0'03 Three hours northwest of London, in rural Staffordshire, lies picturesque Keele University. 10,000 students study here, in 22 academic departments. But theres also a story underneath the college - and a very special kind of treasure.
0'26 A totally unique and unparalleled archive. Millions of aerial photos, taken in all theaters of the Second World War, by pilots of the Royal Air Force. Over 5 1/2 million documents are buried here the vast majority is still totally unseen. Some of these cans and boxes have never even been opened.
1'52 OT Williams Oh, Austria
"0'56 Some of these documents were made public in the 1960s many more only recently. In the next wave of declassification by the British Defence Ministry, there will be material to fascinate Historians worldwide.
1'16 OT Allan Williams
ENG
aerial photos are a unique way of looking at the world. During the second world war, the people who worked on it believed and hoped that after the Second World War it could be used in peaceful ways. This is just in a sense, their dream happening. Looking at the world from the air allows you to look at history in a completely different way. This is only the tip of the iceberg. We have tens and tens of thousands of cans of aerial photography, that we have yet to catalogue. And they cover locations throughout Europe and throughout the world. And theres lots going to be happening here in the future.
1'50 The specialist aerial reconnaisance research department has only four workers. Its a complicated job, often more like a detectives work than an historians. Reading historical photos requires a great deal of experience and knowledge. These are previously unseen photographs from the Second World War in Vienna. The clarity and focus is razor sharp, and some have even been converted to 3-D using special technology.
OT Allan Williams, 2'22
These photographs shows Vienna at the 5.April 1945 around 11.50 in the morning. These photos were taken at 5,000 meters and it shows the town going about its business. You can clearly see on the photographs where bombs have impacted on the ground, and these are just two of the photographs thatw e have in the archive of Vienna.
2'59 Allan Williams believes 10 per cent of all bombs dropped during the Second World War did not explode. Using digital techniques, these photos can show where these bombs are, and hopefully prevent accidents.
OT 3'11 Our photographs allow people searching for unexploded bombs to look at a site, and obviously you can pinpoint where a bomb entered the ground. Using this information and getting further information about exactly what bombs were dropped on sites ,that is held in the National Archives in Britain, you are able to build up a very clear picture how many bombs were dropped. So then you got a total to search for on a particular location.
3'40 These pictures were inherited by Keele University from the London National Archives in 1962, in order to gain help making them more public. Until now, the majority of people accessing these pictures were specialist researchers, either historical or from the media. Researchers from Steven Spielbergs Band of Brothers spent a lot of time here.
4'04 The decision to make these photos public provoked a lot of attention in the international press. German, English, French and Austrian journalists salivated over the new evidence of the horrors of World War Two. New historical arguments were opened.
4'27 One of the most violent discussions arose after the publication of photos taken over Aushwitz.
4'33 OT Allan Williams This photograph was taken by a South African Squadron, called 60 squadron, on the 23 August 1944. And the significance of that date is that was during the time that the Hungarian Jews were being transported to the camp. The number of people being killed was so great that people were just being burned in huge open pits, and thats what you can see in this area here with the large amount of smoke. The sheer scale of the camp is the thing that overwhelms most people. This zoom into the centre of the camp shows a row of people, heading towards a camp, a row of people on roll call. And this just gets across how large the camp is.
This is the famous gate into which the prisoners arrived into Aushwitz. You can see here the box-carts on which the prisoners were transported. And the area here where they were taken off the trains. This just, again, shows quite how large, the industrial scale, on which this process was being carried out.
And this picture was the most controversial you found?
Thats right, yes. People raised the questions as to why, when this picture was taken, as to why there wasnt an outcry during the Second World War. Now the reason usually given by photography intelligence experts is that this was one photograph that took us a long time to find when we were looking for it. Now during the war, there were tens of millions of aerial photos so their job very, very difficult, and they were not charged with looking for these camps. It was only photographed because the IG Farben factory was very close by, so it was only a reference to the plant that allowed us to photograph it, not to Auschwitz itself.
6'47 The archive is now looking very consciously for any photos of concentration camps.
