The 20th PID Book combines original photographs, reports, maps, and memories with modern context to illuminate the vital work of WWII photo interpreters. What did the original 1945 volume mean to your father, Lt. William J. Snodden, and to your family?

I can’t remember my dad ever talking about his experiences during the war when I was growing up. It was only when he was in his late 80s, and I asked him specifically about those years, that he pulled out his military papers and this commemorative album. That day was the first time I heard about his work as a photo interpreter. Dad was never one to show his feelings, but as I watched him reverently page through the book, I could tell how meaningful that time was for him. My mom was a master declutterer, and as they moved from their family home to increasingly smaller senior apartments, she was ruthless. The fact that the album and his military records survived those repeated purges testifies to how important they were to him.

In 2019, a few months before he died, we donated the album to the Arizona Commemorative Air Force Museum in Mesa, Arizona. It was hard for him to give it up, but he was clearly glad to see it in a place where it would be preserved for future generations. I know he’d be pleased that I’m now making its contents available to people outside the museum.

What was the role of the 20th Photo Intelligence Detachment during World War II, and why do you think the work of photo interpreters remained relatively unfamiliar compared with other forms of wartime intelligence?

When I’d mention the book to friends as I was working on it, their first question was always, “Oh, was your dad a pilot?” The pilots who took the aerial photos have received a lot of well-deserved attention in history, but without the men developing and interpreting those photos, all of that information would have been for naught.

With each sortie, the reconnaissance pilots came back with hundreds of images. The PIs often worked throughout the night, first developing the photos and then, hunched over tables and peering through stereoscopes at minute images, identifying potential bombing targets, assessing whether attacks had successfully destroyed those targets, and annotating photographs before summarizing their findings in typed reports. As many as a hundred copies of a report could then be produced for distribution to commanders. During the height of the war, all of this was accomplished in less than twelve hours!

On the surface, the work of the PIs might appear dull and isn’t likely to attract the attention of a major motion picture studio. Their success wasn’t dramatic or especially visible—their product was intelligence. Pilots flew dangerous missions in recognizable aircraft; PIs worked behind tables with stereoscopes, pencils, photographs, and typewriters. One photographs beautifully. The other doesn’t. Yet both were part of the same intelligence chain. Accurate and timely tactical intelligence allowed commanders to make the best use of their resources, disrupt German activity, and ultimately save resources and lives.

The original book contains humor, cartoons, personal memories, and photographs alongside technical intelligence. Why was preserving their personalities and everyday experiences as important as documenting their military work?

This album was created just before the men were released from duty. It was created by the men of the unit, for the men of the unit. It shows us how they chose to remember that time in their lives and could also serve as a way to share their wartime experiences with family and friends. By adding humor and cartoons, they turned their work into stories.

The route map, in particular, contains more than 30 vignettes of locations and events throughout Europe. Some pertain to large-scale wartime events, like the liberation of Paris, while others show experiences specific to the 20th PID, like their crossing of the English Channel in a small boat stuffed to the gills with soldiers, a jeep precariously balanced on the bow, and a nearby periscope watching from the deep.

An ex-soldier could use that tiny drawing as a prompt: “Oh, let me tell you about THAT day!”

Eighty years after the original book was created, what do you hope publishing this restored edition preserves for the next eighty years?

Most, if not all, of the men in the 20th PID are now gone. This book is a uniquely creative artifact documenting firsthand their work and experiences during the war. I would like future generations to know of their contributions through the men of the unit themselves.

The book also has a place in military history. Although aerial photo interpretation had been used before WWII, during the war it became increasingly sophisticated and systematic and was integrated into fast-moving tactical operations.

What makes this book unusual is that we don’t have to reconstruct that process eighty years later. The men themselves left us the photographs they examined, the reports they produced, the maps they used, the cartoons they drew, and their own explanation of what they did.

My hope is that eighty years from now, another reader can open this book and still hear their voices.

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