Hiding The Taj Mahal In World War II – 2 Rare Old Photos 1942
There are two rare old 1942 photos of hiding the Taj Mahal during World War II. The first photo is of an American soldier in front of the disguised Taj Mahal. British India during World War II sided with the Allied countries. There were apprehensions by the government about any attacks by Japan or Germany.
One of the preferred targets of enemies in times of war was destroying landmarks. So when WWII broke out the Taj Mahal was one of the obvious targets. Setting off alarm bells in British India. The dominant thought was to save the famous historical icon from aerial bombing. The government did not want to take chances after the shelling of Madras in WWI. The German warship Emden bombarded the city. Wreaking havoc on the city and its people in 1914. The Taj Mahal’s dome as seen in this rare small-sized photo is clad in bamboo.
This was absolutely to mislead the fighter pilots. Who unlike today relied more on the naked eye than electronic instruments at the time. Since high-precision electronics imagery did not exist then. The scaffolding was to act as camouflage. To resemble a stockpile of bamboo when looking down from the fighter plane. Fortunately, no attack took place. Would it have the desired effect? We will not exactly know. Since only the dome was disguised, the rest of the monument looks exposed. Nevertheless, the beautiful Taj was saved from the serious calamity of war. Click on the photo for better view.
Did you know – in the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pakistan wars yet again the Taj Mahal was believed to have been disguised.
From the collection – 1964 M. Suriyamoorthy Charcoal Art Abstract (#1)., Madras Gymkhana Club, Old Postcard 1905., Crawford Market Mumbai – Rare Old Print 1874., Maharaja Of Travancore’s Elephants & Sunbeam Car.
The images are of the actual items from my collection. And Not a photocopy, pirated, reproduced, stock photos, or taken from other sources.
