Battle Trenches

[newcastle]

Don't think we should worry about a photo being "staged", the chances of any of those lads coming unscathed out of the other end were slim and they're all gone now along with theur memories of a much togher life than we'll see.

[Surpmil]

I don't think these are staged, or rather I don't think they were taken in the rear area trenches or in a training area. The posts sticking up on the left side of the trench might be the remains of a wire entanglement. Can't see what else they would be. The parapet on the trench may have been reversed if this was a captured German trench, as it seems to be. It may not have been held long enough by the Germans for wire to be set up fully, or obviously, to be dug out and revetted the way front line trenches usually were. This is the kind of depth a trench would be after a day or two of digging.

In the second photo there are three Gew98s lying around and one German bayonet stuck into the trench wall by the forearm of the man closest to the camera. Not what you find in a training area.

In the first photo the man approaching on foot in the upper left corner of the photo suggests that the enemy were not in sight. There is another Gew98 muzzle down in the trench. What looks like the top of a Service Rum jar behind the trench with the open neck facing the camera.

Probably photos taken during a major battle when former German trenches were occupied. The tarps and blankets set up for cover of some kind is not the sort of thing I would expect in a staged photo. For shade or to hide from aircraft or both? The background is either heavy shelling or a smoke screen, presumably from smoke shells.

The fixing bayonets bit could be a bit of a set up; two men in the background seem to have theirs fixed already.

The photographer obviously felt safe enough to get up on top to take the photos.

Attachment 33832Attachment 33831

[browningautorifle]

The picture where they exit the trench has been joined at the right side. That's the one where the rifle's lying out. Don't know why, don't care why, but it has been joined from another similar but different photo.