Anzacs from both wars feature in forgotten 'treasure trove' of historic photos

Updated

A remarkable collection of photographs featuring Australian troops serving overseas during World Wars I and II has been "rediscovered" in the digital archives of the US Library of Congress.

The collection — a time capsule of historic importance — was largely overlooked in the many books written about Australia's role in those wars and in other publications about the period.

The images are scattered among more than 23,000 digital copies of glass and film photographic negatives and transparencies, prints and photo albums that comprise the G. Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection.

What makes this "discovery" even more peculiar is that many of the images are available for public viewing on the library's website.

I stumbled across them one day while researching another story about an uncle who served in WWII.

Karl James, the Australian War Memorial's head of military history section, said he had not seen the Matson collection before and was "amazed" by what he saw.

"It's a phenomenal photographic archive, which I think is little known in Australia today," he said.

Part of the reason the photographs were so special, he said, was because they had not been taken by an official Australian or British war photographer.

"The photographer himself is looking at the Australians through a different lens — almost as the soldier-as-a-tourist phenomenon."

The photos of Australian troops were all taken between 1940 and 1942 in what was then called the British Mandate for Palestine, a region now encompassing Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The archive also includes a number of the photos dating from 1917 and 1918 when mounted Australian infantry battalions were on active duty in the region.

Peter Ewer is an Australian historian and the author of three books on WWII, including one about the Greek campaign in 1941, which would have involved many of the soldiers featured in these photographs.

He, too, had never heard of this archive before.

"They're something of a treasure trove that I certainly wasn't aware of," he said. "This is a terrific collection of early war photographs of Australians getting ready for action in the Middle East and to that extent, it's a discovery of some importance."

Fun in the surf

Exactly 80 years ago, the first contingent of Australian infantry troops arrived in the Middle East after a voyage that saw them zig-zag their way across the Indian Ocean to avoid the threat of prowling German U-boats.

After disembarking in Egypt, most of the troops were transported to camps in Palestine. There, they were trained for months to prepare them for combat.

Between 100,000 and 130,000 Australian troops eventually served in the Middle East between 1940-42, according to historian Mark Johnston, writing in his book, Anzacs in the Middle East.

While the collection contains many images of soldiers on parade and in their quarters, a large number of the photos simply show the Aussies having some downtime: playing in the snow, watching camel races, sightseeing and going to the beach.

The striking images below were shot during surf carnivals held at beaches in Gaza and Tel Aviv over the years the WWII Australians were stationed in Palestine.

It was from these Middle East bases where the Australians were dispatched to fight battles against the Italians and Germans in North Africa, the Germans in Greece and Crete and the Vichy French in Syria and Lebanon.

Many never returned from those campaigns having either been killed or taken prisoner.

In 1942, the troops were recalled home as the threat of invasion loomed following Japan's declaration of war against the Allies and its advance through South-East Asia and the Pacific.

But in 1940, the horrors of war were yet to manifest and the young volunteer soldiers took full advantage of their leave to visit some of the Holy Land's most famous historical sites.

The American Colony photographers

The photos are the work of the American Colony Photo Department, a photography business that opened in Jerusalem in 1898.

It was a commercial offshoot of a utopian, US-based Christian sect that relocated to Jerusalem in 1881 to witness the second coming, establishing a community called the American Colony.

By the time the WWII Australians arrived in 1940, the Colony's photographers were already an established, taking studio portraits and creating lantern slides and postcards for tourists.

Eric Matson and his wife Edith were also members of the American Colony, albeit descended from a Swedish religious group who later joined the Americans.

The Matsons took over running the photographic business in 1940 and renamed it the Matson Photo Service.

The Matson Photo Service opened a shop in Jerusalem, just off busy Jaffa Road on the north-east corner of the old city.

It was in the same building where the Australian Comforts Fund, a charity looking after the welfare of soldiers, had taken over a hotel and established the Australian Soldiers' Club.

This building used to be called the Hotel Fast, which was owned by members of a German Christian sect called the Templers.

Like their American cousins, they moved to Jerusalem to establish the German Colony in the late 19th century to await Jesus's return.

When WWII started, the German colonists were first interned by the British and then many of them were transported to Australia where they lived out the war in a camp in Tatura, Victoria.

After the war, many of the internees remained in Australia and were later joined by fellow Templers from other parts of the world.

The Australian prime minister, Robert Menzies, paid a flying visit to Jerusalem in February, 1941 and appeared on the balcony of the Australian Soldiers' Club with the commander of the Australian forces, General Thomas Blamey.

You can see them on the balcony above the Matson Photo Service store. Standing in the doorway of that shop is someone resembling Edith Matson.

Strike up the band

While there were plenty of diversions for the soldiers in between training and, later, campaigns, the America Colony photographers also documented several official military functions including Anzac Day ceremonies, parades and drills.

This picture was taken on Anzac Day in April 1942 and shows a formation of soldiers marching down Jaffa Road past the Australian Soldiers' Club and the Matson Photo Service office.

This photo was taken on March 18, 1940, about a month after the first Australian 6th Division soldiers arrived in the region.

It shows a military brass band marching down a Jerusalem street past onlookers who appear more interested in the camera than the band.

Enlarging the image, you can just make out a sign on the window behind the band that says "Australian Grocery".

In its own impressive photographic collection, the Australian War Memorial has a photo taken from inside that same store, giving a glimpse of what home comforts were on offer.

The picture, taken by Damien Parer who was one of a handful of official war photographers working for the Australian Government in the region at the time, shows three servicemen having a drink inside the store.

The influx of soldiers on leave in Jerusalem would have provided a big boost to local merchants at the time.

The Great War

The collection also includes photographs dating back to 1917 and 1918 when mounted troops, including those from Light Horse Brigades, helped to drive out the Ottoman Turks from Palestine at the end of the World War I.

This image shows mounted Australian troops escorting a column of captured German soldiers who had been fighting with the Turks.

The photo is dated "1917 or 1918". But it is more likely to be 1917 as the surrender of Jerusalem in that theatre of war took place on December 9, 1917.

This photo was taken on October 12, 1918 and shows what the caption says are members of the 6th Australian Light Horse regiment leaving Jerusalem for a demobilisation camp.

The dark formation on the right of the image appears to be damage to the dry glass plate negative on which the image was captured.

The dry glass plate photographic process involved coating the plates with a light-sensitive gelatine emulsion.

However, the nutrients in the gelatine make it susceptible to mould and that appears to have damaged the glass negative, a flaw that has been transferred to the digital print.

The Australian content makes up a very minor part of the Matson collection.

The vast majority of the photos relate to life of the local Arabs, Jews and Christian colonists who lived together during the late 19th and early 20th century.

"With a continual presence in Jerusalem from the late 1800s, the American Colony photographers witnessed many important historical events and personages throughout the subsequent five decades," writes Todd Bolen, professor of biblical studies, at The Master's University in Santa Clara, California.

"Their work is a splendid visual record that today gives us insights that the contemporary eyewitnesses might never have thought to commit to writing."

Photographic credits

All photos used in this story, bar one from the Australian War Memorial, are part of the G. Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection which is housed both physically and digitally at the US Library of Congress.

The photographic collection was donated to the library in 1978. In 2003, the rights were given to the American public. As of today, they remain free of any known copyright restrictions. During 2004 and 2005, the negative collection was scanned.





Topics: anzac-day, history, world-war-2, world-politics, world-war-1, israel, palestinian-territory-occupied

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