Name/Title
StereographEntry/Object ID
2023.055.3.0145Description
A black and white stereograph. Image is of a section of trench with barbed wire in front of it, behind the trench is the body of a soldier, behind the soldier is the remains of a wall. Above the image "W165 (Star)" is printed, below the image "V18906 "'Twas messy, that bit of a fight" - Dead Germans amidst Wire Entanglements." 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:
Dead Germans amidst Wire Entanglements.
The painstaking car of the Germans is evidence in thsi stoen and steel defense which they erected to ward off the attacks of the Allies. Those horizontal lines on teh sides of the wall are the marks of the boards with which the Germans built the mould before pouring in the concrete around the girders and I-beams of steel which were added to give the redoubt extra strength.
Farther along where a huge shell has broken away the wall you can see the ends of the beams projecting. These fortified places were sometiems defended with machine guns, the muzzles sticking out through tiny openings on the side where the Allies would be forced to attack. At other times they were used as a trench defense, offering much greater difficulties to the attackers than an ordianry trench.
Just behind that post you can see one of the defenders, fallen forward on his face with his arm over his head as though he tried to ward off the missle that killed him. Near him is another tangled in the strands of barbed wire that literally covered every foot of ground near the defense positions of both the Allies and the Germans.
Silhouetted against the sky you can see what at first glance would seem like tall reeds. It is more of the steel reinforcements that the Germans put into the walls and arches of this position in order that it might better withstand the bombardment which they know would come.Collection
Photograph Collection