Jump to content
Free downloads from TNA ×
The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Has Anyone Got A Photograph Of..........


Fattyowls

Recommended Posts

Chums

 

My friend @Knotty was giving me amusing grief over on the WiT? thread the other day about me having a photo of every battlefield in France and Belgium. Being only on nodding acquaintance with the truth I said I did. I do have a lot of photos, some of them with level horizons and reasonably exposure, and I have also collected a lot of much better ones from the talented photographers on the forum. I run these as my laptop background and I find myself thinking that next time I'm over I must try to take a photo looking back the other way.

 

Now it seems that we aren't going to get a chance to do any battlefield photography for a while yet so I thought, why don't we see if among the thousands of photos we have all taken if there is already one out there. It's not just photos looking back the other way of course. Feel free to add any that you are particularly proud of (in my case that I might not be ashamed of). As Gordon John (or John Gordon) Sinclair says to Clare Grogan in 'Gregory's Girl' "I'll start it off and you join in when you feel confident".

 

Pete.

 

Edited by Fattyowls
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Starter for ten. This is a view looking south from the Pozieres Memorial area towards where Contalmaison should be. I can't see Contalmaison; has anyone got a photo looking back towards the memorial? Or photographic proof the village isn't a figment of my imagination. Despite visiting the Somme lots of times I honestly can't ever remember going there....

 

1184256537_TowardsContalmaisonfromPozleresMemorial.JPG.a13e1ec08c2815201f5fea59e8f4283b.JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Christmas Truce cross, with the church of Mesen/Messines in the background.

Xmas.jpg.4de82ec0e72a1a97f6ff1204317249e9.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good one JWK; that is a piece of history now as the cross has gone I think, replaced by the UEFA memorial across the road. Not an improvement in my view......

 

Pete.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

25 minutes ago, Fattyowls said:

Good one JWK; that is a piece of history now as the cross has gone I think, replaced by the UEFA memorial across the road. Not an improvement in my view......

 

Pete.

 

 

Ah, I didn't know that! I knew they created some fake trenches, or something, near Prowse Point, but didn't realise they did away with the cross.

The photo was taken in October 2015.

 

And I don't know if this fits the bill, not an actual battlefield, but it's a battlefield of sorts.

The German cemetery at Lens-Sallaumines (with the civilian graves, and WW2 Allied graves, in the distance)

fritz.jpg.015c56ac9c0c0cb14b815f6c0246b935.jpg

Edited by JWK
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like that one too, it reminds me of Langemark which is probably the German cemetery I know best. On the subject of looking back the other way this is the view back to Ploegsteert Wood from the New Zealand Memorial in Mesen. I think I can just make out the trees of the beautiful Prowse Point above the break between the two red tiled roofs of Le Petit Douvre Farm in the left middle distance. The farm famously still has a massive mine beneath it, thankfully now flooded. You can also make out the spires of Armentieres on the horizon to the right of the wood.

 

Pete.

 

P.S. I have photographs of the UEFA memorial but I hate it so much I can't bring myself to post any. Bring back Taff's wooden cross is what I say.

901161922_ViewfromNZMemorialMessines.JPG.15d5bf1f5b4f9aadff4b20cee207ad58.JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Admin
8 hours ago, Fattyowls said:

Good one JWK; that is a piece of history now as the cross has gone I think, replaced by the UEFA memorial across the road. Not an improvement in my view......

 

Pete.

 

 

Fear not Pete it’s still there, at leat it was in December 

530121A6-43BF-4D6B-8EC2-2AF9380B2459.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Admin
12 hours ago, Fattyowls said:

Starter for ten. This is a view looking south from the Pozieres Memorial area towards where Contalmaison should be. I can't see Contalmaison; has anyone got a photo looking back towards the memorial? Or photographic proof the village isn't a figment of my imagination. Despite visiting the Somme lots of times I honestly can't ever remember going there....

 

1184256537_TowardsContalmaisonfromPozleresMemorial.JPG.a13e1ec08c2815201f5fea59e8f4283b.JPG

I suspect this may be the view from the other direction Pete

IMG_1928.JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Michelle Young said:

Fear not Pete it’s still there

 

That is really cheery news Michelle, thank you. I think I will celebrate with a cup of industrial strength Java. Now that the UEFA memorial is there (awful and incorrectly placed though it is) the cross can go back to marking where the legend that is Taff Gillingham and his merry band marked the Christmas truce in a recreated trench in 1999.

