Category: Digital South Asia Library, Frank Bond, Calcutta, India, Illinois

The Bond collection consists of photographs taken during World War II by Frank Bond while serving in the Army Air Corps, 40th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, stationed in India and Burma. The squadron was formed in 1943 and transferred by sea to India in 1944. In India, the unit was assigned first to Gushkara, approximately sixty miles west of Calcutta, and then to the Alipore Air Base in suburban Calcutta. Bond was a specialist in the development of film from aerial photography that provided essential intelligence to the Allied forces during their advance through central Burma. As the campaign in Burma progressed, Bond was transferred to Akyab Island in the Bay of Bengal where he helped to establish the field photographic developing and printing laboratory.