Trethewey, Allan W : Photographs relating to service with NZ Army engineers, 1939-1945

Mostly relates to the construction of a port and facilities at Safaga, Egypt on the Red Sea during the Second World War. Safaga port was the Red Sea teminal of a railway line built to connect the coast with the Nile at Quena. The route for the railway line and the port was surveyed by New Zealand engineers and the line was constructed by the Egyptian Railway Department. The purpose of the line and the port was to provide infrastructure to facilitate retreat and evacuation should the Nile Delta be lost.

Prior to the war a British phosphate company had established an operation at Safaga and had built a small jetty there. This is also recorded in the photographs. Also in the desert on the route between Safaga and Quena are the Roman ruins of the Mons Claudianus Baths which were the site of a good water supply

There is also a record of Peter Fraser and General Freyberg in Rome in June 1945

Quantity: 87 b&w original photographic print(s).