Amazing Found Photos Capture Everyday Life in Egypt During World War II

Egypt was a major battlefield in the North African campaign during the Second World War, being the location of the First and Second Battles of El Alamein. Legally an independent kingdom, and an equal sovereign power in the condominium of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, in reality Egypt was heavily under the coercive influence of the United Kingdom, a state of affairs that had persisted since the United Kingdom intervened militarily in the Urabi Revolt in favor of Egypt’s Khedive, Tewfik Pasha, in 1882, subsequently occupying the country.

Egypt during World War II

The continuing British dominance of Egyptian affairs, including British efforts to exclude Egypt from the governance of Sudan, provoked fierce Egyptian nationalist opposition to the United Kingdom. Consequently, despite playing host to thousands of British troops following the outbreak of the conflict, as it was treaty-bound to do, Egypt remained formally neutral during the war, only declaring war on the Axis powers in the spring of 1945.

Though escaping the fate of Iraq, and Iran, both of whose governments were toppled by the United Kingdom during the war (the latter in conjunction with the Soviet Union), Egypt experienced the Abdeen Palace Incident, a confrontation between Egypt’s King Farouk and the British military in 1942, the results of which would contribute directly to the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 a decade later.

Here below is a photo collection from Coalfields Local History Association Inc. that shows everyday life in Egypt during World War II.

Alexandria Racecourse, Egypt

Beggars, Egypt

Boat on Nile River, Egypt

Boat on Nile River, Egypt

Boat on Nile River, Egypt

Cairo, Egypt

Cairo, Egypt

Cairo, Egypt

Cairo, Egypt

Camel with load of melons, Egypt

Camels, Egypt

Carrying water, Egypt

Desert Patrol, Egypt

Drawing water, Egypt

Drawing water, Egypt

Driving goats, Egypt

Driving sheep, Egypt

Egyptian band

Egyptian children on a wagon, Egypt

Egyptian ladies seated in a wagon, accompanied by four men

Egyptian Police making an arrest

Egyptian Police

Egyptian Police

Egyptian Police

Egyptian Soldier, pyramid in background

Egyptian woman

Egyptian women carrying water

English Bridge, Cairo, Egypt

Funeral Procession, 4 men carrying a coffin, Egypt

Funeral Procession, Egypt

King Faruck's Palace, Egypt

King Faruk's yacht, Egypt

Man ploughing with two oxen, Egypt

Milkman. Man milking a cow in a city street, Egypt

Mixing concrete, Egypt

Mosque, Cairo

Mounted Egyptian Police passing a sign saying "H.B.M.'s and Imperial Forces. Music for all ranks"

Native on camel, Egypt

Native woman carrying water, Egypt

Native women selling bread, Egypt

Native women washing, Egypt

Natives, Cairo, Egypt

Natives, Egypt

Opera Square, Cairo

Pyramid, Egypt

Pyramids, Egypt

Pyramids, Egypt

Pyramids, Egypt

Selling sweet corn, Egypt

Sick camel, Egypt

Smoking Egyptian pipe, Egypt

Sphinx, Egypt

Stanley Bay, Alexandria, Egypt

Street barber, Egypt

Street drink seller, Egypt

Street Fair, Egypt

Street sweepers, Egypt

Threshing Train, Egypt

Water syphon, Egypt