10:00pm Friday 3rd September 2010
By Tom King
THEY are portraits of enemy territory, and the enemy was us.
Photographs placed for auction at Staceys antiques showroom in Rayleigh, reveal the Thames Estuary from the perspective of Nazi Germany.
The unique originals date from 1940. They were taken in a dark hour. France, Holland, Belgium, Poland and the Scandinavian countries were under German occupation.
Fierce bombing raids were about to devastate Coventry, Plymouth and London, causing the deaths of tens of thousands of people.
Invasion was planned as the next step. This classic blitzkrieg strategy had already brought other countries to their knees. Britain was deemed next on the list.
The pictures were taken as part of the preparation for invasion. Some of them are marked to indicate prime bombing targets. Others merely show the lie of the land, as guidance to Hitler’s invading tank columns.
Mark Stacey, the auction house’s director, says the pictures are a career first.
“I have dealt with a great deal of Second World War material, but have never seen anything like these pictures before,” he says. “To the best of my knowledge, they are a unique historical record.”
They are also a very chilling one. Yet even as the photographer pressed the shutter 20,000ft above the Thames estuary, the course of history was being changed around him.
The Spitfires and Hurricanes of the RAF were engaged in the Battle of Britain, denying the Germans the command of the air required for an invasion.
Seventy years on from that engagement, Stacey’s is also offering a second range of exhibits, the medals and other memorabilia of pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain. Many flew out of Rochford and Hornchurch aerodromes.
Perhaps the most curious item in this collection is a form filled in by Flight Sergeant Peter Else, a Spitfire pilot of 610 Squadron. It is his application to the Limbless Ex-Servicemen’s Association, and contains details of his eligibility.
Else lost his left hand and forearm when dived on from above by a Messerschmidt ME109. As he baled out of the Spitfire, he glimpsed a sight that would stay with him for the rest of his life – his left hand and forearm, still clutching the controls.
Behind almost every item in this collection lies a story of heroism. Yet, ironically, it is the German photographs which are likely to bring in the higher bids, because they are so unusual.
Allied forces retrieved the pictures during the post-war occupation of Germany and they were subsequently rediscovered in the garage of a former senior pilot officer, after his death.
They were then acquired by a Suffolk collector, David Empson.
“I have been collecting militaria for a long time, but I have never seen anything quite like this before,” he says. “They have been fascinating items to own, but it’s time now for someone else to have the pleasure.”
l The Battle of Britain sale is at Stacey’s, Webster Way, Rayleigh, on Monday, September 6, starting 9.30am. Viewing days are tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday.
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