Boistrancourt 2004

JFM · 8 January 2005, 07:36 PM

Hello,

Recently I acquired one of those Photobucket accounts that enables me to store and link images--turns out I must be the last person on earth to hear about it.

Anyway, last summer I was lucky enough to visit France, and now that I have the means to post them I thought those interested might enjoy a few photos I took of Boistrancourt and Roucourt airfields. I scaled down the quality so they aren't too large. I've never linked to photos in here before so I hope this works out--at least they showed in the preview.

First three shots blend from the famous 1917 Jasta 5 lineup into what that location looks like today--"today" being September 2004. I didn't have a ladder from which to take the photo as did the photographer in 1917 so my view is a little lower than his, but other than that the photos line up closely. Field is much smaller than it appears in photos--which has always been true for me for anyplace I've finally seen in person after years of only seeing photographs--and the field slopes down towards the camera and off to the right. Takeoffs/landings away from the hangars were definitely uphill. Observation tower is gone today, as you can see, as is the longer fence in front of the chateau's brick wall.

Ok, first three photos will be from 1917, a photoshopped half&half blend, and then one I took last September:

I have a couple more but it turns out that I had too many in this post, so I'm going to include another post immediately after this one. I have two more Boistrancourt shots and one Roucourt.

JFM · 8 January 2005, 07:46 PM

Okay, here is part two.

Next two Boistrancourt shots were taken across the field from those in the first post, at the corner of the chateau's brick wall. First shot is looking towards where Hangar 1 used to be, with the sugar factory (chimney is gone today) in the background. The other is looking towards where Hangar 5 used to be, as well as where Hangars 4 and 3 used to be in front of the trees. In these shots the field's slope is well apparent:

Lastly, a shot of the Roucourt church, taken from roughly the same spot as the 1917 photo of the D.III being rolled backwards across the cobblestone road (Ferko's Richthofen, p.16). Today the field is higher than it was in 1917, and the cobblestone road has been mostly covered with dirt and is more of a two-place cart path although the cobblestone is still visible. The village is very small and even after driving around for quite some time I never saw anyone walking around--just the sheep out grazing. The entire Douai area was very serene and--at least to my eyes--very picturesque.

Anyway, that's all. Enjoy!

8 January 2005, 08:27 PM

Outstanding! I like the photo-imaging, it's a pretty neat process. Someday I am going to visit these airfields as well. Until then, your pictures will have to do.

Thanks for sharing them with us.

regards

fsbof · 8 January 2005, 09:01 PM

Marvelous ! The half-n-half blend is very effective at comparing the two views. I've seen many then-and-now comparison photos ("After the Battle" magazine's specialty!), but your blending technique makes it easy to compare similarities and differences in the landscape. Keep it up.

AAC Cadet Leader · 8 January 2005, 09:13 PM

JFM,
Very interesting! Especially the blended shot! Thanks for sharing.

You might want to go back into each of your posted Photobucket shots and go to edit, then select 75% size. That would bring them down to a size that can be seen on most screens without scrolling back and forth. Also the extra wide band width costs our webmaster extra money out of his own pocket.

Russell Smith · 9 January 2005, 06:15 AM

Brilliant! Thanks for sharing those. The blended shot really helps to put the modern photo into context. When I finally make my pilgramage to France, B'court is going to be one of the stops on my list.

Russ

EricGoedkoop · 9 January 2005, 08:30 AM

Neat!

It's interesting to see how the trees have grown in the last 90 years.

JFM · 9 January 2005, 11:20 AM

Glad you guys enjoy the shots.

AACCL, thanks for the heads up about the resizing and the extra expense--I took your advice and reduced the image sizes to 75% of the original.

For those of you planning to visit WW1-esque places in France, etc, my best advice to you is rent a car with a GPS. Prior to my trip I spent weeks preparing maps and routing and despite my efforts I would have been in driving agony without the GPS--wouldn't have found anything at all! Perhaps others are better at that than I, but I found that hearing the pleasant "take the second right at the roundabout" or "turn left in 300 meters" eliminated all "navigation stress" and allowed me to sightsee as I drove, rather than fumble with charts, etc.

Oh, and don't pull even with the traffic lights in France--they don't have another set of lights across the intersections as we do in the States, so the only way you know that the light turned green is by the cacophony of honking behind you!