7'00
This shows a Fairey Battle reconnaissance aircraft, one of the early aeroplanes. If we see zoom, we can see the pilots, sitting with his little leather helmet. Underneath the airplane was one set of cameras, at the side would be oblique cameras, which allowed them to take photos like this. (7'29) The losses from the people flying these aircraft were huge. They never flew with any weapons at any time throughout the war, but they were very slow and could verry easily be shot down.
7'40 Its these kind of photos that are available on the Keele Archives website. Bur archives need money, and in the future it may be that the search has to be limited to members. But for a small fee, researchers will be able to receive a high quality still sent to their home.
8'01 Weve been absolutely inundated since we launched the website at the end of January, so inundated in fact that weve had to relaunch the website at the beginning of May to be able to deliver the content to the people who want it.
8'16 OT: Where is the interest coming from, and what are peoples comments?
Well interest has been mainly from mainland Europe, but we have had interest from every continent in the world except Antarctica!
And what are people saying?
They are just amazed that such good quality photography could be taken during the Second World War could be taken, let alone that they can be looked at three dimensionally. And people are obviously very anxious, now that they know about it, that they can look at it. So we are keen to allow access to the photos as soon as possible.
8'50 A further jewel dug up by Keeles historians, are these astonishing photos of the Allied landings on Omaha Beach in Normandy, on the 6.Juni 1944. Again, the detail is staggering:
9'01 OT This shows the D-Day landings as they were happening. You can see here men on the beach being pinned down as they are fired upon. The landing vehicles in the sea. We can see bodies floating in the sea, from people who were killed. You can see vehicles arriving men fighting. These are quite horrific sights. Then rather strangely, in this area we can see a vegetable plantation that has been planted in the shape of a swastika.
9'48 The processing of modern aerial photographs in Keele Universitys archives has only just begun. But as quickly as they can be logged, more and more aerial photos are coming in. Soon air reconnaissance pictures of the Suez crisis, the Korea war, the Falklands conflict and the Gulf War are to be moved to Keele.
Then anyone can conduct their own search for Saddam Husseins weapons of mass destruction,,,
0'26 A totally unique and unparalleled archive. Millions of aerial photos, taken in all theaters of the Second World War, by pilots of the Royal Air Force. Over 5 1/2 million documents are buried here the vast majority is still totally unseen. Some of these cans and boxes have never even been opened.
1'52 OT Williams Oh, Austria
"0'56 Some of these documents were made public in the 1960s many more only recently. In the next wave of declassification by the British Defence Ministry, there will be material to fascinate Historians worldwide.
1'16 OT Allan Williams
ENG
aerial photos are a unique way of looking at the world. During the second world war, the people who worked on it believed and hoped that after the Second World War it could be used in peaceful ways. This is just in a sense, their dream happening. Looking at the world from the air allows you to look at history in a completely different way. This is only the tip of the iceberg. We have tens and tens of thousands of cans of aerial photography, that we have yet to catalogue. And they cover locations throughout Europe and throughout the world. And theres lots going to be happening here in the future.
1'50 The specialist aerial reconnaisance research department has only four workers. Its a complicated job, often more like a detectives work than an historians. Reading historical photos requires a great deal of experience and knowledge. These are previously unseen photographs from the Second World War in Vienna. The clarity and focus is razor sharp, and some have even been converted to 3-D using special technology.
OT Allan Williams, 2'22
These photographs shows Vienna at the 5.April 1945 around 11.50 in the morning. These photos were taken at 5,000 meters and it shows the town going about its business. You can clearly see on the photographs where bombs have impacted on the ground, and these are just two of the photographs thatw e have in the archive of Vienna.
2'59 Allan Williams believes 10 per cent of all bombs dropped during the Second World War did not explode. Using digital techniques, these photos can show where these bombs are, and hopefully prevent accidents.
OT 3'11 Our photographs allow people searching for unexploded bombs to look at a site, and obviously you can pinpoint where a bomb entered the ground. Using this information and getting further information about exactly what bombs were dropped on sites ,that is held in the National Archives in Britain, you are able to build up a very clear picture how many bombs were dropped. So then you got a total to search for on a particular location.
