Photograph Album – Orde Wingate's Special Night Squads, the Royal Air Force and the Israeli Air Force during the ...

Photograph Album – Orde Wingate's Special Night Squads, the Royal Air Force and the Israeli Air Force during the War of Independence
Approx. 360 photographs in an album that had belonged to Joseph Joe Ra'anan (Reisman) – a soldier of Orde Wingate's Special Night Squads, an air gunner of the Royal Air Force and one of the founders of the Israeli Air Force. Palestine, North Africa and Europe, late 1930s to late 1940s.
The photographs are chronologically arranged in an album, and some are captioned and dated in handwriting on the leaves. This album documents three important stages in Ra'anan's military career:
• A soldier of the Special Night Squads during the Great Arab Revolt – photographs of the fighters of the unit during weapons training, riding horses, driving military vehicles, operating tracking devices, crossing a river, training with gas masks, raids and arrests in Arab villages and more. One of the photographs depicts a group of fighters encircling a smiling figure, presumably the squads' commander Orde Wingate. The Special Night Squads were a small force with only several dozens of fighters, and photographs of it are extremely rare.
• A soldier of the Royal Air Force during World War II – photographs of vehicles and shot-down airplanes (some of them of the German army), flight crews, British fighter aircrafts, aerial photographs taken during flights above Italy and Germany, photographs from a Passover Seder at an American air force base, an entertainment troupe performance for Christmas, a visit of Winston Churchill to the unit, and more.
• Commander of the Haifa airport during the War of Independence – photographs of pilots and air crews, a control tower, the airport a day after the establishment of the state of Israel, United Nations Observers chief of staff William Edward Riley arriving at the airport, singer Shoshana Damari and comedian Joseph Goland on the ramp of a plane before leaving on a fundraising tour to the USA, and more.
In addition to these photographs, the album contains approx. 30 photographs of boys, girls and counselors at Stock's Farm youth village (where Ra'anan lived as a new immigrant before his enlistment) and several photographs of cities and views in the Middle east and Europe (some of them were possibly bought as souvenirs during his service in the British Army).
Joseph (Joe) Ra'anan (1922-1996) was born as Kurt Reisman in Vienna and in 1938 immigrated to Palestine alone with the Youth Aliyah. His military career began almost the moment he set foot in Palestine, when he joined the hundred and twenty soldiers of Orde Wingate's Special Night Squads – the most important and daring unit of fighters during the Great Arab Revolt. After the squads were disassembled, he volunteered for the British Royal Air Force, was trained as an air gunner and participated in countless operational flights in the skies of occupied Europe. When he returned to Palestine, he became one of the most experienced air fighters of the Hebrew Yishuv. On the eve of the Israeli War of Independence, he worked as an inspector at the Haifa airport (actually, Ra'anan was sent there by the Haganah to lay the groundwork for the battle in the north), and after the British forces left the country, became the airport commander. Among his many exploits during the war, he is especially remembered for his service as commander of the air force employed in the last campaign of the war – the conquest of Eilat during Operation Uvdah. Later in his life, he commanded the air bases of Chatzor and Tel-Nof, served in the Mossad and was CEO of El-Al Charter Services.
Some of the photographs are captioned in handwriting on verso (German) and some are stamped with various stamps.
A total of approx. 360 photographs. Size and condition vary. Good overall condition. Album: approx. 29X39 cm. The photographs are arranged in the album by means of mounting corners and are numbered in pencil on the leaves. Creases, tears and minor blemishes to margins of leaves. Hard binding embossed with a gilt flower, worn and slightly damaged, with a sticker to front.
Provenance: The estate of Joseph Joe Ra'anan (Reisman).