World War I - Pictures

1 Soldiers of an Australian 4th Division field

artillery brigade walk on a duckboard track laid
across a muddy, shattered battlefield in Chateau
Wood, near Hooge, Belgium, on October 29, 1917.
This was during the Battle of Passchendaele,
fought by British forces and their allies against
Germany for control of territory near Ypres,
Belgium. (James Francis Hurley/State Library of
New South Wales)
2 Nine European Sovereigns at Windsor for the funeral of King
Edward VII in May of 1910, four years before the war began. Standing,
from left to right: King Haakon VII of Norway, Tsar Ferdinand of
Bulgaria, King Manuel II of Portugal, Kaiser Wilhelm II of the
German Empire, King George I of Greece and King Albert I of
Belgium. Seated, from left to right: King Alfonso XIII of Spain, King-
Emperor George V of the United Kingdom and King Frederick VIII of
Denmark. Within the next decade, Kaiser Wilhelm II and Tsar
Ferdinand's empires would engage in bloody warfare with the nations
led by King Albert I and King George V. The war was also a family
affair, as Kaiser Wilhelm II was a first cousin to King George V, and
an uncle to King Albert I. Of the remaining monarchs pictured, over the
next decade one would be assassinated (Greece), three would keep their
nations neutral (Norway, Spain, and Denmark), and two would be
forced out of power by revolutions. (W. & D. Downey) #
3 In 1914, Austria-Hungary was a powerful and huge country, larger
than Germany, with nearly as many citizens. It had been ruled by
Emperor Franz Joseph I since 1848, who had been grooming his
nephew, Archduke Franz Ferdinand as the heir to the throne. In this
photo, taken in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, a visiting Archduke Franz
Ferdinand and his wife, Czech Countess Sophie Chotek, are departing a
reception at City Hall. Earlier that morning, on the way to the hall,
their motorcade had been attacked by one of a group of Serbian
nationalist assassins, whose bomb damaged one car and injured dozens
of bystanders. After this photo was taken, the Archduke and his wife
climbed into the open car, headed for a nearby hospital to visit the
wounded. Just blocks away though, the car paused to turn around,
directly in front of another assassin, who walked up to the car and fired
two shots, killing both Franz Ferdinand and his wife. (AP Photo) #
4 Assassin Gavrilo Princip (left) and his victim Archduke Franz
Ferdinand, both photographed in 1914. Princip, a 19 year old a
Bosnian Serb who killed the Archduke, was recruited along with five
others by Danilo Ilic, a friend and fellow Bosnian Serb, who was a
member of the Black Hand secret society. Their ultimate goal was the
creation of a Serbian nation. The conspiracy, assisted by members of
Serbia's military, was quickly uncovered, and the attack became a
catalyst that would soon set massive armies marching against each
other around the world. All of the assassins were captured and tried.
Thirteen received medium-to-short prison sentences, including
Princip (who was too young for the death penalty, and received the
maximum, a 20 year sentence). Three of the conspirators were
executed by hanging. Four years after the assassination, Gavrilo
Princip died in prison, brought down by tuberculosis, which was
worsened by harsh conditions brought on by the war he helped set in
motion. (Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek) #

5 A Bosnian Serb nationalist (possibly
Gavrilo Princip, more likely bystander
Ferdinand Behr), is captured by police and
taken to the police station in Sarajevo, on
June 28, 1914, following the assassination of
Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the
Austrian-Hungarian throne, and his wife.
(National Archives) #
6 Shortly after the assassination, Austria-Hungary issued a list of
demands to Serbia, demanding they halt all anti-Austro-Hungarian
activity, dissolve certain political groups, remove certain political
officers, and arrest those within its borders who participated in the
assassination, among other things -- with 48 hours to comply.
Serbia, with the backing of their ally Russia, politely refused to
fully comply, and mobilized their army. Soon after, Austria-
Hungary, backed by their ally Germany, declared war on Serbia on
July 28 1914. A network of treaties and alliances then kicked in,
and within a month's time, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia,
France, Britain, and Japan had all mobilized their armies and
declared war. In this photo, taken in August of 1914, Prussian guard
infantry in new field gray uniforms leave Berlin, Germany, heading
for the front lines. Girls and women along the way greet and hand
flowers to them. (AP Photo) #
7 Belgian soldiers with their bicycles in
Boulogne, France, 1914. Belgium asserted
neutrality from the start of the conflict, but
provided a route into France that the German
army coveted, so Germany declared it would
"treat her as an enemy", if Belgium did not
allow German troops free passage.
(Bibliotheque nationale de France) #
8 The conflict, called the Great War by those
involved, was the first large-scale example of modern
warfare - technologies still use in battle today were
introduced in large scale forms then, some (like
chemical attacks) were outlawed and later viewed as
war crimes. The newly-invented aeroplane took its
place as an observation platform, a bomber, and an
anti-personnel weapon, even as an anti-aircraft
defense, shooting down enemy aircraft. Here, French
soldiers gather around a priest as he blesses an
aircraft on the Western Front, in 1915. (Bibliotheque
nationale de France) #

