With the British Army in Flanders & France

Another newly acquired postcard, and again an image I haven’t seen anywhere else, this view of a captured French trench near Ypres was taken the day after the Germans’ first ever use of gas on 22nd April 1915, at the start of the Second Battle of Ypres.  It was the French Algerians who took the brunt of the gas attack, and the Germans in the photograph stand over two of the unfortunate Zouaves who died having little or no idea what was happening to them, as the pale green cloud washed over them and the hydrochloric acid began to form in their lungs.  Many fled, but clearly these brave men didn’t.

Here’s an interesting postcard that came into my possession only this week.  I often talk about how trenches in Flanders had to be built above ground due to the high water table, using whatever came to hand, and this photograph of the first trench at Ypres (and why not?), is as good an example as any I’ve seen.