Description
WWI U.S. ARMY AIR SERVICE AVIATOR PHOTO ALBUM – BELGIUM, YPRES, GERMAN AIRCRAFT WRECKS, AERIAL PHOTOS
A HUGE, extensive and fascinating WWI-era American military aviation photograph album documenting service in Belgium and France, with an especially interesting concentration of photographs of early military aircraft, aerial operations, crashed airplanes, German military installations, and the devastated battlefields of the Western Front. The album contains numerous photographs of American and Allied biplanes, including outstanding air-to-air views of aircraft bearing the identification numbers 4209 and 4202, aircraft in formation, pilots in their cockpits, flying fields, aircraft hangars, and remarkable aerial views of towns, waterways, and coastal landscapes. Particularly noteworthy are the numerous photographs of wrecked aircraft, including aircraft overturned on their noses, collapsed biplanes, exposed aircraft engines, a plane submerged in water with American insignia visible, and an aircraft lodged high in a tree. The extensive Belgian battlefield photographs include wrecked British tanks near Ypres, one identified by the original caption "BRITISH TANK AT YPRES WRECKED BY SHELL," another captioned "WRECK OF BRITISH TANK NEAR YPRES," devastated buildings and churches, shell-cratered landscapes, German trenches, camouflage screens, and military installations. Additional captioned subjects include "GERMAN ANTIAIRCRAFT GUN HORIZONTAL POSITION," "WRECK AND GRAVE OF BRITISH AVIATOR," "CONSTRUCTING HANGARS BELGIUM," "HUN ANTIAIRCRAFT, BREECH MISSING," "HUN PLANE LEFT BEHIND IN BELGIUM," "GERMAN BARRACKS MARINE FIELD KNESSELARE," "CHURCH AND AMBULANCES AT KNESSELARE," "MILL AT KNESSELARE BELGIUM," "MUD CAMP AT FRANCE," "CHURCH DOORWAY AT YPRES," "STREET CORNER BELGIAN TOWN," "PART OF GERMAN TRENCH," "CAMOFLAGE ROAD AND DEAD TREES IN NO-MANS LAND," and "ON NO-MANS LAND SHELL HOLES." An especially unusual photograph depicts a Belgian identity document captioned "PASS ISSUED BELGIANS BY GERMANS." Other photographs record the ruins of Ypres, the Yser Canal, Bruges, and other Belgian locations, including several period postcards incorporated into the album. There are also photographs of American servicemen, aviators in flying suits and helmets, military vehicles, tent encampments, and a panoramic view of an enormous military tent city. The later portion of the album documents the owner's postwar life and travels in the United States, including photographs of servicemen and civilians, Atlantic City, Miami, Washington, D.C., military camps, ships, automobiles, beach outings, and recreational activities. Several photographs feature individuals wearing bathing suits marked "HARDIE," while others show hunting and fishing excursions, including dated handwritten captions from May 1922. The album is particularly appealing for its combination of firsthand WWI battlefield photography, early American military aviation, identified Belgian locations, and personal photographs documenting the transition from wartime service to civilian life. Many photographs have descriptive English captions written directly on their lower borders, while others have handwritten captions on the album pages. An excellent historical photographic record with considerable interest for collectors of WWI aviation, the U.S. Army Air Service, the Western Front, and early twentieth-century American military history.
