World War I Photographs--German Prisoners, the Somme, 1916

JF Ptak Science Books   Post 1322

This news service photograph (a Canadian Official Photograph from the Western Newspaper Union) shows a line of German prisoners of war in the Canadian lines at the battle of Courcelette, France. [The original is available at our blog bookstore.]

It was a battle that took place within a battle,  in the last third of the enormous 18-week series of battles and actions known as the Somme Offensive. The photograph was made between early September and mid-November 1918, which is when the Canadians joined the British offensive.

The landscape is bleak, the soldiers worn.  I rarely see expressions of pain in this series of 1500 photographs from a collection of war images that I purchased.  This is one of a very slim minority.