A May 1945 ad in Popular Photography for the Speed-Graphic and other Graflex cameras.
Toronto. My friend George Dunbar enjoys browsing the web in search of photographic memorabilia. He recently discovered this Popular Photography for May, 1945 advertisement for a Speed-Graphic. The camera caught the effect of a V1 buzz bomb or doodlebug on a building in southern England. The V2 version of these bombs or rockets (German V2 rocket) arrived fairly late in the war. Both the V1 and V2 managed to do some devastating damage when they connected across the channel (the south eastern English coast was mostly hit by V1s).
Ironically, the war in Europe ended that May when Germany surrendered. This camera ad was prepared months earlier while the war was still underway although nearing its last days.
Note: The move from V1s to V2s took place late in 1944, so either the ad photo was taken before late 1944 and not released at the time, or the building was hit by a V2 rocket.
The design of the V2 led to the space accomplishments by the Americans a decade or two later. Like all good ads, it suggests it was the camera that made the excellent photograph…
