The handwritten caption in the album says “Turkish pilots with machine at Baghdad” so there is not much information from there. However over on the Great war forum under a thread on RNAS in Mesopotamia there is a posting listing early Australian flight squadron 30 planes and their fates…. It shows one Martinsyde S1 as having been abandoned at Kut in april 1916 so maybe this is that machine in Turkish colours.

Hi James
I have done a little more research based on your comments about the buildings, which I agree are more typical Spanish types than Italian, also the seaplane bases in Italy at that time do not match the layout in this photo even if you “flip” it as snafu suggests. Further there are a lot of other seaplanes on the water and it would suggest a well established airbase which lead me to look at Spanish bases of which I am fairly sure I have found a match ; Los Alcazares in Murcia. It was the first Seaplane base in Spain formed in 1915 so by 1923 was well established as in our photo and the topography matches too… looking on google earth the street layouts match up and the positions of the hangars are still possible to make out ( there is even an aeronautical museum there !) although much of the buildings in the town are now modern apartment blocks the large squareish building on the seafront seems to be still there. Unfortunately the little church in the photo has been replaced by a very modern 60s or 70s concrete effort but it is still in the same position ( its wonderful how you can drive around a town these days in street view and see what the buildings look like now !!). Also my research shows that Los Alcazares was where the Plus Ultra flight set out from !!!
Snafu I have studied the original photo of the Wal and am now sure that what we are looking at is two side by side cockpit positions, not one offset to port or starboard. It is just that because of the blurring it is very difficult to seperate the outline of the edge of the fuselage with the buildings in the background so what looks like an offset cockpit is actually a part of the roof of the building behind. I also flipped the image in photoshop and this is still the same..so thanks for your input I think James may well be right we might have a photo of the Plus Ultra !!
So in all well done to you for pointing me in the right direction !!
Thanks for all the interesting comments and help
Regards
Richard

James I am sure you are right it is an early Dornier Wal before 1926 when they changed the tailplane as you say. The other seaplanes in the harbour appear to be biplanes and the hangars at the back of the photo are military looking…could this be the Italian factory/airfield where they built the early Dorniers ? I have looked up early seaplane bases in Italy and so far I know it is not Brindisi as that base was set in an estuary which had building all round it in the 20s. I will keep looking…I suppose it might just be Argentina as his brother Raymond Bradley went out there after the war (I think)

And a couple more………[ATTACH=CONFIG]230792[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]230793[/ATTACH]

Thanks for this info ..We seem to be getting there I will see if there are any other pics worth copying and posting. Meanwhile here are a couple more from the same page in the album[ATTACH=CONFIG]230786[/ATTACH]
and [ATTACH=CONFIG]230787[/ATTACH]

And here are some more….[ATTACH=CONFIG]230738[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]230739[/ATTACH]

And more photos from that time; [ATTACH=CONFIG]230709[/ATTACH]
and; [ATTACH=CONFIG]230710[/ATTACH]

Hi Adrian, Thanks for your info….I am not sure the airfield is in Mesopotamia now having checked grandfathers records he was in Egypt in 1916 in 30 squadron but moved to 19 squadron in January that year then on to 52 squadron in may and 48 squadron in november followed by 58 ssquadron and 57 squadron in december. then on to 63 squadron in november 1917. He was in Mesopotamia in 1918 and 1919 as he was mentioned in despatches there twice and he was awarded the CMG in 1919 when he retired. I have more photos to post so will do so [ATTACH=CONFIG]230706[/ATTACH]later…