Supermarine Spitfire

Photo Reconnaissance

Before the Second World War long range photographic reconnaissance was not considered to be a priority by the RAF, which relied on [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] to carry out photo-reconnaissance as a secondary task.

Short range photo-reconnaissance was left to the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

Neither aircraft had the speed or altitude performance to avoid enemy fighters, and their light armament meant that expecting them to fight their way through to a target to take photographs was a forlorn hope.

Both aircraft types took heavy casualties when faced with modern fighters and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] fire.

Early photo-reconnaissance Spitfires

Shortly before the Second World War started [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Maurice Longbottom submitted a paper to the Air Ministry in which he proposed that the RAF equip itself with small, unarmed aircraft which, stripped of unnecessary weight and equipped with cameras and extra fuel, could rely on high speed, a fast climb and high altitude to avoid enemy defences.

He was thinking primarily about the Spitfire which, he argued, was the ideal aircraft for the role.

Although his idea was received with interest, it was shelved because there were not yet enough Spitfires available to allow any to be diverted from equipping Fighter Command.

When early operations proved the vulnerability of the Blenheims and Lysanders, in October 1939 the Australian Sidney
Cotton, [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] of the newly formed and highly secret "[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Flight", met with [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], AOC of Fighter Command and persuaded him to release two Spitfires to his unit.

Cotton had already proved Longbottom's theory to be right in practice by using a modified [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] on clandestine photo-reconnaissance missions over Germany.

The two Spitfires were "Cottonised" by removing the radio, stripping out the armament, and adding downward-facing [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] to replace the inner-wing guns.

All panel lines and the gun-ports were filled in with [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and a special light "Camoutint Green" was applied to the aircraft which was then polished.

Thus modified, the Spitfire was capable of reaching over 390 mph.

While the fighter versions of the Spitfire stayed in Britain, the first PR missions were flown from bases in France by Cotton's unit which was renamed "No. 2 Camouflage Unit".

The first RAF high- speed, high-altitude photo-reconnaissance mission of the war took place on 18 November 1939 when [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] "Shorty" Longbottom took off from [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and attempted to photograph [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] from 33,000 ft (10,000 m).

After the initial successes of these aircraft more Mk I Spitfires were converted in different ways to accomplish different types of reconnaissance missions.

On 17 January 1940 2 Camouflage Unit was renamed the "Photographic Development Unit" (PDU), while another PR
Unit, [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] was formed in France.


Five months later, on 17 June 1940, Sidney Cotton was removed from his role in the RAF for taking money to fly a French businessman to the UK while he was evacuating British agents from Paris.

In the following year, he was awarded an [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in recognition of his contribution to the development of photographic reconnaissance.

The PDU was expanded, eventually becoming [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] (1 PRU) in November 1940, operating from [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] as part of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

On 3 June 1940 [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] claimed a lone Spitfire shot down near Paris: it is more than likely that this was a Spitfire of 212 Squadron.

On 13 June 1940, Flg. Off. George Patterson Christie, a Canadian pilot of the PDU, attacked a [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] bomber off the coast of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and, by repeatedly diving at it, forced it to land in the sea.

Patterson was awarded the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] for this feat.

He was also reprimanded by Cotton for playing at being a fighter pilot when his primary duty was to bring back photographs.

On 22 February 1941, at the request of Dr [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], a PRU type G Spitfire, flown by Flg. Off. W.K Manifould, took the first clear photographs of Germany's [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

In retaliation for an incident six days earlier, when a Sgt Parrot failed to bring back photos due to heavy flak, Manifould also strafed the AA posts and radar station, rendering the latter useless.

On 5 December 1941, again at the request of Dr Jones, a PRU Spitfire flown by Flt. Lt Tony Hill was able to photograph from a height of 200 ft a [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] which was sited at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] on the French coast.

This led directly to the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in which Würzburg components and radar operators were captured from the Germans

Flying PR missions was not an easy occupation.

Spitfire pilots often flew missions lasting seven hours or more; the cramped cockpit was uncomfortable, although the introduction of heating and, later in the war, pressurization, relieved some of the discomfort.

Early PR Spitfires lacked radios and, in later versions which did have radio, the pilot was expected to maintain radio silence throughout the flight.

