Western Desert 1942 - Well known faces

I thought I'd share a few photographs from my late grandfather's collection along with their captions. I've started with a few well known faces.



Churchill arriving at Alexandria September 1942. Indian troops prepared this aerodrome in less than a week.



Churchill Farewell. El Alamein offensive followed his departure.



Generals Auchinleck and Wavell complete with stooges



Monty inspecting the Mark III

 

An excellent start. Please keep them coming.

 

Great pics, can't wait to see more!

 

These are great pictures

 

Thanks all,

I'll post more on here over the coming days as I get them scanned. I'm whipping up a little website on which they'll all be viewable in. Keep an eye on www.past-forward.co.uk . I would hope to have them all scanned and viewable within the next two weeks. There are a few viewable at this time but just in a test gallery.

The site is very much a work in progress with only a few hours spent on it so far.

Regards

Martin

 

Thank you for posting

 

Thanks for posting

Cheers
Paul

 

Added your website to my favourites. great stuff, are there any captions with the photo's? anything written on the back? Might give a clue as to where/when taken.

 

Added your website to my favourites. great stuff, are there any captions with the photo's? anything written on the back? Might give a clue as to where/when taken.

There's a bit of a mixture. Those that are in the album are annotate with place, year (some months) and short annotation.

I then have stacks with no comments. I shall separate the two when I get the galleries set-up. I'll start with those that have comments and plan to get them all scanned and on line tonight..

 

Great Pics, really nice to see them. Anyone know what type of plane is in the 1st pic?

 

Great Pics, really nice to see them. Anyone know what type of plane is in the 1st pic?

scrub my answer - totally wrong!

 

Great Pics, really nice to see them. Anyone know what type of plane is in the 1st pic?
Lockheed Lodestar, I think.

 

Lockheed Lodestar, I think.



looks like it.

All the best

Andreas

 

http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/HistoricalMaterial/G-AGIL.pdf

 

Hi All,

Right I've started to get the website put together and got about a 3rd of the photo album added.

The site is www.past-forward.co.uk

The photos can be found here

From the album | www.past-forward.co.uk

Let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions. I'll see what I can do!

Martin

 

Glad to see the album coming along, its very interesting.
Couple of comment re: photos in this thread, all seem to be taken around same time.
Churchill went to Egypt to (among other things) replace Auchinleck with Alexander, something he felt he had to do face to face.

photo 1. Churchill left Egypt on Aug 23rd. Understandable date being slightly wrong, no digital cameras then! I've seen references to this aerodrome being built in a week, if I come across the refs. again I will post further info.

Photo 3, From left: Unknown, Auchinleck, Wavell, Dorman-Smith

Photo 4, This is Monty wearing his regulation officers cap, something he ditched almost immediately on taking over 8th Army on 13th Aug. Interesting to see the Mk III on a tank transporter, don't think they had many transporters.

 

Quick note on the album, Tel-el-Kebbir a major RAOC depot,, Mena is in the shadow of the pyramids and Burg el Arab is on the coast about 50 km before Alamein, heading from Alexandria (spelt Borg el arab on modern maps).
Will post more as/when album is updated.

 

Gambut is in Libya, spelt Kambut today.

 

Thanks RDR. I'll be scanning and posting again this evening so there'll be another batch up ready for the morning.

Martin

 

Another 40 or so photos scanned and uploaded.

Martin