Drover Posted 4 March , 2009 Share Posted 4 March , 2009 The next aerial shot is taken from the same angle, and the handwritten caption on the reverse is Guillemont after bombardment, 4 July 1916. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drover Posted 4 March , 2009 Share Posted 4 March , 2009 Next, Germany issued this stamp in 1998 to commemorate Ernst Junger. What has he to do with Guillemont? In his book "Storm of Steel" he wrote the following: "The village of Guillemont was distinguished from the landscape around it only because the shell-holes were of a whiter colour by reason of the houses which had been ground to powder. Guillemont railway station lay in front of us. It was smashed to bits like a child's plaything. Delville wood, recuced to matchwood, was further behind. "Day had scarcely dawned when an English flying-man descended on us in a steep spin and circled round incessantly like a bird of prey, while we made for our holes and cowered there." Is it possible that if we could enlarge this photo far enough, we might see Ernst Junger looking up at this very aircraft?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drover Posted 4 March , 2009 Share Posted 4 March , 2009 The next scan (hope it comes out OK) is from "I was there" published in the late 1930s. In this page it compares the Guillemont road in 1916 and 1936. Have a look at the house in the centre with the distinctive gable end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drover Posted 4 March , 2009 Share Posted 4 March , 2009 Because the house is still there, as I was delighted to find when I visited the village a few years ago. I'd be interested if anyone can confirm the dates of bombardment between the first two photos. Regards Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian turner Posted 4 March , 2009 Share Posted 4 March , 2009 Jim, It looks like the smaller house on the left is the same too? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mebu Posted 4 March , 2009 Share Posted 4 March , 2009 Ian, many thanks, certainly brings the photo to life, well done. Mick, do you mean the roof tiles? Regards, Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick D Posted 4 March , 2009 Share Posted 4 March , 2009 Peter, Yes they look like roof tiles, but why were they placed there? Surely its a concrete roof, and to use them as camouflage wouldn't make sense as there wouldn't be any surviving tiled roofs around. Mick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian turner Posted 4 March , 2009 Share Posted 4 March , 2009 Here are some Then & Now comparisons which I took in 1998, around the 80th anniversary of enagements around Meteren in the summer of 1918. First pair actually are a little futher away from Meteren. Here are men of the (probably 8th Bn) Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders at the Lys Canal, St Floris on 9/5/18. Imperial War Museum image, one of a set taken at the location. This position was actually at a junction with another track joining from the men's right. It enabled me to track an approximate comparison view near their original position. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian turner Posted 4 March , 2009 Share Posted 4 March , 2009 19th July 1998 - approximate location in modern times, the trenches have gone and trees now obscure the view across the water meadows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian turner Posted 4 March , 2009 Share Posted 4 March , 2009 Next comparison is at Meteren itself. This is the Bailleul Road on 20/7/18, the day after the successful attack of the 9th (Scottish) Division which recaptured Meteren. The preceding bombardment lasted two weeks, with continuous fire of 6 and 8 inch guns, trench mortars and machinegun barrages. The noise was all-encompassing and my grandfather (Seaforths) remembered getting used to the din, and when it stopped 'the silence hurt your ears' (his words). The town was completely flattened, so as to deprive the defenders of cover. Meteren was an example of the developing sophistication of the British Army in attack. Essentially a 'seige' engagement, the GOC (Tudor) employed several novel tactics - gas following smoke on a regular basis, front trenches hidden with matting with a painted strip to emulate an empty trench, thus hiding the massing troops from observation; a late attack after breakfast, which caught the defenders napping. The smoke rounds this time were not followed by gas but by the attacking wave, which also provided Germans hampered by gasmasks as they were expecting the usual. Only the Black Watch were held up, as they were caught by well placed machinegun nests sighted behind wired hedges. The next day these MG positions were taken in flank and overun. My grandfather remembered the surrendering machinegunners getting short shrift at the end of a bayonet..... The artillery had been well stocked with ammunition - more than needed- and they hurled 6 and 8 inch shells into further off Bailleul, if for nothing more than nuisance value. The big guns were placed at Caestre, a mile or two to the west of Meteren. The morale of the Germans was by this time sapping, and the ready numbers surrendering was a revelation to the seasoned troops, used to much stiffer defence. I have cycled up this road - it looks a slight hill, but on a laden bike with a headwind it made me appreciate the strategical importance of the high ground! (IWM photograph) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian turner Posted 4 March , 2009 Share Posted 4 March , 2009 Bailleul Road, Meteren, 19th July, 1998 - 80th anniversary of the attack on Meteren. A slightly wider road perhaps, but looking much the same. The photo was taken not long after the orignal zero hour. (I was a bit late getting there thanks to Le Shuttle!