Detective Work Uncovers Hidden Secrets in Military Aerial Photo Archives

Never before published photographs of notable moments in British and world military history are being discovered in a vast collection of aerial reconnaissance imagery.

The findings include photographs of prisoners in the central courtyard of the notorious Colditz high security prison and POWs working in the shadow of the infamous bridge over the River Kwai, along with images taken during the post D-Day battle for Normandy and the Suez Crisis of 1956.

The imagery comes from The Aerial Reconnaissance Archives (TARA), a collection of tens of millions of aerial photographs taken by Allied aircraft and dating from the start of the Second World War. Held by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), the archives also cover key post-war events in world history up to the present day, including the Cold War, the Korean War, the Persian Crisis and the Falklands.