Paiforce (8 results)

Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. Pale green card staple-bound wraps 11x15cm, illustrated to the front with map to the back. 46pp including 2 full-page maps, (2)pp adverts, with additional adverts inside wraps. Wraps very good with tear around the staple. Interiors very good, tanned, with some marks, creasing to a few corners, and closed tear to p23/4. This was prepared and published by the Welfare Committee of the Persia and Iraq Force (PAIForce) General HQ; undated, but Paiforce was approved in August 1942, and its GHQ established in Baghdad in September. It opens with Seton Lloyd's potted history "The Story of Iraq" (reprinted from "Maps of Iraq with Notes for Visitors", 1929). Most of it however contains practical advice covering the SSAFA (Soldier's, Sailor's and Airmen's Families Association), legal aid, clubs and hostels (in Baghdad, Ashar, Shueiba, Hillah, Musaiyib, Margil, Mosul, and Kirkuk), education (PAIForce's Army Education Corps aiming to develop interests servicemen hope to pursue in civilian life), sport (by "Commentator" at the Iraq Times), tours by the Baghdad YMCA, advice on writing home, music, PAIForce paper "Trunk Call", NAAFI (Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes), entertainment, churches (in Iraq and Bahrain), currency, and health. The 3 maps include Places of Interest in Iraq, Baghdad and Environs, and Baghdad Amenities Area. The latter shows 27 locations along both sides of the Tigris bounded by the King Faisal Statue (NW) and YMCA (SE). The adverts feature several well known local hotels and suppliers. Extremely rare institutionally, unrecorded on Worldcat and Library Hub.

Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. Original staple bound printed wraps 12x18cm. Printed by Printing and Stationery Services, Paiforce. 17pp guide with 2 b/w photos in-text, and a large colour folding map bound in at the end. Covers and pages very good, spotted and lightly creased. Map very good, neatly folded with closed fold tear, and as usual cropped to the bottom left corner to facilitate folding into the binding, with a little loss to its border. Very rare institutionally, with one copy located at the Imperial War Museum. Headquartered in Baghdad, Paiforce was formed in 1942 to protect British oil interests in the Gulf, and work with the US Army's Persian Gulf Command (PGC) to supply the USSR via the Persian Corridor. Its Leave Convoy coordinated its leave arrangements. Seton Lloyd (1902-96), Archaeological Adviser to the Iraqi Directorate of Antiquities, had helped to establish the Iraq Museum. In 3 parts, the first describes the route taking in the State Agricultural Farm, Falluja, Habbaniya, Majora Escape, Rutba and the Haifa oil pipeline, Mafraq via Deraa to Damascus, Damascus, Damascus to Beirut, and Beirut. Part 2 contains Lloyd's history and description of the Syrian Desert covering Badia, the Bedouin, protection money, bazaars, Damascus, and sightseeing. The final part describes the building of the Haifa to Baghdad road. The map, 60x49cm titled "Baghdad-Beyrouth", was compiled and drawn in 1941 by the First Indian Field Survey Company, and reproduced with additions in August 1944 by the PGC's 83rd Replacement Group (Intelligence / Engineering). Centred on Rutba and Habbaniya, it is bounded by Aleppo (NW), Zenjan (NE), Abadan and Kuwait (SE), and Aqaba (SW) on a scale of 1 inch to 40 miles. The Leave Convoy route shown in green joins the Haifa branch of the Iraq Petroleum Company's pipeline at Rutba, following it as far as Mafraq before heading north through the Jebel Ed Druz to Damascus. Details include settlements, international boundaries, other routes and pipelines including the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company's pipeline at Khanaqin.

