![ROYAL AIR FORCE — [Scrapbook with photographs. Iraq: 1941-1944 and Egypt: 1943-1945.]](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2017/CKS/2017_CKS_14301_0232_000(royal_air_force_scrapbook_with_photographs_iraq_1941-1944_and_egypt_19040107).jpg?w=1)
细节
ROYAL AIR FORCE — [Scrapbook with photographs. Iraq: 1941-1944 and Egypt: 1943-1945.]
Large number of original photographs depicting RAF activity in Iraq during the Second World War. The album starts with 6 images captioned ‘908 B[alloon] B[arrage] Squadron, Leyton and Wanstead 1939-1941’, and then continues with 56 images captioned ‘RAF Habbaniya Iraq 1941-1944’. Although no fighting is depicted, RAF Habbaniya was besieged during the Nationalist – and Axis-backed – coup d’etat of 1941. Lightly defended, the base was secured by troops including Assyrian Levies, a photograph of whom appears here. A further 19 photographs show general scenes of Baghdad, while 27 photographs concern the M[otor] T[ransport] Coach Section at Habbaniya. These latter includes an image of the ‘Monster Bus’, the Marmon-Herrington THD-315-6 with articulated omnibus trailer, used by the RAF for the 1,300-mile duty transport run between Habbaniya and Damascus, Syria. It carried 44 passengers and their luggage, was fully air-conditioned and was equipped with a kitchen, lavatory and iced water on tap. The photographer evidently travelled a good deal across the Middle East, with his photographs showing breakdowns in the Transjordan, and later his time with 128 M[aintenance] U[nit] RAF at Abu Sultan, Egypt (1943-1945). The album concludes with 8 images of Persia, with another photograph of a car embarking to Teheran, dated September 1942.
168 photographs (various sizes ranging from 90 x 140mm to 65 x 90mm), the vast majority original images taken by a member of the RAF, interspersed with a few tourist souvenir images of Bethlehem, Damascus, Haifa, Egypt and Persia, mounted on 10 leaves, quarto (286 x 240mm). Original card covers (rubbed and creased, some photographs with adhesion).
Large number of original photographs depicting RAF activity in Iraq during the Second World War. The album starts with 6 images captioned ‘908 B[alloon] B[arrage] Squadron, Leyton and Wanstead 1939-1941’, and then continues with 56 images captioned ‘RAF Habbaniya Iraq 1941-1944’. Although no fighting is depicted, RAF Habbaniya was besieged during the Nationalist – and Axis-backed – coup d’etat of 1941. Lightly defended, the base was secured by troops including Assyrian Levies, a photograph of whom appears here. A further 19 photographs show general scenes of Baghdad, while 27 photographs concern the M[otor] T[ransport] Coach Section at Habbaniya. These latter includes an image of the ‘Monster Bus’, the Marmon-Herrington THD-315-6 with articulated omnibus trailer, used by the RAF for the 1,300-mile duty transport run between Habbaniya and Damascus, Syria. It carried 44 passengers and their luggage, was fully air-conditioned and was equipped with a kitchen, lavatory and iced water on tap. The photographer evidently travelled a good deal across the Middle East, with his photographs showing breakdowns in the Transjordan, and later his time with 128 M[aintenance] U[nit] RAF at Abu Sultan, Egypt (1943-1945). The album concludes with 8 images of Persia, with another photograph of a car embarking to Teheran, dated September 1942.
168 photographs (various sizes ranging from 90 x 140mm to 65 x 90mm), the vast majority original images taken by a member of the RAF, interspersed with a few tourist souvenir images of Bethlehem, Damascus, Haifa, Egypt and Persia, mounted on 10 leaves, quarto (286 x 240mm). Original card covers (rubbed and creased, some photographs with adhesion).
荣誉呈献
Emily Pilling