The Great War Illustrated - 1917: Archive and Colour Photographs of WWI

The Taylor Picture Library

A rich source of illustrations available to authors and graphic designers today, depicting all aspects of the historic mayhem of the Great War, are to be found in the printed volumes that were published throughout the 1914-1918 period and after. Some of these appeared firstly in weekly instalments as magazines with the option of having them bound. Others began life as bound books and nearly always in sets. Famous writers of the day contributed articles and, where photographs of certain battles were unobtainable, gifted illustrators and graphic artists were commissioned and used their imaginations to depict certain events, such as the winning of a Victoria Cross, or some dreadful atrocity perpetrated by the ‘cowardly hun’.

As with press release photographs of the day, likewise, some captions for pictures in books should be viewed with some caution, as propaganda hype drove the writers to maintain and fuel continuing support from among the English speaking peoples for, what had been sold from the outset of hostilities to be, a worldwide crusade against evil empires.

Beginning in the nineteen eighties the Director at Pen and Sword Books, Charles Hewitt, started acquiring sets of First World War books which included: twenty volumes of The Times History of the War and a complete set of The Great War by H. W. Wilson and J. A. Hammerton. These were added to the Peter Taylor collection of printed books. This has meant that hundreds of thousands of pictures are now available for re-use, thanks to the scanning and picture correcting technology developed in recent years.

This new four volume set (a fifth covering events in 1918 is planned) of The Great War Illustrated volumes 1914 to 1917, researched by Roni Wilkinson, constitutes a catalogue of images that have been revived electronically and brought up to reproduction standard.

Chapter One: The German Retreat – Der Betrieb ‘Alberich’

17GW002 German troops withdrawing through the streets of Péronne during the fall back to the prepared postions of the Hindenburg Line.

17GW001 British and French troops in reserve lines at Le Verguier, France, during the German Retreat to the Hindenburg Line, April 1917.

17GW002 German troops withdrawing through the streets of Péronne during the fall back to the prepared postions the Germans called the Siegfried Line and the Allies the Hindenburg Line.

17GW008 Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff commented:

‘The shortening of our front made it stronger and safer. The enemy’s plans were countered. The lines of attack they had chosen were no longer suitable and the ground we had abandoned left them no resources. If they wanted to use it they had to repair everything and very heavy work was necessary in order to prepare an attack. We could, accordingly, thin out the troops and withdraw divisions. The result that had been sought by Operation Alberich and the occupation of the Siegfried position was fully obtained.’

At the outset of 1917 the Allies, overestimating German losses of the Somme and Verdun fighting, believed that just one more major offensive would be enough to break through the German lines and drive them out of France and Belgium. At the request of the American President Wilson, the Germans informally made clear their peace terms in January 1917, which were rejected by the allies. The French General Nivelle was determined to launch another major offensive at Champagne in the spring of 1917, but the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line disrupted these plans.

17GW013 The Butte de Warlencourt, which marked the limit of the British advance during the Battle of the Somme and from where the German withdrawal began on 24 February 1917. The Albert-Bapaume road runs from bottom to top; the British front line can be seen at the bottom right of the picture in front of the mound (Butte). As the Germans pulled back towards Bapaume their rear guard was engaged by elements of the 2nd Australian Division and fighting took place at Le Barque and elsewhere on this sector. After three weeks’ fighting the withdrawal carried on from Bapaume to the prepared positions of the Hindenburg Line.

17GW014 The Butte de Warlencourt was an ancient burial mound off the Albert–Bapaume road, northeast of Le Sars in the Somme département of northern France. Some of the fiercest fighting took place on and around the Butte which was riddled with tunnels and dugouts and heavily defended by mortars, machine guns and belts of barbed wire the Butte commanded the road to Bapaume and although the British managed to get onto the Butte, they were always removed by counter attacks. On the German withdrawal, February 1917, the British 151 Brigade finally occupied it.

17GW053 British troops moving supplies along a narrow gauge trench railway line near Le Sars, with the Butte de Warlencourt on the horizon.

17GW055 A British officer takes cover during a German barrage near Le Sars.

17GW057 The base of a memorial in a German cemetery at Le Sars; it is still there today.

17GW056 Allied advances were delayed as roads had to be rebuilt and more pack animals and carts were organised. The Germans systematically destroyed the territory across which they withdrew. Support artillery and transport to carry supplies were needed for attacks on the villages where the German rearguard was putting up fierce resistance. Each day of delay gained time for the Germans to develop the Hindenburg Line defences.

17GW018 German soldiers wrecking houses, leaving little of use to the allies, before withdrawing to the Hindenburg Line.

17GW015 German engineers demolishing houses in Bapaume to prevent the British from using them for billeting.

17GW016 Officers outside a command shelter.

17GW021 German pioneers preparing defences of the Siegfried Line, (or Hindenburg Line, so named by the allies).

17GW022 Troops manning the Hindenburg Line.

17GW023 Some of the mischief carried out at Péronne by the retreating Germans: this section of road has been blocked by felled trees. Note that the three trees left standing have been partly cut through.