9 Between 1914 and the war's end in 1918,
more than 65 million soldiers were mobilized
worldwide - requiring mountains of supplies
and gear. Here, on a table set up outside a
steel helmet factory in Lubeck, Germany, a
display is set up, showing the varying stages
of the helmet-making process for Stahlhelms
for the Imperial German Army. (National
Archives/Official German Photograph) #
10 A Belgian soldier smokes a cigarette during a fight
between Dendermonde and Oudegem, Belgium, in 1914.
Germany had hoped for a swift victory against France, and
invaded Belgium in August of 1914, heading into France.
The German army swept through Belgium, but was met with
stiffer resistance than it anticipated in France. The Germans
approached to within 70 kilometers of Paris, but were pushed
back a ways, to a more stable position, which would become
battlefields lined with trenches, fought over for years. In this
opening month of World War I, hundreds of thousands of
soldiers and civilians were killed or wounded -- France
suffered its greatest single-day loss on August 22nd, when
more than 27,000 soldiers were killed by rifle and machine-
gun, thousands more wounded.
11 German soldiers celebrate
Christmas in the field, in December of
1914. (AP Photo) #
12 The front in France, a scene on a
battlefield at midnight. Opposing
armies were sometimes situated in
trenches just yards apart from each
other. (Nationaal Archief) #
`
13 An Austrian soldier, dead on a
battleground, in 1915. (Bibliotheque
nationale de France) #
14 Austro-Hungarian troops executing
Serbian civilians, likely ca. 1915. Serbians
suffered greatly during the war years,
counting more than a million casualties by
1918, including losses in battle, mass
executions, and the worst typhus epidemic
in history. (Brett Butterworth) #
15 The Japanese fleet off the coast of
China in 1914. Japan sided with the
United Kingdom and its allies, attacking
German interests in the Pacific,
including island colonies and leased
territories on the Chinese mainland.
(Bibliotheque nationale de France) #
16 View from an airplane of biplanes
flying in formation, ca. 1914-18. (U.S.
Army Signal corps/Library of Congress) #

17 The Salonica (Macedonian)
front, Indian troops at a Gas mask
drill. Allied forces joined with Serbs
to battle armies of the Central
Powers and force a stable front
throughout most of the war.
(Nationaal Archief) #
18 Unloading of a horse in Tschanak
Kale, Turkey, equipment for the
Austro-Hungarian army.
(Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek)
#
19 The French battleship Bouvet, in the
Dardanelles. It was assigned to escort troop
convoys through the Mediterranean at the start
of the war. In early 1915, part of a larger group
of combined British and French ships sent to
clear Turkish defenses of the Dardanelles,
Bouvet was hit by at least eight Turkish shells,
then struck a mine, which caused so much
damage, the ship sank within a few minutes.
While a few men survived the sinking and
were rescued, nearly 650 went down with the
ship. (Bibliotheque nationale de France) #
20 1915, British soldiers on
motorcycles in the Dardanelles, part
of the Ottoman Empire, prior to the
Battle of Gallipoli. (Bibliotheque
nationale de France) #

21 A dog belonging to a Mr.
Dumas Realier, dressed as a
German soldier, in 1915.
(Bibliotheque nationale de
France) #
22 "Pill box demolishers" being
unloaded on the Western Front. These
enormous shells weighed 1,400 lbs.
Their explosions made craters over 15
ft. deep and 15 yards across.
(Australian official photographs/State
Library of New South Wales) #
23 A motorcycle dispatch rider studying
the details on a grave marker, whille in
the background an observation balloon is
preparing to ascend. The writing on the
marker says in German: "Hier ruhen
tapfere franzosische Krieger", or Here
rest brave French warriors. (Brett
Butterworth) #
24 Highlanders, soldiers from the
United Kingdom, take sandbags up
to the front in 1916. (Nationaal
Archief) #


