Imperial War Museum (IWM)

[ted angus]

Imperial WAR Museum: BETA site

In case anyone is not aware the IWM are building a new website, It is currently accessable and is titled BETA site. Pictures previously only availible as poor thumbnail can now be down loaded in a much larger format without logos or watermarks.
http://beta.iwm.org.uk/collections/search

This link takes you to the starting point in the collections area.
TED

[PNK]

Excellent find. You can now see if the quality is good enough to warrant purchase.

[ted angus]

For my uses the quality of the downloads will save me purchasing; My pension is currently being invested in DORIS at RAFM on vehicle information- so anything free is a bonus. I just wonder how much will eventually be accessible.
TED

[Carnaby]

Some good material there, though naturally a lot has appeared in publications. I found after a while ( 5 mins of browsing) as it started reporting 'Nothing Found'. Clearing the cache in Firefox solved that.

[Ossington_2008]

A superb find! I put "airfields" in as the key word & got 5515 entries! Some good stuff up to about page 80, then a lot of book titles, but no images.

[Denis]

I too am using it at the moment to source some Hunsdon images. I previously had permission from the IWM to use them on my website providing I left the watermarks in. The new downloaded ones are much clearer, and with the built in HTML coding that satisfies the IWMs copywrite.

[Carnaby]

... then a lot of book titles, but no images.
Did you use the 'Filter' on the left of the page? 'Media', then 'Image'.

[PNK]

There is some really interesting stuff on there. That's Christmas sorted :) [for the next 10 years!

Frustratingly there are photos listed, but not visible, of a number of SLG sites, Hornby Hall, Winterseugh etc. I wonder if they will appear at some point?

[OneEighthBit]

Always the case with the IWM site (new and old) - something you really really really want is listed but not viewable on-line :D

[tigger]

http://beta.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205187624

I didn't there were hangars at HMS Ariel

[Carnaby]

Me neither, though folding wing aircraft wouldn't need much - but they'd need a landing strip.

[P Bellamy]

I don't know about the rest of them, but the captions to the lovely colour Thor photo's are good for a chuckle or two.

If the caption on THIS (http://beta.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205214245) one is to be believed, the chap standing to the left of the launcher is about to get one heck of a shock... :lol:
On the other hand, it IS a great image of LOX boiling off in the catch pit.

[PETERTHEEATER]

Oh dear! Such a lot to look at and some of it I paid hard dosh for ten years ago! Most welcome 'though except it will cause yet another digression from other research.

[Denis]

I have trouble with this one.
http://beta.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205200021
It describes the famous S-sugar at Hunsdon refueling after its 100th op, I do know that it landed there short of fuel, but the bowser seems wrong for Hunsdon, and why the bomb trolley underneath?

[PETERTHEEATER]

It certainly is unlikely to be Hunsdon. With the civilian photographer on the right it looks like a publicity photo session to promote the 100th mission.

[Denis]

Thanks Peter,that really does make sense. Shame though, as I really wanted it to be a post op pic and not a pre op!

[Carnaby]

It certainly is unlikely to be Hunsdon.
I've a feeling a few photos I've looked at are incorrectly captioned. LIke the HMS Ariel one above. There were a few locations for this apart from Warrington / Culcheth - many had hangars and runways.

[PETERTHEEATER]

Thanks Peter,that really does make sense. Shame though, as I really wanted it to be a post op pic and not a pre op!

No, what I meant was it is a post-op PR picture so what was the home base from which the sortie was flown?

[PETERTHEEATER]

[QUOTE=PETERTHEEATER;87966]It certainly is unlikely to be Hunsdon. /QUOTE]
I've a feeling a few photos I've looked at are incorrectly captioned. LIke the HMS Ariel one above. There were a few locations for this apart from Warrington / Culcheth - many had hangars and runways.

During a personal visit some years to the IWM Photographic Archive I identified a number of incorrectly captioned photographs (location) because I was 100% certain of the actual location. I informed the staff and they accepted my comments gratefully and made the changes. Now that may of the photos in the collection are digitised and viewable on-line it will be easy to feed back errors but to be credible one must be able to provide evidence.

[ted angus]

I have trouble with this one.
http://beta.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205200021
It describes the famous S-sugar at Hunsdon refueling after its 100th op, I do know that it landed there short of fuel, but the bowser seems wrong for Hunsdon, and why the bomb trolley underneath?

The bowser has B/5 on the back at that time Hunsdon was fighter command ? but not B/5 ??

[ted angus]

I have trouble with this one.
http://beta.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205200021
It describes the famous S-sugar at Hunsdon refueling after its 100th op, I do know that it landed there short of fuel, but the bowser seems wrong for Hunsdon, and why the bomb trolley underneath?

The bowser has B/5 on the back at that time Hunsdon was fighter command ? but not B/5 ??

[Carnaby]

The bowser has B/5 on the back at that time Hunsdon was fighter command ? but not B/5 ??
B/5 is surely 5 Group Bomber Command

[ted angus]

exactly !!

[Denis]

Looks like I shall have to ammend the caption on my website!
Ta all!