Soft cover. Condition: Good. "The information contained in this pamphlet is based on experience of operating eight GPT Coys RIASC [General Purpose Transport Companies, Royal Indian Army Service Corps] under Command of a HQ L of C [Line of Communication] Transport Column RASC [Royal Army Service Corps] on the 'Aid to Russia' route through Persia". Original black printed white wraps 15x20cm. Printed by Printing and Stationery Services, Paiforce. (2), 19pp including 10 b/w photos taken along the route, complete with b/w folding map (a second copy of this same map is bound in presumably in error). Good with chip to the lower edge of the front wrap (not affecting titles), light creasing and some foxing to the interiors. Map neatly folded. The previous owner, a Captain Rose, has written his name neatly to the front. Extremely rare, with Worldcat locating only 1 institutional copy (OCLC 1385347825: UP enn); not recorded by Library Hub. This describes the British Army Persia and Iraq Force (Paiforce) contribution to building and running one of the major aid routes to Russia during WW2. It formed part of the Persian Corridor, built and operated with the US Persian Gulf Command, which used it to deliver Lend-Lease supplies. Built at short notice while Germany was threatening the Caucasus, it involved shipping supplies to the Gulf via the Cape of Good Hope, and proved more reliable than the Arctic and Pacific routes. Paiforce was based in Baghdad with Company HQs at Khanaqin. Dated November 1944 from the map, this was apparently issued to inform ongoing operations. It details the hastily built organisation "to meet the abnormal conditions of the route". The challenges were huge, with the unnamed author noting that "Staging and other facilities on the route were at first almost nil, and repair facilities were available at only two points --- and in view of the lack of medical units en route, the first convoys were accompanied by a MO [Medical Officer] and an ambulance car" (p1). The convoy travelled 688 miles from the Southern Terminal at Khanaqin to the Northern Terminal at Tabriz, which connected with the railway to the Soviet border. Its Road Staging Posts were at Kermanshah, Hamzahabad, Hamadan, Manian, Takestan, Zanjan, and Miyaneh. The Introduction gives a general description, summarising major challenges including terrain and road building; weather extremes (-10 to 125F, blazing sun, dust storms, heavy snow, blizzards, tropical intensity rain and floods); different administrations traversed (Iraq and Persia under British and Russian control), traffic control (divided between the US, British and Russians coordinated by a Highway Traffic Committee); and administrative arrangements. The chapters detail Organisation, Operation, Maintenance, Recovery, Communications, Staging Posts, Rations, POL (petroleum, oil, lubricants), Clothing, Vehicles, and Topography. The photos were taken in the desert 10 miles from Khanaqin, and at Paitak-Karind Road, Bisitun Plane, Aveh Pass, Qizil Uzun, Kuh-i-Sahand, and Shibli Pass, indicating their mileages from the Southern Terminal. The map, approx 40 miles to 1 inch, prepared by 83 Reproduction Group I.E. in August 1944, is here reprinted by them in November. It shows the entire convoy route with railways (metre and 5 ft gauges) and passes with heights. Notes for each Road Staging Post identify Hospital or Medical Post with MO, Medical Post without MO, Recovery Detachment, Workshop, POL Reserve Rations, and mileage from the Southern Terminal.

Soft cover. Condition: Good. Three cards sent from Holly to Cfn. W.R. Holcombe, 542 W/Shop Coy REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers). Conditions good, a little dusted. (1) Paiforce Xmas postcard 13x10cm with oasis scene to the front and warmly affectionate ms message to the back, undated. (2) and (3) MEF 1945 Xmas cards 15x10cm reproduced and printed by 512 Field Survey Coy, RE. One has emblems bordering the Xmas message to the front (Palestine, BTE, PAIC, Cyreaica, Tripolitania, Sudan, Dodecanese, Aden, N. Levant), the other a map of the Middle East and North Africa with these emblems located on the map. The ms message inside each is exactly the same ("just a little Xmas Souvenir as it is the last which we will spend apart my Darling"), perhaps sending twice to increase the chances of it reaching its destination.

12mo. 46, (2) pp. (ads). With full-page maps of Iraq and Baghdad and map of Baghdad amenities area on back cover. Original illustrated wrappers, stapled. First edition. An extremely rare guide to Iraq, produced for members of Paiforce (Persia and Iraq Force). It covers the expected subjects of health, hostels, clubs, sports and tours but also aims to instill a degree of cultural and historical awareness, principally with Seton Lloyd's short history of the country. Lloyd was the curator of the Baghdad Museum at the time, an institution mentioned in the guide as home to "astonishingly beautiful specimens of early Sumerian art, and the whole of Iraq's history . within well laid out rooms" (p. 23). - Less routine sections highlight Trunk Call (the Paiforce paper) and list Christian churches in Iraq and Bahrain. The advertisements, acting as front and rear endpapers, give a sense of the establishments catering to the troops, including an advert for a shopping centre belonging to the Hasso Brothers, who issued many fascinating photographic postcards of Iraq. - A few small stains to wrappers, a little dusty, otherwise very good. Rare, with no copies in Copac/Jisc or OCLC. We have only been able to trace one example, located at the Imperial War Museum.

