Small archive of original photographs taken at Narsarssuak (Narsarsuaq) Airbase, Greenland, 1942-45.

A$250 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Group of 7 (seven) gelatin silver print photographs, in uniform 200 x 250 mm format; no inscriptions to versos, but presumably taken by a USAF serviceman; all of the prints are in excellent condition. These original photographs, taken sometime between 1942 and 1945, show USAF personnel at the airbase at Narsarssuak (Narsarsuaq), Greenland, which had been established by Northeast Air Command in the second half of 1941. A USAF plane pictured in two of the images features the motto Coelum Ad Proelium Elige (Choose the Weather for Battle), indicating that it belonged to one of the USAF Weather Squadrons. Another shows a wooden building with the tongue-in-cheek sign Narsarssuak Hotel de Gink (i.e. Narsarssuak Hotel for Homeless Men); and two show a Norwegian merchant vessel, the Annik (Bergen), which had taken part in dangerous North Atlantic convoys. From Wikipedia: [In 1941] United States obtained rights to build bases in Greenland. In July 1941, a task force of service troops arrived at Narsarsuaq. This site had been chosen as a major staging base between Labrador and Newfoundland. Work began at once on the base, which was given the code name Bluie West One (BW-1), and the first plane set down on 24 January 1942. Work on a second west coast base further north, at Sondrestrom or Bluie West Eight, began in September 1941. A third field was placed on the east coast almost directly across from BW-1 at Angmagssalik (Bluie East Two). An interesting contribution to the defense of Gree

• Binding: Hardcover

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