The pilot of a high-flying Spitfire would keep constant watch on the rear- view mirror to make sure that a [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]
would not betray its presence, and he also had to keep an eye out for enemy fighters trying to intercept.

Without the help of another crew member a PR Spitfire pilot had to be a good navigator, usually relying on [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

Once over the target to be photographed, a precise course and altitude was set and maintained.

Even a small deviation from straight and level flight could mean that the cameras would miss a small target by hundreds of yards. Several different paint schemes were used by the early photo-reconnaissance Spitfires until an
overall "PRU Blue" was adopted for the majority of PR aircraft from late 1941.

Low-altitude ("dicing") missions, such as the one on the Bruneval Würzburg and Freya radar position, were usually flown under low cloud, with the pilot constantly on the lookout for enemy fighters and flak positions.

These missions were much more dangerous than the high-altitude missions.

At high speed and low altitude there was little time to aim the oblique camera: a tiny black + on the side of the canopy was lined up with a small black stripe painted on the aileron and, as the aircraft flew by the target, the pilot had to estimate when to start taking photographs.

The only way to successfully take pictures and survive was to take the defences by surprise.

Failing that the pilot was supposed to give up and fly home, and he was not allowed to fly over the same target again that day, or the next.

Spitfires engaged in low-altitude "dicing" missions were often painted in either overall white or in a very pale "Camoutint Pink", which was an ideal colour against cloud cover.

PRU Spitfires also kept a constant watch on the German capital ships in based in [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] harbour throughout 1941 to February 1942, as well as maintaining operations over [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].


The first Spitfire to be posted to the Mediterranean theatre was one operated by 1 PRU which arrived on Malta on 22 September 1941.

This aircraft was then grounded for three weeks while awaiting replacements for its badly worn tyres. PR Spitfires continued to operate off Malta in ones and twos, usually being re-allocated while en-route to North Africa.

Other overseas deployments of Spitfires had seen three Mk IVs being sent to [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], in North Russia, to keep on eye on German warships during the operation to get [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] through to Russia.

While there, they carried Soviet markings.

These aircraft were later formally handed on to the Soviet Air Force.

In 1942, the two-stage [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] became available for [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] aircraft.

The first 15 Spitfires with the new engine were conversions of standard Mk IXs made by the workshops of 1 PRU at
RAF Heston.

The [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] was the first version of the Spitfire to be built specifically as a photoreconnaissance (PR) aircraft and started replacing all of the earlier conversions of Mk Is, IIs and Vs from mid-1943.

The [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] replaced the PR Mk VII at about this time.

Photo du barrage de Moehne prise par un Spitfire PR MK IX

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir cette image]

On 15 May 1942, Flt Lt D. W. [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in a Spitfire photographed heavy construction work at the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] test center :

"something unusual caught my eye … some extraordinary [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] … I then dismissed the whole thing from my mind" ([Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Flight Officer [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]).

Nearly a year later on 14 May 1943, an "unusually high level of activity" was visible at "the Ellipse" on photos from two sorties (the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] was visiting for a [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]).

On 12 June, Sqn Ldr Gordon Hughes' aircraft photographed a [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], described as "a [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] cylinder about 35 feet long and 5 or so feet in diameter with a blueish [[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]] nose and fins at the other end'' ([Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]).
within the elliptical sand wall during sortie N/853.

This sortie and its coverage was part of the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] evidence which led to a decision to [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

After the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] reported September 1943 construction in [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], Spitfires and other reconnaissance aircraft (5 British, 5 American, and 4 Canadian squadrons) photographed [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

A photo taken by a 542 Squadron Spitfireon 3 October 1943 depicted the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] (bombed January 1944), and sortie E/463 on 3 November 1943 over Bois Carré by a [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] aircraft was the first to
detect "ski-shaped buildings 240-270 feet long".

As on 21 October, photo-reconnaissance sorties on 4 December 1943 to cover the whole of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] were conducted before the 5 December start of "[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]".

Despite Crossbow bombings, camouflaged [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] were first discovered 26 April 1944 (61 modified sites were photographed by 6 June).

Photos on 10 June depicting that the sites were being activated allowed [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] to predict the sites could launch within 3 days ([Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] operations began on the night of 12/13 June 1944).