[WITH MS MAP] First WW aerial reconnaissance photo. of the area around Passchendaele during the 3rd Battle of Ypres, and intelligence map of the same area, with manuscript plan of the Honnecourt Wood and Lempire-Ronssoy area in pencil on reverse.

Printed on a piece of card, roughly 50 x 22 cm., with the photographic side shiny and the reverse carrying the manuscript plan matt. In fair condition, folded four times and lightly aged, worn and chipped. The whole of the one side comprises a single photographic print, with 'Reproduced & Printed by No 5 Advanced Section AP & SS' at the foot. The upper part of this print reproduces an aerial photograph, roughly 15 x 22 cm, with six positions indicated: 'Kansas Cross', 'Gravenstafel', 'Passchendaele', 'Otto FM. D. 15a', 'Delva FM. D20a' and 'Moorslede'; beneath this, at ninety degrees, is a 20 x 30 cm map of sectors 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 25 and 26, with all but 8, 25 and 26 placed within a four-sided border. Covering almost the whole of the reverse, and beneath the No. 105 Machine Gun Company stamp, is a pencil plan, clearly made by a British Army officer, of the Honnecourt Wood and Lempire-Ronssoy area, with the 'Bellicourt Road' at the foot and the 'Three Willows Road' at the head. Features include: 'Limerick Post', 'Kildare Post', 'Putney', 'Birdcage', 'Sanbag [sic]', 'Knoll', 'Grafton Post', 'Tombois Road'. No. 105 Machine Gun Company were part of 35th Division, and took part in the fighting for the Broenbeek, 13 to 23 October 1917. No evidence of anything similar in the Imperial War Museum or elsewhere.