New IWM Duxford exhibition highlights how aerial intelligence gathering helped win Second World War
A new exhibition highlighting the vital role aerial intelligence gathering played in securing the Allied victory in the Second World War has opened at IWM Duxford. Spies in the Skies: Second World War Aerial Reconnaissance will run until Sunday, February 25. Through historic aircraft, film and photography, the exhibition will demonstrate how aerial reconnaissance developed and improved significantly over the course of the conflict.
Archive image of photographers at Benson testing cameras before installing them in a PR Mosquito. Copyright IWM
It focuses on the daring role of the Photo Reconnaissance Unit (PRU) and those tasked with undertaking highly dangerous but critical missions.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, the RAF initially set out to improve aerial intelligence gathering by modifying existing aircraft.
The Supermarine Spitfire, best known for its iconic role in the Battle of Britain, was the first aircraft trialled for this purpose.
IWM’s Mk 1 N3200 Spitfire.
Copyright IWM
Spitfires underwent continual modifications throughout the war to increase speed, height and equip them with the required cameras. The exhibition brings together four historic airworthy Spitfires: Mk XI PL983 and Mk XI PL965, both in the PRU blue camouflage paint scheme used to disguise the aircraft when flying at height; a Mk XIV Spitfire, which served in the Royal Indian Airforce, demonstrating how fighter reconnaissance aircraft could be adapted to accommodate cameras; and IWM’s own Mk 1 N3200 Spitfire, showing the link between the early fighter Spitfires and the development to reconnaissance versions. A replica Mk I Spitfire, painted in the pale pink colour scheme used to camouflage the aircraft at sunrise and sunset, will also be on display.
Visitors will learn how PRU pilots had to battle both the enemy and the elements as they flew deep into hostile territory, often unarmed, unaccompanied and in extreme conditions.
Archive image of aerial reconnaissance view of the V1 launching ramps in Peenemunde, Germany. This was the photograph from which interpreters at RAF Medmenham confirmed the existence of the V1.
Copyright IWM
The fuselage of Spitfire Mk IV AA810, shot down in 1942 on a mission to capture images of the German battleship Tirpitz, will be on display.
The aircraft’s pilot, Flt Lt Alastair ‘Sandy’ Gunn, survived the initial attack but was captured and imprisoned in Stalag Luft III Prisoner of War camp and later executed after participating in the Great Escape. The aircraft was recovered from a peat bog in Norway in 2018 and is currently undergoing a full restoration to make it airworthy again.
The Lockheed 12A Elektra Junior G-AFTL, one of the world’s most historic photo-reconnaissance aircraft. Copyright IWM
The Westland Lysander V9312, the only airworthy British-built example of its kind, which flew over 30 reconnaissance sorties in 1940-41, also features in the exhibition, alongside the Lockheed 12A Electra Junior, a civilian aircraft which was adapted for use by the Secret Intelligence Service in 1939. The Electra was the last British civilian aircraft to leave Berlin before the outbreak of the Second World War and recently returned to the UK skies in 2023 for the first time since 1940, having undergone extensive restoration.
Archive image of Spitfire FR Mark XIVE, MV247, at Boscombe Down, during trials with an F.24 aerial camera oblique installation. Copyright IWM
This exhibition has been made possible thanks to a number of private owners who have loaned their aircraft to IWM.
For more details, see iwm.org.uk[1]. On selected dates in January, there will also be a free, family activity to accompany the exhibition. Visitors will learn all about the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) that goes into making a camera operate.
Families take the role of photo investigators in training, learning about light and the use of lenses as they train for their main mission, making their own pin-hole camera viewer worthy of the reconnaissance unit.
References
- ^ iwm.org.uk (iwm.org.uk)