This page discusses World War II aerial photos taken by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and provided on-line by the Geo-spatial Digital Archive Project (GDAP) in its Williams-Hunt Aerial Photograph Digital Collection.1
The Williams-Hunt collection has aerial photo coverage on two different dates for Chiang Mai:((N18°47.30
E98°59.15 Source: Google Earth fix on apparent center of town.))2
Photomosaic No. 1
The area around Chiang Mai outlined above in yellow was recorded in sixteen RAF aerial photos taken on 03 April 1944:3
A higher resolution image is available for download here.
The following GDAP images were used in the above photomosaic:((The files used here are 1024 KB. Downloading the files which are designated “[full size]” requires a special request form to be emailed to the Head, GDAP. Mosaic has been reoriented so that its north is to the top of the page.))
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arranged approximately like this, using manual fitting only:((Drawn with Microsoft Publisher by author.))
Photomosaic No. 2
An alternate mosaic, as outlined in blue on the site map above, was assembled by Allied intelligence on 15 November 1943:4
A higher resolution image is available for download here.
The following GDAP image was the source for the above photomosaic:((The file used here is 1024 KB. Downloading files which are designated “[full size]” requires a special request form to be emailed to the Head, GDAP.))
GDAP, the source of these photos, has asked that the following information be included regarding the aerial imagery shown above:
- Williams-Hunt Aerial Photos Collection
- Original from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London
- Digital Data from Center for Southeast Asia Studies (CSEAS), Kyoto University
- Digital Archive from Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy (CRMA), Thailand
| First published on Internet | ||
Last Updated on 29 February 2024
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The collection and its origin are described in detail in:
Lertlum, PhD, Col Surat, and Dr Elizabeth Moore, Williams-Hunt Aerial Photograph Collection, (undated); available as here linked.
Moore, Elizabeth, The Williams-Hunt Collection, Sari – International Journal of the Malay World and Civilisation, 27(2)(2009), pp 265-284.
Periasamy, Makeswary, “A View from the Top“, biblioasia, 5(1) (Apr 2009), pp 38-42. [↩]
- “Terrain” map from Nations Online Project: Searchable Map and Satellite View of Thailand using Google Earth Data. Annotation (red & blue colored items) placed with PhotoShop by author. [↩]
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The aerial photos could not be joined with Microsoft ICE (Image Composition Editor), so the images were assembled manually. As a result, to speed the process, since there was extensive overlapping, some file images were not used. Which is to say, only eight of the sixteen total photos were used. Mosaic has been oriented so that its north points to the top of the page. [↩]
- Allied-generated mosaic has been oriented so that its north is to the top of the page. [↩]
