Photographers > David McLellan
(5) L.1111 - German anti-tank rifle and a British rifle, France, during World War I
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| First World War 'Official Photographs' > Photographers > David McLellan > (5) L.1111 - German anti-tank rifle and a British rifle, France, during World War I |
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| Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/74548934 |
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| Description | This photograph contrasts a German anti-tank rifle with a British rifle. It seems likely that the British weapon is a Lee-Enfield rifle, which was issued to soldiers as a general infantry weapon. This German anti-tank weapon was most likely a 13.2mm rifle made by the Mauser company. The German anti-tank rifle made its debut in February 1918, in direct response to the increasingly important role that the tank was beginning to have on the Western Front. By May 1918, the Mauser Company had started to mass-produce this new weapon. To begin with, these weapons were issued to soldiers who belonged to special anti-tank units. This German idea of using heavy calibre and high velocity rifles to stop tanks was the forerunner of the modern bazooka weapon. [Original reads: 'OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN ON THE BRITISH WESTERN FRONT IN FRANCE. A German anti-tank rifle compared with a British rifle.'] |
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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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