Saturday, April 25, 2015

Anzac Day

Some images of war, on this Anzac Day 100 years after the Gallipoli landing.


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A 1918 pyramid of recovered German helmets outside of Grand Central Station after victory in WW 1. The street, known as Victory Way, had a pyramid at each end with 2 captured German cannon on each side of the pyramids. The statue on top of the pyramids is the Greek goddess of victory. Each pyramid has 12,000 helmets.


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“After the Battle”, a photograph by German soldier Walter Kleinfeldt, who fought at the Somme at age 16. Kleinfeldt had joined the war at age 15 and never showed the battlefield photographs he took. They were discovered by his son almost 100 years later.

Walter Kleinfeldt, pictured carrying ammunition in a Somme trench

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Tank captured at the battle of Villers-Bretonneux in 1918, pictured here with British soldiers.

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A terrier shows off its catch after a 15 minute rat hunt in French trenches during WWI. September 1916

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Australian soldiers of the 4th Field Ambulance in front of their sandbagged dugout, named ‘Rosebud Villa’, in Hotchkiss Gully, Anzac, September 1915, after the August offensive.

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Evacuation of wounded from Gallipoli. A flat-bottomed barge transports walking wounded and sick soldiers and men on stretchers from Anzac to the hospital ship Gascon. In July, 200 men were being evacuated daily from Anzac suffering from dysentery, diarrhoea and enteric fever. By late August as the offensive operations ended, General Hamilton estimated MEF losses at 40,000 casualties, including sick, reducing his fighting strength in the combined Suvla and Anzac sectors to 50,000 men.

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Australian light horseman using a periscope rifle, Gallipoli 1915.

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The 11th Battalion AIF on the Great Pyramid of Giza, prior to the landing at Gallipoli. The 11th Battalion did much of their war training in Egypt and would be amongst the first to land at Anzac Cove on April 25, 1915. In the five days following the landing, the battalion suffered 378 casualties, over one third of its strength.

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The issue of colourising photographs has been the subject of past Bytes posts. The following photographs, colourised images of WW1, including scenes from Gallipoli, possess more immediacy than the original black and whites. . .

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Diggers walk on a track at Chateau Wood on the Western Front in 1917.

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6 inch 30 cwt howitzer at Gallipoli

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An Australian carrying his wounded mate to a medical aid post for treatment near Suvla on the Aegean coast of Gallipoli peninsula

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Two Australian Soldiers relaxing under an 'Elephant Iron' shelter at Westhoek Ridge, Flanders, Belgium.
c. Late September 1917.

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An unknown Army Service Corp Driver wearing a drivers winter coat and a holding puppy. This photograph is from the 'Lost Digger' collection taken in France c.1917.

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Alec Campbell at the age of 16 poses in Australia before he headed off for Gallipoli to fight in the war, in this 1915 photo. Campbell (1899 – 2002) was the final surviving Australian participant of the Gallipoli campaign during the First World War. His death broke the last living link of Australians with the Gallipoli story.

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British Mk.II (Male) tank NÂș.C-47 ‘Lusitania’ which assisted stalled troops at Railway Triangle east of Arras, enabling that objective to be taken. The Lusitania broke down with a magneto failure, and had to be left on the battlefield, where she was destroyed by British gunfire the following day.
The ‘male’ tank was armed with three 8 mm Hotchkiss Machine Guns and two long barrelled 6 pounder (57mm) naval guns. The intention of the ‘male’ was to attack other gun emplacements and strong points.

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An informal portrait of Australian Sergeant John Woods Whittle VC DCM at a frozen water point in France during 1916.” (possibly January)

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