Soon after its January launch, an online database of more than 5 million WWII aerial reconnaissance images of Western Europe was besieged by surfers, preventing many from successfully logging on. "The Saturday before launch we were experiencing more than a halt-million hits over a two-hour period," says Allan Williams, who oversaw the digitization project at The Aerial Reconnaissance Archive (TARA) <www.evidenceincamera.co.uk>. TARA quickly planned a redesign, still underway at press time.

Allied pilots took the reconnaissance photographs of devastated cities, Nazi concentration camps, strategic geographic locations and battles in progress. TARA, part of Keele University in London, is the repository for the images, which Britain's national archives <www.nationalarchives.gov.uk> owns.