New colour WW1 Photos***warning***Please read the warning in thread***warning***

Zip

Zip

Zip

Soldato
Joined
26 Jun 2005
Posts
20,224
Location
Australia
WARNING: Two of the photos contain a picture of someone thats been killed. Although they really just look like they are sleeping and are intact im putting this warning up for the super squeamish. If you are Squeamish then dont scroll down.






























































Well that should be plenty of warning :)


These photos are of the battle of Passchendaele.
It shows the conditions they had to fight in WW1 really really well.

Enjoy.(It sounds wrong but is a rare thing to have colour photos from that Era turn up)

Mods if you dont agree with the pictures please dont delete the thread.
Just remove the pictures and leave the link up(Its a link to the Dailymail)

GunDM_468x361.jpg

Killing field: A German machine gun unit strafes No Man's Land at Passchendaele as artillery shells churn up hte ground and mustard gas billows over the front

FallenDM_821x800.jpg

Slaughter: One of the 250,000 Allies killed in action

soildersDM_1171x800.jpg

Another bleak day dawns: Allied soldiers take a breather before the next round of German bombardment

BunkerDM_800x619.jpg

Devastation: Canadian soldiers survey a smashed German bunker

Hell on Earth: The never before seen colour photographs of the bloody battle of Passchendaele

They are the most remarkable pictures of one of the most hellish places on earth.

Never seen before, these astonishing photographs, lovingly hand-touched in colour to bring to life the nightmare of Passchendaele, were released this week to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the battle that, between July and November 1917, claimed a staggering 2,121 lives a day and in total some quarter of a million Allied soldiers.

What was once pretty countryside around the Belgian village that gave the battlefield its name was reduced to an infernal swamp where the ground oozed with foul-smelling slime, and mustard gas that blistered the skin and made the lungs bleed.

Today, the Queen will attend a Last Post ceremony in Passchendaele at the Menin Gate, where a memorial arch is engraved with the names of the 54,896 Commonwealth soldiers who died with no known graves.

She will also visit the Tyne Cot cemetery, where 11,952 graves are laid out in neat concentric circles, their tombstones white against the green grass, in peaceful defiance of the brutal battle that took their lives.

One of the major conflicts of World War I, it was conceived by British Commander-in-Chief Sir Douglas Haig as a "big push" that would, finally, bring a breakthrough in the stalemate in Flanders.

Officially named the Third Battle of Ypres, the hope was that by breaking through German lines at this point on the Western Front, the Allies could reach the Belgian coast and capture the German submarine bases there.

The Allies prepared the way with a massive two-week bombardment in which 3,000 heavy guns sent more than four million shells pouring into the German lines.

Then, on July 31, the troops poured into a No Man's Land that within days and under torrential rain had become a sodden bog.

It became so deep that men, horses and pack mules drowned in it. What was supposed to be a breakthrough became a battle of attrition.

By November, the British and Empire forces had advanced just five miles at terrible cost, to take the village of Passchendaele - which at least provided an excuse for them to call a halt.

Their one consolation was that the Germans had also suffered grievously.
Click to expand...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...cle_id=467811&in_page_id=1770&in_page_id=1770
 
Not sure why but the top one looks fake Oo

Interesting pics though, gives you such a better idea of what they went through rather than black and white photos.
 
Not colour photos as such but the guy that has tinted them has done an outstanding job. My grandad used to do the same thing to photos but no where near as good as this.

It certainly makesit hit home more when its in colour. I saw a documentary of 1910s and WW! in colour recently and the French soldiers looked very odd in their almost skyblue Uniforms.
 
Zip said:
GunDM_468x361.jpg

Killing field: A German machine gun unit strafes No Man's Land at Passchendaele as artillery shells churn up hte ground and mustard gas billows over the front
Click to expand...

I find that picture very disturbing for some reason. The way the terrain is so malformed and... "wrong" makes it look like its from another world. The only thing I can recognise as slightly human are the fence posts at a slant in the middle.

Its a shame we havn't learnt all that much since. Saying something like that will never happen again is a bit naive, I just hope something like that doesn't happen in my lifetime.
 
Tical said:
I find that picture very disturbing for some reason. The way the terrain is so malformed and... "wrong" makes it look like its from another world. The only thing I can recognise as slightly human are the fence posts at a slant in the middle.

Its a shame we havn't learnt all that much since. Saying something like that will never happen again is a bit naive, I just hope something like that doesn't happen in my lifetime.
Click to expand...


Ive read places that if you feel into one of that craters you will more then likely not come back out of it :(
 
That top photograph is a black and white that has been coloured in, it was in the paper the other day.

I'm also not to sure its German troops.. are they? :confused:
 
Last edited:
Biohazard said:
That top photograph is a black and white that has been coloured in, it was in the paper the other day.
Click to expand...
Read the thread, it says they are hand touched in colour.
 
Stunning. Sad. Horrific. Scary. Exciting. Powerful.

Too many words and feelings, but an incredible insight into a horrific part of history.
 
Both my Great Grand father and Great Uncle Alec fought and more amazingly survived WWI, Great Grand Father suffered half an arm loss and removed from duty, my Great Uncle though got shellshock, seems that the test for sending you back was dropping a large boulder behind you and if you reacted you were sent back.... Which he did.... My Gran says neither of them ever talked about it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom