PhilB Posted 19 June , 2004 Share Posted 19 June , 2004 Many photos from WW1 are impressive but occasionally one comes along which has an unusual effect. So it is for me with the well known one below. Usually a feeling of comradeship comes through with photos but this one just feels cold and lonely. The only time I ever felt anything like it was after leaving Harwich Transit Camp and standing, miserable, on Parkestone Quay, Harwich looking out into a grey, misty, dark North Sea.Etaples and the bullring must have been a hateful place and this photo seems to typify it. Anyone else have a "special" photo? Phil B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marina Posted 19 June , 2004 Share Posted 19 June , 2004 You're right, Phil - it's so COLD and the men all seem so separate and alone somehow. SHIVER>>> Marina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryBettsMCDCM Posted 19 June , 2004 Share Posted 19 June , 2004 The Photograph of the Uniformed Dead German @ Beaumont Hamel,whose Skull appears to be grinning @ those looking @ him. [used by the BBC in Opening Of The Great War Series] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen White Posted 20 June , 2004 Share Posted 20 June , 2004 The Photograph of the Uniformed Dead German @ Beaumont Hamel,whose Skull appears to be grinning @ those looking @ him. [used by the BBC in Opening Of The Great War Series] I don't have a caption in the book with this photo,but from your description is this the photo your talking about. I think this shows how in-human war can be,how cruel it can be,it becomes merely a fight for survival and normal decent things like giving him a decent burial go out of the window.This is my joice of Haunting Photograph of the War,sends a shiver down my spine !! Stephen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryBettsMCDCM Posted 20 June , 2004 Share Posted 20 June , 2004 The Photograph of the Uniformed Dead German @ Beaumont Hamel,whose Skull appears to be grinning @ those looking @ him. [used by the BBC in Opening Of The Great War Series] I don't have a caption in the book with this photo,but from your description is this the photo your talking about. I think this shows how in-human war can be,how cruel it can be,it becomes merely a fight for survival and normal decent things like giving him a decent burial go out of the window.This is my joice of Haunting Photograph of the War,sends a shiver down my spine !! Stephen Thats the one, thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Pete Wood Posted 20 June , 2004 Share Posted 20 June , 2004 You're right, Phil - it's so COLD and the men all seem so separate and alone somehow. SHIVER>>> Marina If you remove that yellow cast, it looks even colder.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bcerha Posted 20 June , 2004 Share Posted 20 June , 2004 My most haunting WW1 photo is the picture of the young british soldier apparently sitting at what appears to be at the end of a trench slumped forward, almost as if asleep but so obviously dead. To me it sums up the futility of war and the sheer folly of the waste of a young life so cruelly snatched away in an instant. A pretty sobering image and a stark reminder as to why this must never happen again. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dinkidi Posted 20 June , 2004 Share Posted 20 June , 2004 G'day This particular photo 'spooks' me. It seems to be featured in almost every book and exhibition of 'general' 1st AIF involvement. It is included in the "stills" video at the Hooge Crater Museum, and is actually the overprinted background to a travel brochure for an official Flanders booklet. I had been familiar with it for many years before becoming aware that Jackie would have been processed at that spot at about the time the photo was taken. Most reproductions of the picture spare us the haunting statement. "Shortly after this photo was taken a shell exploded killing most of those on stretchers". ooRoo Pat The AWM reference is B4260.1 Location is variously shown as Hooge, Birr Cross Roads or The Culvert Battle of The Menin Rd 20/09/1917 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilB Posted 21 June , 2004 Author Share Posted 21 June , 2004 Thanks RT, you`ve made the Bullring look even colder. The thought of standing in one of those lines, cold, miserable, parted from my mates, being treated like dirt by the Canaries, not wanting to do what I`m being made to do, thinking of the leave I`ve just had and thinking of a future full of uncertainty gives me a real sinking feeling. Know what I mean? You get a similar feeling, Pat? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dycer Posted 21 June , 2004 Share Posted 21 June , 2004 Unfortunately I cannot post them(no scanner) but the eeriest set of photgraphs are my Uncle's. Going from a young happy pre-War Territorial at Camp,the informal one on local leave in France, the formal studio photograph on Leave in Scotland and ending up with his name on the Arras Memorial. It's his eyes I try to avoid,what sights did he see? George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Desmond6 Posted 21 June , 2004 Share Posted 21 June , 2004 German at Beaumont Hamel would definitely be there ... but I've had a wee think about this and one of the eeriest, weirdest and damn unsettling 'pictures' of WW1 IMHO is the painting of the hell of Verdun with the poilus caught in a shellhole in the middle of a gas attack. Very powerful. A vision of hell. Deselzeebub Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bkristof Posted 21 June , 2004 Share Posted 21 June , 2004 what about this one.... scary hugh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilB Posted 21 June , 2004 Author Share Posted 21 June , 2004 Never seen that before, bk. Any info on it? Is it "real" do you think? Phil B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bkristof Posted 21 June , 2004 Share Posted 21 June , 2004 It is real ! it is called the reaper. It is one of the wonderfull picture of Capt. F. Hurley, August 1917- August 1918. this is the site; http://image.sl.