World War I caused the death of millions of combatants and civilians, while countless soldiers suffered from injury and disfigurement. Perhaps the most disheartening were facial injuries, as soldiers had to not only deal with the physical loss, but also the …
The old and the new in one picture. You can really see the direction warfare was going; only they didn't know it yet. For the first few months in the war the French Cuirassiers still wore breastplates and plumed helmets. Soldiers being stuck in the old way…
A British splatter mask worn by a French tank gunner, it was designed to help protect the crewmember's face from shrapnel when looking through the view ports. The eye covers were metal, the mask was leather and there was a chainmail skirt to cover the mout…
The Austro-Hungarian aircraft gunner in the picture is seen using a Mauser C96 pistol combination, probably just for demonstration. Each pistol held a clip of ten bullets and the device attached to them fired them in unison, giving the gunner the ability t…
The Russian Expeditionary Force was a World War I military force sent to France by the Russian Empire. In 1915 the French requested that Russian troops be sent to fight alongside their own army on the Western Front. Initially they asked for 300,000 men, an a…
This interesting picture, taken in 1919, shows employees of the New York Central Railroad at a celebration in Victory Way, showing off a pyramid of recovered German helmets in front of Grand Central Terminal. There were over 12,000 German Pickelhaubes on t…
Hidden for 100 years, the astonishing photos by a 16-year-old soldier show 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 h…
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…
A 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. At that moment in time eve…
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 8…
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 …
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 19 17 to replace the earlier Kleif. The Wechselapparat ("Wex") had a doughnut-shaped backpack fuel container with a spherical propellant conta…
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 the 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…
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…