Recent books I’ve read include; George Orwell’s ‘Nineteen Eighty-four’, Bill Bryson’s ‘Thunderbolt Kid’, Matthew Fredrick’s ’101 Things I learned in Architecture School’, a few Cold War bits and pieces and Martin Parr’s compilation ‘Boring Postcards’ (not really much to read there, but nice though).

Hopefully, all coming soon!

Full set of images

3 BAD or 3 Base Ammunition Depot was a large ammunition depot in West Germany close to the Netherlands border and RAF Bruggen. It was constructed to store ammunition for the BAOR or British Army of the Rhine in Germany during the Cold War, in the early 1950’s around the same time as RAF Bruggen. It was supposed to be the largest of it’s type at 1200 Hectares. The site closed in 1996 under the operation of the, by the now only 3 years old, Royal Logistic Corps. It was handed back to the German Government who spent millions of Deutsch Marks converting it to a nature park.

Former fire reservoir, 3 BAD

ROF Risley or Royal Ordnance Factory Filling Station No‘6, to give the full original title was a munitions factory in Risley in the UK and was one of 16 Filling Stations. The factory was built on a portion of Risley Moss, originally part of Chat Moss, the land was drained and construction began in August 1939, work continued for around 18 months to finish the facility, with production starting before the entire site was complete in September 1940. The ROF had a number of protected concrete bunkers for storing munitions that were covered with earth and turf, giving the impression of being underground. The location was chosen due to the typical weather of the area, which was mist and low cloud, helping to obscure the ROF’s location from Luftwaffe bombers. After the end of World War Two the ROF became surplus to requirements and survived until 1956 as a storage depot when part of the site was sold to the UK Atomic Energy Authority. The rest of the site lay disused until a buy was found in 1968 in the form of the Warrington and Runcorn Development Corporation, who created the new town of Birchwood on the site. Part of the site however was used to create a nature park.

Risley Moss, ROF Risley

As you can tell from the above, both 3 BAD and ROF Risley were used for British military purposes and both ended up as nature parks. The fact they were each built for a different conflict, 3 BAD the Cold War and ROF Risley World War Two is minor. I visited 3 BAD first in late February 2009 and ROF Risley in early March, I’d planned to visit Risley for many years but never got around to it. Having read about ROF Risley and visiting 3 BAD, knowing the geography of Risley as it is local to me from maps and articles I had read, I began thinking how similar the 2 place might be.

Former storage building, 3 BAD

Former storage bunkers behind playing field, ROF Risley.

See full set of images

However, I have some books on order and a couple of reviews to do. So hopefully I’ll get around to doing something later this week. I’m also planning on updating my site: Saul Beeson Photography, as well this week with some Cold War related stuff from earlier this year in Germany and the UK.

Beelitz-Heilstatten Hospital, commonly known as just ‘Beelitz’, was designed by Architect Heino Schmeiden and work began in 1898. The Hospital was commissioned by the Berlin Workers Health Insurance Corporation and was planned as a Sanatorium. At the beginning of World War 1 the Hospital complex of 60 buildings was taken over by the Imperial German Army as a Military Hospital. One of Beelitz’s most infamous patients was Adolf Hitler who was sent to Beelitz to recuperate in October and November 1916 after being wounded in the leg at the Battle of the Somme.

After the Soviet Union invaded Germany towards the end of World War 2 they took over the running of Beelitz and continued it’s use as a Military Hospital. Beelitz was in the hands of the Soviets until 1995, 5 years after the reunification of Germany and 4 years after the fall of Communism. Another infamous resident of Beelitz was Erich Honecker, who was the GDR’s Political leader from 1971 until 1989. He was admitted to Beelitz in 1990 with liver cancer, he later sought refuge in the Chilean Embassy in Moscow but was extradited back to Germany in 1992 by the Yeltsin administration over Cold War crimes relating to the deaths of 192 of people who tried to flee the GDR. He was released at the start of his trial on the grounds of ill health and moved to Chile with his family, he died just over a year after moving to Chile on May 29th 1994, of liver cancer.

