Scenes from an Israeli tank brigade in the Six-Day War

[Israel Defense Forces - Six-Day War]. [Photo Album - The IDF in the Six-Day War].

€ 3,000.00

A unique photographic record of an Israeli tank brigade, presumably within the 36th "Ga'ash" Armor Division, during the Six-Day War. In the summer of 1967, the Six-Day War was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states including Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, and resulted in Israeli expansion.

The anonymous protagonist of this collection is an Israeli soldier who documented the capture of the region of Tulkarm, alongside several conquests in the West Bank and beyond. Israel deployed roughly 40,000 troops and 200 tanks against Jordanian forces in the West Bank; most of the tanks photographed in this collection are M50 "Super" Shermans, modified American tanks in use by the Israeli military in the sixties. The Armor Division soldier poses with tanks and in the public squares, photographs local businesses, and smoking soldiers. He poses for photos picking grapes in a vineyard - one of the main industries both of the West Bank and the Golan Heights - posing in front of a luxury car with a Jordanian license plate, atop a defeated tank (likely Egyptian), having his boots shined, and with a fellow soldier mockingly toasting a portrait of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918-1970).

Most of the photographs appear to be taken in the West Bank, though several others may be in other conquered territory in the Sinai Desert or Golan Heights. While tanks and armoured vehicles make up the majority of Israeli presence shown, one photo also shows members of the Israeli military police posing in front of a militarized zone, who were deployed after conquests to solidify Israeli gains and transition from military to government rule of law. Three photographs are on Agfa postcards, a brand which could be used to print privately taken photographs as personalized postcards, here featuring tanks.

One closed tear, otherwise the collection is in pristine condition. An essential record of the Six-Day War, featuring many scenes of the earliest days of Israeli occupation in 1967.