Remembering the First and Second World Wars. BBC One London, 11 October 1998 14.50. The Germans planned to launch up to 2,000 V-1s every day and, had they been successful, the path of the war could have been altered. © 2021 BBC. The heroic tales of World War II are legendary, but Operation Crossbow is a little-known story that deserves to join the hall of fame: how the Allies used 3D photos to thwart the Nazis' weapons of mass destruction before they could obliterate Britain. Initially, PIs studying the photos thought nothing of them. The V-1 - known as the doodlebug - landed in London in the summer of 1944, bringing terror to the capital. Added to Watchlist. This programme is not currently available on BBC iPlayer. Physically, there's nothing left of the air fights, nothing left of the bombing - but the photographs are still with us, and they're still useful.". It made the job of the pilots - who, in addition, had to avoid enemy fire - an especially skilled and arduous one. By the time they were finally halted, the V-weapons had claimed some 9,000 lives - but it could have been many more. Language. The heroic tales of World War II are legendary, but Operation Crossbow is a little-known story that deserves to join the hall of fame: how the Allies used 3D photos to thwart the Nazis' weapons of mass destruction before they could obliterate Britain. Arguably, the squadron's crowning moment came with Operation Crossbow. Preface Publishing. Pilots from the Photographic Reconnaissance unit, created in 1940, risked their lives by flying unarmed over Europe to take tens of millions of photographs, generating 36 million prints. This film brings together the heroic Spitfire pilots who took the photographs and the brilliant minds of RAF Medmenham that made sense of the jigsaw of clues hidden in the photos. Operation Crossbow (1965) PG-13 | 115 min | Action, Drama, War. "We would work late into the evening, but we didn't complain. Now the pictures have been brought to life using computer graphics in a BBC documentary thanks to research by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. "We flew the most beautiful aeroplane, the fastest of its day. This technique was to prove decisive, and it saved thousands from the V-missile barrage. Read about our approach to external linking. He lives in Edinburgh. During the war, the images were painstakingly analysed by a team of photographic interpreters - known as PIs - at RAF Medmenham in Buckinghamshire. In total, RAF Medmenham identified 96 "ski sites" - so called because each had a long building that looked like a ski. --This text refers to the paperback edition. Since the V-2 was mobile, bombers directed by RAF Medmenham attacked the supporting infrastructure such as roads and railways. From its shadow, the PIs deduced that it was a rocket some 14m high. Allied agents attempt to infiltrate the Nazis' rocket research site. A mountainside in Thuringia, central Germany, was turned into a factory with 60,000 slave labourers. Instead of the drama-documentary, BBC Two showed a repeat of Operation Crossbow, a documentary on the use of 3D photographs in World War II to reveal the Nazis' advanced military technology. In late 1943, the photos made it clear that the Nazis were on the verge of launching a bombardment of southern England. The "heavy sites", as they became known to the British, were within range of London. Geoffrey Stone, now 92, worked as a PI at Medmenham and says being able to view the images in three dimensions was crucial. Aerial intelligence experts reveal how it was impossible to defend England from the V-2 supersonic missiles. Production of the V-weapons was relocated to Poland and Germany - out of range of Spitfires. Home / Series / BBC Documentaries / Aired Order / Season 2011 / Episode 94 Operation Crossbow The heroic tales of World War II are legendary, but Operation Crossbow is a little known story that deserves to join the hall of fame: how the Allies used 3D photos to thwart the Nazis' weapons of mass destruction before they could obliterate Britain. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. This book was published in 2013. By Dick Splash, May 22, 2011 in Real World Military. Read about our approach to external linking. Operation Crossbow Documentary Photographs from the National Collection of Aerial Photography - NCAP - are now the subject of a BBC documentary about a top secret Second World War operation. 464 pages. Together with extraordinary personal testimonies, the film uses modern computer graphics on the original wartime photographs to show just how the photo interpreters were able to uncover Hitler's nastiest secrets. Sorry to be pedantic Rakshasa but there is not one mention of Constance Babbington-Smith in the recent BBC 'OPERATION CROSSBOW" Documentary. The Spitfire is well-known for the role it played in the Battle of Britain, but less celebrated is its contribution to this crucial phase of the conflict. Crews were left in little doubt of the importance of the mission and told they would have to go back if the sites were not eliminated. OPERATION CROSSBOW (1965) BD: http://bit.ly/OpCrossBluA fearsome rumor reaches Britain’s World War II command. Publisher. 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