Personal Album of Major Richard C. Limbert, Special Investigation Branch of Royal Military Police, Palestine 1947-1948

THE LAST YEAR OF THE BRITISH MANDATE THROUGH THE EYES OF A BRITISH MILITARY OFFICIAL This extraordinarily extensive scrap-album - complete with photographs, newspaper clippings, classified investigative police reports and personal memorabilia - traces the posting of British Major Richard C. Limbert of Hale, Cheshire to Palestine, from the time he shipped out of Southampton, England on June 27th, 1947 until his departure from Palestine on March 12th, 1948. (Earlier, Limbert had served with the Fifth Army in Italy helping Italian partisans in their fight against the Fascists.) Limbert was eyewitness to and investigativor of the cycle of violence that characterized the final year of the British Mandate in Palestine. Through the lens of Major Limbert's camera we see the following graphic images: the dangling bodies of the two British sergeants Paice and Mervyn hung and booby-trapped by the Irgun; the Police Headquarters in Haifa bombed by Jews; the debris of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem in the aftermath of its bombing by the Irgun; the Palestine Post Building, Jerusalem blown up by Arabs; the wreckage of Ben Yehuda Street, Jerusalem after the Arab blast; corpses of Jews murdered by Arabs in Hebron; the bodies of four Haganah fighters murdered in Jerusalem, allegedly by British soldiers as an act of retribution; etc. But there are also pleasant memories: the officer's club at Sarafand (the British army base); horse and motorcycle races; bathing at Jaffa; snapshots of the Western Wall; lunch with the Muktar and elders of the Arab village of Beit Nebala; invitations to dinner-parties, etc. Also of interest are several leaflets of propaganda distributed by the Arab Higher Committee / Arab National Committee to British soldiers to incite them against the Jews. A QUITE UNIQUE ALBUM OF ORIGINAL MATERIAL. SHOULD BE EXAMINED DIRECTLY