World War II Official album 4

Official photographs from World War II, very few of which have captions.

Scenes show activities relating to the New Zealand forces in the Middle East in 1941 and the beginning of 1942, including military training in the desert; social life and daily life in camps, scenes in hospitals, sporting activities and social clubs.

Military leaders include General Freyberg, Brigadier Alexander Smith Falconer, Lieutenant-Colonel A S Wilder, Howard Karl Kippenberger and Field-Marshall Auchinleck. The New Zealand High Commissioner in Britain visited the tropps and can be seen inspecting the New Zealand reinforcements at Base Camp, Maadi.

Several photographs show Charles Hazlitt Upham (awarded the Victoria Cross), including one portrait painted by war artist Peter McIntyre. Other paintings by Peter McIntyre are reproduced on pages 147-149, portraying the part played by New Zealanders in the Libyan offensive of November-December 1941, which McIntyre made from sketches drawn quickly on the field of battle. They include one of the NZ Infantry going into the attack at Sidi Rezegh; New Zealanders at Fort Capuzzo; the tank battle at Belhamid; New Zealand field workshops in the desert; an anti-tank gun in action at Sidi Rezegh; and tank "cavalry" scouting for Rommel's columns in the desert.

The second Libyan campaign is seen in numbers of photographs. These include the advance into Libya after Fort Apuzzo fell to a New Zealand column; New Zealand engineers building a wharf at Tobruk; and German and Italian prisoners of war. Items captured include guns, German gas masks, German motor cycles, tanks, Nazi flags, and a captured whip.

Three photographs show a group of four New Zealanders who fled from Benghazi on foot when unable to use vehicles after the road was cut behind them. They took about 11 days to walk 250 miles across the desert, gaining help from Arab groups on the way. (Drivers S G McKinnon (Auckland), A W Blackburn (Auckland), Corporal S Roa (Auckland) and Sergeant T W Gill (Wellington)).

On pages 133-136 Middle East scenes show a group of New Zealanders arriving back at the N.Z. Base Camp after 37 days imprisonment in Bardia, Libya.

Quantity: 1 album(s) Album(s).

Physical Description: Album with dark blue cloth cover, black corners and spine; 34.5 x 22.0 cm