Sunday 9 August 2020

ECPA-D PK Berichter German photo archive - SG 2 Stukas



The ECPA-D claims to be one of the leading photographic archives in the world. It has an unrivalled collection of WWII German images taken by PK-Berichter. I am a little wary of reproducing such images because of the cost although I have been invited to do so - although not necessarily by ECPA-D management. Across the Rhine the Bundesarchiv has made available many thousands of low-res images water-marked that can be reproduced on-line. I'm not sure that this is ECPA-D policy. I have had this discussion with Nicolas Férard, 'documentaliste'at the ECPA-D as per my blog post of March 2019, link below. There have been various attempts to involve 'experts' and other interested parties in indexing the 'German collection'.. According to Nicolas Férard;

 "..many authors have proposed this type of arrangement ... and it is something that following a change of management may well be proposed again, especially as the ECPA-D develops its digital platform. However the institution is not yet inclined to participatory indexation but it could come...I will be doing an internship at the INA (Institut national de l'audiovisuel) in June on this topic. The problem remains and will remain the audiovisual rights to the images.."


Hptm Hendrick Stahl of SG 2



Ju.87-G "Kanonenvogel" taking off from Husi airfield, Rumania, Summer 1944. 10 Pzjägerstaffel/ Schlachtgeschwader 2 "Immelmann".





Below; caption from Georg Morrison.   Note the large "185A" on the fin, this was Ju 87D-5, "SM+ZJ", an ex-Romanian machine. "185A" had been the second "185." A mission photograph shows these to be conventional bombers, no Ju 87G 'gunbirds' are present.



More on the ECPA-D "fonds allemand" (German collection) on this blog here