In 1939 Imperial Japanese top brass ordered a fast reconnaissance platform with long range endurance of 6 hours. The Ki-46 was the result and at the time could outpace the fastest Japanese fighters but as faster American fighters like the P-38 came online it had to be upgraded supercharged and redesigned in an effort to keep up.

Earlier designs had one defensive machine gun which was soon eliminated to save weight and increase speed. When you’re faster than your pursuer you don’t stay around to fight over the photos you’ve just taken.

British planes in Burma had a hard time countering these fast, high altitude planes through there were some occasional interceptions. One notable example was by P-38 fighter ace Major Dick Bong over the coast of Papua New Guinea in late 1942.

Some PR aircraft weren’t so straight forward in their genesis though. The German Ju 86 began life as an airliner (though that’s maybe a somewhat dubious claim when the Nazi war machine was being prepared in the civilian sector with the “honestly that’s not bomb capacity that’s for mail bags” school of design.
Early field testing with the Condor Legion in the Spanish civil war proved the Ju 86 wasn’t the medium bomber they’d hoped for, the He 111 winning out on that front.
The Ju 86 was converted to transport duties but failed badly at that too and the survivors were relegated to training.
One variant that saw some success though was this Ju 86P- with longer wings and a pressurised cabin no guns and a crew of two these aircraft could reach an altitude of 49,000 ft where they were largely safe from enemy fighters.

This example is the paint scheme used when flying over Russia in July 1942. They operated successfully in both the photo reconnaissance and nuisance bombing role for some years over Britain, Russia and North Africa while Allied engineers developed high altitude interceptors to deal with them.

Once it was said that the RAF’s most valuable pilot was not some hotshot fighter ace or even the leader of a crack bomber squadron, but this guy, photo reconnaissance pilot Adrian Warburton. Based primarily in Malta during some of the hairiest times for the Mediterranean campaign this fearless and resourceful pilot would do absolutely anything to get the job done.

Early in his time at Malta Warburton flew this captured French Martin Maryland (an American plane sold to the French captured by the British and sent to Malta!) which, although designed as a light bomber, in the hands of the right pilot became an invaluable tool for aerial reconnaissance.

Warburton became something of a Malta legend through his unconventional and often highly aggressive methods. His planned photographic sweep of Taranto Harbour on was hampered by bad weather but unwilling to call it a bust he instead opted to fly in at mast-top level, ordering his crew to take notes with pencil and paper on the distribution of Italian ships, completing two passed the second (unsurprisingly) under heavy flack, in order to secure the vital intelligence needed for the subsequent raid.

So effective and indeed famous did his efforts become that he was even used as cover for other intelligence assets in the field in order to keep them secret.
“How did we come by these extremely close and detailed photographs of enemy installations? Do we have a man on the ground behind enemy lines?”
“Oh no old chap, it was our man Warby in his PR plane.” *Wink wink* but actually plausible enough.

On the 16 June 1943 pilot Captain Jay Zeamer's aircrew “The Eager Beavers” flew a solo photo recon mission in B-17 #41-2666, known as “Old 666” to map the west coast of Bougainville Island in support of an invasion planned for later in the year.

The mission earned pilot Cap Jay Zeamer and 2nd Lt. Joseph Sarnoski each a Medal of Honour and all other members of the aircrew the Distinguished Service Cross.

Having turned down the request to also photograph Buka Airdrome to the North of the Island they arrived on the west coast too early for light conditions to be any good for photos and so Zeamer and his crew decided to go kick the hornets nest and do the Buka Airdrome recon job anyway.

While the cameras rolled the newly arrived Zeros at Buka Airdrome scrambled into the air. But the crew of Old 666 were more than ready for them, having stripped the old B-17 of every scrap of dead weight they’d fitted no fewer than nineteen .50calibre machine guns! (A standard load out could be more like 13 .30 cals)

With the Buka Zeros climbing to meet them (mapping altitude at 25,000 feet) Zeamer had to fly the western coast line straight and level for 22 minutes to allow the cameras to record terrain. During this time the enemy planes made a series of attacks, their 20mm shells wrecking terrible damage on the nose of the plane leaving both pilot Zeamer and bombardier Sarnoski badly injured as well as navigator, 1st Lt. Ruby Johnston and Sgt. Johnny Able in the top gun turret. The B-17’s nose was left in tatters the hydraulics were shot and the oxygen system was in flames.

But Zeamer held his course and once the vital shots were in the can it was time to drop to a breathable altitude and beat it for home. The dogfight continued with the crew of Old 666 giving as good as they got surviving an estimated 40 minutes before the remaining Japanese fighters, low on fuel turned back to base.

The crew nursed the battered plane back to a hairy no-flaps landing at Dobodura on the eastern coast of Papua, New& Guinea securing the vital reconnaissance and importantly ensuring no other aircrew would have to take another stab at it.

One of the most successful PR platforms developed by the RAF was a modified Spitfire.

Removing all armament and fitting additional fuel tanks the Spitfire became a quick and nimble camera platform that could reach as far as Berlin if need be.

These nifty spies in the skies could operate at high medium or low altitudes and could be equipped with a variety of cameras depending on the types of images required including an oblique mounted camera on the port side for low level images such as the famous picture of the Würzburg radar at Bruneval or of the Tirpitz moored in Aasfjord, Norway.

This is a Spitfire of 16 Squadron, painted a very pale pink/white for low, cloud level reconnaissance. On 18 Sep 44 Wing Commander G.F.H. WEBB from HQ 34 Wing was flying Spitfire PL834 of 16 Squadron and captured the famous Aerial reconnaissance photo of the Armhem Road Bridge, showing signs of the British defence on the northern ramp and wrecked German vehicles from the previous day's fighting.

The photos could be an invaluable resource, however as the planning and execution of Market Garden might suggest you can take all the photos you want but it’s what you do with them that counts.