NAM.2001-07-1097-39

Aerial photograph, vertical view of a section of front line trenches on the Western Front, 26 Feb 1918. Clusters of trees and enclosed fields lie in front of the trenches and are pocked with shell holes. The trenches run parallel to a canal situated among the fields and shell holes, which serves as an extra line of defence. Roads run through the landscape crossing the canal at right angles. Double or triple rows of neat barbed or razor wire entanglements, zigzag in front of accurately dug firing line and suport line trenches, pockmarked by the spread earth of gun pits and observation posts. A pair of strongpoints can be seen. The system has been attacked by tanks as can be seen by their tracks which break the wire at two points. See Curators note for further detail. A German DFW CV two seater reconnaisance aircraft flies away below and to the top right of the photograph. From an album containing 96 photographs relating to Lt William Charles Carter who served in the Artists’ Rifles The London Regiment from 1913 and 13 Sqn Royal Flying Corps 1917-1918.

World War One, Western Front (1914-1918)