Google Earth 1945

[AY Mod]

Someone's just gone and robbed me of loads of time; and it's brilliant.

 

I was tipped off that in Google Earth now there's a 1945 layer where you can slide the timeline back and see loads of aerial coverage from 1940 and 1945 covering London, Kent, the West Midlands, the Isle of Wight parts of Cheshire, Tyneside, South Wales, Exeter and bits of the Central Belt with other odd bits scattered around.

 

I may be gone some time.

 

[johndon]

The option to go back to 1945 has been in the PC desktop version of Google Earth for at least 5 years now 

 

 

[melmerby]

It's certainly been on my Google Earth Pro for a while.

 

[AY Mod]

Well I'll blame you both for not telling me before. 

[melmerby]

Unfortunately the registration isn't always accurate as in this snip of around Vauxhall, Birmingham

The new building is shown over the track to Aston, whereas it should be where the old one to it's bottom right is:

 

 

EDIT

It's the historical view of the LH side of the page which is wrong, it needs to go up & left somewhat, the buildings on the old Saltley Shed site to the right are more or less correct

Edited November 2, 2020 by melmerby

[Captain Kernow]

How can non-Owsla get Google Earth Pro, please, it's not on the bog standard version!

 

[melmerby]

4 minutes ago, Captain Kernow said:

How can non-Owsla get Google Earth Pro, please, it's not on the bog standard version!

 

Just type google earth pro in a search box. Then download & install it.

It is a different program, not a browser add-on like the standard version

 

EDIt

Edited November 2, 2020 by melmerby

[Captain Kernow]

1 minute ago, melmerby said:

Just type google earth pro in a search box. Then download & install it.

It is a program, not a browser add-on like the standard version

Thanks, but does it require payment to download, please?

 

[melmerby]

Just now, Captain Kernow said:

Thanks, but does it require payment to download, please?

 

No. It's free like the normal one.

[Captain Kernow]

Many thanks.

 

The download may be free, but the extra time the perusing of same will take up will almost certainly have a cost!

 

[melmerby]

1 minute ago, Captain Kernow said:

Many thanks.

 

The download may be free, but the extra time the perusing of same will take up will almost certainly have a cost!

 

Yep.

There's a lot more to it, you'll keep finding things in the menus.

[Nearholmer]

Is this based on the same aerial photos that are available via ‘Britain from Above’, or is it interpolated map data, or ???

 

I ask because I use the combination of NLS Maps and BfA to achieve much the same.

[melmerby]

10 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Is this based on the same aerial photos that are available via ‘Britain from Above’, or is it interpolated map data, or ???

 

I ask because I use the combination of NLS Maps and BfA to achieve much the same.

I would guess so. but it's possibly more versatile.

 

If people like faffing with geography etc. try this:

https://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/

 

EDIT

Just found out Worldwind has changed, it used to be a straightforward Windows program but seems to be jusd builder tools now!

 

Edited November 2, 2020 by melmerby

[Damo666]

I believe that the ability to download higher resolution images is also only available on the Pro version.

 

Regardless of your computer monitor, you can save images beyond 4K resolution (4,800 x 3011)

 

(Sorry, I cannot check the vanilla version, haven't got that any more).

[maico]

1 hour ago, johndon said:

The option to go back to 1945 has been in the PC desktop version of Google Earth for at least 5 years now 

 

 

 

That's true but something I've just found out recently is if you zoom in and go horizontal before it trips into Streetview you can move along railway lines at track level. These images can be quite crude but are often not angles you can get from Streetview. This 3D representation appears to be based on aircraft low-level imaging, not satellite-based. You can see the back of Caledonian Road station for instance, from the lower level where the mainline track was removed.

You can rotate the image and see the graphitee on all 4 sides of the pillars from ground level !

 

If you go through a tunnel and flip-up you come out at the surface and can see line representations of building structures above the tunnel.

You can also zoom through the back of high rise buildings and get an approximation of the view out of the widows.

 

 

Edited November 2, 2020 by maico

[Ian Smeeton]

44 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Is this based on the same aerial photos that are available via ‘Britain from Above’, or is it interpolated map data, or ???

 

I ask because I use the combination of NLS Maps and BfA to achieve much the same.

 

Mostly Luftwaffe pre town planning improvements meetings.

 

Regards

 

Ian

[Kris]

Parts of Wiltshire are shown. A few years back I worked out pretty much the month when the area around Westbury was photographed. 

[Bucoops]

2 hours ago, Ian Smeeton said:

 

Mostly Luftwaffe pre town planning improvements meetings.

 

Regards

 

Ian

 

It's not funny because it's true!

[figworthy]

I've been looking at the 1945 coverage for some time, and I take the date with a substantial pinch of salt.

 

There are places that I know had airfields by that date, but they are not visible (I doubt that they were all that well camouflaged), on the other hand, there are some prefab houses that appear just down the road from me, and talking to one of my late neighbours who lived in one of them, they were post 1945 (but not by much).

 

Adrian

[RedgateModels]

Oh now you lot have done it, there goes my productivity at work .......

[Tim Hall]

Try this:

Side by side modern views and a selection of maps from different eras. From National library of Scotland:

 

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=5&lat=56.00000&lon=-4.00000&layers=1&right=BingHyb

 

May need to copy and paste link rather than click on it.

 

 

[melmerby]

5 minutes ago, Tim Hall said:

Try this:

Side by side modern views and a selection of maps from different eras. From National library of Scotland:

 

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=5&lat=56.00000&lon=-4.00000&layers=1&right=BingHyb

 

May need to copy and paste link rather than click on it.

 

 

I suspect most on here already use that.

I certainly do, unfortunately only early 25" maps are used in that scale.

I would like later (maybe 1940s-50s?) as a choice

[Tim Hall]

2 minutes ago, melmerby said:

I suspect most on here already use that.

I certainly do, unfortunately only early 25" maps are used in that scale.

I would like later (maybe 1940s-50s?) as a choice

Fair enough, I'll shuffle off then.....

[melmerby]

16 minutes ago, Tim Hall said:

Fair enough, I'll shuffle off then.....

Don't take the hump!

[Tim Hall]

1 hour ago, melmerby said:

Don't take the hump!

I won't. There's far bigger things going on in the world....