[MIDDLE EAST] [1948 ISRAEL-PALESTINE WAR] [ROYAL AIR FORCE] Monumental photo album of an R. A. F. pilot, containing hundreds of snapshots of Palestine, Iraq, Transjordan, and Cyprus during 1947-8

[Name withheld]

Edité par [various places], 1947

A propos de cet article

A full-to-bursting photograph album, bound in tan suede and string-bound, measuring about 13" x 9.5". 732 photographs on 89 album pages. Photographs vary in size, but are nearly all in the snapshot category, smaller than 4" x 4". The photographs are uniformly in excellent condition; nearly all of them are inserted into clear corner mounts. May of these mounts are aprtly torn or cracked, and the glue from the mounts has occasionally bled onto the photos, making them hard to lift. Nevertheless, the contents are very nearly displayed, and in near fine overall condition. The vast majority of photographs have captions, though many of these are inked on the versos of the snapshots. A smaller, but significant number of captions are neatly inked on the album leaves. At rear are ten leaves of ephemera and paperwork related to the compiler's service in the R. A. F., and some other souvenir ephemera, which is discussed in more detail below. The compiler has also added a brass R. A. F. badge and a small purple badge marked "Jerusalem," pinning these in the album exterior. PLEASE NOTE: Of the 732 photographs, perhaps as many as 35% are souvenir photographs (and some postcards), with many of these stamped on the verso with "Matson Company" copyright, or "Palphot." Despite the presence of a significant number of souvenir photographs mixed in, this is nevertheless an extraordinarily rich first-person account of hostilities around the time of the foundation of Israel, and of the landscape of the British military presence in the Middle East during this time. Most striking and important is a group of snapshots which capture the immediate aftermath of violence associated with the 1947-8 war between the nascent Israel and Palestine. While a couple of these are Matson photos (as described above; this would include the corner shot of the King David Hotel blast pictured here), the rest appear to be genuine snapshots taken by the compiler, who notes details about the damage and lives lost. For example, "5th August 1947. Civilian Labour Office Street of the Prophets Jerusalem. 2. P. P. [Palestine Police] killed." Another reads, "Terrorist car that bleu itself up in the Street of the Prophets 3 terrorists killed." Another album leaf contains a striking contrast, with eight snapshots of British soldiers horsing around on their base, with four snapshots of the March 1, 1947 attack by the Irgun on the Goldschmidt's Officer's Club (for British military officers; note that the compiler spells it "Goldsmith's"), which killed 18. There are a great number of more pastoral shots, capturing life outside Jerusalem and other cities, and, again, while a number of these are souvenir cards, more than half of them were cearly taken by the compiler. These include shots of the desert in then-Transjordan between the Jordan River and Amman, with some shots of Amman, as well as shots of Baghdad, Basra, Nicosia, Famagusta, and a few other places. Snapshots of markets in Baghdad, of farmers in rural Cyprus, and aerial snapshots taken from R. A. F. planes are present throughout. Several dozen shots of rural Iraq, including some oil fields, and one of a rugby match between Basrah Petroleum Co. employees and R. A. F. Station Shaibah enlistees are also pictured. The ephemera in the final album leaves contains several documents of note. Most striking and worthy of research is an otherwise ordinary "Guide Map of Jerusalem," which the compiler has annotated in several places, noting where car bombs or attacks were executed during the March 1947 martial law period in Jerusalem. While some of these (the Goldschmidt and King David Hotel bombings, for example) are well-documented, there are at least three car bombs noted here which may or may not be well-documented. A few other documents, including a transport visa, a temporary driver's license for Cyprus, and a swimming certificate (?) for the R. A. F. Habbaniya in Baghdad give a sense of the soldier's life outside of his experiences o.

N° de réf. du vendeur 8487

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: [MIDDLE EAST] [1948 ISRAEL-PALESTINE WAR] [ROYAL AIR FORCE] Monumental photo album of an R. A. F. pilot, containing hundreds of snapshots of Palestine, Iraq, Transjordan, and Cyprus during 1947-8
• Éditeur: [various places]
• Date de parution: 1947
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Middle East