John, I thought Navigator and Bombardier were the same guy? I know the 2 1/4 by 3 1/4 Speed Graphic was in Army use. (My dad bought an Army surplus one in Japan in 1945) But I would think a 35mm camera would be a better fit. Regards, Bob S.
On Fri, Nov 12, 2010 at 7:45 AM, John Sessoms <[email protected]> wrote: > 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." > >> >> >> 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. > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
