The Daily Postcard No. 25

C0lour film was around even early in the Great War, and this is a true colour photograph – not coloured – of a German machine-gun position in the Champagne region of France in 1915.

The card is dated 20th February 1916 and was posted two days later, the postmark bearing the stamp of 29th Infantry Division.

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9 Responses to The Daily Postcard No. 25

  1. Nick Kilner says:

    Wow! That’s amazing! I wonder if the three men in it all got a free copy to send home? “Look mum, I’m famous!”

    • Magicfingers says:

      Perhaps they did. Or perhaps, as with any Great War photograph, they didn’t even survive to see the following morning, let alone the developed photograph. Not that I’m trying to deflate the mood or anything……

      • Daisy in Indonesia says:

        A remarkable professional photo, ahead of it’s time you would think…
        For me the three of them look very relaxed, and clean… a staged photo perhaps? Didn’t the machine gun need one man to feed the ammunition? Where are the Pickelhaubes?

        Cronenberg Germany is about 180 miles from Champagne France and poor Fräulien Gilda’s man is so close, but so very far!

        Daisy

        • Nick Kilner says:

          Daisy, my guess would be that the guy in the dugout doorway is the man who should be on the belt feed. He may well have been asked to step out of the way for the photo as his position would hide much of the machine gun. I’ve seen this in another photo somewhere, three in the picture but only two at the gun with another in the background

        • Magicfingers says:

          It’s a great picture, felt caps, no pickelhaubes as you say, and definitely staged. But is it staged in the front line? Well the defences look good, and the giveaway is often whether the photographer is keeping his head down, which does appear to be the case here; it is almost an odd angle to choose if you had a choice of any angle from which to take the photo, if you see what I mean.

      • Nick Kilner says:

        Blimey, you’re a cheery soul today! Hahahaha

  2. Sid from Down Under says:

    I like the machine gunner’s back up sword – ready for when they are over-run by our lot.
    And the chap in the bunker looks a bit nonchalant – staged yes, Daisy – but not swooning

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