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An artfully composed collection, centring on preparations for the Second Battle of El Alemein and its aftermath. The photographs document captured and destroyed Axis tanks and artillery, the advance eastwards to Tunis, and visits by Churchill and senior military figures. 285 Air Reconnaissance Wing was formed in July 1942 to oversee all reconnaissance in the Western Desert. The album opens in September-October 1942, when the Middle East Interpretation unit was operating near RAF Landing Ground 89, an important strip for bombing operations. Images from the battle - abandoned tanks and two eery night-time shots of firing artillery - are followed by evidence of his involvement in mid-November in the recapture of the strategic port of Tobruk, which had been surrendered to Rommel in June. Photographs show the advance of British trucks and traces of recent hostilities (an abandoned German tank and a destroyed bridge), as well as the subsequent Allied push towards Benghazi. Between January and March 1943, he was based out of RAF Castel-Benito, photographing the celebratory entrance into Tripoli. Press and snapshot photographs record Churchill's inspection tour at Berg-el-Arab in September 1942, accompanied by air vice-marshals Tedder and Coningham. Others document Coningham's visit to LG 89 on 20 October, his address to troops, his Fieseler Storch (captured from the Germans), and a seized Stuka dive bomber. Churchill, Montgomery, and General Freyberg thank the 8th Army at Castel-Benito in February 1943, General Giraud's visits Monastir in May, and Freyberg takes the surrenders of generals Giovanni Messe and Kurt Freiherr von Liebenstein in the same month. Further subjects are a funeral for pilots, conducted at LG 89 in August 1942, burial grounds for Axis soldiers, "war paint" on American Kitty Hawk fighters, and the trailer at Monastir where soldiers developed photographs. Landscape quarto album. With 327 gelatin silver photographs, mostly snapshot- to postcard-size (c. 50 x 80 mm to 90 x 130 mm), a few smaller or larger, all mounted on brown card leaves, fully captioned in calligraphic hand in white ink or later roller ball pen, decoration in colour. Brown card covers, tied through holes with light brown cord, front cover with manuscript title in yellow and white inks, manuscript 8th Army and RAF badges, gold highlights. Covers a little worn, one photograph now loosely inserted, photographs generally bright, occasional mirroring: very good indeed.
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