ARABIAN GULF.

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Long Range Air Navigation Chart: Arabia. An expansive wartime flight chart, "the advance edition", classified as "Restricted" for use by the U.S. Army Air Forces. It covers the whole of the Arabian Gulf and a substantial part of the Arabian Peninsula, including Saudi Arabia, Trucial Oman, and Kuwait.After the United States joined the Allies in December 1941, they began operations in the Middle East, most notably by providing support in North Africa as part of the Second Battle of El Alamein and Operation Torch. Over the following years, the American government began to recognise the importance of Middle Eastern resources, extending the Lend-Lease programme to Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Israel, as well as indirectly supporting British colonies in the region. To protect these resources, they set up Persian Gulf Command and manned the "Persian Corridor" from Iran through to Azerbaijan. They also participated in the Tehran Conference in late 1943. Further west, the Ninth Air Force ran regular sorties out of Egypt and Libya to assist in the European theatre, securing air dominance and denying the enemy the opportunity to replenish their supplies.The reverse of the chart features three inset maps of Bahrain, Cyprus, and Rhodes. They are accompanied by sectional views of their coastlines. The first two countries were host to RAF and Royal Navy bases, while Rhodes was occupied by Italy and later Germany after the Battle of Rhodes in 1943. We have traced no copies of this map in institut

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