Eyes of the Raf: A History of Photo-Reconnaissance

Photo-reconnaissance has come a long way from its faltering beginnings over the trenches of the Western Front in the First World War, when unwieldy plate cameras were held over the cockpit sides of RFC BE2a biplanes. By the close of the Second World War, dedicated PR Spitfires could photograph Germany by day and Mosquitoes by day or night with considerable success from heights of up to 36,000 ft. With the quantum leap in digital, optical and mechanical technology of the past decade, the mid-1990s sees the RAF's Tornado GRIAs using video-tape for photo-recce, with a data link to relay pictures directly to interpreters on the ground, thus doing away with 'wet film'.
Eyes of the RAF was written at the request of the Association of Royal Air Force Photography Officers, who made available their material and many photographs to the author. The book traces the development of these skills from the earliest days to the present and includes such conflicts as the Falklands War and the Gulf War. It is based on official and personal records and was written with the collaboration of numerous experts with detailed knowledge of this fascinating subject.
Eye of the RAF contains over 400 photographs, which include many types of aerial cameras, all major types of photo-reconnaissance aircraft and many examples of photographs taken in action, together with detailed captions. It will appeal to past and present members of the RAF, Commonwealth and US Air Forces, as well as to those who have an interest in the history of the RAF in particular, and the history of military aviation in general.

Roy Conyers Nesbit served as an observer in the econd World War and is the author of over twenty books on aspects of aviation history, including three volumes of the RAF in Camera. Coastal Command in Action 1939-1945 and RAF. An illustrated History from 1918.