Scanned image of Luftwaffe vertical air photograph of the Inchinnan engine works and the Dalnottar Oil tank farm.

Description Scanned image of Luftwaffe vertical air photograph of the Inchinnan engine works and the Dalnottar Oil tank farm.

Date 1939

Collection Records of the German Air Force (Luftwaffe), Second World War Aerial Reconnaissance

Catalogue Number SC 799789

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of C 47593

Scope and Content Luftwaffe aerial photograph showing Inchinnan Engine Works, Renfrewshire and Dalmuir Shipyard, West Dunbartonshire Annotated as feature 'A', the Royal Ordnance Factory at Dalmuir was responsible for producing a range of munitions. According to the Luftwaffe intelligence notes, the plant had workshops for missile (2) and barrel production (1) as well as a depot for handling raw materials to produce guns and missiles (3). At the bottom of the photograph, annotated 'B', is the Inchinnan Engine Works, identified here as being a tyre factory. Each of the factory buildings have been identified, including construction workshops (2) and chemical laboratories (5). Other annotations on the photograph draw attention to the John Brown & Co shipyard ('Werft von John Brown u. Co') and the Royal Navy Oil Fuel Depot at Dalnottar ('Tanklager Dalnotter') as well as a powerline running across the bottom of the photograph ('Hochspannungsleitung'). Although the Luftwaffe flew intelligence-gathering sorties throughout the war, the majority were flown in 1939 and 1940. In addition, a considerable dossier of intelligence was accumulated in the late 1930s: at this time, the German national airline, Lufthansa, covertly took photographs across Britain while ostensibly surveying new routes for flights. Luftwaffe intelligence officers used these aerial photographs to identify new targets for bombing sorties, to assess how effective earlier raids had been and to gather information about the strength of defences. Bomber crews were usually issued with annotated photographs to help them identify their targets. Taken during aerial reconnaissance by the Luftwaffe in 1940, this intelligence photograph shows the Royal Ordnance factory at Dalmuir (now William Beardsmore & Co) and the Engineering Works at Inchinnan. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/799789

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap