The British spy who captured recently revealed photographs of Adolf Hitler used a Kodak No. 2 Folding Autographic Brownie, Amateur Photographer (AP) magazine has learned.
The photographs were taken in July 1939 by secret agent Charles Turner, a part-time musician who was not a professional photographer.
Turner, like Hitler, was a regular at the Wagner Festival in the Bavarian town of Bayreuth, giving him unprecedented access to the Fuhrer, reports the Nottingham Evening Post which was given first access to the pictures by the spy?s son David.
The spy is understood to have chatted to Hitler and other members of the Third Reich during the festival.
The Kodak Brownie model Turner is believed to have used was made from 1915 to 1926.
?He had the freedom to take whatever photographs he liked when he was invited to join the Fuhrer?s entourage for the day,? adds the Post?s article.
Charles Turner, who died in 1977, is reported to have regarded the images as a souvenir and his family subsequently treated them as an ?intimate family matter?.
AP has learned that the pictures only came to light after a chance conversation between David Turner and a Nottingham Evening Post journalist.
David had contacted the editor of the newspaper?s ?Bygones? section while researching his local neighbourhood and family history when the pictures cropped up during the discussion.
? International interest sparked by the newly-released images has meant David Turner is reluctant to authorise publication of them on websites. David fears that many will end up being published on the internet without consent having been sought. AP’s news editor Chris Cheesman tracked down David for a news article which will appear along with some of the Hitler photographs in an upcoming issue
