The vast majority of tactical interpretation reports based on air imagery in the Second World War have been destroyed. So far, only one such report has been found that clearly locates an armoured fighting vehicle (AFV) in the Arnhem area before Operation Market Garden. This was prepared on the basis of imagery captured by Flying Officer LS Dearling of 541 Squadron in Spitfire PL856, which took off at 1030 on 13 September 1944 and landed back at RAF Benson at 1305 (mission 106G/2872). Like Flight Lieutenant Fuge, he flew over the Deelerwoud. Just to the east of the forest, on the main road from Arnhem to Apeldoorn, he photographed on object that was subsequently identified as a probable AFV.
This map shows the approximate location of Flight Lieutenant Fuge’s first photographs taken on 12 September. Dearling’s photo of the AFV was located approximately in the same location as frame 4010.
This is a section of the actual, rather messy, post-mission overlay from Dearling’s sortie. The frame containing the suspected AFV was numbered 4153. It is interesting to note that, the day after Fuge’s mission, Dearling took many more photos of the Deelerwoud, flying south to north.
The interpretation report recording the ‘probable AFV seen on a single point, possibly part of a convoy’. Other vehicles are certainly visible on the road in frame 4154, and they were probably military, but the quality of the photographs is not good enough to allow confident interpretation.
The photograph, frame 4153, in which the ‘probable AFV’ was spotted. The Deelerwoud extends west from the main road.
This enlargement of frame 4153 shows the vehicle suspected of being a German AFV. Again, it is worth stressing that the PIs of 1944 would have had clearer imagery at their disposal.
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