Here in Florida, aerial photographs of Florida (many thousands) are available to the public at a web site by U of F covering any time frame from 1939 to 1996. I'm interested in military airfields during WW II, in particular Avon Park Army Air Base.
Overlaying a 1944 photo on Google Earth shows buildings and other features that are no longer there. The base archaeologist has invited a small group of us MD searchers to look around some of the sites where hangars and barracks and offices used to be. Four of us will be making a day trip in June for a look see. Will advise. Warbirder
How about Alachua AAF, SW of Alamogordo? Apalachicola AAF, W of Apalachicola? Boca Raton AAF, NW of Boca Raton, Etc. Here's a good source, a book, Directory of US Army Forts, Camps, & Airfields, (1789-1945). It's by, Tom Kneitel. Published by CRB Research Books, Inc. P.O. Box 56 Commack, NY 11725. Frank
Following up on my post of May 31, A case of plantar fasciitis knocked my planned search in the head. However, two friends made it and spent all day out in the field with the base archaeologist searching for WW II crash sites. The finds just keep getting better. Can't give any exact locations, but here's a couple pics of my search bud and the archaeologist. Also, I used one of the aerial photos from WW II to put the archaeologist, Kathy Couterier onto a possible B-17 crash site. At the risk of overloading this post, I'm including the photo.
Frankn - Thanks for the tip about the book. I will check it out. I have looked into Alachua Army Air Field near Gainesville, two hours north of me. Apalachicola is GU or geographically undesirable as it is a good six hour drive. There were 227 airfields in Florida during the war, so I have a lot of choices. Another reason I have to be selective is that aerial photos are not available state-wide in the right time frame. Also, during the war aerial photography by civilians was prohibited and government agencies photos had to be censored and all airfields whited out on the negatives. The photos I am using, taken by the Dept of Agriculture for properly taxing farmland must have slipped by the censors (my good, their bad) but many photos are whited-out. Here's a photo of a blimp airfield near Miami that is censored. Thanks again, Bob
Following up on my post of May 31, A case of plantar fasciitis knocked my planned search in the head. However, two friends made it and spent all day out in the field with the base archaeologist searching for WW II crash sites. The finds just keep getting better. Can't give any exact locations, but here's a couple pics of my search bud and the archaeologist. Also, I used one of the aerial photos from WW II to put the archaeologist, Kathy Couterier onto a possible B-17 crash site. At the risk of overloading this post, I'm including the photo.
I am new to this web site, do I need permission to search near the old alaucha AFF base?
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Originally Posted by Warbirder
