Desert Mysteries Redux – Part Two

In Desert Mysteries Redux – Part One, I recounted the ‘Desert Mystery’ of the fate of my uncle in Transjordan in 1938. Whilst he was in the desert and not harassing rebellious Arab gangs via “air policing”, he had used his leave time to photograph the locals, towns, sights and antiquities.

Not needing the yet to be invented ‘drone’ as, when qualified to fly as a sergeant-pilot, he could take photographs from the air and then from the ground. This is the barrel-vaulted hall of the Ctesiphon Palace which had been within the capital of the Persian Empire in the Parthian and Sassanian eras and is located near Madean, south of Baghdad, Iraq.

Among his photographic collection, however, there are series of photographs that appear to be from drives out into the desert when he was an aircraftsman. This subset is a drive that he made, along with four of his RAF comrades-in-arms, in two cars similar to those used by the Light Car Patrols (see Desert Mysteries – Part One) in April and May 1935.

Some of these photographs were annotated by my uncle on the reverse (text in “quotes”), so giving a time and place whilst others have required some research and conjecture.

They may have started in Baghdad, Iraq (where most of my uncle’s negatives were subsequently processed) and then headed north into the interior of the country to finally reach Babylon.

“Looking down from the railway bridge at Baqulah, R. Dialah below.”

Baqulah is now Baqubah, the capital of Diyala Governorate, and in 2007, after Operation ‘Iraqi Freedom’, it was described as a ‘ghost town’ as the locals had fled the fighting. Further destruction then took place during the subsequent Operation ‘Arrowhead Ripper’ against Sunni militants. Dialah is the river Diyala, a name of a tributary of the Tigris, that, as the Sirwan, runs through Baqubah.

“Packing up, ready to leave the police post at Kifri, about 6 a.m.”

Based on some other blurry, interior photos, they appear to have spent a night as guests of the Kifri Police Station. Kifri in the 1920s, during the British Mandate of Iraq, had been planned to become part of an independent Kurdistan as a buffer against Turkey by Churchill.

“We lose the track. Maps and compass consulted while feet, tyres etc are cooled. The white bag affair hanging on the side is a CHARGHUL. Actually it’s a canvas bottle used for carrying water. We hung it there to catch the wind as we drove along”

“Havoc wrought by the desert tracks on three of the tyres.”

“Repairing one of many punctures. Note the front wheel run on to patch and press it down.”

“One of the many stork towers in Iraq. Age? Note the stork at the top. This one was near Tauq.”

Tauq is now Daquq and predominately populated by what are now described as Iraqi Turkmen, although in my uncle’s time they would have simply been Turks or speakers of Turkic and who would probably have been descendants of Ottoman soldiers and traders of the 19th Century.

“Out before breakfast looking for ducks.”

“Stallsey does some washing. In the background the ‘lad’ fetches the water. As usual we have an audience.”

“At the tinsmith’s Alton Kopri. Note the crowd of on-lookers.”

Alton Kopri is now Altun Kupri which translates as Golden Bridge from Turkish, the inhabitants then being Iraqi Turkmen. In Saddam’s time, it underwent “Arabisation” and suffered a massacre of many Turkmen by the Iraqi Army during the Gulf War. Their duck hunt was probably along the Little Zab River that flows through Altun Kupri.

The ‘Lion of Babylon’ is a Hittite granite sculpture that was first documented as a discovery in 1817. No longer on its original site as when my uncle took his photograph, it has now been moved and restored in modern times.

To quote Wikipedia, ‘It depicts a Mesopotamian lion above a supine human figure. The postures of the lion and human strongly suggest that they are having sexual intercourse. This interpretation is supported by the back of the lion, which contains a carved depression where it is believed that a saddle was originally placed, on which a figure of Ishtar, the goddess of fertility, love, and war, may have sat or stood.’

I also have photographs he took of the ancient carved reliefs on the walls of the ruins of Babylon.

Babylon Halt, north of Altun Kupri, is where I presume they turned around. Babylon Halt was on the Hejaz Railway, made famous by the exploits of T. E. Lawrence. (See Desert Mysteries – Part Six).

“Outside the gate of Mudir Nalia about to leave for Kirkuk.”

Somewhere along the Erbil-Kirkuk road but Google Maps and the internet have failed to prompt me as to where this place is and what is now its modern name.

“Halfway between Alton Kopri and Kirkuk on the return journey. This was taken to show the signpost such was Nie’s photography.” – My uncle is sitting second from the left.

“The arrival at Kirkuk from Alton Kopri. This was taken in an attempt to record the beards after five days ‘nursing’, but the photographer must have been too far away and must have moved the camera.” – The whole team, but an apparent failure by my uncle in trying for an early ‘selfie’ style shot.

Kirkuk was the place where in 1927, the British-owned Iraqi Petroleum Company, ultimately nationalised by Saddam Hussein, struck a huge gusher at Baba Gurgur, established the Kurkuk Oilfield and the “black gold” wealth of Iraq. Since then Kirkuk has alternated between being under either Kurdish or Iraqi control, continuing to be disputed territory.

Although I have photographs of my uncle by a Westland Wapiti at Kirkuk Airfield (now Kirkuk International Airport), this drive pre-dated by a few months when he was awarded his sergeant-pilot wings so they may have got there either on a training flight or in a transport as I have no record of him being posted there.

The next Desert Mysteries Redux, Part Three, will be a special for old aeroplane enthusiasts as it’s a photographic review of what happened when flying training went wrong out in the desert in the 1930s.
 

© text & images John Tull 2024