[Rarebooks] FS: Marine's Guadalcanal Photo Album

[Bob Petrilla]

Guadalcanal. AMERICAN MARINE'S PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM DOCUMENTING HIS DUTY IN THE
SOUTH PACIFIC DURING WORLD WAR II, PLUS LOOSE PHOTOS OF GUADALCANAL AND
GERMANY AT THE TIME : 133 Photographs in all. Original photograph album.
Compiled by Lieutenant John Shallow, the album contains 59 original images
(mostly 3.25" x 4.5", some 3" x 3", and one 8" x 10". The photographs are
fitted into red-white-blue photo corners on 10" x 12" leaves of black
stock.  Bound into an album of padded, faux leather, with a picture of an
inn and a horse & carriage on the front. Very Good.
The compiler refers to himself as "Jack" or "Jackie," and he is pictured
with wife Madge and small son “Little Billy”, and his father “Big Jack”. He
traveled to the WWII Pacific theatre on the “USS Canberra”, the only US
warship named for a foreign city. The “Canberra” entered service in 1943
and was later torpedoed in the Aerial Battle of Taiwan-Okinawa in 1944 and
returned to the US for repairs. Jack was probably at Guadalcanal just after
the Campaign ended (Feb. 3, 1943), when it became a major base for the
Allies. ~~ Jack identifies his fellow combatants by their full names and
often branches of service and ranks: Walter Grondell, USS Canberra, 1943;
Dom Mastone, USNCB “Sea Bees”, 1943; Sgt. Donald Redding, 1942; Corporal
Russell Landless (with woman “Jerry” “on active duty in Greenland”); Lt.
Bob Lambourne (with Evelyn and at graduation from Officers Training, 1943),
Oregon, 1943, and also as Private Bob Lambourne (“on maneuvers, 1943”—7
shots); “Corporal David J. Allan, 5th Marines, Battle of Guadalcanal”; Lt.
Roger Lindsey, Army Air Corps; Lt. Albert Lindsey USNR; Sgt. Robert
Lindsey, USMC; Ensign Leo Doherty, USNR; Bill Fallon, USMC; George Assan,
Jr., Seabees; “Charles Allan, USNR; and Barton Allan, USN. ~~ Two pages of
photographs (9 images) are labeled “Official Marine pictures—Scenes of
Guadalcanal”, including shots of the marines landing on the beach,
Henderson Field, “Bomber at Henderson Field”, “Dead Jap”, marine rifles
(“They forget Marines are crack shots”), a foxhole, “bridge built over
swamp” and a dead soldier (“The End”). There are also several unlabeled but
presumably Guadalcanal snapshots—a soldier saluting in front of barracks,
two US sailors with a Japanese flag, and three US servicemen in the jungle.
Other men-at-war photographs include seven of "Private Bob Lambourne on
Maneuvers, 1943”, showing him in a tent, at attention with other men, “at
ease” with other men, the barracks, etc. ~~ Included in this archive is an
envelope of 74 loose photographs of Guadalcanal and Germany during World
War II. Some labeled on versos in various hands. The b&w images vary in
size. Fourteen photographs show our compiler, John Shallow, in training at
Fort Ontario in 1943. There are also 11 shots of identified soldiers not
labeled “Fort Ontario”, including 2 of Harold, Audrey, and Co. (taken at
parks in Brooklyn); a photo labeled “John” taken at Ft. Dix, NJ in
November, 1942; an MP, who inscribed his photo “To my pal John Shallow from
Jim Woerner"; two shots of duos: “S/Sgt Lester Paccaci and PFC Crowlenski”
and “PFC Herbert Baily & Corwlenski”; unidentified man in jeep at Fort
Custer, MI, Aug., 1943; four men in helmets with “Dupe/ Not for
publication” NS Army Censor/ Harnsberger, 1st Lt. PA” on verso; three men,
including Shallow, April 1943, in “Mom Giamquitta's" back yard, inscribed
by her to Shallow on the verso, April 1943; Cpl. Dan Miles, June, 1944; and
Roy Funk of Utica, in Monticello, Arkansas April, 1943. Also present are 34
photographs of unidentified U.S. servicemen: 21 of various men; 10 with
mothers or girlfriends/wives; two men with dog; and one man with child in
front of a demolished building. There are also four photographs from
Guadalcanal: three of “natives”—“Friendly little fellows” in a large group
wearing shorts or sarongs; “Some of the native women…all 5 are my girl
friends. Not bad, hum!”, showing five bare-breasted women in skirts; and
one photo of a small/ naked child, “What do you think of little Jas.(?), 6
years old” holding “some kind of melon. One photograph shows a soldier with
a rifle in the jungle. Finally, there are nine small (2 ½” x 3 ¼”)
photographs apparently taken in Germany: three of airplanes (one ruined
plane with swastika); five of buildings (2 ruined, one of which has a horse
and carriage in the foreground); one of a soldier in front of German P.O.
building; and a photograph of a plane in the sky.  $400.00

Trade discount 20%, postpaid in US




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