The painstaking paper panorama that shaped D-Day

A 26ft long panorama of the Normandy coast compiled from hundreds of RAF reconnaissance photos before D-Day has emerged.

The top secret images were captured by daring RAF pilots who flew in broad daylight and in the face of German gun emplacements on the shore.

Taken just a few feet above sea level and just 1,000 yards out, automated cameras took the snaps of the coast that were later concertinaed to make one long panoramic picture.

The images helped the Allies identify key landmarks along a section of ‘Juno’ beach, where thousands troops landed on June 6, 1944.

A typed note on the front cover of the wartime album containing the pictures that has now come to light states they show a ‘coastal silhouette’ from Haut Lion to La Riviere in Normandy.

Numerous landmarks and settlements are identified in the images including Petit Enfer, Langrune, St. Aubin, Bernières, Courselles, and Graye-sur-mer.

Officers studied the photos to familiarise themselves with the landscape and to look for where German gun emplacements and beach exits for the soldiers were.

They would also have been used to create highly detailed maps and three dimensional models of the D-Day landing zones. The extremely rare but fragile album have sold at London auctioneers Bloomsbury for £600. 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk