On 2 August 1944, Luftwaffe pilot Erich Sommer took off from Juvincourt airfield on board his Arado 234 reconnaissance aeroplane. His mission, which would last an hour and a half, was to fly over the Normandy front, where the fighting had continued to rage since the invasion on 6 June. It is important to remember that although we would today describe the Arado 234 as a ‘jet’, in 1944, jet aviation was still in its infancy. What is more, this ten day mission coincided with a key episode in the Battle for Normandy: the clash between German and Allied troops before the breakthrough towards the Paris basin. As it happened, the last German counter- offensive, in the Mortain region in particular, began on August 2.
Thirty years later, in 1974, my wife and I purchased a small house on the bank of the river Seulles, near Creully. At the time, I noticed that the roof was made by the manufacturing firm Sulzer. Intrigued, I wanted to find out about the history of the house and, after years of research, discovered it had been built by British engineers during the Battle for Normandy. At the time it was an immense pumping station, whose primary function was to hose down the temporary Allied runways in order to eradicate the dust that would otherwise destroy the aeroplanes’ engines.
Having carried out my military service as a photographic interpreter in Lahr, Bade-Wutemberg, I began researching British aerial photographs of the area both before and after the invasion. I managed to find those for before, but not for afterwards, which made sense, as this area wasn’t an objective for the British Army. So, I decided instead to look at photographs taken by the Luftwaffe. However, I was told that the ones I needed had been seized by the Russians in 1945 from Berlin Templehof Airport, where they had been stored until the end of the war. I filled my relations in about everything I had learnt, as well as the fact that the Russians then claimed they did not have the stolen photographs anyway.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, I went on a business trip to the USA and whilst there, visited the National Archives in Washington DC to ask if they had any knowledge of these missing Luftwaffe photographs. I was told that the Americans had in fact stolen them from the Russians in 1945 during Operation Dick Tracy - something that had been kept secret, until now. I was informed I could see them all if I wanted to, but it meant searching for them in an enormous stockroom and I sadly didn’t have the time. Upon returning to France, I found an American student from Washington, J. Waldron, who would be able to do the work for me. In 1995, he hit the jackpot; all the aerial photographs of Normandy taken by the Arado aeroplanes, a collection that was later to form the subject of my first book.1 Unfortunately, the Arado aeroplanes would not have taken photographs of my house, however the Junkers aeroplanes had done shortly before!
It is thanks to this research that my curiosity for the extraordinary machines that took these photographs was born. The Arado 234, that one day in 1944, in the skies above Normandy, saw the beginning of a new era in aviation: the jet.
The unexpected introduction of jet aviation in the Normandy skies is only one example of so many new technologies that were used on its battlefields. From portable telephones, naval airborne surveillance radars and the ballpoint pen, through to snorkels and streptomycin, Normandy has well and truly been at the forefront of some of the twentieth century’s great inventions.
Despite my best efforts during the research for my first book, the German authorities always prevented me from seeking out any Arado pilots. However, once the book had been published, and it was clear I was not looking to write a story on ‘war criminals’, tongues began to loosen slightly. When the book was released in Australia, it attracted the attention of a friend of mine who knew Erich Sommer, who had been living out there.
This introduction was the beginning of some extremely fulfilling exchanges between the two of us; Erich Sommer had indeed taken the photographs I wanted, but he did not have copies, although his memories have formed the basis for this book. Erich put me in contact with his friend Horst Götz and the three of us often talked together (in English) from his home.
This book acts as a beautiful dedication to these exchanges, as well as to the incredible photographs that are contained within it.
Philippe Bauduin
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1. Philippe Bauduin, Eric Charon, Normandie 44, les photos de l’avion espiron, (Mait’ Jacques)