Summary Part of Build up to DDay Week. Alex Burnham is one half of the amazing History Tellers who are well known for performing live shows, like miniature plays, about some of the most interesting people and events in history. Within the RAF, the use of unarmed fighters to take aerial photos goes back to 1939. They proposed the use of Spitfires with their armament and radios removed and replaced with extra fuel and cameras. These PR Spitfires proved to be extremely successful in their reconnaissance role and there were many variants built specifically for that purpose. They served initially with what later became No. 1 Photographic Reconnaissance Unit (PRU). Later in the war other aircraft such as the Mosquito, the P-38 Lightning and P-51 Mustang were adapted for photo-reconnaissance. Such craft were stripped of weaponry, painted in sky camouflage colours to make them difficult to spot in the air, and often had engines modified for higher performance at very high altitudes. Based at RAF Medmenham, the collection and interpretation of such photographs became a considerable enterprise and especially in the planning of Operation Overlord. The British, at their peak, flew over 100 reconnaissance flights a day, yielding 50,000 images per day to interpret.

• War
• Documentary
• History
• Talk Show