Pages 21 and 22 show us Hsian, I surmise, with many scenes of hanging around, spying on stuff, trying to figure out who is who at least for the moment, being unavoidably conspicuous, and taking pictures. They must have had a lot of film. Above is the top part of Page 21.
I would say that the man in the photo above is Berent Friele. In MMB his photo is on p. 52. We saw him on Photobook Page 17 ; the photo from that post is below.
Now, what about the lady in the photo with Friele? Is that Julia Child? If so, the location would have been back southwest, in Kunming. Elizabeth McIntosh in her book Sisterhood of Spies describes the Kunming billet for the OSS ladies as bungalows surrounded by flower gardens. In that photo, I see flowers and foliage, not dust like you see in Hsian. Below are two photos of Julia Child from Kunming time:
The photo below is from the wonderful site Pacific Paratrooper.
So, what say you, dear readers? Is that Julia McWilliams, later Child, hanging out with Berent Friele in Kunming? with the photo somehow sliding over to Photobook Page 21 set in Hsian?
From the jump plane, a photo of the P-51 Mustang fighter escort in close formation.
Chu and Friele, above.
Paul Cyr, above.
Eugene Zdrojewski, above, catching some rays.
Bottom part of Page 21, with the crazy-quilt style of photomontage continuing. It was a popular style at the time; I first noticed it in Mom's Kensington High yearbooks. Mom put this book together in 1946-47.
The wall above could well be that of Hsian. MMB 31-32 describes Hsian as surrounded by an ancient, massive stone bastion similar to sections of the Great Wall to the north. The wall is 30 feet high, 20 feet wide and is so wide and solid that good-sized trucks could be driven on top. It formed a rectangle two miles wide and three miles long around the city . . .
Above and below we see recruits for the local unit of Chinese who hated the Japanese invaders and so would fight them with the Americans.
Yep, Dad, it's a long way from Catalina, not to mention the University of Chicago and the Lake shore.
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