Album with 43 Original Gelatin Silver Photos of the New Guinea Campaign of WW2, Showing Australian General Sir Thomas Blamey, U.S. General Robert L. Eichelberger, Australian and Papuan Soldiers, Papuan Load Carriers, Families, Children, Villages, &c., Titled: This Book Contains Pictures of New Guinea, 1943-1944. Ca. 1943-1944.

Oblong Quarto album (ca. 21,5x28 cm or 8 ½ x 11 ¼ in). 26 card stock leaves. With 43 gelatin silver photos (42 mounted, one loosely inserted), including sixteen larger photos (one photo in two copies) ca. 10,5x15 cm (4x6 in); the rest of the photos are from ca. 7x11,5 cm (2 ¾ x 4 ½ in) to ca. 6x8,5 cm (2 ¼ x 3 ¼ in). With seventeen mounted printed photo reproductions, ca. 7x11 cm (2 ¾ x 4 ¼ in). No captions. Sixteen large photos with period ink stamps “Commonwealth of Australia. Department of Information” on versos. Period white ink manuscript title on the inner side of the front cover. Period olive green full cloth binding, fastened with a string. Boards rubbed and soiled on extremities, binding loosened on the hinges, several images with minor creases on the corners, but overall a very good album of strong rare photos.

Interesting album with official and amateur gelatin silver photos, most likely taken and collected by an Australian military man during his service in the New Guinea Campaign of WW2 (January 1942 – August 1945). According to the manuscript title, the album covers the period of 1943-1944, when the Allied Australian and American forces drove Japanese troops off the eastern New Guinea (then the Australian-administrated Territory of New Guinea) along the Kokoda Track and fought for the interior and coastal villages of Wau, Salamaua, Buna, Gona &c. The album opens with sixteen official photographs, issued by the Department of Information of the Australian Commonwealth. Among the images is a portrait of General Sir Thomas Blamey (1884-1951, then Commander of the Allied Land Forces in the Southwest Pacific Area) and General Robert L. Eichelberger (1886-1951, Commander of the Eighth U.S. Army in the Southwest Pacific Area), taken next to a Japanese pillbox in the Buna area (Australian War Memorial). Another photo portrays General Blamey talking with Australian military officers. There are also photos of a detachment of the Royal Papuan Constabulary (State Library of New South Wales), scenes with Australian soldiers and Papuans transporting the wounded in the Papuan jungle, women on service in the U.S. Army bathing in a stream (see more), Australian soldiers crossing jungle, resting in a tent, taking part in a Papuan celebration, Papuans carrying loads or taking them in canoes, portraits of Papuan people, &c.

The amateur snapshot photos show Australian soldiers posing with the Papuans in native villages, portraits of local families, dancers, girls, a Papuan boy reading the issue of the New York “Variety” Magazine with the headline “D-Day Biggest Radio Story” (Vol. 154, No. 13, June 7, 1944), views of coastal defence structures, &c. Seventeen photo reproductions include portraits of Papuans, views of jungle bridges, roads, a village destroyed by the Japanese, &c. Overall an interesting collection of original photos, illustrating the New Guinea Campaign of WW2.