Tuesday, September 23, 2014

OSS CBI Photobook 11, Part 2 - Calcutta, and Transition to Camp, continued





In the bottom half of this page, below, we examine the photos on the assumption that they are placed  in deliberate order, as I always do first.  Top row, left to right: B-24 bomber; cart in rural area drawn by a Chinese-style horse; big city.

But the B-24 and the big city are from one roll of film, I infer from the yellow tinge to the prints.  The other five are from another roll of film, with no yellow tinge.

So one hypothesis is that these big-deal OSS guys got a plane, instead of a train, from Calcutta to a rest camp to the northeast, in the direction of the hard-won trailhead of the Stillwell Road: Ledo.


Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber,
identified for us by kind friends.

This is to the northeast: high, rural Assam or Nagaland.


So where could this rest camp be?
          Nagaland: Kohima?
          Assam: Dibrugarh, on the Brahmaputra River?
          Nagaland: Ledo itself?

That's a big ol' camera
in his buddy's right hand.
Kind friends have helped identify
it as a Graflex Speed Graphic.

Note the dagger and the wristwatch,
both standard in the OSS kit.
This is Frenchie, Albert Robichaud.

Here's Dad with one of the cameras we saw
him using in Washington, D.C., in November 1944.
It is a Graflex Speed Graphic,
model "Anniversary."

Besides the dogtags and the bracelet,
we still have that wristwatch.


So, dear friends, if you know someone who has been through something big, talk with them and get the details while you can.

Z












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