Now this is really something!

On this Veterans Day a veteran of Britain's Royal Navy is trying to find the rightful owner of an incredible collection of photographs taken by an American World War II veteran.

It was more than a year ago that Monty Singh spotted an ornate photo album at a garage sale in Renton.

“I just thought it would look good on a coffee table,†he said.

He bought it for just $3.50. But while the album is clearly Japanese, the pictures inside document an American airman's tour of duty through Europe.

“I went, ‘Oh, wow.’ I mean looking through it, and the pictures of who are in here, and the quality of the pictures,†Singh marveled. “This is somebody's life history.â€

Singh, who grew up in London, recognized a number of locations. Including the London Zoo. But there's not much more to go on.

“It’s a complete mystery,†he said.

So who does the album belong to? Singh believes the pictures were taken by the man posing in front of a sign for the 61st Maintenance Squadron.

“I just want to get it back to him,†Singh said of the album.

The book is devoid of writing. No captions, no names. But from the photos, it appears the soldier was later based around Frankfurt, Germany. There are pictures of bomb damage, and reconstruction, as well as friends in the newly formed U.S. Air Force which came into being as a separate service out of the U.S. Army in 1947.

There are also lots of pictures of the C-54 aircraft that would become famous during the Berlin airlift of 1948 and 1949.

Singh saw combat himself over Iraq as a British Harrier pilot during the 1991 Gulf war.

“I'm just hoping that somebody will recognize some of the pictures and say, that's my grandpa, that was my dad or whatever,†Singh said, “and is able to put a name to any of the faces in here. So can put some closure to it and return it to whoever it belonged to.â€

Could this be the man they are looking for??

More to come in a few moments...

This is amazing. I spend most of my time researching army air corp information (my grandfather called the AAF home for the war) and this has really sparked an interest. Do you have anymore informatiuon on this?

Tex

I will try and find the link I had for this newspaper article. The reason I didn't put the link in the original posting was it was on a newspaper site and they wouldn't even let you look at the article without giving them a bunch of info like your email address. I don't like that at all. So I didn't want the people on my forum to be subjected to sites where their info goes out all over the net.

Let me get back with you and see what else I can dig up.

Try this:

Singh Article

Remember everyone, you will have to type in your info in order to view this page.

This is amazing. I spend most of my time researching army air corp information (my grandfather called the AAF home for the war) and this has really sparked an interest. Do you have anymore informatiuon on this?

 

Tex

This is Monty Singh and I would be more than happy to take any assistance to return the photo album back to it's rightful owner.

Netwrkguy@live.com

Well hello and welcome. How nice to have you on our site.

Looks like we lost the page with the article. I tried it today and it no longer works. Do you have a copy or any photo you could share with us?

Let me know.

Smiles,

Marion

In Renton?...Wow! I'm so close, yet so far (about 100 miles from Eburg). I lived in that area for more than 25 years before coming back to Ellensburg. I must say...Renton seems to be the Burmuda Triangle of WWII's unsolved mysteries. It was in the last 2 years or so that a Renton man was identified as being the GI hugging the ground of Omaha beach on june 6, 1944. When that was announced I immediately looked up his address in Renton, thinking of how cool it would be to get his autograph on a book I have about D-Day. After giving it some thought I decided that the poor guy was going to be inundated with requests for interviews and autographs without me adding my name to those who would invade his privacy and decided against it. Not to say that I wouldn't love to find a treasure like that photo album....