aussiejeff posted a photo:
IMAGE INFO
– Viewpoint is looking south-east from a harvested potato field, approx. 500m north-west of the ancient megalithic Baalbek ruins.
– Tom noted on the back of the pic in pencil "Ratted ground for potoes (potatoes) outside Baalbek". It would seem the men were keen for some fresh local produce to add to the nightly bully beef stew!
– This was Tom’s first brief visit to the ancient ruins of Baalbek. He was so fascinated with the short time he had available during the unit’s one day stopover at Baalbek that he decided to return later in 1942 for a more extensive visit, when he took a more extensive series of snaps while on leave with his mates – while they were stationed in Chekka/Tripoli with the 2/4 Anti-Malaria Control Unit.
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SOURCE INFO
– This unique image was captured by my late father-in-law, Driver Tom Beazley of the Australian Army 2/1 Anti-Tank Regiment, 19 Brigade, 2 Australian Imperial Force.
– Tom’s camera was a Kodak Six-20 Popular Brownie box camera loaded with 120 B&W roll film.
– His unit made a brief overnight stop at Baalbek during their big 19 Brigade convoy move from the Julis military re-training & staging camp in Palestine (now Southern Israel), via Beyrouth & Baalbek to the Ras Baalbek military camp in the Beqaa Valley, Syria (now North Lebanon).
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PROCESS INFO
– Digitized using a Canon Canoscan 8800F scanner.
– Cropped & restored from the very grainy, scratched & faded original B&W print quality, using Adobe Photoshop CS Windows (sepia duo-tone version).