First World War Photos
On The Somme Battlefields of France virtually half a million human beings were killed or died of wounds, illness, or hardship in two world wars. These photos provide a definitive photographic guide to the cemeteries, memorials, and battlefields from the First World War.
I attempted to Photograph the scenes of ferocious fighting in 1916 and 1918. The cemeteries along the entire front mark the places that comrades buried there fellow soldiers where they fell, many times just behind the lines, in local French Communal graveyards, around medical stations, and in temporary cemeteries that was later combined into larger cemeteries. Some Cemeteries contain 4only 4 graves, others contain thousands.
My goal is to photograph each site, logging the GPS locations and to set them in historical context. I hope to create a magnificent work of commemoration to the solders of the First and Second World Wars.
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Photos
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Mons Communal Cemetery - (Left)
Mons remained in German hands throughout the war after being taken by them in August 1914; it was finally liberated by the Canadian Corps on 11th November 1918. The Communal Cemetery was extended on its North side by the Germans and in this extension which now forms part of the town cemetery were buried soldiers of the French, Russian, Belgian, Italian and Romanian armies, as well as soldiers of the British and German forces. The Italian graves were removed later to Liege Communal Cemetery and 14 French graves were also removed elsewhere. After the armistice, Field Ambulances were stationed in the town along with the 4th and 1st Canadian Casualty Clearing Stations. A new cemetery (Mons British) was started by these units; but the graves were later removed to the Communal Cemetery. |
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St. Symphorien Military Cemetery - (Right)
This cemetery was started by the Germans after the Battle of Mons in 1914. The site was an artificial mound, on the highest point of which, a grey granite obelisk, 23m high was erected, with a German inscription which reads; "In memory of the German and English soldiers who fell in the actions near Mons on the 23rd and 24th August 1914"
Originally, the Germans buried 245 of their own soldiers and 188 British soldiers here; another 27 British graves were moved here after the armistice. Subsequently additional British, Canadian and German graves were brought in from other burial grounds, bringing the total number of burials to over 200.
Further Information: This cemetery is also believed to contain the graves of the first (Private J. Parr, Middlesex Regt, 21st August 1914) and last soldier (Private G. L. Price, Canadian Infantry, 11th November 1918), to be killed during the 1914-1918 war. This cannot, however, be confirmed
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Peronne Road Cemetery -(Left)
Maricourt was, at the beginning of the Battles of the Somme, 1916, the point of junction of the British and French forces, and within a very short distance of the front line; it was lost in the German advance of March, 1918, and recaptured at the end of the following August. The Cemetery was begun by fighting units and Field Ambulances in the Battles of the Somme, 1916, and used until August, 1917; a few graves were added later in the War, and at the Armistice it consisted of 175 graves which now form almost the whole of Plot I. It was completed after the Armistice by the concentration of graves from the battlefields in the immediate neighbourhood and from certain smaller burial grounds. |
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Ligny St Flochel British Cemetery - (Right)
The cemetery was started at the beginning of April 1918 when the 7th Casualty Clearing Station came back from Tincques ahead of the German advance. At the end of May the 33rd Casualty Clearing Station arrived from Aire and in August, No 1 Casualty Clearing Station from Pernes. All three stations had left Ligny-St Flochel by November 1918. There are now 632 Commonwealth burials of the First World War in this cemetery and a further 46 German war graves. The cemetery was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield |
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More Photos
 Millencourt Communal Cemetery Extension
The communal cemetery was used by units and field ambulances from August 1915 to May 1916, and again in April 1918, but after the Armistice the 64 burials were moved into the extension. The extension was used by units, field ambulances, and the III Corps Main Dressing Station in 1916, and by the 4th Australian Division and other units in March and April 1918.
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Mill Road CemeteryThiepval
The communal cemetery was used by units and field ambulances from August 1915 to May 1916, and again in April 1918, but after the Armistice the 64 burials were moved into the extension. The extension was used by units, field ambulances, and the III Corps Main Dressing Station in 1916, and by the 4th Australian Division and other units in March and April 1918.
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