Hidden for 100 years, the astonishing photos by 16-year- old soldier shows how his brothers-in-arms would forever be haunted by the specter of defeat. These photos were taken by Walter Kleinfeldt who joined a German gun crew in 1915 and fought at the Somme a…
Lone soldier surrounded by a mountain of empty shell cases, France. This lone British soldier up to his knees in spent shell cases, offers a striking impression of the destruction that took place on the Western Front. However, this picture only tells half …
An American corporal aims a Colt M1895 atop a Sri Lankan elephant. The reason why the corporal is atop the elephant is a mystery but elephants were never a weapons platform adopted by the US Army. It’s probably a publicity picture, not something the army w…
Shell shocked soldier in a trench during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette during the Somme Offensive in September 1916. His eyes express the madness of the war. The soldier looks like he has gone insane from what he has seen. In that moment in time everythi…
Tens of thousands of soldiers, reservists and other members of the military were arranged to form massive compositions. Although if viewed from the ground or from directly above, these masses of men would appear meaningless, when seen from the top of an 80…
In both World Wars, the most distinctive feature of the Germany army uniform was the item that has come to symbolize German militarism in even remotest corners of the world – the helmet, the Stahlhelm. Here, on a table set up outside a steel helmet factory i…
The trench soldier of World War I had to cope with millions of rats. The omnipresent rats were attracted by the human waste of war – not simply sewage waste but also the bodies of men long forgotten who had been buried in the trenches and often reappeared af…
In October 1918, Hitler and several comrades were temporarily blinded due to a British mustard gas attack near Ypres in Belgium. After initial treatment, Hitler was hospitalized in Pasewalk. While there on 10 November, Hitler learned of Germany's defeat fr…
Fifteen pensive looking faces, each man contemplating his fate as they await the enemy barrage to lift and prepare to repel an enemy assault. The original text on reverse: "Real photo taken of German infantry in a dug out. This is a typical dug out, and yo…
Two German soldiers with a Wechselapparat ("Wex") flamethrower. The Germans introduced this small flamethrower in 1917 to replace the earlier Kleif. The Wechselapparat ("Wex") had a doughnut-shaped backpack fuel container with a spherical propellant containe…
This torpedo-boat crewman looks thoroughly unpleased with the situation. Patrols could be anywhere from 3 weeks to 6 months and during that time the crew were not able to bathe, shave or change their clothes regularly. The space to live in was small, the w…
The photo was taken by Munich photographer Heinrich Hoffmann at a rally in support of war against Russia in Munich’s Odeonsplatz on August 2, 1914. On the day before the election of the Reich president, the Illustrierter Beobachter published the August 1914 …
It looks like a thousand yard stare, it's like there's nothing there. The rank insignia indicates that he is Austrian-Hungarian soldier, not German, he's a Lance corporal. In case you're wondering, those lugs on the side of his Stahlhelm helmet were combin…
The Battle of Caporetto (also known as the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo or the Battle of Karfreit as it was known by the Central Powers) took place from 24 October to 19 November 1917, near the town of Kobarid (now in Slovenia), on the Austro-Italian front o…
These photographs show the UB 110, a German submarine that was sunk and risen in 1918. The show the control room in the submarine, including the manhole to the periscope well, hand wheels for pressure gear, valve wheels for flooding and blowing and the air…
Many wartime photos of dramatic explosions, especially those with action like this one, are in fact staged after the fact. Maybe this one was as well. It may also be from a postwar film. Cameras were not light and handy like today, typically had slow expos…
These soldiers are part of the Russian Fifth Army of World War One. They are preparing a chemical attack against the German positions in Ilukste area (modern Latvia). Chlorine gas was first introduced in the battlefield by the German Army in 1915. It was pio…
The immobility of the trench warfare characterizing the First World War led to a need for a device that would protect soldiers from enemy fire and could help them move on the extremely irregular terrain of battlefields. Apart from a few exceptional cases, …