 

[NeeZee]

they are old and taken during ww2. but that's about it. apart from that they are pretty mediocre snapshot that were just taken with a leica because mobile phones weren't invented yet...

 

[Mr_Flibble]

Fascinating as in one man's personal window back into 1944. He shows us what he thought was important enough for him that he wanted to remember.

I do find them fascinating from an historical point of view too: Details on the uniforms and flight gear. Paint schemes on Aircraft. Matching pilots to planes by serial numbers etc etc.

 

[Riverman]

Fascinating WW2 photos from a Leica.. in what respect are they fascinating? Serious question.

Serious? That question is actually rather flippant. It's pretty rare to find personal photographic records from the period. Photography was not yet the 'mass' medium that it became in postwar decades. Most people in the UK at the time (civilian or military) lacked the means to own a camera or regularly shoot film. For an individual to wander round shooting photos willy nilly would have been really quite rare during wartime Britain. Most of the images we see from the period which address military subjects are images that have gone through the info/propaganda ministry 'filter'. (Indeed some of the shots in the set were probably created towards some 'official' purpose). Accordingly, viewing in particular the images in this set that capture private moments (the servicemen and women laughing and relaxing) is quite a rare privilege.

 

[Tom A]

It is a document from an era 70 +years ago. What is interesting is that the photographer even could take them. This was a time when paranoia was running rampant (what else is new) and taking pictures at an airfield could get you in serious trouble. Obviously the photographer had permission - and, even more important, access to film, processing etc. As for the esthetics of the images - this is basically contacts, the good, the bad and the ugly. There are some good shots in there, but also the bracket shots for exposure/composition and, yes focus!
The amazing fact is that they have survived this long and if you are so inclined, you can probably identify people and aircrews by plane registration etc.
Some of the London shots are interesting - virtually no traffic. I do wonder why there are no shots of damage from the german bombers or the V1/V2 rockets. This somehow "times" the shots to 1940/41. The main airfileld looks like a assembly area for arriving US aircrews and planes - prior to being assigned other more active bases - and also for training crews.
Fascinating document of an era. Thanks for putting it up.

 

[dave lackey]

I especially like The Lost Gallery

http://lostgallery.blogspot.com/2007/10/aaf.html

 

[Riverman]

I also found the London shots fascinating. For a passer by to snap shots like that at the time would have been exceptionally rare. People just did not have cameras or film. I expect that the photos must date from 1942 at earliest - a couple of years after the heaviest bombardment of British cities, the later v1 and v2 campaign causing less extensive damage in 1944. The us 8th arrived in the UK in 42 I think, while 1 image depicts an RAF Lancaster which were in service from 42 onwards. Also interesting are images of crashed aircraft - presumably lost in training accidents. Those shots were certainly not intended for public viewing.

 

[Riverman]

The church in the linked photo Is St Stephen Walbrook, beside Mansion House in the City, designed by Wren

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49024304@N00/2953132503/in/set-72157608125792619

 

[Nikon Bob]

I would have to agree with Riverman that it was later in the war. The Avro York transport showing in frame 16 was introduced into service in 1943. Also the B17G was the last variant introduced later in the war. In any event it is an interesting window on life around a bomber base in WWII. I really wonder about the guy posing by the P-47 and then seeing the same plane on it's back. If he was at the controls when it flipped I'd lay money that he make it out. Thanks for posting the link.

Bob

 

[seakayaker1]

Thanks for posting the link.

I found the photographs very interesting and enjoyed viewing the photographs from both a historical and personal point of view.

My mother is from England and my father married her while serving in the Army during WWII. He returned home back to the US much earlier than my mother and older sister who crossed over on the Queen Mary. The Queen Mary and other ocean liners started returning the dependents of the service men from Europe after the military released it back to civilian duty after it was converted back from a troop transport.

 

[peterm1]

Interestingly the image quality is pretty good. So many photos I have seen of WW2 are pretty ordinary in IQ, due I suppose to wartime compromises made with the emulsions or with the processing chemicals. These are good.

 

[mynikonf2]

These photos are the work of someone who served in the photo unit of a squadron during the war. To those who have no interest in history they might be rather ho-hum but to those of us who find history (& in particular WW2 history), fascinating they are a gold mine. When you get the opportunity to see "new to yourself" images like these are, I recognize how rare an opportunity it is. These images are visual time capsules, in particular the photos of the B-17, "Ack,Ack, Annie" heading out on a mission because inside the ball turret of that aircraft sat the father of my brother-in-law. Yes, pretty fascinating indeed just to contemplate that one, for me.🙄

 

[Ken Smith]

Fascinating WW2 photos from a Leica.. in what respect are they fascinating? Serious question.

Fascinating from the standpoint that these are some of the men, women, and planes that turned your country into the largest aircraft carrier the world has ever seen. Least is the fact they are from perhaps the most pivotal point in history. No - they're definitely not pieces of art for a gallery wall, but they they deserve wall space in an all together different type of museum.

 

[dogberryjr]

Well I liked 'em!

 

[Muggins]

Thank you for your support, gentlemen. I'm glad that most of us are in agreement about their value (at one point I used to drive past Bassingbourn on a regular basis - just a few yards from where Nine-Oh-Nine was parked).

They're an utterly different beast to those Life Kodachromes we drool over, in many ways just records with no thought as to how they'd be perceived outside the photographer's immediate circle - and that to me is what makes them so valuable. It's recording the mundane, the otherwise unrecorded stuff, that otherwise vanishes.

Adrian

(been a bit of a planehead for years, and never realised that the A35 was used in the UK. The RAF used them, as the Vengeance, in the Far East, but never thought I'd see one bent in an English field)

 

[robur]

Thanks for posting. I liked them a lot. A wonderful 70 years time machine. Normal people in their not so normal (at least at that time) life.

 

[Lax Jought]

An era we'll never see again. These old photos are always valued.

 

[BobYIL]

Thank you for posting. I went through them one by one; some frames were boring indeed (the military photographer apparently did not have much professional experience and technique) however some of them made me feel somehow similar to what the photographer was feeling then; also the "air" of wartime. Felt what it was like being near to the real war-planes from WW2 era, unlike seeing them in a movie... felt also their desperation, as in this frame for example http://www.flickr.com/photos/49024304@N00/2959926725/ ..

I believe some sorting and selecting could make it more interesting however who had originally posted them in the flickr, had probably chosen to stay loyal to the original archive. IMHO this is a very precious collection.

 

[David Hughes]

In praise of trivia

In praise of trivia

Fascinating, FWIW I always think trivia is worth shooting simply because it what's not photographed by the well composed, arty crafty crowd. Years later we realise that these are probably the only photo's we have to remind us.

When you see something like this you appreciate the trivial picture taken a year or more earlier.

The tree's about 400 years old and this happened to it. Luckily I used it for one of my standard test shots, mainly because the dog used to stop and sniff at the gate into the field...

Regards, David