My friend, I think you have really hit on something new here ... something that I have never considered before, anyway. You are so right - aerial photography can bring out a lot of details that can't be seen on the ground - even now, looking at Google Earth/Maps shows up features such as 8.8cm gun positions from flak batteries, that cannot at all be seen on the ground.Biber wrote:Geoff -
Regarding the first aerial reconnaissance photo taken of the Berghof after the bombing from your site, I just noticed that there seem to be a lot of shadows of paths, some of them quite sizeable, on the hillside behind the building. One extending from the end of the adjutancy and going up into the woods; another large one, almost like a road, going directly up the hill to the left of the bomb damage to the kitchen wing of the Berghof; and a very faint one going down the hill just beyond the right side of the terrace. Could these be ghosts of pathways from the original construction and renovation? It wouldn't surprise me if they were "ghosts" of previous trails/roads. Aerial photography has long revealed ghost images of ancient settlements most notably in Britain.
Odd that from that angle, almost directly overhead but not quite, the garage does not appear extended beyond the roofline. Was the roof overhang really that far out over the driveway? must have been.
Anyway, for sure, two of these three features that you pointed out match paths and/or fencelines that were previously there. The one that I cannot really match up is the one that appears to go downhill to the right of the garage/terrace. There does sometimes appear to be a faint path or something there in postcard views of the front of the Berghof, but I can't find anything definite there on earlier photos or maps.
The feature running up behind the Adjutancy was a double fenceline (I drew a red line along here in the photo below). I don't know if this was a guard path, or a dog run, or what - it was associated with a dog kennel just behind the Adjutancy (doesn't show on this map, which is printed upsidedown to match the aerial view), so maybe it was some sort of odd narrow dog run.
The one that intrigues me the most, which I think is a great "detective find," is the ghost path running up the hillside behind the kitchen wing of the Berghof. This most certainly seems to me to be the trace of a fenceline that was there in the early 1930s, before the Berghof was built (or very close, anyway). After scrutinizing this photo, I really think this fenceline was the original property boundary of the Türken. To add a driveway and garage to Haus Wachenfeld, Hitler wanted to buy the necessary land from Karl Schuster (owner of the Türken, and Frau Scharfenberg's grandfather), because the Türken property line went over close to Haus Wachenfeld. Schuster wouldn't sell, but he allowed Hitler to use this land for the driveway. After Schuster and his family were ousted from the Türken and the place was taken over by the RSD, this fenceline was moved and then later eliminated. But as Biber saw, its location could apparently still be seen from the air in 1945. Great find! (I arrowed this fenceline in the view below, along with the curving path that ran to that little hut behind Haus Wachenfeld.)
Oh, I almost forgot - yes, the Berghof roof had a large overhang out over the driveway, just about the width of the garage/terrace.