Women of Intelligence: Winning the Second World War with Air Photos (46 page)

1  Danesfield House Hotel in Buckinghamshire. During the Second World War this was RAF Medmenham, the headquarters of Allied photographic interpretation.

2  The gardens and River Thames in 2011.

3  ‘The Airwomen’s Mess’, sketched by Mary Harrison:

‘For breakfast, sausage with baked beans,

For dinner, camouflaged with “greens”,

For tea, it finds itself in batter,

By supper – Oh, it doesn’t matter.

The Eternal Sausage.’

4  A cartoon, ‘Stereo Pair – 60% Overlap’, drawn by Flight Lieutenant Julian Phipps, a PI at RAF Medmenham.

5  Camera loading into a PR Spitfire painted in distinctive ‘Camotint’ colour. A re-enactment in 2011.

6   The Wild A-5 stereo-comparator, used for calculating exact measurements.

7  ‘WAAF Methods of Travel’:

‘I wonder if you’ve ever tried

When going for a lorry ride

To climb into it “dignified”

I did and darned near died.’

8  The Christmas dinner menu 1943, at RAF Medmenham.

9  Pantomime programme for a production at RAF Medmenham.

10  Section Officer Diana Byron (Cussons), who worked in Second Phase.

11  ‘WAAF on Parade’, illustrating the inconvenience caused by a broken suspender.

12  
Evidence in Camera
booklet. Produced weekly, it selectively publicised some of the best reconnaissance photographs taken during the war.