Today the Hospital complex sits in a mixed state, some parts have been demolish to make way for housing, other parts have been converted to homes, there are buildings which continue in use for healthcare and then there are the parts which have been left to rot. But there are soviet relics which ever way you turn, be it Cyrillic text on the walls of the Gymnasia or the monument to the Soviet war dead, no matter what Beelitz reeks of the Cold War.

See the full set of images here
See also: Soviet Newspapers

See more Soviet Newspapers

See the Full Set

I’ll leave you with a few interesting links:

Random Acts of Reality

Materialicious

Peak District Wreck Hunters

Ian Glover

Royal Air Force Station Greenham Common opened in 1942 as a RAF Bomber Command Airfield used for operational training, it had the standard wartime runway layout of one main and 2 secondary runways. The airfield was a satelite station to RAF Aldermaston and served solely the RAF until the USAAF(United States Army Air Force) Ninth Air Force took over the airfield in the autumn of 1943.

The airfield then became home to the 354th and 368th Fighter Groups flying North American P-51B/D’s Fairchild P-47 Thunderbolts respectively and 438th Troop Carrier Group flying Douglas C-47 Skytrains (A.K.A Douglas DC3). The airfield was used for the D-Day operations, with the c-47′s dropping in US Paratroopers and towing gliders.

After the war the RAF returned to the airfield using it for Elementary Flying Training, but only until June 1946 when the airfield was closed and put into care and maintenance. In the early 1950′s the MoD made the airfield available to the US Air Force and major work began to accommodate the array of aircraft that would use the airfield including B-47, B-52, KC-97, KC-135 and F-111 aircraft. But the major part of RAF Greenham Common’s history is the arrival of the 501st Tactical Missile Wing with it’s Ground Launched Cruise Missiles (GLCM) and the creation of the GAMA(GLCM Alert and Maintenance Area) Facility in 1980. The missile were put in place to counter the USSR deployment of SS-20 missiles in Eastern Europe. RAF Greenham Common was home to 96 missiles with 4 spares. RAF Greenham Common became famous in the 1980′s for the peace camps and protests outside the base.

Each of the 6 GAMA shelters housed 3 GLCM TEL’s(Transporter Erector Launcher’s) with 2 launch control centres and crew areas for protect from nuclear weapons. The GAMA shelters were design so that the TEL’s could drive straight through and they were sealed with massive hydraulically operated blast doors that lay flush with the ground when open. In addition to the GAMAs there is a number of older looking bomb store type buildings and magazines for storing non-nuclear weapons and equipment.

The USAF removed the missiles and handed the airfield back to the MoD on September 11th 1992. The RAF closed the airfield in 1993 but the peace camps remained until 2000 to ensure the base was closed and the land became public. Much of the airfield is now public, with the runway removed and the only other building we saw other than the GAMA Facility was the control tower which is steel boarded and a long way from the GAMA Facility. The GAMA Facility is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument and is protected by 3 fences and the law.

GLCM Alert and Maintenance Area

GAMA Shelter

GAMA Shelter

GAMA Shelter

Part of the hydraulic system that operated the blast doors

The other magazine type buildings in the 1950's Munitions Area.

Magazine and store for infantry weapons, such the M-16 and M-60

Author: Mark Baker

Publisher: Abacus

ISBN: 0-349-10239-2

War is Hell. This book leaves no doubt in your mind of that. Many of the books telling the story of war and in particular the war in Vietnam, are written by people who weren’t there or when they were, are written by people who focus on their experiences and/or that of their ‘buddies’. Nam is different. The words are those of such a broad spectrum of personnel who served ‘in country’, telling their stories starting from before they volunteered or were drafted and through to their war and their return home. Telling the sufferings both on and off the battlefield, inside and outside there theatre of war.

Never before, either written or on TV, have I heard the account of a newly qualified Nurse and how she ended up in Vietnam. Never have heard the stories told in such chronological order, in such depth and detail, from day one through to getting home. The horrors described are ones they will never forget. The impact this war and other wars have on all those they touch is immeasurable.

If you want to know what Vietnam was really like for the majority of people who were there, this is the book.

Photographer: Donovan Wylie

Essay : Louise Purbrick

Publisher : Steidl

ISBN: 978-3-86521-499-7

If you watched the BBC series ‘Genius of Photography’ you may recall seeing Donovan Wylie hanging out of the side door of a Royal Air Force Puma helicopter. This is the series of photographs he was shooting. The reason for this, Wylie tells us, is so he can be on eye-level with the subject, which is important for a typology. Typology; a series of images that are shot and presented in such a way that allows us to compare the similar subjects differences and likeness’s.

