Some WWI pics

[CINDERS]

Another good book is the Lost Diggers By Ross Coulthart with the pics a French couple took of our diggers over 400+ negative plates that were found in an attic of a French farm house and Ross made sure they came home 90 years after they were taken it is a touching view into the lives of the Diggers behind the lines and a fantastic book but be warned it is big and heavy. (Pen for scale)

[corco]

A friend of mine that was born and grew up in France sent me this link whch is along simular lines. I though you all would like it as well.

They are some excellent D-Day pictures, but with a twist. If you click on the images, you will see exactly the same scene today. Seventy years ago.

This is really clever and very well done.

Scenes From D-Day, Then and Now - In Focus - The Atlantic

[Bruce_in_Oz]

Fromelles;

My wife managed to get to the cemetery dedication / re-interment of the Oz diggers there a few years back.

I managed to catch it on the live TV broadcast here in Oz.

The "art" of interlocking arcs, forward flank deployment and mutual defence for machine guns was perfectly demonstrated by the Germans at Fromelles. The MG bunkers (that they knew about) were a magnet for the attackers; the big problem was that each MG site was covered by a predetermined defensive fire plan from at least two other guns. There was none of this Hollywood "spray and pray" stuff. The guns carefully sited forward and to the sides of the nominal German lines just applied pre-aimed enfilade fire straight along the lines of advancing troops.

If you look at the maps produced since the battle, and the casualty lists, it is obvious that advancing at a walk, in line between carefully sited MGs and in breaking daylight was probably not a good idea at that time, (or at any other time, really).

[Roger Payne]

Yep. With the guns set up properly all the Germans had to do was fire & let the attacking troops advance into the hail of bullets - as you say Bruce, none of this wildly swinging the gun from left to right as we tend to see in the movies. Perhaps the reality doesn't look dramatic enough for the film industry.

Mind you, this wasn't just at Fromelles - it was typical modus operandi until 1917 when we copied the French & introduced sections of specialist riflemen, rifle bombers, bombers, Lewis gunners, etc into the platoon, & started to learn the lesson of advance by fire & cover. The French don't generally get a lot of credit for it, but the penny dropped first with them.

[browningautorifle]

Perhaps the reality doesn't look dramatic enough for the film industry.

That's always been exactly the case Roger.

[RobD]

For another extraordinary collection of pictures, I can recommend a Dutch site:
http://www.greatwar.nl/frames/default-children.html
The linking texts have variable merit, but the photographs are not the ones usually seen. I do apologise in advance if some of the pictures are too gruesome.
Rob