Description

Evidence in Camera

Volume 3, Number 8 — May 24th, 1943

Publisher: Issued by Air Ministry, A.C.A.S.(I)

Page count: 24 pages scanned

• You Never Know Who’s Listening (Cartoon): A cartoon by Scott shows a woman chatting indiscreetly on the telephone while a man eavesdrops from beneath her bed.
• Beaufighters’ Attack on Convoy off Texel: Photographs show Beaufighters of Coastal Command, escorted by fighters, sweeping low over an eight-ship convoy they attacked off Texel on 29th April 1943.
• Beaufighter Torpedo Attack Results: Further photographs show a torpedo- and bomb-carrying Beaufighter over the convoy and the smoke and water plumes thrown up by hits on the merchant vessels.
• Camouflaged Water Surface in Stuttgart: An aerial photograph shows the Stausee, a harbour on the River Neckar north of Stuttgart, before its distinctive shape was camouflaged.
• Stuttgart Stausee Disguised: A follow-up photograph shows the Stausee drained, netted, painted and fitted with dummy trees and buildings to disguise it as an unbroken stream.
• Moehne Dam Before the Attack: A pre-raid photograph shows the Moehne Dam, Lake, main Power Station and Compensating Basin, with the torpedo boom protecting the dam clearly visible.
• Moehne Dam Breached: A photograph taken hours after the raid shows a 240-foot breach in the Moehne Dam with water still pouring through and the Power Station destroyed.
• Moehne Lake Almost Drained: A photograph of the upper reaches of the Moehne Lake shows the water nearly drained away, revealing the former shoreline around a road bridge.
• Moehne Lake Bed Exposed Near Stockum: A later photograph shows part of the Moehne Lake near the Stockum Embankment fully drained, exposing former fields, roads and a bridge in the Eder’s streambed.
• Ruhr Valley Flooding at Froendenberg-Boesperde: An annotated photograph of the Ruhr Valley thirteen miles from the Moehne Dam shows a submerged road, a destroyed road and rail bridge, wrecked railway coaches and flooded sidings.
• Village of Dellwig Partly Flooded: A photograph shows the village of Dellwig, seventeen miles below the Moehne Dam, partly flooded with the road embankment breached in several places.
• Eder Dam and Flooded Valley Mosaic: A mosaic taken thirty hours after the raid shows the breached Eder Dam and the flooded valley, with an inset of the dam before the attack and damage annotated at Hemfurth, Brinkhausen, Affoldern and nearby bridges.
• Damaged Eder Dam Enlarged: An enlarged photograph of the damaged Eder Dam shows the lake level had dropped about 75 feet, representing a loss of seven-eighths of its maximum capacity.
• Villages Submerged: Affoldern and Bergheim: Photographs show the flood that enveloped Affoldern on the day of the attack and the village of Bergheim, where floodwater washed away 200 yards of railway embankment.
• Kassel Inundated After Eder Dam Attack: A photograph taken two days after the attack shows part of Kassel still flooded by the River Fulda, with roads and a railway line still submerged.
• Sorpe Dam Damage: A photograph shows a 200-foot stretch of damage on the crown of the Sorpe Dam, with water having carried earth from the dam into the Compensating Basin.
• Fighter Command Combat Films: Aerial Combat and Shipping Attack: Combat-film stills show a Spitfire engaging a burning Fw 190 and a Hurribomber scoring a hit on an armed trawler off Alderney.
• Dornier Bomber Development: Photographs trace the Dornier bomber line from the obsolescent Do 23 and the Do 17 “Flying Pencil” to the Do 217, including examples with increased wingspan seen at the Lowenthal factory.
• Tanker Torpedoed off Statlandet: Photographs show a tanker of the Etrema type attacked by Coastal Command Hampdens off Statlandet, the resulting smoke plume, and the damaged vessel later at Bergen.
• Know Your Ports: Gdynia: An annotated aerial map of the Polish naval base of Gdynia shows its basins and dockyards, being developed by the Germans as a repair base and U-boat training port.
• American Attack on Ford and GM Plants, Antwerp: A photograph shows American bombers over Antwerp during a raid on the Ford and General Motors plants, with direct hits and bursts annotated on both sites.
• Canadian Memorial, Vimy Ridge: An aerial photograph of Vimy Ridge shows the Canadian memorial park, planted with Canadian trees, along with a nearby cemetery and preserved trenches and tunnels.
• Problem Picture: Vineyards on Gorgona Island: A puzzle photograph invites readers to identify the activity shown, revealed at the foot of the page to be vineyards on the island of Gorgona, near Leghorn, Italy.