Original WW2 photos.

Freshy-ZN

Executive Member
Joined
Aug 17, 2005
Messages
5,729
Reaction score
92
Location
Underberg, KZN
My grandfather was a navigator in the RAF during the Second World War. He spent most of the time in the North Africa campaigns. Luckily he was an avid photographer and we have many of his photos that he took at the time. Whats really great is he labelled each one whith date, descriptions etc.

This weekend we came across some that are of Rommel and some other high ranking German officers. On the back he has labelled something to the effect " taken from Gerry POW"

These are remarkable images of these officers in the desert amongst their troops and what not.

I am wondering if these particular photos would be of historical interest and also if they would be worth anything. Where would one find out these things?
 
Yeah, they do sound interesting. Can you upload? My grandfather too fought in North Africa based out of Durban, though when I say "fought" I mean "drove the colonel around".
 
I plan on scanning some of them. Even the ones of him and his crew are really interesting. He even managed to take some out his "office window" of the flak exploding around them.

Then theres others that give fantastic clues as to life in the North African desert during the war.
 
Upload them lovely colour images from his trusty DSLR now!
 
I'd love to see them. My Moms dad was a pilot in WWII, was shot down in North Africa (and he survived). My Dads father was captured in North Africa, was a POW with his brother for 2 years.

Whats the chances of there being a pic of my Moms dad in your collection ?
 
Last edited:
Stranger things have happened! Like I said luckily he labelled every photo with names, dates, places etc.
 
I would recommend you establish some legal ownership and copyright before you do anything with it. Do you have negatives/slides, or only prints?

You could possibly sell the original photos to a museum, but retain the right right to make new prints (if you have the negs/slides) or scan them before hand hand retain the right to sell, licence and publish them. I'm thinking there might be a market for them among historians, university libraries - maybe as stock for publishers and the likes of the BBC/NatGeo etc.
 
That's pretty cool.

If you wanted to make money then I would try and get some one to put them in a book.
Otherwise try and talk to some one at the war museum.

I would recommend you establish some legal ownership and copyright before you do anything with it. Do you have negatives/slides, or only prints?

You could possibly sell the original photos to a museum, but retain the right right to make new prints (if you have the negs/slides) or scan them before hand hand retain the right to sell, licence and publish them. I'm thinking there might be a market for them among historians, university libraries - maybe as stock for publishers and the likes of the BBC/NatGeo etc.

+1

Good idea to publish them in a book and make a bit of money. This is a good opportunity.
 
I definitely want to share but at the same time protect them. I really need to establish if indeed they have any significant historical value. Good ideas about NatGeo/History channel.

Will scan and watermark them for my fellow ADSLers to view first.

And to the person that asked about the negatives: Im sure he had them somewhere but he has been dead 25 years now and my gran has moved around a bit in that time and well things get missing...
 
I definitely want to share but at the same time protect them. I really need to establish if indeed they have any significant historical value. Good ideas about NatGeo/History channel.

Will scan and watermark them for my fellow ADSLers to view first.

And to the person that asked about the negatives: Im sure he had them somewhere but he has been dead 25 years now and my gran has moved around a bit in that time and well things get missing...

Excellent thanks

My grandfather was a pilot as well. I still have his log book
 
Well he was from Durbs too so the chances that they knew eachother must be good !

I also knew someone that fought in the N. African campaigns, El Alamein being one of them. He sadly past away about 2yrs ago though.
 
My grandfather was British but moved to SA in the 60s. So I doubt the old Durban boys would have known him in the war (maybe in Durbs as he was well know). I must also look for his old bombing 'computer'. He also has some old mission maps where he made notes on.
 
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X