Photo-shoot

Photo-shoot - painting by Graham Turner

From Studio 88:

A BE2e flies over the Western Front on a photo-reconnaissance mission, the pilot operating the lever that would change the glass negative plates in externally mounted C-type camera, while the observer struggles to aim his Lewis gun.

The BE2 was designed as a stable observation platform before the role of the aeroplane in warfare had been properly understood, so was originally completely unarmed. Various rather ‘Heath-Robinson’ gun-mounting brackets were adopted to try to remedy this, but the basic problem of the observer’s very restricted position among the struts and wires can clearly be seen. (Note the alternative gun mounting attached to one of the forward struts. Countless BE2 crews were shot down and killed whilst bravely flying over enemy lines to bring back vital photographs of troop movements, trenches, artillery positions, and other crucial information.