MIDDLE EAST AVIATION - World War I.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

X Aircraft Depot at Royal Air Force Alexandria & Aboukir, 1916-1919. Superbly detailed visual record of the RAF's central logistical hub for the Middle East theatre, serving the region from Egypt to the Hejaz. The depot offered complete servicing from erection out of the crate to scrapping after strike off. Images include personnel groups, exteriors and interiors of workshops, warehouses, hangars, and auxiliary buildings: a complete survey of the staffing and facilities of the complex.The prints are of striking quality, the images sharply focussed and crisply printed, rewarding close examination under a lens with a wealth of detail. Perhaps the most arresting photographically are the shots of the storage spaces, unoccupied aisles extending into the distance filled with fastidiously ordered ranks of parts; a touch uncanny but effectively evocative of scale and rigorous organization. Based at RAF Aboukir (Abu Qir) near Alexandria X AD was the largest such facility in the region, part of a complex including an airfield, home base for a flight school and several training squadrons - craft where identified, Nieuports and SE-5s, bear tail numbers assigned to regional trainers - all of which continued in use until the end of WWII. The present copy is uncaptioned but comparison with records of the two copies traced through auction - the only others found - it is possible to identify a number of the images: various groups of personnel, HQ staff, carpenters, fitters, stores staff, foot

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