- 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.
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