Rare and Interesting Photo Materials from the Fronts of World War I (21 photos)

World War I was the largest military conflict of the early 20th century, involving 38 countries. Military clashes also spread to the Middle East, Africa, and parts of Asia.





Australian soldiers with a captured Turkish sniper disguised as a hemp bush, 1916.

The Dardanelles Offensive was a military operation carried out by the Entente countries, the main goal of which was to capture Constantinople (Istanbul), and then pave the way for a sea route.

Australian soldiers were looking for hemp, and they came across this sniper.



A worker cleaning the rifling of a 381 mm gun barrel at the Coventry Arsenal. England, 1916.

These guns were used on British Navy battleships from 1915 to 1944. The weight of the projectile for such a gun is almost 900 kg.





German soldiers use an Indian elephant from the zoo to carry tree trunks in Valenciennes, France, 1915.

German soldiers, Indian elephant, French zoo...



Repair of the staff car of the 46th Infantry Division, Piekoszów, Kielce Governorate, modern-day Poland, spring 1915.

As it should be: officers watch, privates tighten the nuts.



A small domestic koala on a Royal Australian Navy destroyer, 1914.



A tethered German balloon. France, 1916.

Observation balloons were used by both sides during WWI to gain an advantage in reconnaissance due to the altitude on relatively flat terrain.



A British soldier in France. WWI, 1917.



Agatha Christie during her time with the Voluntary Aid Detachment, where she looked after wounded soldiers at the hospital in Torquay. WWI, 1914.

During WWII, Agatha also volunteered at the University College Hospital Dispensary.



French soldiers in a trench near Verdun, known as the "Devil's Anvil", 1916.



During the First World War. Wounded in the hospital of the city credit society. Moscow, 1914.



A soldier in the US Army Pigeon Corps, World War I, October 1918.

During WWI, pigeons were used to deliver messages and return back to their home coops in the rear.



New Zealand soldiers inspect a German tank nicknamed "Schnuck", captured by New Zealand troops on the Western Front,

1918.

The first serial tank of the German Empire. Produced in 1917-1918 in a small series of 20 vehicles. Limited use in combat operations in the final period of World War I.



World War I, a soldier bandages the wounded paw of a "mercy dog", 1917.

Mercy dogs helped military medics search for wounded soldiers on the battlefield. They also helped to drag military weapons and delivered mail.



A German soldier from the Alpine Corps talks to a Romanian peasant in Romania in 1916, during World War I.

A special photo frame to emphasize the superiority of the "Aryan race" over the rest, they are such heroes, and the rest are "ants" in their understanding.



A German soldier.



A British officer poses with a cigar and canaries, 1918.



Austro-Hungarian soldiers bathe horses. Italian front of WWI, 1917.



A dog in a gas mask. Military kennel, 1918.

During WWI, gas masks were made for everyone: soldiers, children, dogs, horses.



German soldiers pose next to a horse with a specially built frame that holds a captured Maxim M1910 machine gun with a wheeled mount and ammunition box.



"Sammy", the mascot of the Northumberland Fusiliers during WWI, circa 1915.

During war, dogs and soldiers are inseparable, regardless of the side of the conflict.