8vo. (2), 17 pp., final blank page. With 2 half-tone photographs in the text and a folding map of the area between Baghdad and Beirut. Staple-bound. In original printed wrappers. Exceedingly rare pocket-booklet of leave instructions issued to members of the Persia and Iraq Force during the Second World War, "in the hope that it will help [them] to understand the type of country and the places [they] will see on [their] journey" (first page). Subdivided into three sections, the first part of the booklet describes the route taken by the leave convoy from Baghdad via Fallujah, Habbaniyah, Ar-Rutba, Mafraq and Damascus to Beirut, deeming the last portion from Damascus "by far the most picturesque part of the route" (p. 4), and finishing off with a photograph of people relaxing on the beach. The second section comprises a history of Damascus and the Syrian desert by Seton Lloyd (1902-96), who had been appointed archaeology adviser to the Directorate of Antiquities, Baghdad, in 1939, and during the war "was able to conduct some notable research, principally the excavation of the painted temple at Uqair and later of Tell Hassuna, where he identified a new culture - and the earliest known - in Iraq" (obituary, Independent, 13 Jan. 1996). The third and last section discusses the construction of the Baghdad to Haifa road by the British between 1938 and 1943. - General Edward Quinan's Iraq Command (originally Iraq Force) was renamed Persia and Iraq Force (Paiforce) shortly after the successful Anglo-Soviet invasion of Persia in August 1941. The main responsibilities of Paiforce were to protect the Iraqi and South Persian oil fields and to maintain the lines of communication from British-controlled ports on the Persian Gulf to the Soviet ports on the Caspian. A dedicated Persia and Iraq Command was established under Sir Maitland Wilson in August 1942, though victory in the Western Desert Campaign combined with series of Soviet victories in southern Russia meant that Paiforce activities began to be wound down from mid-1943. The folding map to the rear of this booklet provides a detailed overview of the vital infrastructure roads and oil pipelines which they were tasked with defending. - Mended tear to upper cover; traces of folds and a little soiled. Handwritten numbers in orange crayon to lower cover. The interior with traces of a vertical fold throughout, resulting from the pages resting on the rim of the folding map; margins slightly creased. Map somewhat foxed. An uncommon survival, with only the Imperial War Museum copy traceable in institutions. - Not in OCLC.

All one page, 20 x 33cms, some stained but texts clear and complate. 1. Index map of Iraq and Iran for a 1:100,000 scale survey series produced by the British military command PAIFORCE during World War II. All 20 x 32.5cm, a couple sl. stained, mainly good condition.1.Four Index maps of Iraq and Iran ¼ series I.D.R./X.D.R./G.S.G.S. 9002 | 3919, nos. 1-42.Index map of Iraq and Iran for a 1:100,000 scale survey series produced by the British military command PAIFORCE during World War II. Index Map of 'Ir?q ?r?n 1:100,000 Series, I.D.R. 9003'.3.Four Index Maps of places/areas of IRAN:a. Ahwaz, 1:10,000 series 1D MISC/563 to 573 (stamped 11 June 1944)b. Askaran (and Sanandaj) N.W. 1:25,000 series 9005 (stamped 25 June 1944)c. Gach-I-Sar 1:50,000 series (stamped 11 June 1944)d. Khurramshahr [Abandan] 1:12,500 series4.Six Index Maps of places/areas of IRAQ, all 1:25,000 series ID 9005:a. Ba'qubab. Faidahc. Haffad. Hindiyae. Falluja f. MoselNo reference to other copies yet found.

11 pp. Re-stapled paper. A detailed war-time newsletter from the Middle East, relaying through the soldier's wives at home the regiment's movements at the front for family members back in the UK. Covering August 1942 to March 1943, it focuses on general updates of the regiment's position and provides lists of soldiers, facts which would give some comfort to their families. Whilst there are humorous bits on the trivialities of warfare, the confidential nature and redacted passages remind the reader that this was an internal communication with the bare minimum of information allowed. - The letter starts with addresses which a reader would need to write to for inquiries as to whether family members had been wounded or captured as prisoners. It then proceeds into "regimental letter number 1", which describes the regiment boarding a steamer and at sea; the typical routine is portrayed as a "wild rush to get the mess deck clean, hammocks and mattress stacked, blankets rolled and so on before breakfast" (p. 3). - The 2nd letter commences with 8 Dec. 1942, making reference to landing in Egypt and preparations for fighting Germany. In the same format as the first letter, it is followed by a battery notes section, listing ill or other soldiers who had to remain at HQ, promotions, soldiers injured and casualties sustained from the fighting. - A humorous note concerns an incident involving poisonous creatures of the desert, where "Battery Commander was dragged from his bed to take L/Bdr. Tait to the M.O. for treatment for scorpion sting. The scorpion, later in the night, was captured alive [.] and severely dealt with. Bdr. Hood G's scorpion sting turned out to be a piece of sardine tin, and it's thought that the piece of hand grenade alleged to have fallen on Gnr. Elliot's truck may have been the remainder of the tin" (p. 10). As discussed at the end of the letter, the paper rationing introduced in the UK meant that "it will be impossible to make the future circulation of these letters as wide as it has been" and that in the future a lady in each area of the UK would pass a single letter around for the families eager to find out about the loved ones on distant shores. - Some spotting and staining with a 3 cm tear along the central hold line to some pages. In good condition for a fragile letter.