3'40 These pictures were inherited by Keele University from the London National Archives in 1962, in order to gain help making them more public. Until now, the majority of people accessing these pictures were specialist researchers, either historical or from the media. Researchers from Steven Spielbergs Band of Brothers spent a lot of time here.
4'04 The decision to make these photos public provoked a lot of attention in the international press. German, English, French and Austrian journalists salivated over the new evidence of the horrors of World War Two. New historical arguments were opened.
4'27 One of the most violent discussions arose after the publication of photos taken over Aushwitz.
4'33 OT Allan Williams This photograph was taken by a South African Squadron, called 60 squadron, on the 23 August 1944. And the significance of that date is that was during the time that the Hungarian Jews were being transported to the camp. The number of people being killed was so great that people were just being burned in huge open pits, and thats what you can see in this area here with the large amount of smoke. The sheer scale of the camp is the thing that overwhelms most people. This zoom into the centre of the camp shows a row of people, heading towards a camp, a row of people on roll call. And this just gets across how large the camp is.
This is the famous gate into which the prisoners arrived into Aushwitz. You can see here the box-carts on which the prisoners were transported. And the area here where they were taken off the trains. This just, again, shows quite how large, the industrial scale, on which this process was being carried out.
And this picture was the most controversial you found?
Thats right, yes. People raised the questions as to why, when this picture was taken, as to why there wasnt an outcry during the Second World War. Now the reason usually given by photography intelligence experts is that this was one photograph that took us a long time to find when we were looking for it. Now during the war, there were tens of millions of aerial photos so their job very, very difficult, and they were not charged with looking for these camps. It was only photographed because the IG Farben factory was very close by, so it was only a reference to the plant that allowed us to photograph it, not to Auschwitz itself.
6'47 The archive is now looking very consciously for any photos of concentration camps.
7'00
This shows a Fairey Battle reconnaissance aircraft, one of the early aeroplanes. If we see zoom, we can see the pilots, sitting with his little leather helmet. Underneath the airplane was one set of cameras, at the side would be oblique cameras, which allowed them to take photos like this. (7'29) The losses from the people flying these aircraft were huge. They never flew with any weapons at any time throughout the war, but they were very slow and could verry easily be shot down.
7'40 Its these kind of photos that are available on the Keele Archives website. Bur archives need money, and in the future it may be that the search has to be limited to members. But for a small fee, researchers will be able to receive a high quality still sent to their home.
8'01 Weve been absolutely inundated since we launched the website at the end of January, so inundated in fact that weve had to relaunch the website at the beginning of May to be able to deliver the content to the people who want it.
8'16 OT: Where is the interest coming from, and what are peoples comments?
Well interest has been mainly from mainland Europe, but we have had interest from every continent in the world except Antarctica!
And what are people saying?
They are just amazed that such good quality photography could be taken during the Second World War could be taken, let alone that they can be looked at three dimensionally. And people are obviously very anxious, now that they know about it, that they can look at it. So we are keen to allow access to the photos as soon as possible.
8'50 A further jewel dug up by Keeles historians, are these astonishing photos of the Allied landings on Omaha Beach in Normandy, on the 6.Juni 1944. Again, the detail is staggering:
9'01 OT This shows the D-Day landings as they were happening. You can see here men on the beach being pinned down as they are fired upon. The landing vehicles in the sea. We can see bodies floating in the sea, from people who were killed. You can see vehicles arriving men fighting. These are quite horrific sights. Then rather strangely, in this area we can see a vegetable plantation that has been planted in the shape of a swastika.
9'48 The processing of modern aerial photographs in Keele Universitys archives has only just begun. But as quickly as they can be logged, more and more aerial photos are coming in. Soon air reconnaissance pictures of the Suez crisis, the Korea war, the Falklands conflict and the Gulf War are to be moved to Keele.
Then anyone can conduct their own search for Saddam Husseins weapons of mass destruction,,,