found in the loft of a barn at Warloy-Baill and cast out as rubbish

[rm]

via coyotegoth

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/exclusive-the-unseen-photographs-that-throw-new-light-on-the-first-world-war-1688443.html

The place, according to a jokingly chalked board, is "somewhere in France". The time is the winter of 1915 and the spring and summer of 1916. Hundreds of thousands of British and Empire soldiers, are preparing for The Big Push, the biggest British offensive of the 1914-18 war to date.

A local French photographer, almost certainly an amateur, possibly a farmer, has offered to take pictures for a few francs. Soldiers have queued to have a photograph taken to send back to their anxious but proud families in Britain or Australia or New Zealand.

Sometimes, the Tommies are snapped individually in front of the same battered door or in a pear and apple orchard. Sometimes they are photographed on horseback or in groups of comrades. A pretty six-year-old girl – the photographer's daughter? – occasionally stands with the soldiers or sits on their knees: a reminder of their families, of human tenderness and of a time when there was no war.

Many of the British soldiers are wearing rough sheepskins over their battle-dress: a tell-tale sign of the great overcoat shortage of the winter of 1915. The sheepskin-clad "Tommies" look, bizarrely, like ancient warriors or Greek or Yugoslav partisans.

Within a few months – or days, most probably – many of the soldiers were dead. The "somewhere in France" where these pictures were taken was a village called Warloy-Baillon in the département of the Somme. Ten miles to the east was the front line from which the British Army launched the most murderous battle of that, or any, war, which lasted from 1 July to late November 1916 and killed an estimated 1,000,000 British empire, French and German soldiers.

More than 90 years later, at least 400 glass photographic plates preserving the images were found in the loft of a barn at Warloy-Baillon and cast out as rubbish. In recent months, the plates, some in perfect condition, some badly damaged, have been lovingly assembled and their images printed, scanned and digitally restored by two Frenchmen.

I'm going through the photos now and finding them nearly impossible to look at, they're so wrenching. What's really interesting about them is that, as informal photos, it allows their subjects to look remarkably modern. I think it's generally very hard to look at photos from this era and earlier and realize these people were just like us. Not so with these. There are also many, many faces here that I'm not even convinced were so much as sixteen.

Comments

[tdanaher.livejournal.com]

There are also many, many faces here that I'm not even convinced were so much as sixteen.

There are some faces here I'm not convinced are men. I'm looking at two of the people in pic 285, specifically.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I had that reaction to a few too.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Yes.

[gairid.livejournal.com]

Fascinating and unutterably sad. I reposted this to my journal: I have several friends who are intensely interested in this era. I also sent the link to my father who is eighty years old now (and does pretty well on the computer--my brother coaches him>) His father served in WWI, and saw action in France and we often talk about the stories Grandpa told from that time (and we knew he did not tell quite a lot of what actually happened).

Thanks so much for posting this.

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow! Thank you for posting this.

I think there's a Jack story somewhere in there.

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

I see Jack coming across the article and having flashbacks.

[lovefromgirl.livejournal.com]

If anything, I tend to identify more with pictures from that era and before, as my looks never quite settled into this century. One of the women sent a shiver down my spine.

Thank you for this link. I have passed it on to the Darling Man, whose forefathers may well have fought in WWI. (The D.M. is English, hence why these are relevant.) I doff my hat and keep my poppies pinned to my purse...

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Canada took 24029 casulties at the Somme.
Thank you, RM.

[elainasaunt.livejournal.com]

What an amazing trove - and an absolutely fascinating story. The mention of Cardiff having had a small black community made me think of the character Charles Gaskell who helps find the buried Jack. A friend and I toured WWI sites in the Somme area and elsewhere in Picardy about 18 months ago - a heart-wrenching trip - but missed Pozières. Must go, as I'd love to see these photos in larger format. Thanks so much for the link.

[onemildrat.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much for pointing this out. The First World War is, for me anyway, an event both alien yet intimate. I look at these soldiers and think, "They gave us the world in which we live."