From: Scott Loveless
On Fri, Nov 12, 2010 at 8:45 AM, John Sessoms <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> 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.
The photo is from the personal collection of Paul C. Chryst. He was
cross trained - bombardier and navigator.
<http://freepages.military.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hfhm/Roster/c_names.htm>
You can truncate the URL by backspacing out "/Roster/c_names.htm" and it
will take you to Mr. Chryst's bombardier page.
Click "Photos" and there are two photos at the bottom of the page
apparently taken from the front of a B17, possibly on the same mission
since they have similar appearance.
It still doesn't tell you whether the photo was taken by a crew member
or by an official photographer sent along to document the mission.
The site has pretty good information on bombardiers & their equipment,
but no information for the photographic equipment used to record their
activities.
The only image that indicates any of the photographic equipment is a
cartoon on page 3 where the guy's holding a cine camera. :-)
> 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.
My grandfather was an Air Corps photographer. He stated that he flew
in the Pacific theater and was primarily tasked with photographing
targets, before and after. He passed away in 1977, and since then the
family has had no luck identifying photographs he may have taken.
Either they don't exist any more, or it's nearly impossible to
attribute them to a particular photographer.
Did he ever indicate what equipment he was issued to use performing his
duties?
Looking at the photos again, I think they may be a crop of one corner
from a larger sheet film image, so maybe it was a Graflex.
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