[Photo Album]: British Soldier World War II

Verlag: Scotland, Antwerp, 1945

Beschreibung

Small quarto measuring 7" x 9". Brown cloth over stiff paper boards with gilt detail. Contains 292 sepia toned or black and white gelatin silver photographs measuring between 1.5" x 2.5" and 4" x 5" with captions. Bowed boards and edgewear thus very good with near fine photographs. A photo album kept by a British soldier at the end of World War II first stationed in Scotland and later Antwerp. The opening photo shows a group of soldiers with school children in Glasgow participating in a Christmas party thrown for the students. A group of uniformed soldiers, including a woman, are seen posed around the Buchanan Arms gardens, a hotel where they presumably took a leave during the war. A portrait photo of the compiler of the album shows him in a traditional Seaforth Highlanders Kilt in 1943. The soldier and his friends and colleagues are seen boating on Loch Lomond and walking through a nearby farm. In August of 1944 the soldier was sent to Morlaix, France where they stayed until January of 1945. In France they stayed at a former Luftwaffe officer's barracks and they are seen posed next to jeeps and by a soccer field. The men also played sports with each other and one photo shows two men with the caption "football practice." Early in 1945 the men traveled to Antwerp via boat and photos from the trip are seen here including a view of the "White Cliffs of Dover in background." Once in Antwerp they visited tourist spots including the "7th largest Cathedral" in the world. A photo of a sergeant in a barbershop shows two smiling men surrounded by pinups on the wall, another photo shows the main streets of the city including damage from the war. The men posed with local women who worked in the kitchen at the barracks. One photo of the girls reads, "note how some girls dress in Antwerp," and shows the women in knee socks and skirts. Another shows a medic named George "treating two girls" and eyeing them up salaciously. The Antwerp mission seems to have been in large part a "clean up" and the men were able to enjoy the city itself and are often pictured around the city including a trip to the zoo, gardens, and posed with famous statues in the town center. The damaged buildings with captions siting the cause of the destruction, "flying bomb damage in Antwerp," "damaged by V-1." One photo shows a soldier posed next to a large unexploded bomb, a V-2, with a warning sign reading "danger keep clear." The men celebrated VE day and the city was covered in Allied flags and people waiting outside the palace of King Leopold. After Antwerp they move onto Brussels and then Holland with photos of "Dutch soldiers in foxhole," "Dutch school children appear healthy and happy," and a "lumber yard in Holland." From there they went on to Frankfurt, Germany (captioned here as Höchst) which was filled with the ruins of war and soldiers with rifled walking through small towns and farms assessing the damage. A photo of American soldiers in a color guard situation with a caption that reads, "U.S. Group Control Council Band and G.I.'s getting ready for retreat formation." An extensive collection of photographs detailing the end of World War II. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 414621

Bibliografische Details

Titel: [Photo Album]: British Soldier World War II

Verlag: Scotland, Antwerp

Erscheinungsdatum: 1945

Einband: Hardcover

Zustand: Very Good