25 British artillery
bombards German positions
on the Western Front.
(Library of Congress) #
26 A British officer leads the
way "over the top" amid the
bursting of German shells. (John
Warwick Brooke/National
Library of Scotland) #
27 American soldiers, members of
Maryland's 117th Trench Mortar
Battery, operating a trench mortar. This
gun and crew kept up a continuous fire
throughout the raid of March 4, 1918 in
Badonviller, Muerthe et Modselle,
France. (U.S. Army Signal Corps) #
28 A German soldier throws a hand
grenade against enemy positions, at
an unknown battlefield during
World War I. (AP Photo) #



29 French soldiers, some
wounded, at the taking of
Courcelles, in the department of
Oise, France, in June of 1918.
(National Archives) #
30 A stretcher bearer patrol painfully
makes its way through knee-deep mud
near Bol Singhe during the British
advance in Flanders, on August 20,
1917. (AP Photo) #
31 German soldiers practice
with a flame-thrower on April
4, 1917. (Deutsches
Bundesarchiv) #
32 Candor, Oise, France.
Soldiers and a dog outside a
ruined house in 1917.
(Bibliotheque nationale de
France) #


33 British tanks pass dead Germans who
were alive before the cavalry advanced a
few minutes before the picture was taken.
World War I saw the debut of tank
warfare, with varying levels of success,
mostly poor. Many of the earlier models
broke down frequently, or got bogged
down in mud, fell into trenches, or, (slow-
moving) were directly targeted by
artillery. (National Library of Scotland) #
34 Western Front, German A7V
tanks drive through a village near
Rheims in 1918. (National
Archive/Official German
Photograph of WWI) #
35 Ottoman Turk Machine Gun Corps at
Tel esh Sheria Gaza Line, in 1917, part
of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign.
British troops were battling the the
Ottoman Empire (supported by
Germany), for control of the Suez Canal,
Sinai Peninsula, and Palestine. (Library
of Congress) #
36 A bridge across the mud flats
in Flanders, Belgium, in 1918.
(Library of Congress) #


37 An aerial view of the Hellish
moonscape of the Western Front during
World War I. Hill of Combres, St. Mihiel
Sector, north of Hattonchatel and
Vigneulles. Note the criss-cross patterns of
multiple generations of trenches, and the
thousands of craters left by mortars,
artillery, and the detonation of
underground mines. (San Diego Air and
Space Museum Archive) #
38 A color photograph of Allied soldiers
on a battlefield on the Western Front.
This image was taken using the Paget
process, an early experiment in color
photography. (James Francis
Hurley/State Library of New South
Wales) #
39 A German ammunition column,
men and horses equipped with gas
masks, pass through woods
contaminated by gas in June of
1918. (National Archives/Official
German Photograph) #
40 German soldiers flee a gas attack in
Flanders, Belgium, in September of
1917. Chemical weapons were a part of
the arsenal of World War I armies
from the beginning, ranging from
irritating tear gases to painful mustard
gas, to lethal agents like phosgene and
chlorine. (National Archive/Official
German Photograph of WWI) #



41 Members of the German Red
Cross, carrying bottle of liquid
to revive those who have
succumbed to a gas attack. (AP
Photo) #
42 British enter Lille, France, in October of
1918, after four years of German occupation.
Beginning in the summer of 1918, Allied
forces began a series of successful
counteroffensives, breaking through German
lines and cutting off supply lines to Austro-
Hungarian forces. As Autumn approached,
the end of the war seemed inevitable.
(Library of Congress) #
43 The USS Nebraska, a United States
Navy battleship, with dazzle camouflage
painted on the hull, in Norfolk, Virginia,
on April 20, 1918. Dazzle camouflage,
widely used during the war years, was
designed to make it difficult for an enemy
to estimate the range, heading, or speed of
a ship, and make it a harder target.
(NARA) #
44 A German dog hospital,
treating wounded dispatch dogs
coming from the front, ca. 1918.
(National Archive/Official
German Photograph of WWI) #


45 U.S. Army Company A, Ninth Machine Gun Battalion. Three
soldiers man a machine gun set up in railroad shop in Chateau
Thierry, France, on June 7, 1918. (NARA) #