Real Combat Photo?

[Chris Boonzaier]

Even most of the WW1 Front line photos are posed.... but with this one I wonder if it is not a "real one"

Having "snapped" photos in crisis areas before, this one has all the after the fact elements... "Damn... I should have concentrated on the compostition, and the focus is wrong, and the depth of field is wrong, and that idiot moved when i took it....."

I really believe it was a heat of the moment shot.... what do you guys think?

[army historian]

Yes sure looks like it. Cheers Captain Albert

[Spasm]

Chris

A couple of pros and cons

The cameras were fairly bulky at that time but not overly so. The cameraman looks like he was tucked in pretty well to the side of the trench and is keeping well below the top. The sun is pretty low in the sky, directly behind the defenders from the shadow, and rises in the East. So looks like it could have been an early morning trench raid coming from the West.

But I think there's more cons. The cameramen always seem to catch the shot with the grenade still in the hand (perhaps because it wasn't thrown). The sun is pretty low in the sky and behind the cameraman (a shot any cameraman would want for the light) so any advancing enemy would be looking straight into it (maybe the officers didn't care too much about that and there may be a smoke screen that we can't see) but not a good ploy. Is the Rifleman's weapon actually above the trenchline? If the raiding party were close enough to chuck grenades at (ie about 20yds) then would the war correspondent/cameraman still be there? I'd have buggered off or thrown the thing away.

It doesn't look like a front line trench construction. It's fairly newly dug and could be a forward OP but still seems very shallow with minimal reinforcement. You wouldn't want to get out of the position in too much of a hurry if its the finished article. Front line trench digging would be to full depth not a couple of feet from the top down as the sappers would be exposed during the work.

Lots of kit, especially helmets hanging around. Why would the owners not be wearing them if a raid is coming in and why would the defenders want all that gear getting in the way?

So, Dr Watson, I don't think its for real, sorry. I'm off to play the violin and smoke me pipe for a bit, now where's that deerstalker gone.......

Spaz

Edited November 22, 2011 by Spasm

[IrishGunner]

Posed. Angle of the rifle looks like he's shooting into the side of the trench. And as Spaz said, two helmets and a belt neatly placed on the box?

[Thomas W]

It's impossible to say if that's a real combat photo or not. The rifleman is totally stock still, which makes him look like he's posing. Also, he's not wearing any equipment.

Here's a real combat photo taken at the Haumont Woods, Verdun, on February 21, 1916. In the background is a flamethrower squad of the 16th Company, III. Garde-Pionier-Bataillon. Handwriting on the front of the photo says it was taken at 5:00 P.M.

[Spasm]

Now I'm back from the violin and having a look through a few pics - here's one of "A French machinegun position, dug with great caution, a few metres from the German front line" - I think translated from "Ein maschinengewehr wird in einem Franzisischen graben der nur wenige meter von der Deutschen ersten linie entfernt ist, mit grosster vorsicht aufgebaut" (replacing the fs etc into s from the german lettering).

It looks much the same as Chris' picture in structure of the trench. So, it might be.

Always stick to your guns, that's what I say.