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian turner Posted 4 March , 2009 Share Posted 4 March , 2009 And finally - outside Meteren - my guess is that this IWM photo was taken from the artillery spotting position during the attack on Hoegenaker Ridge (= High Acre). This was on 18th August, 1918 and the 9th's next engagement after consolidating the previous month's gains at Meteren. There are accompanying photographs of the artillery spotters and their telephones sheltering behind the upstairs wall of this farm. I believe it to have been 'Alwyn Farm' - there is still a farm here, but not quite on the same spot. My comparison view was taken from the site of Alwyn Farm - not a guaranteed 100 percent comparison location, but it is looking in the general direction. Here we see the creeping barrage in action, with the plumes of smoke in the midground. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian turner Posted 4 March , 2009 Share Posted 4 March , 2009 The area on 19/7/98 looking towards Hoegenaker - still farmland as it was back then. This is a two-photo composite panorama. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cristina Posted 4 March , 2009 Share Posted 4 March , 2009 Hi Havrincourt, those merged images have a very strange effect, almost as though the ghosts of the past have been captured. I like them...! Regards Cristina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Havrincourt Posted 5 March , 2009 Author Share Posted 5 March , 2009 Hello Cristina Thank you, more to come shortly, they are a little spooky to look at as I can make the figures appear and disappear whilst working on the photographs Jim and Ian , superb pictures from you, I hope that you guys don't mind but I just had to have a play around with the morph box of tricks Guillemont as a then and now aerial view ........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Havrincourt Posted 5 March , 2009 Author Share Posted 5 March , 2009 Ian , thank you for the battle accounts with your photograph comparisons, it tells the story behind the view and can show sometimes why the battle ended as it did The Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders at the Lys Canal, St Floris Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Havrincourt Posted 6 March , 2009 Author Share Posted 6 March , 2009 Ladies and Gents Steve Morse has posted some fantastic Magic Lantern Slides Circa 1921 on Flickr, please take a look.....can someone add a link to his thread, you know how I am with links to sites and threads..... Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kunstenaar Posted 6 March , 2009 Share Posted 6 March , 2009 Ladies and Gents Steve Morse has posted some fantastic Magic Lantern Slides Circa 1921 on Flickr, please take a look.....can someone add a link to his thread, you know how I am with links to sites and threads..... Andy Here is the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gallipoli/col...57614805045926/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian turner Posted 7 March , 2009 Share Posted 7 March , 2009 Andy, Thanks for the headsup. They are very interesting views, especially being immediately postwar. I like what appears to be an early model metal detector. I wonder what they found..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desmond7 Posted 7 March , 2009 Share Posted 7 March , 2009 If any of the contribs or fans of this thread could help .. read on .. Wanted: colour picture taken on a sunny summer day from edge of Thiepval Wood looking towards the Ulster Tower direction. Ideally the Tower would be to the right of the picture. Needed for a 'then and now morphing experiment'. If anyone has one, be grateful to see it posted. If not, if anyone is around that area on a half decent sunny day, would be grateful if they tried to capture th eview described above. Des Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Havrincourt Posted 7 March , 2009 Author Share Posted 7 March , 2009 Thank you Kunstenaar for putting the link on here Des, good idea, would hope that somebody here can take that view for you it sounds a great idea for a comparison Ian, Steves photographs are just the type of pictures that we discussed earlier in the thread, a superb collection , in the meantime a comparison picture of the attack on High Acre Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Havrincourt Posted 8 March , 2009 Author Share Posted 8 March , 2009 ......On the Somme, Longueval village Town Hall and school ....90 years ago and the new building today Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trenchtrotter Posted 12 March , 2009 Share Posted 12 March , 2009 My first effort. My billet in Fonquevillers in 2007 and just after the war newly built circa 1919 - 1926 TT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Havrincourt Posted 13 March , 2009 Author Share Posted 13 March , 2009 Great TT, thank you. My Great Uncle sent letters to the family from Fonquevillers whilst with the Artillery in 1916, so it is nice to see a comparison I have a collection of postcards mostly of the Somme area, just like Des's request for the Irish attack view near Thiepval, but showing an old picture hoping that someone on their travels this year can take a modern comparison and post it here later In the meantime a comparison from the southern part of the British front.......the Soissons memorial Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G.Driver 10thLF Posted 14 March , 2009 Share Posted 14 March , 2009 love the photo above. shows how quick they were to get an memorial up and not concentrate on rebuilding the damaged towns and villages. just look at the building behind it! ps love this thread,.... MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE PLEASE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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