Photographers > Ernest Brooks
(1) C.1005 - Moving big guns up to the front by hand
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 > Ernest Brooks > (1) C.1005 - Moving big guns up to the front by hand |
|---|
| Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/75171407 |
|---|---|
| Description | Soldiers struggling to pull a big gun through mud. The gun has been placed on a track created for a light railway. The soldiers are pushing a device, attached to the gun, that possibly slots into the tracks. Some of the men are in a ditch that runs alongside the track, the rest are on the track itself. A makeshift caterpillar tread has been fitted to the wheels of the gun, in an attempt to aid its movement through the mud. The surrounding landscape is bleak and desolate, with only a few trucks visible in the distance. The mud and flooding at the Front not only created mobility problems for the men, it was also extremely hazardous, with men and animals often becoming trapped in the quagmire. [Original reads: 'OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH FROM THE WESTERN FRONT. Moving big guns up to the front by hand.'] |
More information
|
|
| Description | Ernest Brooks was the first British official war photographer to be assigned to the Western Front in 1916. Previously a 'Daily Mirror' photographer, he was given the honorary rank of Second Lieutenant. His remit was to take as many photographs as possible, with as much variety as possible. Using his inconspicuous hand-held camera Brooks was free to wander, sometimes capturing his subjects unawares. Many of the images taken by Brooks were used to fuel the propaganda machine at home and abroad. Despite this Brooks, who was very aware of composition and light, produced some very artistic and thought-provoking images. |
|---|---|
|
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
|
|