from the library - the Nairn bus to Baghdad

This 192 page hardcover book was published by AH & AW Reed of Wellington in 1968 about two New Zealanders who started up and successfully ran the first overland bus service between Damascus and Baghdad in the 1920s when the only routes were tracks across the desert. Brothers Gerald and Norman Nairn served in the NZ Expeditionary Force in the Middle East who fought the Turks in WW1. After the end of the war, they stayed in the Middle East.  With the opening of the 650-mile (1047 km) desert route from Beirut to Baghdad. Buicks and Cadillacs were replaced by long-distance buses, and when WW2 broke out the Nairn fleet of luxury coaches, on specially-built tropical duty tires, was one of the wonders of the transport world.