by Alistair Bruce, MSN Senior Content Manager
To commemorate the 70^th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, we’ve launched this feature which is a great example of how MSN, working with partners, uses Microsoft technology to tell stories in different ways and to bring them to life.

Firstly, the series contains a striking photo and document archive contained within one single image – the iconic shot of St Paul’s with London blazing in the background – which users can zoom into to see hundreds of compelling pictures from The Blitz in great detail. This Deep Zoom mosaic was built in Microsoft Silverlight and features images, captions and scans of original secret documents detailing the Luftwaffe’s bombing missions.

The second feature in the series is our custom-built ‘TimeMap’, an immersive educational application built in Microsoft Silverlight which overlays historical maps with those of the present day on a live Bing Maps Platform. Using the ‘TimeScope’ feature, Users can see historic German target allocation maps and original aerial reconnaissance photos belonging to The Imperial War Museum, showing the Luftwaffe’s bombing targets in London and Coventry from gas works and power stations to water works and docks.

Lastly, the guide also allows Users to explore three interactive PhotoSynth images of some of the aircraft that took part in the Battle of Britain, including the Hawker Hurricane I, the Supermarine Spitfire Mk Vb and the Heinkel He111 H-20.  Users can navigate around these images in a virtual tour to see these incredible planes from every angle.

http://news.uk.msn.com/in-depth/world-war-two/battle-of-britain/