Photo id

[gsl]

I am trying to get some details about a well known First World War photo.

It's a bit large to post (204 kb @ 1600x2100) but can be seen at firstworldwar.com here where it is captioned as "German forces advancing against the King's (Liverpool) Regiment".

It is also Plate 7 in Keegan's The Face of Battle captioned as "A German attack on an improvised line of British 'scrapes'." and reckons it to be in "Belgium or France, August-September, 1914." I have also seen it in the 12 June 1915 issue of The War Illustrated where it was captioned as:

"COLD STEEL!" BRITISH ABOUT TO CHARGE.— A wonderfully vivid photograph of Germans assaulting British trenches. The oncoming enemy is seen in the left-hand corner while our soldiers, with bayonets fixed and every nerve strained to the limit of human endurance, anxiously await the inspiring command "Charge!" from their officer, standing in the centre. The moment is tense, the most thrilling in human strife. In a flash our "Tommies" will be "up and at 'em!"

Can anyone identify the unit, the date and/or the location? Or the IWM catalogue number? I have searched iwmcollections without success.

Thanks.

Geoff.

[Simon Jones]

Geoff

This appeared in a newspaper, I think the Daily Sketch, in May 1915, along with other photos showing members of the 4th King’s Liverpools. Although it has been assumed to be a 1914 photograph, on account of the scraped trenches and what appears to be a German officer on horseback, I believe that it dates from 1915. The newspaper cover is used in the King’s Regiment Museum in the Museum of Liverpool Life and I’ll try to get down and check the date, if it ever stops raining.

This scan is from K Simpson’s The Old Contemptibles and credits the photo to Amalgamated Press.

I have been told that a following issue of the newspaper announced that the provider of the photo had been awarded a cash prize, naming a woman. A number of newspapers were offering money for authentic photos from the front at this time which was very probably one of the reasons for the BEF banning cameras in early September 1915 in the run up to Loos.

Regards

Simon

[gsl]

Thanks very much for the answer, Simon.

If the 4th King's joined the Sirhind Brigade on 6 March 1915, and the photo was published in May 1915, then that limits the actions it could depict.

Thanks again.

Geoff.