If one thinks back to World War II, there is a good possibility that a particular image will spring to mind. The explosion of the world’s first atom bomb over the city of Hiroshima, Allied troops disembarking from landing craft in Normandy as well as the memorable shot of an American sailor planting a kiss on a young woman in Times Square, New York, in 1945, have all become iconic images of the war. This is the power of photography.

Times of Malta, July 26, 1943. The taking of private photographs was discouraged by most of the countries at war, and this included Malta during the invasions of Sicily and Italy.

Many hundreds of German soldiers were sent to the battlefield in 1939 armed with Leica and Rolleiflex cameras. Some were officially commissioned as photographers while others were asked by their commanders to snap records of unfolding events.

Some of the officially commissioned photographers excelled at portraiture while others concentrated on the narratives they were eyewitnesses to. For the Allies, official war photography would typically involve photographing the war’s effect on people in different combat zones, and portraits of combatants and civilians were taken in order to give a relatable ‘face’ to the hostilities.

Battle photography, as well as its sister medium war art, became a popular means for each country’s propaganda machine to update the general public in a visual manner about the progress of the war. It also encouraged a sympathetic response to the war effort. Official photographers travelled light, armed only with their cameras in hand, and usually found themselves on the front line before their colleagues, the war artists.

Photographs snapped throughout WWII remained largely anonymous and unsigned. Notwithstanding its success with the general public, war photography was a doubled-edged sword as it was a threat to military security. Officially sanctioned war photography satisfied the general public’s need for visual updates from the war zone but minimised the risk of visually-sensitive material passing into enemy hands.

Unidentified Australian airmen, probably members of No. 450 Squadron RAA, buying fruit or vegetables from local civilians. Photo: Australian War Memorial MEA0179

Laurence Craddock Le Guay (1916-1990) was Sydney’s leading fashion photographer throughout the 1950s and 1960s. During WWII, Le Guay occupied the post of an official war photographer with the Royal Australian Air Force. When the squadron he was attached to transferred to Malta from Tripoli for a couple of days in July 1943, he snapped several photographs of Commonwealth troops, local inhabitants and places of interest on the island that caught his eye.

Born in Sydney, Australia in 1916, Le Guay developed an early interest in photography and was fortunate enough to be mentored by Harold Cazneaux, Australia’s leading pictorial photographer at the time. In 1937, Le Guay opened his own studio, specialising in illustrative and fashion photography. He also displayed an interest in photomontage work of a surrealist nature.

Le Guay joined the Sydney Camera Circle and began exhibiting at various national photographic salons. In 1938, he joined the Contemporary Camera Groupe whose younger members were mostly commercial photographers like himself. The Groupe were inspired by the new concept of a healthy, tanned body which made direct reference to the sun-worshipping beach culture current in Australia during the interwar period.

He snapped several photographs of Commonwealth troops, local inhabitants and places of interest on the island that caught his eye

Le Guay was 24 years old in 1940 when he enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) as an official war photographer. His work involved travelling extensively around the Mediterranean with No. 450 and No. 451 Squadrons (1941-43). Due to the top-secret nature of reconnaissance photography, which involved photographing enemy targets to bomb, there are no examples of his work during the first three years of the war.

RAAF servicemen relax in a bar while stationed in the area. Photo: Australian War Memorial MEA0162

The No. 450 Squadron was engaged in the Tunisian Campaign, and by March 1943, the squadron’s aircraft had flown 350 sorties against Axis shipping in the Gulf of Tunis. Throughout April and May 1943, the squadron operated along the Mareth Line. In May 1943, almost a quarter of a million German and Italian troops surrendered in Tunisia. Le Guay shot several photographs showing jubilant and cheering crowds, gathered in an unnamed square in Tunis, to welcome British and Allied troops entering the city.

After the victory in Tunisia, which was a turning point in the war, the Allies decided to press north into Italy and planned a large-scale attack of Sicily in order to defeat Fascist Italy. Several Commonwealth troops staged through Malta in the days that preceded the Sicilian Campaign, which took place between July 9 and 10, 1943. Naturally, the Allies could depend on fighter cover from Malta.

Le Guay took several photographs of No. 450 Kittyhawk Squadron (nicknamed the Desert Harassers due to their impressive record in the North Africa campaign) leaving Tripoli in early July 1943. One of these images is captioned: “On rails of ship as it departs from harbour, bound for Malta.” Other photographs are captioned: “Approaching Malta” and show Australian troops on deck with Grand Harbour in the distance.

