General Allenby's victories over the Ottomans in Egypt and Palestine

[WWI - Palestine Campaign]. Photograph album of the Palestine Campaign.

€ 3.500,00

Photographs of some of the most important moments of the close of WWI on the Palestinian front, including General Allenby's procession into the newly conquered city of Jerusalem in 1917 and the aftermath of the Battle of Nablus in 1918. Field Marshal Edmund Allenby (1861-1936), then a general, features prominently. Allenby had been sidelined to the Palestine Campaign after a falling out with one of his superiors, where he commanded the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) and in Cairo met T. E. Lawrence, who was under Allenby's command.

The snapshots of the Battle of Nablus are very much from the view of a common soldier who had witnessed or participated in the battle; one shows "El Askar near Nablous where the Worcesters made a charge", and another the "Site of Aid post at El Askar after the charge". Another is captioned on the reverse, "Beduoins looting", showing several of Allenby's Arab allies apparently loading a wagon. Another is captioned, "Wadi Farah Rd blocked for miles, wounded enemy" showing carts stopped along a road, and a man - possibly an Ottoman soldier - at rest in the shade of cartwheels.

Taken one year earlier, Allenby's triumphal procession into Jerusalem was famously done on foot via the Jaffa gate - substantiated here by one photograph, though in another two officers do appear on horseback. The photographer did not only focus on the pomp and ceremony of the British capture of Jerusalem; another photograph shows a small group of men and women, more somberly captioned, "Civilians of Jerusalem who were interned by the Turks in Feb. 1916 and released by the British. Except for about 20 in hospital these are all that were left of over 200".

Slight fading, a few marginal creases, altogether a fascinating collection of photographs in quite good condition.