Where can I get a war-time photo of east London taken by the Luftwaffe

A.� CaptCrummond adds: 'I understand a court case about a boundary dispute was cleared up by a photograph showing how the land was in the Second World War.' Quite right, Captain: pictures taken by the Hun helped in a Yorkshire legal dispute.< xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

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Q.� Sounds incredible. How

A.� The Luftwaffe was nothing if not well-organised. In 1939, German planes began photographing all of Britain in preparation for a huge aerial bombing campaign that, Hitler believed would quickly defeat Britain. He was wrong, of course - but the photographs were taken and still exist.

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Q.� And this Yorkshire legal matter

A.� In 1995, town councillors in Malton, North Yorkshire, tracked down original prints of the Luftwaffe survey. The pictures are so meticulous that cars can be seen in the market square and a train puffing into Malton station.

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Q.� Where did they find it

A.� It was originally filed in Berlin, but seized by American troops at the end of the war and kept in Washington.

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Q.� And how was it used

A.� The picture became a main exhibit hearing by North Yorkshire's No 2 area highways sub-committee. Townspeople were campaigning for the re-opening of a favourite path blocked three years ago by a 'private road' notice and a locked gate. Town councillor Des Reed explained: 'The difficulty had been finding absolute proof that the path has been used for years. We had plenty of statements from elderly people, but then I remembered this reconnaissance survey.' The pictures, taken in 1939, were originally traced by the town council during an access battle over the nearby River Derwent in thre early 1990s. Mr Reed said: 'I kept one and dug it out, and sure enough, there's the footpath. You can clearly see the white traces along the route. The picture quality is extraordinary.'

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Q.� Any other examples

A.� Yes. Scientists have used aerial photographs of Anglesey, North Wales, to restore the island's natural heathland. The pictures showed that 1,000 hectares of heathland had been lost on Anglesey since the war.

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Q.� So, where can all these pictures be found

A.� Most of the captured photographs were interpreted by a joint American-British unit known as Operation Dick Tracy. Most ended up in the US National Archives in Maryland, although the Imperial War Museum has a small collection. The Soviet Army also collected a huge amount of Luftwaffe material, but much of this is believed to have been destroyed.

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Q.� I can view them

A.� Try contacting the US National Archives' head of cartographical and architectural branch, NARA, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, Maryland 20740-6001, USA. Click here for more help: http://www.nara.gov/nara/mail.html

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There's also a book called Adolf Hitler's Home Counties Holiday Snaps (ISBN 0 907683 50 9).

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To ask another question about History & Myths, click here

By Steve Cunningham

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