Today’s post was written by David Langbart, archivist in Research Services at the National Archives at College Park, MD.
This is the seventh in a series of occasional blog posts.
So far this series of posts has made stops in Tokyo, Shanghai, Amoy, and Calcutta. The Army Around the World Flight, flew out of Calcutta on July 1 to continue the journey west. The planes stopped in Allahabad, Ambala, Multan, Karachi, Bander Abbas, and landed in Bagdad (now Baghdad), Iraq on July 8, having covered 3440 miles in those seven days. They remained in that city overnight, taking off on the morning of July 9, heading for Aleppo, 450 miles to the west.
After a delay of several weeks, John Randolph, the U.S. consul in Bagdad, sent the following despatch to the Department of State. This report provides a better idea of the work done at all points along the route to support the airmen on their journey.
Randolph included two newspaper clippings with his report. Here is the shorter one.
Randolph included with his despatch several photographs courtesy of a local British businessman and the Royal Air Force. Love those pith helmets!
Sources: All the documents mentioned above come from file “811.2300” in the 1910-29 Central Decimal File, RG 59: General Records of the Department of State. A listing of those documents will be found in the Purport List for that file, which is available online, beginning at frame 510.
fascinating the discoveries that you find–Thanks for sharing–Jim and Lois Ullman