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World War One Photos - part I 
- World War One Photos - shows Great War pictures in all its gruesomeness. Please remember that reality can never be resembled more effectively than in these pictures. Some of them are truly hair-raising, but are shown nevertheless because they represent the Great War – any war. 

Choose a category
- The beginning of World War I
 - Trenches on the battlefield
- Battle of Verdun
- The battlefield

Each category is presented as a slideshow - you can interrupt any time you want
Use the F11 key to get the optimal screen for - World War One Photos -

The beginning of World War I
-Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife some minutes before they were assassinated
-The murdener named Gavrilo Princip was taken into custody after the assassination
-The official announciation of the war in Berlin (August 2, 1914)
-Kaiser Wilhelm II addressing the German people in Berlin (August 2, 1914)
-German Landwehr troops leaving München marching to the railway station
-German reserv troops marching on August 1 to their barracks
-British people waiting for news on Parliament Square in London (August 3, 1914)
-British volunteers receiving their first drill in front of many sightseers
-Cheerful German soldiers on the train to the front
-British volunteers are taken in double-deckers to their training places
-This train takes German troops from the western front to the eastern front
-The Prince of Wales volunteered as lieutenant with the Grenadier Guards 
-German trains are rolling equipment to the east front and west front
-German reserve troops with their proud sons on their way to the barracks
-A mob destroyed and looted German property (Paris - August 1914)
-Advance of German troops accompanied with family and friends
-Good bye Mum, thanks for the flowers!
-Advance of French soldiers into the war surrounded by an enthusiastic crowd
-Belgian refugees flying away from the force of arms
-Brugge (Belgium) after British bombardment (September 1914)
-Antwerp surrendered after a German bombardment (October 10, 1914)
-Death and destruction in the Kloosterkerk of  Ostende (Belgium)
-Retreat of the Belgian army after the fall of Antwerp
-Belgians (soldiers and civilians) on the run for the German army
-Belgian refugees arriving in Antwerp
-Tired refugee near the Dutch border (The Netherlands were neutral during WWI)
-Complete panic in Antwerp were hundred of thousands of refugees try to escape
-The southwest corner of Belgium was inundated to stop the German army
-The inundation of October 1914 was fun for the Belgian children
-Belgian children lost their parents during the flight to the Netherlands