17GW024 How the Germans left the village of Athies: a huge crater was blasted in the middle of the main street, preventing the movement of road traffic. The French press reacted with fury at German vandalism as all areas vacated by them was discovered to have been systematically wrecked. German senior commanders were not too happy about it either.

17GW025 A British despatch rider checks his map against the unfamiliar ‘liberated’ territory.

17GW029 A British officer points out the way forward.

17GW026 The village of Puisieux at the northern end of the Somme front and where a rear guard action was fought by the Germans.

17GW032 Destruction of the fruit trees (contrary to the Hague convention).

17GW030 Cyclists following up the withdrawing Germans.

17GW027 A farm at Puisieux destroyed in the fighting as the Germans withdrew to their prepared positions.

17GW031 British troops passing the church at Athies; everything over a ten mile deep area and all along the front was systematically ruined by the Germans.

17GW033, 17GW034, 17GW035. Australian engineers and pioneers clearing rubble, filling in craters and bridging waterways where the Germans had systematically destroyed the infrastructure of the countryside they had vacated.

17GW020. British Tommies reversing a former German trench so as to have the fire step on the other side, thus the parados became the parapet.

17GW036. British supply wagons, unable to use the severly damaged roads, attempting to use the open fields alongside them.

17GW038 Australians, having completed repairs to a damaged road, try out the corduroy (made up of logs) surface with a cart full of rubble.

17GW039 A recently erected sign directing men and supplies in the appropriate direction.

17GW041, 17GW042, 17GW040 Slogans were daubed over some of the buildings in towns evacuated by the Germans: ‘Gott strafe England’ which translates as ‘God punish England’; French village children and Tommies enjoying departure of the ‘Hun’. ‘Nicht ärgern, nur wundern!’ on this building – ‘Don’t be angry, just be amazed!’ a quote from Goethe.

17GW046 Havoc on the approaches to the town of Péronne, which was occupied by the British on 18 March, after the German withdrawal.

17GW045 A British advance guard in the streets of Péronne.

17GW047, 17GW048. The streets of Péronne – the scenes of utter devastation that greeted the British.

17GW050 A British advance guard in the streets of Péronne.

17GW052 An injured Royal Flying Corps pilot is being stretchered back to an aid post near Le Sars. Australian troops of the 2nd Pioneer Battalion halt in their work of repairing the Bapaume road as the party passes by.

17GW049 Under new management – a German sentry box in Bapaume put to good use by the British.

17GW060 An Australian work detail of 8 Brigade resting on the outskirts of Bapaume shortly after the town had been evacuated by the Germans. The men are wearing waterproof waders over their trousers.

17GW058 Australians of 8 Brigade moving through the smoking streets of Bapaume with extreme caution, on 17 March, the Germans having just left. Buildings have been demolished by controlled explosions and anything that may have proved useful to the allies had been destroyed or spoiled.

17GW012 A mounted patrol of the 2nd Australian Division in Bapaume, 19 March 1917. The town had been in allied hands for two days and the streets had been made near impassable by the retreating Germans. Booby traps had been left everywhere.

17GW061 Cheerful victors at a street barricade in Bapaume. These Australians of the 30th Battalian were among the first into the still-burning streets. Note the officer with his Webley service revolver drawn; also the soldier wearing a souvenir pickelhaube.

17GW059, 17GW063. Bapaume seen from the tower of the Mairie (town hall) before the booby trap bomb exploded.

17GW019, 17GW017, 17GW065. Men of the Australian 2nd Division outside the Mairie (town hall) in Bapaume. The town was occupied by the Australians on 17 March 1917, following the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line. The Australian soldier above is scratching his name on a pedestal and doubtless many others followed to make their mark. They found the town hall, surprisingly, intact and proceeded to use the building to receive officers and civilians who came to inspect the damage caused by the fighting. At the time there was an explosive device with a delayed action fuse concealed in the building. A week later, 25 March, the timed mine blew the building to pieces, killing thirty people. The dead included local French politicians Raoul Briquet and Albert Tailliandier, who were organizing financial support for the inhabitants of the region.

17GW062 The band of 5 Brigade playing in the Place Faidherbe, 19 March, as destroyed buildings were still burning.

17GW064 French village children being amused by British troops round the makings of a camp fire in a street.

17GW011 A water detail of British and French soldiers around a well. Many water sources had been deliberately contaminated.

17GW066, 17GW067. French children enjoying bike rides provided by members of the Cyclist Corps.

17GW070 The area the Germans had withdrawn from had been turned into a wasteland and the active male civilians moved east for forced labour. Those who remained, old men, women and children, were left with a few days’ supply of food.

17GW072 In December 1916 General Robert Nivelle, following several successful months in command at Verdun, became the commander in chief of the French armies on the Western Front, succeeding Joffre. Fluent in English (his mother was British) and a convincing speaker, he persuaded reluctant French politicians (and dazzled Lloyd George) to engage in a huge spring offensive, centred