Sergeant T. Denny, of Bondi, New South Wales, reading a brochure entitled A Soldier’s Guide to Sicily, issued to all personnel who participated in the aerial attack over Sicily. Photo: Australian War Memorial MEA0212

Another photograph clarified that the vessel transporting troops to Malta was later to take part in the “great armada carrying invasion forces from N. Africa to Sicily”. The caption failed to name the convoy ship for security purposes. A photograph featured in this article shows members of the ground crew of this elite flying corps disembarking from the unnamed convoy ship and moving their gear onto trucks that were waiting to transport them to their camp site close to Luqa airbase.

The Allies launched the amphibious and airborne invasion of Sicily, code-named Operation Husky, before dawn on July 10, 1943. For the next three days, more than 3,000 ships landed 150,000 ground troops onto our neighbouring island. Four RAAF squadrons, eight RAN corvettes and numerous Australian personnel serving with British units were involved in supporting the Sicilian Campaign.

No. 450 squadron flew out of the RAF base in Luqa and attacked targets in Yugoslavia and Sicily. Its first sweep in Sicily was against Carlentini, a town 45 kilometres away from Syracuse. No. 450 Kittyhawk squadron differed from other RAAF squadrons as it was made up of predominantly Australian ground staff and pilots. Other RAAF squadrons were manned by British ground crews. The elite squadron had arrived in Malta on July 13 directly from Zuwarah airfield in Libya and independently from the ground crew a couple of days earlier.

Le Guay snapped several photographs after the squadron’s first operational flight to Sicily. One, reproduced in this article, shows a Kittyhawk on the Luqa runway and is captioned: “Australian Spitfire pilots returning from a sweep and relating their experiences to a PR officer while the official photographer of the RAAF takes their photo for newspapers at home.”

RAAF airmen, probably members of 450 Squadron, travel by a horse-drawn cart for a sight-seeing trip in the area. Photo: Australian War Memorial MEA0175

The caption underscores that the photograph had been taken for publicity purposes by Le Guay in order to promote the success of the squadron with the Australian public.

On July 18, No. 450 Squadron relocated from Malta to Pachino, a town in the province of Syracuse, Sicily, from where it continued ground attack missions. A further move for the squadron came on August 2 when it relocated to Agnone in the vicinity of Catania. On the night of August 11, the squadron was attacked by JU 88 bombers and 18 RAAF Kittyhawks were destroyed.

The squadron continued to work closely with Allied ground units around Mount Etna until September 16, 1943. During the early stages of the Allied campaign on the Italian mainland which started in early September 1943, the squadron undertook bomber escort missions in support of the British Eighth Army.

After disembarking from a convoy ship, members of the Desert Harassers No. 540 Kittyhawk Squadron RAAF moving with their gear onto trucks. They were in Malta after having crossed from North Africa. Photo: Australian War Memorial MEA0150

After leaving Malta and briefly accompanying his squadron to Sicily and Italy, Le Guay returned to work as the RAAF liaison officer at the Royal Air Force headquarters based in the Middle East and served until he was demobilised in January 1946.

The photographs he took during his five years of active service include images of wrecked buildings, prisoners of war, airfields and military personnel, while several others show the impact of war on the local population. Most of his photographs were shot on film stock with a 120-nitrate base. The Australian War Memorial Archive holds thousands of his wartime images, and these include several of the Middle East, 124 of North Africa, 107 of Malta and 335 of Sicily.

Back in Sydney, Le Guay founded Contemporary Photography, a photographic magazine, and taught photography. In 1947, he set up a partnership with John Nisbett and both men were among the first in Australia to use outdoor locations for fashion photography.

View of St. John’s Co-Cathedral. Photo: Australian War Memorial MEA0178

His wartime service imbued him with a love of travel and adventure. The official photographer for the Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition in 1947-48, he also undertook commissions for the Australian Geographical Society. Another assignment was a trip to New Guinea where he took his most famous non-fashion image entitled New Guinea Natives.

In 1963, he was awarded an Australian Photographic Society Commonwealth Medal and the year after made a fellow (1964) of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain. 

Acknowledgement

The author would like to thank Jenny Cartmill, High Commissioner for Australia, for her interest in this article.

Caroline Miggiani is the author of The Official Colours of War.