Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Military History Monthly 05/2014

This cold and desolate image shows a British trench, abandoned following a German attack, with mounted German infantry looming menacingly in the background. An inscription on the back of the photograph reads, Die Große Schlacht im Westen. Der Stab einer Infanterie-Division... ueberscreiten einer genommenen engl. Stellung. This translates as 'The Great Battle in the West. The staff of an infantry division... crosses a taken English position'. The trench floor is littered with cigarette papers, matchboxes, and tinned food, all left behind in the rushed withdrawal. Corrugated iron sheets have been thrown together haphazardly to create rude bunkers along the line, inside which we see more empty food packets and further signs of a hasty evacuation. The only dismounted soldier stands directly behind a solitary grave, marked with a white cross. While the ghostly, blurred German soldiers approaching on horseback and those who have just arrived all face the captured trench in preparation for crossing, this man alone faces the German line, perhaps reflecting on the successful advance. Not instantly noticeable, his presence provides a contrast in the image's direction of movement, which comes to a stand-still at him and the little grave.

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