While reading Martyn Barbour’s “‘A diary of German doings’: Aerial Photography and the First World War,” I was amazed at how quickly aerial photography advanced in Britain during the war. Aerial photographers in Britain had to overcome numerous obstacles in order to catch up with their counterparts in France and Germany. They had to deal with less advanced aviation capabilities, less advanced photography equipment, as well as senior military and political officials who were skeptical of airplanes and could not initially see the value of aerial photography.
Despite all this, the British aerial photographers succeeded in showing their superiors that reconnaissance using aerial photography was invaluable, and did indeed catch up with the Germans in terms of airpower and aerial reconnaissance capability.
I found the numbers Barbour cited in the reading about the sheer growth in prints issued especially impressive. In 1915 only about 80,000 prints were issued, but in the last year of the war 5,676,101 prints were issued. This reflects the enormous jump the British made in their capabilities for taking and developing aerial photographs, as well as the increased demand by the military for these photos.
I agree, jumping from 80,000 to 5,676,101 is ridiculously fast. It just goes to show how technology grows at an exponential rate, especially when it proves to bring profits to the economy. It also seems like there is greater progress when there is competition between nations, as was the case with Germany and Britain.
ReplyDeleteWhat is truly amazing to me is how fast the military technology was embraced during a wartime period. It normally takes multiple years for a military technology to be utilized in times of peace when technological advancement occurs more frequently because energy does not have to be devoted to fighting a war--increasing over 70 fold in three wartime years is spectacular. I would argue that aerial imaging became so popular during WWI because of the significant tactical advantage it gave to the viewer. Enemy positions and movements could now be watched and monitored, a task that was nearly impossible before since much of the war was fought in trenches where enemies were rarely seen in full view. If enemy locations and movement are known, battlefield decisions can be made much more effectively imparting a significant tactical and strategic advantage to the commander who utilizes aerial images for military purposes. I am sure that when English commanders started to use aerial reconnaissance, they could not go back to commanding their units without this critical additional information.
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