Photographers > Tom Aitken
(30) N.423 - Giant German plane which was brought down by us being towed away from the line
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| First World War 'Official Photographs' > Photographers > Tom Aitken > (30) N.423 - Giant German plane which was brought down by us being towed away from the line |
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| Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/74549040 |
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| Description | German plane being towed through a street by Allied soldiers, in France, during World War I. Clambering over their war booty like triumphant soldier ants, this image shows a proud group of Allied soldiers towing away a German plane which was apparently show down at the front line. Judging by their wide-brimmed hats, it is quite likely that these troops are from the USA or Australia. The strange, hexagonal pattern on the plane’s fuselage is camouflage marking. The idea behind camouflage for planes was to design a pattern that would fade the silhouette of an aircraft, thus making it difficult to identify the outline of the plane's shape against the sky. The Germans and British both applied what is called 'lozenge fabric' camouflage to their planes, and this is the style of disguise used on the plane in this photograph. [Original reads: 'OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN ON THE BRITISH WESTERN FRONT IN FRANCE. A giant German plane which was brought down by us being towed away from the line.'] |
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| Description | Tom Aitken was a newspaper photographer from Glasgow who was assigned in December 1917 as a war photographer along with David McLellan and Armando Consolé. McLellan's work also features in the National Library of Scotland’s Haig Papers. War photographers held a hybrid position during World War I, being part of yet not ultimately responsible to the military. |
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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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