Part of Series
A fascinating exploration of the feats of the RAF's photographic reconnaissance aircraft. The photographic reconnaissance (PR) versions of the Supermarine Spitfire saw service against the Axis Tripartite throughout World War 2. Its superior performance even led to the USAAF adopting the type for the Eighth Air Force's reconnaissance needs in Europe. PR Spitfires were responsible for some of the most significant intelligence finds of the war – from low-level oblique photographs of new German radars in France to locating the battleship Bismarck off the Norwegian coast before it attempted to sortie into the Atlantic. It has been estimated that as much as 80 per cent of Allied intelligence was gathered from aerial photographs, many of which were taken by cameras installed in PR Spitfires. In this volume, RAF PR specialist Andrew Fletcher details the important part played by the small number of 'photo-recce' Spitfires in the key theatres of World War 2. His detailed text, which includes numerous first-hand accounts, chronicles operations from the first months of the conflict through to VJ Day.
Author
Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun (1653 - 1716) was a Scottish writer, politician and patriot. He was a Commissioner of the old Parliament of Scotland and opposed the 1707 Act of Union between Scotland and England. He was the son and heir of Sir Robert Fletcher (1625 - 1664), and was born at Saltoun in Haddingtonshire. Educated by Gilbert Burnet, the future Bishop of Salisbury, who was then minister at Saltoun, he completed his education in mainland Europe. Fletcher was elected, as the Commissioner for Haddingtonshire, to the Scottish Parliament in 1678. At this time, Charles II's representative in Scotland was John Maitland, 1st Duke of Lauderdale. The Duke had taxation powers in Scotland, and maintained a standing army there in the name of the King. Fletcher bitterly opposed the Duke, whose actions only strengthened Fletcher's distrust of the royal government in Scotland, as well as all hereditary power.
