I agree that it may be a mistake/typo.  Think of the swath/width of a stereoscopic aerial from a plane flying at 25 feet…

Ed Redmond

Reference Specialist
Curator, Vault Collections

Geography & Map Division
Library of Congress
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Washington, DC 20540-4650
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From: Maps-L: Map Librarians, etc. <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Fry, Michael
Sent: Friday, December 21, 2018 2:26 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: WWII maps

Aerials snapped from "reconnaissance planes flying at 25 feet [my emphasis]." Surely that's a typo or a mistake.

On Fri, Dec 21, 2018 at 1:00 PM Christopher Thiry <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

All,

From "The Guns at Last Light: The War in the Western Europe 1944-1945" by Rick Atkinson.

"Armed guards from 10 cartography depots escorted 3,000 tons of maps for D-Day alone, the first of 210,000,000 maps that would be distributed in Europe, most of them printed in 5 colors.  Also into the holds [of the invasion fleet] went 280,000 hydrographic charts, town plats for the likes of Cherbourg and Saint-Lo, many of the 1,000,000 aerial photos of German defenses snapped from reconnaissance planes flying at 25 feet."

Happy New Year to all!

Christopher J.J. Thiry

Map & GIS Librarian

Academic Outreach Coordinator

Colorado School of Mines

Arthur Lakes Library

1400 Illinois

Golden, CO 80401

p. 303-273-3697

f. 303-273-3199

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http://www.mines.edu/library/

--

Michael Fry
Collections Manager | Map Library Manager
National Geographic Society Library
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