 

The photo of the Pozieres Memorial is superb; I've never been a fan but it looks impressive from that angle and distance. By a combination of greatwar360.com and Google Earth I think I will be able to explore Contalmaison virtually.

 

Pete.

 

P.S. Pass on my best to 'im indoors.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, Fattyowls said:

Or photographic proof the village isn't a figment of my imagination

Contalmaison does exist:

 

 

DSC_0324.JPG

DSC_0325.JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Admin

The back of Dud Corner from the approximate site of the Loos Rd Redoubt 

IMG_1469.JPG

Pozieres from a different angle 

IMG_0611.JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Chris_Baker said:

Messines ridge from Nieuwkerke (Neuve Eglise).

 

Thanks Chris, I like that one because of the light framing the ridge top. This is Nieuwkerke from the Mesines Ridge - just slightly off to the left of yours, from a well known mine crater with one of the forum's premier photographers surveying the view back to Vimy and Loos.....

 

1658974722_MMBandNeuveEglise.JPG.4b7998b4a3e1acbf44741192646fe5ad.JPG

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Michelle, the Dud Corner and the other Pozieres Memorial ones are excellent; the light in the latter is lovely; I'm rapidly changing my opinion of it.

 

1 hour ago, Don Regiano said:

Contalmaison does exist:

 

I can't overstate my relief Reg. I thought it was just me......

 

Pete.

Edited by Fattyowls
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Admin

Étaples. 

88F0D438-3CC0-4F2C-8431-D63510075E4F.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The two crosses with the sun behind them are moving, and both from cemeteries that I hope to visit, Etaples for Richard Wynn and Bancourt for David Jones VC, thank you. I'm hoping that having posted a picture with @Marilyne she might drop in to either sue me over image rights or post some of hers. She's busy keeping Belgium going at the moment so I wouldn't want to interrupt.

 

The area beyond Thiepval and the Leipzig salient is a hidden gem as far as I'm concerned; this is a little further up the track by the wood I think looking back past the memorial to Mill Road. The Ulster Tower is just visible over the trees on the left.

 

image.png.d426e4789b0541913a04a57ab01599fb.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another view of Thiepval, this time looking down Paisley Avenue, original burial site of Capt. Richard Kirk 1/6 Cheshires, KiA 13 Nov 1916, followed by looking across where he was killed (Maisie Lane when attacking St. Pierre Divion) towards the Ulster Tower

 

 

DSC04141.JPG

DSC04144.JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

View from Croonaert Wood/Bayernwald (behind you) towards the Kemmelberg

Croonaert Chapel Cemetery mid right.

Bayernwald.jpg.7ababab90ae5794b54ee2ae01e3c987e.jpg

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Reg and JWK - excellent stuff and unfamiliar views of familiar locations. I'll lower the photographic quality level with a couple of mine tomorrow. Stay safe gang.

 

Pete.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now look what you’ve started Pete, I shall be joining you tomorrow once I’ve dug a few photos out.😁

 

John

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, Knotty said:

Now look what you’ve started Pete, I shall be joining you tomorrow once I’ve dug a few photos out.😁

 

Don't go blaming me, it was you that planted the seed in my fevered imagination. I think the finger of suspicion is pointing firmly towards the greater Kidderminster metro area.......

 

It's only been going just over 24 hours and it's already turned up some wonderful views, and I've posted a few photos too. I can't decide which are my favourites, but Michelle's views of the Pozieres Memorial have almost changed my mind about it, and JWK's view across the fields past Croonaert Chapel to Kemmel has a lovely light which I particularly like.

 

Pete.

 

 

Edited by Fattyowls
Klingon grammar
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is not quite looking back the other way from JWK's photo of Kemmel from the Croonaert Chapel area, but it shows the strength of the Hollandsechuur Farm position on the spur just below the horizon centre right. I think the cemetery is just to the right of the farm buildings but is either in the dip or obscured by the trees. You can see the spires of Ypres on the horizon just to the left of the farm, and the northern crater of the two Petit Bois mines as the line of reeds, the southern one is just to my right.

 

image.png.1fd4e4777fe8242be0db9badf166d5b0.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Battle of the Canal du Nord 27th September to 1st October 1918, when the 1/6th Manchesters were caught in enfilade from Beaucomp Ridge.

Difficult to see the terrain from the picture.

 

 

Canal_du_Nord.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...