Trenches on the battlefield
-German soldiers waiting for the attack
-Germans outside their block house during a quiet spell on the front
-German soldiers in their trenches near Antwerp (September 1914)  
-A British trench - the soldier on the right is on guard - the others are resting
-French soldiers in their trench 
-British soldiers try to keep their trench dry by pumping the water
-Dead bodies in a trench after an attack
-A German trench after the battle
-A French trench after a bombardment
-German soldiers after rat hunting in their trenches
-British soldiers filling sandbags in the trench
-German soldiers rescuing a French comrade in arms
-German soldiers during a quiet time in the second line at the front
-A view of the battlefield during the preparations of the attack
-German storm troopers running through the barbed wire entanglement
-British soldiers awaiting an attack
-A British working party digging the trenches
-The building up of a  heavy German piece of artillery (42 cm. Big Bertha)
-A heavy German mortar with its crew
-German snipers in their trench waiting for a victim
Battle of Verdun (for more information see website: Battle of Verdun)
-Preparing a German barrage balloon behind the frontline
-German troops advancing into the frontline
-French troops detraining for Verdun
-View of the battlefield - in the background Fort Douaumont
-French counter attack on Fort Douaumont
-After the battle
-German troops attacking Fort Douaumont
-German soldiers in the frontline - in the background Fort Douaumont
-French troops attacking through the barbed wire entanglement
-Aerial view of a gas attack on the Verdun battlefield
-German soldiers and horses and mules wearing gasmasks
-French troops alongside the famous Voie Sacree
-Another view of the Voie Sacree always overcrowded with men and trucks
-French prisoners of war waiting for transport
-View of the battlefield of Hill 304
-The entrance of the shelter of Crown Prince Wilhelm, son of emperor Wilhelm II
-Conditions on the battlefield were horrible: French water supply
-French defenders of Fort Tavannes
-The battlefield surrounding the railway tunnel near Fort Savannes
-The fosse of Fort Vaux after the retreat of the Germans in November 1916
-The debris of Fort Vaux after the war 
-French troops in Fort Douaumont after the recapture
-Aerial view of Fort Douaumont after months of heavy bombardments
-German prisoners of war after fierce fighting
-French defenders of Fort Vaux
-After the battle: French troops captured a German trench
-German attack with flame throwers
-German counter attack on the Mort Homme
-Fort Souville after the battle
-German cemetery behind the frontline of Verdun
The battlefield  
-German infantry column marching into the frontline
-Aerial view of the battlefield near Zonnebeke (Belgium) 
-German assault
-Heavily wounded German transported back behind the lines
-Frontline in the neighbourhood of Ploegsteert (Belgium)
-Fort Manonviller (Northern France) after the battles
-Members of a German flamethrower section (Verdun, 1916)
 -German soldiers on the battlefield of Verdun (1916)
-German cavalrymen looking for spies or franc-tireurs in a Belgium village (1914)
-German infantrymen marching towards the frontline
-German soldiers in the trenches near Roclincourt (Arras, 1915)
-German soldiers using the latrine (Western front, 1915)
-German soldiers lice hunting in the trenches near Reims (1915)
-German soldiers transporting aeroplane wings in St. Quentin (1914)
-German machine-gun group in the trenches (Vosges, 1915)
-German telegraphy section in action near Vimy (Arras, 1914)
-German machine-gun section with gasmasks (Verdun, 1916)
-Machine-gunners in action (Verdun, 1916)
-Dead British bodies after the battle between Arras and Lille in the spring of 1915
-Dead German bodies after the battle between Arras and Lille in the spring of 1915
-French soldiers at the Alsace-Lorraine battlefield
-French soldiers in the Alsace-Lorraine border region
-French assault in the Alsace-Lorraine battlefield
-Cableway called Station Proesser at the Hartmannswillerkopf (Vosges - France)
-Barbershop during a quiet spell at the Ligne front (Vosges - France)
Other Great War webpages

 Slideshow: Battle of the Somme - the battlefield today

 Slideshow: The battlefield of the Vosges (France) - the battlefield today
The English Camp
Internment of 1,500 British sailor/soldiers of the Royal Naval Division in Groningen - The Netherlands
during the First World War.
Piëta's (mourning women) on French First World War monuments
 This moving photo serie shows us mourning widows and mothers holding their beloved one, killed in the Great War. (Photographs made by Dutch journalist/photographer Waldemar Ysebaert.)
VERDUN - the greatest battle ever    
 The Battle of Verdun, which was fought in 1916 between France and Germany,
is said to be the largest in world history and caused over 700,000 casualties.

 The Royal Naval Division - Sailors in the First World War trenches
Originally, this division was part of the Royal Navy, manned by sailors and marines. Shortly after the outbreak of war, they were told they had to become infantry-men. A search for traces of this division leads to Antwerp, Gallipoli, the Somme, Arras, Passchendaele, to end in London.
New excellent book Leo van Bergen - Before My Helpless Sight
Suffering, Dying and Military Medicine on the Western Front 1914-1918
 Contrary to most books in the field this study does not focus on one single issue - such as venereal disease, plastic surgery, shell-shock or the military medical service - but takes a broad view on wounds and illnesses across both sides of the conflict. Drawing on British, French, German and Dutch sources it shows the consequences of modern warfare on the human individuals caught up in it, and the way it influences our thinking on 'humanitarian' activities.

All photos are taken from my private collection books and picture postcards. 
Any use of copyrighted images is accidental, and any such material will be promptly
removed from this site upon notification from the copyright holder.

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