Name/Title
StereographEntry/Object ID
2023.055.3.0121Description
A black and white stereograph. Image is of several men in a trench/foxhole, a tank can be seen in the background. Above the image "W45 (Star)" is printed, below the image "V18865 "Down in a Shell Crater, We Fought Like Kilkenny Cats" - Battle of Cambrai" is printed, to the left of the image "Keystone View Company Copyrighted, Underwood & Underwood, Inc. Manufacturers MADE IN U.S.A. Publishers" is printed, to the right of the image "Meadville, Pa., New York, N. Y., Chicago, Ill., London, England." is printed. On the reverse the following is printed:
V18865
"DOWN IN A SHELL CRATER WE FOUGHT" - BATTLE OF CAMBRAI
This terrible war, started by Germany in her mad lust for empire, abounded in situations which tried men's souls to the limit and called for the exertion of every ounce of courage and resolution they possessed. This was one of those occasions. In the ebb and flow of battle, deafened by the explosion of great shells, blinded by fog and smoke, stifled by sulphurous fumes, men became separated from their commands, lost their sense of direction and oftend took refuge in shell craters such as this, from the hail of machine gun bullets whipping ove rthe surface of the ground.
Sometimes isolated German soldiers blundered into craters held by our own men. Swift combat instantly flared up, bomb and bayonet did their deadly work, quarter was neither asked nor given.
The battle of Cambrai was in some respects the most dramatic of the war. There, for the first time in history, the dazed Germans saw whole squadrons of huge ironclad monsters like the one lying disabled in the background, come lurching and sprawling upon them, tearing into shreds their vaunted barb wire defenses, crashing over the trenches, flattening out concrete "pill boxes" and the machine guns inside. Through the gaps made by these juggernauts came British soldiery, horse and foot, shooting, cutting, and bombing. No surprise was ever made more completere or more disastrous. German soldiers craweled out of their deep dugouts by the thousand, their eyes blinking with sleep in the early dawn, and by thousands were they shot down or captured.
Copyright by The Keystone View CompnayCollection
Photograph Collection