Allied troops, P.O.W. and workers in Great Britain during WW2.
Today, American servicemen stationed in the UK for the D-Day landings and a piece of ephemera from an engineer connected to the Atlantic run.
Pay attention to the opera singer mentioned in the airletter. Any information?
This is the last few pages of the Homefront and the Atlantic. The North Africa section of the collection can be found in the Egypt display. Tomorrow I will start the 'Beyond Suez' section of the collection.
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Today we start World War II - 'Beyond Suez'. It is a big jump from the Royal Navy in the Atlantic but North Africa has been dealt with in the Egypt display and most of the rest of Africa has been included in the South African and East African Displays.
I start with an incoming cover from Greece to Palestine, followed by a couple of pages that continue on from the 'Middle East - World War I' display i.e. between the wars in Palestine and then develop into the Middle East, followed by the Indian Ocean and beyond.
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Palestine continued with the RAF and the Australians and the first of the photographs taken at As Sumeiriya. This temporary? camp appears to be an assembly station for Foreign Troops including the Spaniards. I cannot find it on the map but the aqueduct should give a clue - can anyone help? Two more pages of camp photographs tomorrow,
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Still in Palestine but moving into Lebanon and Syria. Of special interest are the photographs of As Sumeiriya. I cannot find the place. can anyone help. It appears to be a camp where foreign nationals are signed up for service with the British Army; French, Czechoslovakians and Spaniards. It must be pointed out that the Spaniards are not Spanish but Czechoslovakians who have been fighting in the Spanish war. They sided politically with the Fascists and later split from the free Czechoslovakian Forces only to re-join at a later date when they saw the error of their ways.
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From Syria to a brief introduction of the R.A.F. at Habbiniya where the R.A.F. Regiment was formed and where the R.A.F. used armoured cars to defend the airfield. Then on to the invasion of Iraq by mainly Indian troops. This after Shah Khan showed German interest. The Shah was exiled to Johannesburg (see Persia/Iran collection).
Of special interest is the forth page to the dynamite factory at Somerset West - South Africa.
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Still fighting in Iraq.
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Still in Iraq.
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Still in Iraq. This reminds me of a song we used to sing just after the war. It was called 'I'd like to get you on a slow boat to China'. Don't worry we will get there and beyond!
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This is the last five pages of Iraq, tomorrow we move down to Kenya and in particular to Kilindini which was and still is the main port of Kenya. The British Far Eastern Fleet was forced to re-locate after the loss of the Rupulse and the Prince of Wales after the Japanese invaded Singapore, East Indies, Malaya and Burma.
I have deliberately left out the war in Africa as this part of World War II was covered under the South African display.
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Today we move into the Indian Ocean, As I said yesterday I have missed out Africa in General as this is covered in the K.U.T., Italian East Africa (which will be updated at a later date) and South African displays I would also draw attention to the combined effort on the campaign in Madagascar all available on this site.
Having said that here are a few pages covering Kilindini and the reason for the British Far Eastern Fleet being stationed in Africa - Japan.
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