Wylie spent a year photographing these Watchtowers in Northern Ireland just before they were demolished as part of the De-militarising of Northern Ireland, in particular, the border areas around South Armagh. Wylie enlisted the help of the Ministry of Defence in this project, I’m not if he was successful in receiving this help because he’s a Belfast born Magnum Photographer or because he wanted to record, what is hopefully, the final chapter in the military involvement in Northern Ireland. Either way the result is an important record of the Watchtowers. However, Wylie isn’t the only person to record this passing of history. Jonathan Olley started a project in 1998 titled ‘Modern Castles of Northern Ireland’, what is perhaps important and also different to ‘British Watchtowers’ is that Olley began his work 2 years before the De-militarisation process began and was a body of work recording not just the Watchtowers and barracks of the British Army but also the Royal Ulster Constabulary Police Stations, which were also heavily fortified.

What is interesting about Wylie’s work is how the images are caption with only the Watchtower’s codename or call sign and the direct in which he is facing. For example the first image in the book is simply captioned ‘G650 N/S’. There is no location other than the ‘name’ with which the British Army identify it by. Using Google Earth’s aerial imagery ‘G650’ can be worked out as being in Crossmalgen in South Armagh, the town itself was given the shorthand ‘XMG’ during the Troubles. This starving of information however and the multiple angles Wylie photographs the Watchtowers from leads the view into a mindset where the foreground and background become irrelevant and the viewer is left concentrating solely on the subject. A typology it is.

At the end of the series of images is the essay written by Dr Louise Purbrick, who also worked with Wylie for this book ’The Maze’ writing the essay ‘The Architecture of Containment’ about the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland. Purbrick’s essay in ‘British Watchtowers’ bring a welcome sense of understanding to what the viewer has just looked at, explaining some of the history of Watchtowers and lessons learnt by the British Army long before the troubles. What is covered in the greatest detail though, is the reasons behind the Watchtower’s construction and there use both tactically and psychologically during the troubles, exploring the impact on the local populations of being observed. Purbrick draws comparisons between the other fortifications such as the Berlin Wall and the Israeli Security Wall. There is a break down of the architectural features and the different classification of the Watchtowers; Sangars – fighting and observation. The various locations and types are described along with some of the equipment used to surveil any possible terrorist activity.

Whilst Wylie’s images are excellent and could easily stand on their own as an important record of part of Northern Ireland’s history, it is the essay, for me, that brings everything together to form a true documentation of history.

However I think the novelty factor of Polaroid, the instant prints, is what lead people (like me) to get bored after the free pack of film that came with the camera was gone. Of course the very reason that pack of film got used up so quickly was because of the magic of instant prints popping out of the front of the camera. What was often disappointing was the actual pictures; pictures of the family, of the garden, of the dog, an accidental one of the floor perhaps. These aren’t of the same calibre of ‘holiday snaps’ so the just got forgotten about. At least that’s how it was in my case and that’s my theory on why I never seemed to buy anymore Polaroid film packs after I’d wasted the first one around the house.

This however was all to change. Back in 2006 I bought a Holga camera, these cameras are little plastic thing built in Hong Kong and use medium format 120 film. I bought it as I liked the look of the images they produced. The Holga being so cheaply made means that it has a plastic lens, one fixed shutter speed and a choice of 2 apertures(apparently). But it is the cheap plastic lens that give such beautiful effects; the vignetting, the blur, the Holga look. Anyway, after a few months of playing with the Holga I discover that you could buy a Polaroid back for the Holga, the result is the Holgaroid.

The Holgaroid changed my perception of Polaroid for ever.

The Dog : Holgaroid

The Holgaroid uses Polaroid’s Type 80 film a nice square format that matched the square images I was used to getting from the Holga. But it was film that surprised me. The Type 80 is of the variety known as ‘Pack Film’, this is the type used in the earlier Polaroid cameras. Pack film cameras work by first pulling a tab with a number on that protrudes from the back of the camera, this pull makes another tab pop out. This next tab is part of the print/negative package that is then pulled clear out of the camera and left to develop for the recommended time based on the ambient temperature. Once development is over the print is carefully peeled off and there you have it, a print right there in your hands. No waiting to take the film to the lab and wait for it coming back. Also no waiting till you get home to plug the camera into the computer to see what your pictures really look like!

