PAUL FEARN

Why I started it

I started the Wartime Archive out of my own interest in military history. Researching anything meant working through one hard-to-use archive website after another, and I wanted a single place where the photographs, the maps and the papers could all be found together. It is run by PL Photography Limited, trading as Piemags, from Bridgend in Wales.

Key facts

Website
wartimearchive.com
Founded by
Paul Fearn, aviation photographer and founder of Piemags
Run by
PL Photography Limited, trading as Piemags, Bridgend, Wales
Period
Before the First World War to Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan
Licences
Editorial, publishing, broadcast, advertising and education, worldwide and non-exclusive
Image prices
Single-image licences from $12.99
Document prices
From $4.99 for a complete PDF
Prints
From a 6 × 4 in print at $6 to a 36 × 24 in framed print

From the archive

The photographs include the German army’s official pictures of the First World War with their original catalogue cards, Imperial German Navy postcards, the occupation press archive from Poland, the Rehse Archiv, more than 5,000 photographs by Cecil Beaton, and the US official photographs of the Eighth Air Force in England, D-Day and the campaigns that followed. The maps include the Lage Ost, the German army’s daily situation maps of the Eastern Front.

Eight Spitfires of No 610 Squadron flying in a stepped line above the clouds, 24 July 1940
Spitfires of No 610 Squadron, 24 July 1940Eight aircraft in a stepped line above the cloud, the squadron’s letters DW painted on the nearest three.
German Lage Ost situation map, southern sheet, 23 October 1943, showing the Crimea, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov
Lage Ost, sheet South, 23 October 1943The German army’s daily situation map. Soviet formations, marked in red, sit north of the Sea of Azov, with the Crimea below them.
Real-photo postcard of the German armoured cruiser SMS Seydlitz under way, smoke streaming from her funnels
SMS SeydlitzA real-photo postcard by Carstens of Hamburg, plate 3035. Smoke streams back over the ship as she moves through choppy water.
Ten crewmen of the 91st Bomb Group in flying jackets in front of a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress in England
A 91st Bomb Group crew, EnglandTen men in flying jackets in front of a B-17, six standing and four crouched. The print still has its typed header, War Theatre #12 (England), Crews.

Documents as complete PDFs

Orders, reports, manuals and official histories, each one the complete scan, page for page, as a searchable PDF.

Cover of Omaha Beachhead, published by the Historical Division of the US War Department, showing soldiers in a landing craft heading for the beach
Omaha Beachhead (6 June to 13 June 1944)Official history, Historical Division, War Department. 20 September 1945, 196 pages.$9.99
First page of Notes on Bastogne Operation, Headquarters Third United States Army, dated 16 January 1945
Notes on Bastogne OperationHeadquarters, Third United States Army, signed by G. S. Patton, Jr. 16 January 1945, 13 pages.$4.99
Cover of Speak Up for Victory, a handbook from the United States Office of Civilian Defense
Speak Up for VictoryHandbook, United States Office of Civilian Defense. September 1942, 7 pages.$4.99

Licences and prints

Every picture can be licensed for editorial, publishing, broadcast, advertising or educational use, with a full-resolution download and no watermark. Any photograph, map or postcard can also be printed to order on photographic lustre, Hahnemühle Photo Rag or German Etching paper, framed or unframed. Schools, colleges and universities can take a yearly subscription that covers every member of staff and every student.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Wartime Archive?

The Wartime Archive is an online picture library and document shop at wartimearchive.com. It holds more than 220,000 war photographs and maps and more than 18,000 wartime documents, from before the First World War to Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan. Each picture can be licensed or printed to order, and each document is sold as a complete PDF.

Who runs the Wartime Archive?

Paul Fearn, the aviation photographer who founded Piemags, started it out of his own interest in military history. It is run by PL Photography Limited, trading as Piemags, from Bridgend in Wales.

Are the photographs public domain, and what do you pay for?

Most of the originals are. Almost everything in the archive reproduces a photograph, map or document whose copyright has long expired, and no copyright is claimed in those originals. What you pay for is the high-resolution reproduction, the caption, date and keyword research attached to it, and its supply to you, under a worldwide, non-exclusive agreement.

How much does an image licence cost?

Single-image licences start at $12.99 for personal use and for newsletters and presentations. Online editorial use is $34.99, newspapers, magazines and books $44.99, and business licences $49.99 or $74.99. Every licence delivers the same full-resolution file with no watermark.

Can I buy prints?

Yes. Any photograph, map or postcard can be printed to order, from a 6 × 4 in photographic print at $6 to a 36 × 24 in framed print. You crop it the way you want it, choose from three papers and eight frame colours, and it is posted to any of 51 countries.

How are the documents supplied?

As complete PDFs, page for page, downloaded straight after payment, with prices from $4.99. They are orders, reports, manuals and official histories, supplied as searchable PDFs so the text can be read and searched. A few are free with an email address.

Can schools and universities subscribe?

Yes. Schools, colleges, universities and libraries can take one subscription a year that covers every member of staff and every enrolled student, anywhere in the world, at full teaching resolution. Everything added during the subscription year is included.

On wartimearchive.com

The archive
Every photograph and map, sixty to a page
Collections
Complete sets, from Operation Barbarossa to the Eighth Air Force
Documents
Wartime papers as complete PDFs
Prints
Sizes, papers, frames and postage
Licences
What each licence allows
Education
Subscriptions for schools, colleges and universities