Aerial recon photo Battle of Cantigny

[norwest]

I have a recon photo that was taken on the morning of 28 May 1918, at the beginning of the Battle of Cantigny, the first American offensive of WWI. I'll zoom in on some interesting areas, and compare with other recon photos that were taken later in the day as the battle progressed. As you'll see, I think this is a pretty cool find.

Full size aerial photo (click to enlarge):

[norwest]

Here is a zoom-in, with two reference points marked:

[norwest]

Here is a different aerial photo taken later in the same day, with the two same reference points marked. This photo was from a presentation by Paul Herbert at the National WWI Museum titled "Battle of Cantigny: Dawn of the Modern American Army", which you can view on YouTube here: YouTube

[norwest]

Now I'll zoom in. Note all the German troops near the hedgerows, in trenches, and in bomb craters. There's vehicles present also, but I can't tell if they are tanks or trucks/cars. This photo also captured what might be another SPAD aircraft in the lower left corner.

[norwest]

Just one more image, another from the presentation. You can see that the Spa42 squadron mentioned matches the recon photo annotation.

[buellmeister]

norwest,

What an incredible find! It certainly puts it into perspective the extent of the artillery barrages from the pock marked landscape. Once again, what an interesting item and thank you so much for sharing.

Regards,

Joel