3D Spies of WWII

By the summer of 1940, England was essentially the last nation standing in opposition to Nazi Germany. Although the Third Reich hoped to win a quick air war as a prelude to a land invasion, the British still had a few innovative responses left, including the assembling of a team of photography experts at a country estate outside London to work on 3D photography aimed at sizing up German targets. Aired on PBS, this NOVA documentary describes the efforts of photo interpreters who worked day and night studying what resembled "gigantic jigsaw puzzles." British Spitfire airplanes armed with cameras instead of weapons would fly deep into occupied territory to identify targets and establish bombing priorities. Featuring commentary from experts who explain how 3D photos helped establish precision air strikes, 3D Spies of WWII also looks at the Nazi underground rocket system that could purportedly bomb England from hundreds of miles away; after scouring pictures, specialists successfully convinced a skeptical government of the threat that V1 and V2 rockets posed, possibly interfering with plans for D-Day (although this proved to be a footnote in the war when troopers overran the missile sites). An informative look at a little remembered chapter in the conflict, this is recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (S. Rees)