Hell on Earth: The battle of Passchendaele

[Haplo_Patryn]

Hell on Earth: The never before seen colour photographs of the bloody battle of Passchendaele


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/a ... ge_id=1770


The photographs are amazing.







Look their faces...

[JudgeDredd]

WOW...powerful images...thx

[JamesM]

Oh my they look so surreal!

Black and white photos just can not portray the horror that this the battle caused!

[captskillet]

I imagine that the faces at Somme, Verdun, Ypres, etc. all looked like that.

[sol_invictus]

jamesm, I absolutely agree, those pictures really capture the horror of the situation thsese men found themselves in. I cannot imagine the misery they must have felt.

[flintlock]

Powerful images. Thanks for sharing them.

[sol_invictus]

captskillet, I imagine my face has looked like that, these last few days, while waiting for release.

[Bladesss]

related question, I have about 85 unpublished steroscopic glass slides of WW1. Is there a practical way to get the pictures onto a different medium. I checked with my local photo shops but they either cant do it or want 15$ per picture.
They were collected by Dr Charles Mayo, then Brig General. They are mostly trench photos like these, but include a tank, aircraft in flight, arty barrage, local dignataries, ect.

[coreymas]

Care to donate them instead? I know of a War Museum that would love to have them.

Corey

[Bossy573]

It is amazing the depth color brings to those photos. You see the b&w photos and it puts distance between the viewer and the event. Color removes that comfort barrier.

[Whytfyjrd]

ORIGINAL: Haplo_Patryn
Hell on Earth: The never before seen colour photographs of the bloody battle of Passchendaele

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=467811&in_page_id=1770&in_page_id=1770

--- snip ---

The photographs are amazing.

Absolutely riveting photos, but a quick, small clarification: I've seen some of them here and there on the 'net, also IIRC a few at the British Imperial War Museum. Also in the U.S.'s PBS sereis, The Great War. In Black & White, though!

From the newspaper article Haplo_Patryn cited:

"... these astonishing photographs, lovingly hand-touched in colour to bring to life ..."

In other words, they've been "colorized" ... quite well. Still, the B&W originals retain a lot of textural details that often get obscured in the tweaked versions.

Great find in any case !

[Haplo_Patryn]

Well, believe it or not, the first photograph is a fake!

The real photograh



And this is the fake one




...... [:-]

[Ironclad]

Nice catch, do you know who faked it? Thinking about it you are hardly likely to position an unprotected machine gun nest out in the open next to a big shell hole and if the machine gun position was there before the explosion - goodbye gunners!

[anarchyintheuk]

Nor are you likely to stand up w/ bulky camera gear during combat and take a picture of it. [;)]

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

ORIGINAL: anarchyintheuk

Nor are you likely to stand up w/ bulky camera gear during combat and take a picture of it. [;)]

At least not more than once.

[Fred98]

Donate the photos to the Imperial War Museum.  Tell them that in return you want digital copies of the pictures.
 
I am sure they will be happy to comply [:)]
 
-
 

[benpark]

I am very skeptical of the color in these pictures. It is monochrome in sections of the picture, where color would be rendered if made with the technology of the time.

For a description of contemporary photographic color methods go here:

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/

Also see: Autochrome process on Wikipedia etc.

[7th Somersets]

Thinking about it you are hardly likely to position an unprotected machine gun nest out in the open next to a big shell hole and if the machine gun position was there before the explosion - goodbye gunners!

 
It was a 1916 German tactic to deploy machineguns into shell holes in front of their trenches once the barrage lifted. I suspect that the men concerned would have chosen new shell holes though - with less water.
 
 

[Ironclad]

Into shell holes yes but surely not outside exposed.

[7th Somersets]

Into shell holes yes but surely not outside exposed.

Agreed. And I would have thought (if the pic was real) that the photographer would have had a tough time too!