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/ebindsh...9/a479;thumbs=1 greets, kristof Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john w. Posted 21 June , 2004 Share Posted 21 June , 2004 My most haunting WW1 photo is the picture of the young british soldier apparently sitting at what appears to be at the end of a trench slumped forward, almost as if asleep but so obviously dead. To me it sums up the futility of war and the sheer folly of the waste of a young life so cruelly snatched away in an instant. A pretty sobering image and a stark reminder as to why this must never happen again. David He was a bomber in the Manchesters i believe, often shown in relation to the Somme.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markinbelfast Posted 21 June , 2004 Share Posted 21 June , 2004 I've some of a young Irish Rifleman smiling then in the hospital in a wheelchair and the last is of him at a disabled soldiers sale of works after the war....sad...so sad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auimfo Posted 22 June , 2004 Share Posted 22 June , 2004 Kristof, Hurley's photo's are indeed magnificent and I have an entire book dedicated to them. However, he was well known for his additions to photos and in some circles he was soundly criticised for it. The photo you have shown is basically 'real' except for the shell burst in the background which Hurley air-brushed in later. He was also the photographer for this well-known favorite (which is not altered) Sorry for the poor scanning!! Tim L Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auimfo Posted 22 June , 2004 Share Posted 22 June , 2004 My favorites, however, don't always portray haunting scenes etc. I prefer those that capture the faces of the men in an 'unposed' manner with precise clarity. This photo of the 46th Bn AIF was taken in 1918 just after the battle of Villers-Bretonneux. I can't help but think there appears to be almost every kind of male from Australian society captured in this photo - the larrikin, the schoolteacher, the country boy, the businessman, the ladies man, the dope and all brought together through mateship that formed lifetime bonds between men that otherwise would probably never have socialised with one another. WW1 was possibly the most cruel war in history, but in it's own way it was a 'leveller of men' and joined them all together in the face of abject misery and overwhelming adversity to perform feats of endurance and bravery that can never be repeated. Tim L. (Still sorry for the scanning) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckman Posted 22 June , 2004 Share Posted 22 June , 2004 One of my favourites is the photo of "Pompey" Elliott standing at the dugout at Harbonniers. Not particularly moving or haunting, but a superb portrait of a man completely on the top of his game. The confidence he radiates reminds me of that portrait of Isembard Kingdom Brunel. That and that famous shot of the Australian platoon (of 17 men) before Hamel. Again, there is a workmanlike confidence that impresses. A picture that contrasts in every way with the battalion-on-parade photos that one sees. The Australian connection on these photos are incidental. For atmosphere, I have a newly acquired favourite - that photo of the Bullring is fantastic. (No offence, RT, but I liked it better with the original tint.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KIRKY Posted 22 June , 2004 Share Posted 22 June , 2004 Theres a photo in Tommies of a group of soldiers and when we were there a couple of years ago a guy in the bar reckons he was "haunted" by one of the guys in the photo! It was a bit weird but he feels the need to return every March to "put his spirit to rest" but it just gets worse! Whenever I see the photo I wonder how that guy is? He must feel very strange every year he returns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marina Posted 22 June , 2004 Share Posted 22 June , 2004 Tim - what is a 'larrikin'? And which man is he? Marina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Hesketh Posted 22 June , 2004 Share Posted 22 June , 2004 This photo of a shell-shock victim is, to me, more horrific than any number of photographs of corpses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Furnell Posted 22 June , 2004 Share Posted 22 June , 2004 Evening all. Dinkidi,i had never seen the shot that you posted. Strange to think that this was the last time some of these guys were seen alive,and they are now frozen in time. My Great-grandad served,during the Battle of Menin Road Ridge,but wasn't near Hooge,as far as i know. The German,at Beaumont-Hamel,was one of the first,grisly,photos,i ever saw. I had only ever seen part of the photo that you posted,Bristof. I would think the German boy,in the photo,is no more than a very young teenager. The photograph that has always stuck in my mind,was the photo of an English soldier,sat amongst the the remains of German soldiers,i think,on the Somme in 1916. I can't remember which book i saw it in,but seem to remember he was the photographer's,assistant. How he could sit there,i don't know. It can't have been nice,and it shows not only the waste of the war,but how hardened to these sort of sights,the guys on the Western Front were. There are many more that have amazed me. I think black and white,makes all of the photographs that much more powerfull. All the best. Simon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bkristof Posted 22 June , 2004 Share Posted 22 June , 2004 My Great-grandad served,during the Battle of Menin Road Ridge,but wasn't near Hooge,as far as i know. Hooge is ON the Menin road!!! next to Bellewaarde ridge.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilB Posted 22 June , 2004 Author Share Posted 22 June , 2004 Yes, bk, but remember, the Battle of the Menin Road stretched from Langemarck down to Klein Zillebeke. He could have been 6 miles from the Menin Road itself, couldn`t he? Phil B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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