Liberated Egypt and North Africa

Liberated Egypt and North Africa

I found this small archive of unidentified military photographs at an auction in England. According to the seller, the photographer was a British Royal Air Force pilot who served in Africa. The negatives were all in good condition and required virtually no cleaning. The seller, who purchased the negatives at a street sale, said the photographer's name was Hemsworth. Unfortunately, no additional information was available.

The archive consists of 29 negatives, most of which were taken in Africa. The photographer used a camera with a vertical frame orientation and a 3x4 frame format with 120mm film. While the photographer was clearly an amateur, some of the photos were skillfully composed. Apparently, the back cover of the camera sometimes caused light leaks along the edge of the film due to an improperly closed cover. The photographer tried hard to properly expose the photos in bright sunlight but sometimes made mistakes, resulting in some overexposed photos.

The photographs from Africa in this archive effectively capture the atmosphere of that time. Initially, the photographer was based in Cairo, most likely with his squadron. There, he climbed to the top of the Great Pyramid of Giza and took a stunning photograph of the second largest Egyptian pyramid, the Pyramid of Khafre, which stands 143.9 meters tall. Then, he walked through the old Cairo market toward the Sultan Qal'aun complex and mosque. Inside the mosque, he photographed the interior decorations. As he strolled through the bustling streets of the ancient city, the photographer captured local merchants, workers, and craftsmen.

Later, the photographer traveled through most of North Africa, visiting Libya, Lebanon, Egypt, and Eritrea. En route to Libya, he captured the Arch of Filenov, also known as the Marble Arch. This triumphal arch was built by Fascist Italy in 1937. It was also erected to commemorate the completion of the Litoranea, the first road connecting eastern and western Libya. The road passed right under the arch. The Marble Arch survived World War II, during which the Litoranea was the main east-west route used by the Allied and Axis armies in the Western Desert campaign. On December 17, 1942, the 2nd New Zealand Division captured the monument and the adjacent airfield. Muammar Gaddafi destroyed the arch in the early 1970s. In Tripoli, a photographer takes pictures of Tripoli Cathedral, which was built in the 1920s during the Italian colonization of Libya, and of Piazza della Cattedrale in the city center. Incidentally, the cathedral was closed in September 1970 after Muammar Gaddafi came to power. It was later rebuilt and converted into a mosque named the Gamal Abdel Nasser Mosque, also known as the Algerian Square Mosque.

The photographer took several aerial photos of Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, from a passing airplane. Upon arriving in the city, he captured new landscapes, buildings, animals, and local residents. One of the photos shows a bus in front of a colonial-style government building. At the top of the building is the inscription "Command of the Royal Government of Eritrea" (ital. Comando truppe regio governo dell'Eritrea). Later, while flying over the Mediterranean Sea, presumably en route to England, the photographer captured a British destroyer moving at full speed.