From: Doug Franklin
No details are provided about how it was made or what the situation was, just the title. From it I judge that it's at the moment immediately after the bombs were dropped. An important one, because there would have been a period prior to that, I think of a couple minutes or so, during which the plane was under the control of the bombardier and the bomb sight, and evasive action could not be taken. My mind jumps to the possibility that the plane came under attack, or had been under attack, during the final run up to the target. That might explain the look on the guy's face. Pure speculation, but it is "*After* bombs away," not just "Bombs away."
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That's possible, and it's certainly logical from the photo's title, but it seems a bit odd. If they'd just dropped their bombs, I would expect there to be visible flak bursts in the sky. There wouldn't be fighters, though, as neither side's fighters would generally get into the flak gauntlet around the actual target or specified "flak zones" on the routes across Europe.
Likely it's *After* bombs away because up until the point of release, the bombardier would have been facing front, hunched over the bomb-sight.
The photo was taken from the navigator's position in the aircraft;. could have been taken by the navigator himself or by a combat photographer assigned to the mission.
I'm leaning towards the navigator himself having taken it because the image frame doesn't appear to have the characteristic film holder outline I'd expect from official photos made using sheet film holders and a Graflex camera.
Maybe official photographers with the 8th Air Force had small format cameras, but a quick internet search turned up a dearth of information on the camera equipment issued and used by the U.S. armed forces during WWII.
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