WORLD WAR II.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

"Desert Rat Days with the 8th Army": Photograph album chronicling service with the Middle East Interpretation Unit, 285 Air Reconnaissance Wing. Compiled by W. A. Fuller. An artfully composed collection, centring on preparations for the Second Battle of El Alamein 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

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