Photographers > John Warwick Brooke
(497) D.706 - Watching the Boche trench through a periscope
Thumbnail gallery: Grid view | List view
Universal Viewer | 
Mirador | Large image
Images and transcriptions on this page, including medium image downloads, may be used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence unless otherwise stated. 
| First World War 'Official Photographs' > Photographers > John Warwick Brooke > (497) D.706 - Watching the Boche trench through a periscope |
|---|
| Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/74548018 |
|---|---|
| Description | As this photograph shows, it was not only submarines that needed periscopes during World War I. This ingenious method of keeping watch on the enemy’s movements was certainly much safer than putting one’s head above the trench parapet. A less sophisticated form of trench periscope was a small mirror attached to the tip of a bayonet on a rifle. World War I was infamous for the massive number of head wounds that were suffered during the conflict, so periscopes increasingly played a large part in sentry duty. Since this could only work during daylight hours, however, the most likely time for an attack was at dawn or dusk. During the day, sentries were placed at regular intervals along the trench, and they would have the vital duty of using the periscope to watch for any threatening movements by the enemy. [Original reads: 'OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN ON THE FRONT IN FRANCE. Watching the Boche trench through a periscope.'] |
More information
|
|
| Description | John Warwick Brooke, of the Topical Press Agency, was the second British official war photographer to go to the Western Front in 1916. The demands placed on he and his colleague, Ernest Brooks, were heavy. They had to take as many photographs as possible, with as much variety as possible, a difficult task for two men covering an army of over two million. Despite this, Warwick Brooke managed to take what would become some of the most memorable images of World War I. As an officially appointed photographer, Warwick Brooke was assigned to the Western Front to follow the progress of the British Army. During his time there, between 1916 and 1918, Warwick Brooke is estimated to have taken over 4,000 photographs. |
|---|---|
|
More information
|
|
| Description | Photographs by named photographers. |
|---|
| 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. |
|---|---|
| Shelfmark | Acc.3155 |
|
More information
|
|