Album of the R.A.F.'s "Flying Camels" squadron in the air over Baghdad

[Iraq - Royal Air Force]. [R.A.F. photograph album].

€ 1.500,00

Twenty R.A.F. photographs of Iraq in the interwar period and associated with the No. 45 Squadron, many of them aerial views and mid-flight snapshots of contemporary aircraft. Most are labelled and numbered in the plate, possibly as official R.A.F. photographs. Aerial photographs of R.A.F. aircraft include the Vicker Victoria Troop Carrier, a "Formation of Vickers Vernous" (that is, Vickers Vernons), and several shots of a pilot referred to simply as "Henry" testing out the newly arrived Airco DH.9A over the mountains and hills of Iraq. Further aerial shots show the Ctesiphon Arch from "200 feet" (61 meters) as noted in-plate, the R.A.F. British Hospital, the Al-Askari Shrine of Samarra surrounded by the old city, and the Maude Bridge in Baghdad. The remainder of the photographs are dedicated to scenes around Baghdad, from British military headquarters to a crowd outside a post office. The first photograph of the album shows what is presumably the No. 45 Squadron (who were in Baghdad in 1926, and are the only squadron in Baghdad known to have flown both the Vickers Vernon and the Airco DH.9A ca. 1926), captioned "All the 'Boys' and me". The No. 45 Squadron famously nicknamed themselves "The Flying Camels" after their squadron badge, which featured a winged camel.

Quite well preserved.