Name/Title
StereographEntry/Object ID
2023.055.3.0131Description
A black and white stereograph. Image is of a large amount of wreckage consisting of wagons and train cars, in the foreground a man sits by railroad tracks with a helmet in his hands. Above the image "W105 (Star)" is printed, below the image "V18897 Alincourt, France; German Ammunition Camp Destroyed by Allied Airmen." 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:
V18897
DESTORYED GERMAN AMMUNITION CAMP, ALINCOURT
Alincourt is a tiny village of 250 inhabitants in the department of Ardennes, and lies but a short distance from Reims. The Germans swept through it during their drive on Paris in 1914, and later, when beaten on the Marne, established there a great ammunition camp. The obscure little village became a beehive of industry, day and night. Frieght cars brought huge stores of shells for waiting wagons which took them to the battle line.
After the battle of the Somme condtions changed. The Allies became masters of the air and this little village behind the German lines became unsafe as an ammunition camp. Yet the invaders still clung to it as a base, sending to the front many hundreds of the shells which battered Reims so terribly.
The day of disaster finally came, Haig striking on the German right, Petain in the center, and Pershing through the Argonne. Their advancing armies were preceded by flocks of airplanes dropping bombs. The camp at Alincourt was discovered. Allied planes swooped over it, bombs crashed, carts were smashed and overturned, horses and men were killed and hurled aside by the force of the explosions, cargoes of shells went up in smoke, the place was littered with debris. The Germans fled, abandoning everything that could not readily and quickly be carried off. Note that not a scrap of harness remains upon any of the dead horses, the Germans carrying it off in preference to things that in ordinary times were of greater value. At this stage of the war leather was very scarce in Germany, their entier stock having been used up and no more being avaliable.
Copyright by The Keystone Veiw CompanyCollection
Photograph Collection