大象传媒

Explore the 大象传媒
This page has been archived and is no longer updated. Find out more about page archiving.

15 October 2014
WW2 - People's War

大象传媒 Homepage
大象传媒 History
WW2 People's War Homepage Archive List Timeline About This Site

Contact Us

Shelmerdine - Vignettes 9 - PR

by Sonia Gilderdale

You are browsing in:

Archive List > Royal Air Force

Contributed by听
Sonia Gilderdale
People in story:听
John Harold Shelmerdine
Location of story:听
RAF Benson
Background to story:听
Royal Air Force
Article ID:听
A3607238
Contributed on:听
02 February 2005

As a Wartime occupation PR stood for Photographic Reconnaissance. Public Relations had not been officially invented, but existed just the same. Sometimes the initials could represent both. A classic example occurred in October 1944 when 鈥淏omber Harris鈥 decided to 鈥榮ink鈥 a Dutch island by breaching the dykes with bombs, thus inconveniencing the remaining occupation forces.

There followed a mid- morning request from Bomber Command for low-level pictures to illustrate the success of the operation. By this time the photographic engineers had perfected a camera device which took forward-facing prints every four seconds. Simple: just point the Spitfire at the target and press a button.

October 4th was a cold showery day but with good visibility. No problems: the Dutch island looked pretty wet, but there was no sign of dramatic flooding. Back home there was another message. Could the pilot please go to London, visit 大象传媒, and record experience and success of bombing operation for the 9pm War News report. The pilot of course was very pleased. Free trip to Town, stay in West End Hotel at H.M.G. expense and rewarded with 拢5 note by 大象传媒.

All this would indicate, that even in 1944, PR could mean different things at the same time.

Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.

Archive List

This story has been placed in the following categories.

Royal Air Force Category
icon for Story with photoStory with photo

Most of the content on this site is created by our users, who are members of the public. The views expressed are theirs and unless specifically stated are not those of the 大象传媒. The 大象传媒 is not responsible for the content of any external sites referenced. In the event that you consider anything on this page to be in breach of the site's House Rules, please click here. For any other comments, please Contact Us.



About the 大象传媒 | Help | Terms of Use | Privacy & Cookies Policy