World War II from Above

Issue 133

May - Jun 2015

Hauraki Plains
Paleo whales
In Barrington’s steps
Minerva Reefs

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Southern sights

BEFORE GOOGLE EARTH, GPS, drones and satellites, visual information about enemy targets was a rare and valuable thing. Aerial intelligence was gathered during World War II using cameras mounted on Spitfires and Mosquitos, flying reconaissance missions over occupied territory in daylight.

The images they brought back had a huge bearing on the way the war was waged—from targeting ships to planning offensives, busting dams to revealing and destroying the secret weapons of the Nazi regime before they landed in London.

World War II from Above captures a new perspective of the war and the arms race for technical supremacy that reached its terrifying atomic conclusion in 1945.