sea_mine
MIA

Hi All,
I found an unusual photograph in the National Collection of Aerial Photography (NCAP) archive a few days ago while playing around with different search terms on their site. Having inserted the single search term 'sea', the search engine came up with a number of photos but one in particular caught my eye. It shows the forward two thirds of what I take to be a heavy cruiser underway, supposedly off the Aberdeenshire coast in the North Sea:
The date of the sortie, M/039/NLA/065, is the 17th June 1943 and there are 22 other frames online - see the results page here. It seems to me to be some sort of training flight in oblique photography techniques. In any event, I would like to find the name of this vessel if possible and am hoping some naval folk might give us a hand here.
First, I had a look round the web to make sure we are looking at a heavy cruiser and not some other type of vessel. The page here appears to show other very similar vessels with the same funnel layout. The Wiki page here on 'County' Class Royal Navy cruisers would also appear to support this theory.
Of the three sub groups of 'County' Class vessels, I think the 'Kent' group most closely matches the photograph. The seven vessels in this group were:
Can anyone confirm or correct my theory?
The thread on my own Forum has so far failed to turn up an answer but I know you guys are the experts in naval matters.
Thanks,
Pat
I found an unusual photograph in the National Collection of Aerial Photography (NCAP) archive a few days ago while playing around with different search terms on their site. Having inserted the single search term 'sea', the search engine came up with a number of photos but one in particular caught my eye. It shows the forward two thirds of what I take to be a heavy cruiser underway, supposedly off the Aberdeenshire coast in the North Sea:
The date of the sortie, M/039/NLA/065, is the 17th June 1943 and there are 22 other frames online - see the results page here. It seems to me to be some sort of training flight in oblique photography techniques. In any event, I would like to find the name of this vessel if possible and am hoping some naval folk might give us a hand here.
First, I had a look round the web to make sure we are looking at a heavy cruiser and not some other type of vessel. The page here appears to show other very similar vessels with the same funnel layout. The Wiki page here on 'County' Class Royal Navy cruisers would also appear to support this theory.
Of the three sub groups of 'County' Class vessels, I think the 'Kent' group most closely matches the photograph. The seven vessels in this group were:
- HMS Berwick
- HMS Cornwall
- HMS Cumberland
- HMS Kent
- HMS Suffolk (of Bismark hunt fame)
- HMAS Austraila
- HMAS Canberra
Can anyone confirm or correct my theory?
The thread on my own Forum has so far failed to turn up an answer but I know you guys are the experts in naval matters.
Thanks,
Pat