JF Ptak Science Books  Quick Post

Here’s an interesting and terribly human image of WWI, made deep inside the war, nearly at the war’s end, and which was distributed beginning 17 September 1918 by the Western Newspaper Union, and a French Official war photograph.  It is a celebration of sorts–a short one–following the Second Battle of the Marne, which was the last German offensive on the Western Front, and which ended on August 6, five weeks before this photo was released and 100 or so days before the end of the war. The battle spelled the end for Germany in the war (costing a total of more than 270,000 killed or wounded) and began the steady march to Versailles.  After three weeks of terrible fighting, the relief to the soldiers in the photo must have been extraordinary–it is certainly palpable in the image.

[Source: The History of Ideas Blog WWI Photo Collection, details:  https://historyofideasblog.com/world_war_i_photography/]