Came across this in my mother's papers. She spent time in France pre-1939 and had taken lots of photos. Presumably the authorities wanted any information they could get (as detailed in the document) to help identify targets etc. I wonder what happened to all the pictures they were sent.
This was the effort to collect photographic evidence on areas of continental Europe,particularly coastal areas but this was not emphasised for security reasons. It was a prerequisite for the planning the invasion invasion of Europe arising from the COSSAC conferences in Ottawa and the work set out of planning the structure of a future Supreme Allied Commander from March 1943, to which Eisenhower was eventually appointed. As regards the donors,it states that the list of contributors is held by the the Admiralty Photographic Library so I would think that there would be a trace of where the photographs were finally stored. The wartime aerial intelligence photographs were at one time held by the Keele University but I think that these were transferred to Edinburgh and are accessible to the public.It might well be that these Admiralty documents were transferred there as well.
There was a project started to investigate the images by a group calling themselves the Normandy Snaps Team. I'm not sure if it actually got off the ground as there is very little progress reported on their web site which has remained unchanged for years. According to their mission statement the 3,471 cardboard boxes containing photos and postcards have been in the possession of the IWM since 1964. The D-Day and the Crowd Project Regards ...
Janeh Many thanks for posting the letter from the Admiralty. I was always aware that these type of photos and even picture postcards were of great value to the Allies pre D-Day but this is the first time I have seen such an acknowledgement. Best regards Ron
Yes, everybody 'knows' it was done, but I've not seen any hard evidence of the process before. Thanks for sharing it with us.
The request for prewar photographic material led to the recruitment of suitable candidates of adequate aptitude into the SOE.....quite a number of the donors were native born of the occupied countries or had one British parent.Usually bilingual,after training,they could easily infiltrate and fit into clandestine activities. A good example of such an SOE agent was Odette Sansom whose recruitment for clandestine activities commenced with her offering photographs of France to the intelligence authorities and that must have been about the time SOE was created.
