WORLD WAR ONE – GAZA FRONT

Highly unusual images of tanks and artillery tractors on the Palestine Front.

[Photograph album, Gaza, c. 1917.] 48 photographs (55 x 80 mm.) mounted on 12 leaves, 8vo (185 x 130 mm.) Original green cloth (extremities lightly rubbed). Sold with two Great War 1914-1918 medals with ribbons, engraved '115145 Gnr G.B. Bond RA'.

A collection of photographs of British artillery and tanks in Gaza during the 1917 offensive against the Ottomans. While General Allenby was instinctively a cavalryman, and approved of the highly mobile Arab irregulars of the Sharifian forces commanded by Feisal and TE Lawrence, backed up by armoured cars and aircraft, these only supported his right flank as the main Egyptian Expeditionary Force used more traditional trench warfare techniques as it moved northward out of the Sinai and into Palestine. The photographs here show tanks and tracked vehicles moving artillery pieces into position. The Ottomans were evidently well-armed, judging by a an image of a disabled tank with a large shell hole in its side. Other unusual shots include a Red Cross train steaming through Gaza, camels ploughing fields and a military camel train returning from Gaza.