The Blanket of the Dark (Part 2)

摘要

Mention of rockets reminds us by this stage in the war illuminating and signal rockets, just like large versions of the well known firework, were kept in trenches ready to be fired. They could either put up white light or give coloured signals, red over green for instance, to call for emergency artillery fire. Illumination also became important in the air. Photographic reconnaissance was the key feature of air power and to take photographs in the dark, aircraft required the equivalent of flashes. These were simply large versions of the flash that one put on the top of primitive cameras - I still have one myself. WW2 RAF bombers dropped a magnesium flare when their bombs had all left the bomb bay and the resulting photograph enabled intelligence officers to see how successful they'd been.