how many front line troops survived

[Keith_history_buff]

A lot of things pointed to the second photo being a photoshopped derivative of the first, but I found the following to be of interest:

 

Quote

This [first] photo is printed in Dugald MacEchern, The Sword of the North: Highland Memories of the Great War (1923) p.150
 

A very rare book was found and we now know that the first picture is in the book but the “post-war” photo is not... Big thanks to helen pringle and many other people who helped along the way.

 

Note: MacEchern writes that by Christmas 1914 only one officer and 27 men remained “unscathed” – possibly including those wounded as well as killed. In the first photo we can see 27 officers and about 1,000 soldiers. 

The photoshopped picture is accurate in that it shows 27 soldiers and one officer.

 

Source:
https://hoaxeye.com/2018/12/02/cameron-highlanders-1914/

[JMB1943]

I can add a personal, family note to this thread.

The 2nd Battn. Royal Sussex Regiment was a front-line infantry unit that spent the entire war (Aug. 1914 - Feb. 1919) on the Western Front.

My grandfather enlisted in Oct. 1914, landed in France in Jan. 1915 and was demobbed on Feb. 1919.

His quote was that he was one of only 6 men in his company to be neither killed nor wounded.

 

Regards,

JMB