my 1941 Photo album of Luftwaffe bombing

I am delighted to share thes pictures with you. They are 1941 dated pictures, huge ones too (A4 sized) , probably press photos taken by a photograph. They were taken during the Summer of 1941. They go in a WWII period leather photo album and found this at a flea market last Saturday.
After some identification I found out that I had bought 1941 press pictures of the City of Beauvais in Northern France . This place was bombed by the Luftwaffe in may and june 1940 and 70% of the city was destroyed. It was later occupied and the Luftwaffe had an important airfield at beauvais Tillé.
The mainstreets were cleaned as early as July 1940 and temporary barracks were built for refugees, including shops and bars.
I have a total of 11 such pictures and shall scan them one by one at high resolution. This will allow me to "dive" into the picture and spot the smallest details . Note the civilians and the few cars and trucks ( used by construction workers , doctors and or occupation forces) .
Most pictures were taken from the roof of the cathedral.



the center of the city



enlarged detail from this very picture : a Citroen traction + another car. Considering only Gemrans and doctors had cars these could be occupation forces in civilan clothing.



refugee barracks with bar



a car and a construction site worker truck



an architect or an engineer and pedestrians


what are these guys plotting in the ruins of this church?

If you like this I will scan another of this pictures for you soon

 

very cool detail skipper, have you checked to see if a similar 'Now' photo of the general area can be found? ....I wonder was the church rebuilt etc?

i bet the three guys are wondering if they could steal that cart.....no one's around!

 

My intend is to post both a now then comparison and the other pics + detailled analysis, but this will take some time (the 600 dp scans pics are 8 mo each to download )

 

after the battle scenario, excellent Skip !

 

Hi Skipper, nice haul!!!!! I'd like to get some pice like yours. Either a saluue or rep coming your was soon as the site allows me.

 

some nice pics skipper, appreciate showing, ray..

 

This is my lunch break , but I'll try to work on a new pic tonight. The scaning and loading are fast but the photoshopping of the details and rescan them at 600dp takes some time, but it's worth it as the tiny details are otherwise almost invisbible.
Just for those who are interested Beauvais has become Ryan air's favorite airport in France, and the airport is becoming increasingly popular every year.

 

Sorry for the delay, I have kept you waiting but I guess it's worth it. He reis picture number two, also taken in 1941 and picturing the 1940 bombing of Beauvais

 

and details scanned at high resolution: note the little rubble train, which was built to evacuate the ruins, the brand new silo, and some spared mansions that shows the remains of past glory of a formerly magnificent city. Then there are some pesdestrians and horse carts here and there

 

great pics Skip. these low-down close-ups were taken by the LW or Allied recon crates ?

 

The bombings were LW from May and June 1940. The pictures are made by a French photographer in 1941 (with Occupation forces officila permission ) This was graned for reconstruction purposes. The close ups are enlargments of the original pic

 

Very nice Skipper!!

 

Excellent skipper very interesting , Beauvais is now an airport town used by budget airline Ryan air as their Paris connection.

 

here is picture number 3 : this one still shows the rubble od the unfortunate city but this time from another angle and the destructions were even more terrible in that area

 

Cant add more except to say that Skipper scored a Home Run on these.

 

Excellent photos, and from a flea market! Thanks for posting them. Found this photo on Google Earth showing the church ruins in the center foreground in your 1st post: Panoramio - Photo of Les ruines de l'église Saint-Barthélémy, restaurée en 2007 Here's another link to the structure at the upper right, across the street from the new barracks: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/19962177

 

Hi Natman, wow this is great news so this church was only restored 3 years ago!

I have much mor eto post analyse and scan , but time is lacking so keep watching this and I will do my best to post more. Today was another hunting day and I came home with a Deutschland Erwachse book ( 150 pages with cigarette cards) , a kiel KM Ausweis from 1943 , a 1940 fine for a french city due to sabotage and a Petain propaganda booklet, so there is plenty of work ahead , not to mention that I had a great BBQ and that tomorrow is another hunt.

 

these really are great skipper, when u get a chance keep them coming

 

Skipper, I think the 2007 date in the first link is when the photographer visited Beauvais.

Here's the only usable view of the building in the upper center of your #2 photo: Panoramio - Photo of Reflets sur Saint Etienne / Beauvais

And here's one of the statue (I think) among the new barracks in your second enlargement: Panoramio - Photo of La statue de Jeanne Hachette

A bit of info about Jeanne Hachette: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Hachette