I soon used up most of the Type 80 film I had as well as a bit of the Type 100 film I had also bought which the Polaroid back accepts. Then in 2007 Polaroid announced they were to stop production of the Type 80 film. I felt saddened by this but by now it was apparent that Polaroid wasn’t going to be around for much longer. I had one pack of Type 80 film left and I decided I’d save it for something special. When that ‘special’ time came the film was just too long out of date and I ended up with a lot of black prints.

In 2008 Polaroid went on to announce that they were stopping production of all films by late 2008 or early 2009. At this point I sort of accepted defeat: Polaroid is going to the wall and at least I can say I had the chance to use integral film and pack film.

Then came my second wind. When helping clean out the darkroom at my old college I found an aging Polaroid Studio Express that was otherwise heading for the bin. I rescued it and brought it home, popped some batteries in and found it seemed to work. The Polaroid Studio Express is a Type 100 pack film camera and is used to take passport pictures, it produces 4 identical images on one print. I loaded in one of my long out of date packs of Polaroid Studio 125i and had a play. The results were a mixed bag some were out of focus and others had only half the number of images on one sheet that it should.

Finally I figured out to work the camera and with the help of 3 pieces of Blu-tak I could use the camera to take 4 different images on one print. Nice for recording events and places (albeit close up). And also for mini-typologies.

Soon after this new found love of Polaroid and especially after managing to buy a bulk pack of only just expired Studio 125i film on eBay, I decided to try out some other cameras. I ended up with a selection of 3 folding pack film cameras, models 101,210 and 330. The 101 is may favourite it can be mounted on a tripod and has a folding rangefinder for focusing. The first thing that drew me to the folding cameras was the styling they have a classic 60’s look and resemble some kind of old and new(for the time) hybrid, the below in particular have that old fashioned feel.

So for the last few months now I’ve taken the Polaroid 101 most places I’ve been and have started a long running project about Chat Moss in Greater Manchester, the aim is to document the changing face of Chat Moss and the development that is going on surrounding it.

Thornton Royal Observer Corps Post : Polaroid Studio Express

A North Yorkshire Road : Polaroid Studio Express

Imperial War Museum North : Polaroid 101

Imperial War Museum North : Polaroid 101

Chat Moss : Polaroid 101

Chat Moss  : Polaroid 101

Finally some links to Polaroid stuff, including the ‘impossible project’ that have taken over the old Polaroid Integral Film factory in the Netherlands and hope to resume production of film by January 2010.

Impossible Project

Polanoid

Polapremium

Save Polaroid

Chat Moss Polaroids

‘The Jet Engine’

Author: Rolls-Royce Technical Publications Department

Publisher: Rolls-Royce

ISBN: 0-902121-2-35

This is one of my favourite books, it satisfies the inner geek more than any other book I have ever come across. I bought it when I was studying aerospace engineering along with many other books, but nothing came close to this book for it’s attention to detail and clarity.

If you know nothing about jet engines or gas turbines as is the correct term(see I learnt something), then this is the book. The first chapters cover the basics of how and why a jet engine works, the there are chapters dedicated to breaking down the essential parts of the engine; compressors, combustion, turbines, exhaust systems etc. Then it gets more geeky.

Following on from the essentials there’s lubrication, internal air systems, the fuel system and ignition, starting and ignition, ice and fire protection thrust reversal. It goes on. Right through to manufacture, installation, maintenance and overhaul. There is also coverage of the other gas turbine based aero-engines; turboprop, turbo shaft and the other experimental types such as the Contra-Rotating Fan and Prop-Fan-Concept.

There is also a section dedicated to the mathematics of thrust and how it is calculated as well as calculating other forces. This is all backed by the finest Rolls-Royce diagrams and drawings. The language used is no more complicated than what it needs to be which I found a great help when studying as I didn’t find myself trying to understand words before I could understand what I was learning.

The other good thing is, you get to say you own a Rolls-Royce !