Aerial photography of WW1 - and the places today on Google Maps

[Olham 164]

Stuff like this always causes me goose skin. I searched through the aerial photographies and trench maps

at McMaster University Archive and found an aerial photograph with the clear note "Rouvroy, SE of Lens".

 

Now I had to search for Rouvroy in Google Maps, to see how it looks today.

I angled the picture after the painted arrow to north. Then I took a screenshot of the village's satelite picture.

There ain't nothing spectacular - it's just a touch of history.

 

If anyone knows a good site with aerial pictures of aerodromes, please let me know.

 

For all, who don't know the McMaster archive yet (there are lots of maps and pictures):

http://library.mcmas...ps/ww1/home.htm

 

 

Edited October 9, 2010 by Olham

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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Very cool. I wonder how much history they dug up, (and covered up), when they built that factory complex right on top of the old trenches.

 

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[Olham 164]

Indeed - I would like to see a winter satelite picture.

Maybe one could still see the trenchline through the different coloured earth?

[DWCAce 19]

Pretty neat. As a history buff that's a cool find!

[Olham 164]

Sure is! Here are two map links, which show several German airfields.

 

http://lt1.mcmaster....&map_id=88

 

http://lt1.mcmaster....map_id=317

 

Zoom in, and enjoy!

Edited October 6, 2010 by Olham

[Bullethead 12]

That's pretty cool. The roads are the same but everything else is different.

 

I like to play with Google Earth like this (except I mostly look for 19th Century forts). GE has a nice feature where you can paste images over the earth's surface and then make them somewhat transparent to see the current terrain. Ever do that?

[Olham 164]

Yes, I did exactly that in Photoshop. I made the top picture 50 % transparent to place it over the other,

to check if I really had the same part of town. That's fun indeed.

And as I said - satelite pics of winter acres are much better; you might still see the old trench lines.

[Bullethead 12]

Yes, I did exactly that in Photoshop. I made the top picture 50 % transparent to place it over the other,

to check if I really had the same part of town. That's fun indeed.

 

But it's easier in Google Earth. Get that if you don't have it already. Then download some of my KMZ files from here:

http://www.palmerstonforts.org.uk/rese.htm

 

Most of these have images pasted over the terrain. You can adjust their opacity in Google Earth. Once you've got it how you want, just take a screenshot.

[Olham 164]

Thanks for the link and tip. I'll try that out later this evening - have some work to do first.

[Olham 164]

Couldn't resist and looked into some, like Fort Surale - but I don't get overlayed old photographs.

What am I doing wrong?

(I get the positions marked by stars and names; but only the nowadays sat pic).

[Bullethead 12]

Couldn't resist and looked into some, like Fort Surale - but I don't get overlayed old photographs.

What am I doing wrong?

(I get the positions marked by stars and names; but only the nowadays sat pic).

 

Not all the files on that page have overlays. I think I'm the only contributor who has done much of that, and not all of mine have them. I've refined my technique over time ;). IIRC, from the top of the list of GE files, there are overlays for Przemysl, Paris, Verdun, Antwerp, Copenhagen, US Coast Defense, Port Arthur, and Verona. The overlays aren't photos, they're maps. Many of them are actual period military maps or even the plans of specific forts, although a few are modern schematics.

[Olham 164]

Okay, now have seen the Verdun area with the map overlay. But the overlay was not transparent?

Problem on my rig / graphic settings?

I saw there are many photographs, one was especially impressive to me: a gun tower inside of Fort Douaumont,

which I think was totally ploughed by artillery (if I remember that right - think I saw an aerial photo).

[Bullethead 12]

Okay, now have seen the Verdun area with the map overlay. But the overlay was not transparent?

 

In GE, you'll see a folder called Verdun. Expand that and you'll see a bunch of things with check boxes, once of which is the map. Right-click on that and select Properties. Then you can wiggle the opacity slider back and forth however you want.

 

I saw there are many photographs, one was especially impressive to me: a gun tower inside of Fort Douaumont,

which I think was totally ploughed by artillery (if I remember that right - think I saw an aerial photo).

 

Yup, you can upload photos to various sites like Panaramio which GE is linked to. You put a lat/lon tag on your photo and GE will show it as a little blue square at that point in the world. Thus, in GE you can often get ground-level views of your place of interest as well as the satellite view.

[Olham 164]

Here are two aerial photographies of Ypres - and today from Google Maps: Yepers.

The beautiful town must have been almost totally destroyed.

 

 

Edited October 9, 2010 by Olham

[Dej 17]

There are many WW1 and WW2 -related overlays at the Google Earth Hacks website HERE. If you go to page 6 you'll find Ypres, Polygon Wood, Haubourdin Aerodrome under attack, Fort Douaumont... just keep paging through and you'll find all of them. I've added them to the overlay work I'm doing with the McMasters stuff and other trench maps in pinning down WW1 aerodrome locations... and yes, it's most often the roads that allow one to line things up properly.

Edited October 9, 2010 by Dej