Photographers > David McLellan
(18) L.1204 - Attack on Hindenburg line
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| First World War 'Official Photographs' > Photographers > David McLellan > (18) L.1204 - Attack on Hindenburg line |
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| Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/74548964 |
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| Description | With 'land battleships’ (tanks) in the background, this image shows infantry advancing during the attack on the famous Hindenburg Line. As the Hindenburg Line was finally overrun by the Allies in the autumn of 1918, it seems highly likely that this is when this photograph was taken. The Hindenburg Line was a massive system of German fortifications that extended to a depth of 15 kilometres, rather than just a shallow line of trench defences. These fortifications ran all the way along the Western Front, stretching from the northern coast to Verdun. The decision in September 1916 to build these defences was crucial, since it showed that the German generals were preparing to fight a defensive war. As there were no strong back-up lines behind the Hindenburg Line, once it had been breached, retreat was the only viable option left. (Hindenburg Line = a system of German defence fortifications behind the northern and central sectors of the Western Front, constructed between the northern coast and Verdun.) [Original reads: 'OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN ON THE BRITISH WESTERN FRONT IN FRANCE. Attack on Hindenburg line. Tanks and Troops advancing.'] |
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| Description | Formerly a photographer with the 'Daily Mirror’, a newspaper which led the field in pictorial journalism, McLellan was appointed as an official war photographer in December 1917 along with Tom Aitken whose work also features in this collection. McLellan is especially noted for his work capturing the huge scale of operations on the Front. McLellan was one of five official photographers working on the Western Front, for the propaganda department during the last two years of the war. The photographers were driven to the site the authorities wanted them to photograph, which meant that most of their material was also largely censored. This did not, however, mean that the photographer did not get to know the people in the picture. |
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| Description | Photographs by named photographers. |
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| Description | Black-and-white photographs mainly of the Western Front during the First World War. Official British war photographers took many of them for propaganda purposes. Unless otherwise stated, titles are the photographs' original captions. From the papers of Field Marshal (Earl) Haig (1861-1928). The Haig Papers also contain Douglas Haig’s diaries. |
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| Shelfmark | Acc.3155 |
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