WHAT'S NEW
P.D.U.1
|
The first two pages of this article are fact, the third page is a 'what if'
scenario.
A less well known flight
was by Bob Niven in the Beechcraft on the eve of war, quite
literally- the evening of 2nd September. The target was the German
ships in Wilhelmshaven, and the photographs confirmed which ships
were present. These ships were bombed by the RAF, with little success
and heavy causalities on the 4th September (there was low cloud, 7 of
29 bombers didn't return). Had the RAF swallowed its pride, and acted
on this intelligence, and not insisted on sending a
Blenheim to confirm it themselves the next day, the bombers could
have taken advantage of clear weather on the 3rd, and the first
British offensive action of the war could have been more effective.
Cotton's organisation grew, and became slightly more official, after
war was declared. In January 1940 it took over a lot of the
responsibility for photographic reconnaissance from the regular RAF.
Cotton had developed techniques for photography from high altitude,
and alongside Maurice 'Shorty' Longbottom, championed the concept of
using fast, single seat aircraft. After a struggle, they
were able to get their hands on Spitfires. The results of this rapid
development of photographic reconnaissance can be seen in the numbers
below.
"To June 15th 1940
Had the Regular R.A.F. Units continued to carry out the
photographic reconnaissance flights incurred in covering an area of
130,000 square miles, the losses would have been in excess of 1,092
aircraft, carrying crews of 3,276 men. Cost of aircraft alone would
have been over £32,000,000."
(Source: Letter from Cotton to Air Vice Marshall Peck,
dated July 5th, 1940)
As well as the choice and conversion of
aircraft, Cotton's contributions included: introduction of meticulous
planning of flights, so nothing was left to be decided in the air;
pushing for development of better photographic emulsions (he had run
a colour film company before the war); better cameras and fully
automated film development; and he gathered experts and equipment in
interpreting photographs (he had previously carried out arial surveys
of Newfoundland).
The interpretation of photographs was taken to a
level not conceived of previously- stereo pairs of photographs were
examined to give a depth cue to the interpreter; from knowledge of
the position of the sun, the length of shadows were used to measure
heights; the speed of ships was measured by the spacing of the waves
of their wash; and most importantly, regular covers of all important
sites allowed much deeper knowledge of enemy activities- such as the
build-up of invasion fleets, and the exact rate of U-boat and
aircraft production.
Sidney Cotton had many contacts in high places (up
to and including Winston Churchill), but also had many enemies,
particularly in the more conservative ranks of the RAF and the Air
Ministry. In March 1940, at the height of his influence, and when his
success was in clear contrast to that of the regular RAF, he proposed
the development of a Photographic High Speed Aeroplane, P.D.U.1.
Details (or even a mention) of this proposal, as far as I know, have
never before been published. What follows on the next page is the
complete proposal.
 PRINT |  DISCUSS THIS
Copyright ©2009 by Ben Micklem. Images also by copyright holder unless otherwise noted. Opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of AeroScale. All rights reserved. Originally published on: 2009-10-22 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
About Ben Micklem (robot_)
