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During the II World War much effort was put into obtaining and interpreting aerial photographs for military reconnaissance purposes. Thousands of the photographs the aircrew risked their lives to bring back are now being made public, available for the first time. Intelligence photography was regularly used to select bombing targets, determine bombing accuracy, assess bombing damage to facilities, analyze equipment capability, serve as a basis for maps of both friendly and enemy territory and search for indications of enemy initiatives or intentions. It was also effectively used to capture the essence of a situation or military operation and to provide the basis for a better understanding of the nature of an area that would be the site of future operations. Initially, such material was classified. However, with the passage of time, much has now been declassified and accessible on the Internet. That material includes photographic prints, interpretation manuals, interpretation rapports, plans of targets, technical details of cameras and lenses. In this paper, the characteristic of World War II reconnaissance cameras are briefly described, as well as examples of the war reconnaissance aerial photography and interpretations rapports from Poland.
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