The Times magazine today contains a number of colour photographs taken by the acclaimed American war correspondant Frank Capa,all of which have only recently been rediscovered and never previously published.They include pictures taken at RAF and USAAF airfields in England,both of the aircraft and the personnel.Well worth a look!
By: Flood - 29th May 2004 at 21:24
It could be that (if it was anything like the arrangements made in Vietnam) the film/s had to be sent back to America for processing, the caption slip/s got detached and/or lost and someone somewhere got handed a golden opportunity to make up a story about something they knew little or nothing about. And those captions are the ones that the pictures got stuck with…
No, I haven’t seen them.
Flood.™
By: L9172 - 29th May 2004 at 20:05
The Times Magazine Today – Capa Photos
They are indeed excellent photographs and I would hope that there is some way in which the collection might be published for us all to see.
However, the captioning in The Times and in the magazine leaves something to be desired. For instance, the one on the front page of the paper is captioned as a crew waiting to take-off but to me it looks more like they have just landed from one. Notice the strain on the face of at least one of them and the dishevelled hair from wearing a flying helmet for several hours. This is a photograph of a 21 Squadron aircraft I believe, as is the picture on the front of the magazine and the one of the Blenheim on its belly covered in foam.
The two page picture inside the magazine is also captioned as a flight crew waiting to take-off but none of them are wearing flying brevets such as Observer or WOp/AG and I suspect they are ground crew looking at an aircraft in the sky. It may even be a posed picture and they’re looking at nothing.
The last picture, the B-17 and the cows, cannot be “at an English airfield as it is prepared for a daylight raid in December 1941”. for reasons I am sure you can all appreciate – December 1942 perhaps, but not 1941.
It would be so nice if responsible organs like The Times took a little bit of trouble and checked with somebody who has knowledge of such things before they publish photographs of historical subjects. These photographs are too valuable to be lumbered with inaccurate descriptions which will mislead those who might be interested but know nothing of the subject.
By: station357 - 29th May 2004 at 15:17
Excellent photographs. Especially the photograph of the Blenheim and crew members preparing for a mission.
In this one photograph there is so much to take in. The Blenheim on the sun-scorched grass. Crew members held in deep conversation, one holding a tin helmet, another holding a navigator’s rule. The flying kit scattered on the floor ready for loading on board the aircraft. All with a backdrop of a summer’s day.
I hope the crew members ‘made it’.
These colour photographs are an amazing snapshot of the history of the time. I am glad they were discovered.
Regards,
Paul
By: Will J - 29th May 2004 at 13:32
Just about to post the same thing, remarkable pictures. There is something particularly atmospheric about the one of the B17 sitting amongst grazing cows! (a nice idea for another Sally B fundraising event, is there a suitable airfield with those kind of rural surroundings to make for a different photo opportunity?). The shots of the crews on the ground are also fascinating, well worth a quick stroll to the newsagents!
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May 29, 2004 at 12:46 pm