Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Some vintage WWI photos.

While my friends and I attended Enfilade (the Pacific Northwest's premier gaming convention this past May), my friend James purchased two books for me.  They are the Collier's Photographic History of the European War and Collier's Photographic History of the World's War.  The first one was published in 1915 and the second one was published in 1918.  The photos included are some of the best I've seen and I have been studying the First World War since I was a teenager.  Needless to say I have been devouring the contents page by delicious page since he gave them to me.  In a moment of clarity I decided to take some photos of the photos and post them here.  My parents always taught me to share. :-)
All of the photos have captions and most of them were written as propaganda for the viewer.  After reading some of them, I have laughed out loud. Some of the photos are definitely staged as well.
So enough of my rambling, here are the pictures.
This first set contains the covers and splash pages with date of publication.


 The rest of these images are just random selections from both books.


 German cavalry!
 French cavalry escorting German prisoners.
 This particular photo above shows British Marines defending a road in 1914.
 The top center photo here shows Russian artillery preparing to move out.

A German armor car observing the artillery attack on Belgium.
 Recovering a British plane from the sea.
 A destroyed French town.
 The above center photo shows French soldiers firing over dead comrades.

 French soldiers firing at the Marne.  I thought it was interesting that they are wearing white caps.
 Austrian Skoda gun.
 Cossacks!
 Planes!  
 Top left photo shows how planes were moved from one place to another.

 The British have invaded America!! This tank went down 5th ave in NYC.
Austrian infantry advancing up hill!

 French Lancers waiting for a break through moment.
The desolate, muddy, Western Front.