JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
I have made numerous posts on this blog using images from my archive of American news service WWI photographs, though there are few depicting scenes just after the end of the war's end on 11:00 a.m. on 11/11/11. These photographs below do so, and all come from the National Library of Scotland (which can be accessed here). They are all "British Official War Photographs", which was a service similar to its American cousin--various news and photo agencies were given access to images produced by a pool of photographers, all of which passed by the eyes of a military censor. They were for the most part aimed at the "correct" version of the news, though given the subject matter there were plenty of images that were extremely powerful. In a war that claimed 100,000,000 casualties, the photographic image was a powerful war-time propaganda tool.
[Original reads: 'SCENES ON THE WESTERN FRONT. WAR TROPHIES SECTION. German trophies from Vimy Ridge and Messines. In centre is Prussian Guards drum.']
[Original reads: 'SCENES ON THE WESTERN FRONT. WAR TROPHIES SECTION. German soldier's uniform from MESSINES and rifles from several battlefields in YPRES SALIENT.']
German troops surrender their weapons at Dusseldorf.
French war clubs.
[Original reads: 'SCENES ON THE WESTERN FRONT. WAR TROPHIES SECTION. Seven different specimens of Trench Clubs used by British and German troops.']
SHall the Hun pay?
[Original reads: 'BRITISH OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH FROM THE WESTERN FRONT. 'Peace without indemnities. An object lesson to all supporters of the 'Peace without Indemnities Movement'. Two Frenchwomen return to find their home a mass of bricks. There are thousands like this. Shall the Hun pay?']
Seems to me to be Spartacists at Brandenburg Gate,
Comments