Mediterranean Allied Photo Reconnaissance Wing (MAPRW)

Royal Air Force (RAF) / South African Air Force (SAAF) / United States Army Air Force (USAAF) vertical and oblique aerial reconnaissance prints mostly covering locations in the Mediterranean region during the Second World War (1939-1945) and associated paper sortie plots.

The Mediterranean Allied Photo Reconnaissance Wing (MAPRW) was the reconnaissance and intelligence arm of the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces (MAAF). These had previously been known as Northwest African Photographic Reconnaissance Wing (NAPRW) and Northwest African Air Forces (NAAF) respectively until renamed in December 1943.

Closed. No finding aids available. Imagery can only currently be located with knowledge of exact sortie references - no searches for a geographical location currently possible. Related intelligence records with information on geographical areas covered / sortie references are held by The National Archives.

None.

Aerial prints. Prints are mostly 9.5 x 19 inches (236 x 474mm) / 9 x 9 inches (229 x 229mm).

Standard RCAHMS licence terms for use apply.

After the Second World War the imagery was transferred to the British School at Rome (BSR). At an unknown later date the collection was transferred to the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford University and then in the early 1980s to Keele University. In 2008 it was transferred under a joint initiative between the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), The National Archives and Keele University to RCAHMS.

Original MAPRW imagery is also held by:

• Italian National Archives (ICCD), Via di S.Michele 18, 00153, Roma, Italy.

Related intelligence records are held by:

• The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 4DU. T: 020 8876 3444