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This great Website is a heritage to WW1 and has a slide show of photos taken during the Great War. What is interesting in many of the pictures is how young some of the soldiers were, some as young as fourteen. If you are interested in WW1 this website is a must see. I have selected a few photos from the site and a description of each.
First picture
The Slaughter of the Somme, 1916.
From their cover in shellholes the Germans wait for the French infantry soldiers who come for them in neat rows (the socalled tirailleur lines the allied generals still preferred).
Second Picture
On April 22, 1915, the Germans for the first time made a large scale use of poison gas.
German infantry men follow the gas cloud on a very short distance, protected only by a little mouthcap watered in a certain liquid.
Third Picture
A German reserve-division marches cheerful to the front at Verdun.
Their aim was, as their superiors wanted it, to 'bleed the French to death'.
Deployed in this war of attrition only a few of these soldiers returned alive.
Picture made in the summer of 1915.
Fourth Picture
French picture made in 1916 in a trench near Verdun, Northern France.
The Battle of Verdun was the longest and one of the bloodiest engagements of World War I. Two million men were engaged. The Germans began the battle on February 21, 1916. In December of that year the French had regained most of the ground lost.
The Germans intended a battle of attrition in which they hoped to bleed the French army white. In the end they sustained almost as many casualties as the French: an estimated 328,000 to the French 348,000. The real figures are unknown.
Nowadays Verdun stands for everything that is cruel and savage in warfare. Soldiers on both sides lost their sense of humanity
Fifth Picture
.Two young soldiers posing outside a bell tent at their training camp
They belong to the King's Own (Royal Lancaster) Regiment. Did they answer this brotherly call?
With the rapid expansion of the British Army after the outbreak of the war there was not enough equipment to go around. The standing soldier has the basic uniform complete with puttees. However, he has neither a cap badge or shoulder titles. The kneeling soldier has acquired all of his badges but his uniform is incomplete as he lacks puttees.
Note that both the boys are holding old fashioned rifles, at this time these may have been their battalion's only weapons
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This really is a great site if your interested in the great war, loads of great and rare photos and their descriptions from WW1.
