The Western Front from the Air Book

Foreword by Jane Carmichael, Keeper of Photographs, Imperial War Museum. This unique book shows a sequence of bird's-eye views of five major Western Front battlefields of the First World War immediately before, during and after the actions. The illustrative material focuses on specially annotated aerial photographs from the Imperial War Museum's "Box Collection", a unique archive of almost 100,000 photographic negatives, comprising over 90% of the official photo-reconnaissance coverage of the Western Front. It has remained unused since 1918. An introduction describes the origins of air photography and the development of photographic interpretation in the First World War while the core of the book looks at the battles themselves: the Somme, Arras, 3rd Ypres, Cambrai and Amiens. A brief description accompanys each battle chapter, highlighting significant actions and setting each battle within the context of the land war. Each battle is illustrated with some 20 photographs and trench maps, supported by more general photographs of men and weapons drawn from the IWM's collection. The geographical areas of these battles and subsidiary actions are identified on the accompanying trench maps, with appropriate imagery drawn from the Box Collection to show terrain and defences. This imagery is presented as a sequence of double-page spreads, interpreted and annotated using the original reports, where possible, to show how the battle developed, and pinpointing trenches, troop concentrations, mortar positions, gun batteries, etc. New intelligence interpretations are provided by the author where appropriate.Read More