Scars of battle: Haunting picture of a landscape near Verdun, France still shows the pockmarks and craters made in the Great War almost 100 years ago
Historical reality: French soldiers at Verdun in 1916. Photographer Michael St Maur Sheil has taken images of the landscapes today which show signs of old battles
Eerie relic: British photographer Michael St Maur Sheil's picture of a World War I observation post near Hebuterne, south of Dunkirk
Fog of war: Mike St Maur Sheil's picture of a misty winter morning on the Somme - looking towards Lutyens Thiepval memorial in Picardie, France
Setting sons: The beach at Helles, Gallipoli from a photographic collection documenting battlefields of the Great War
Historic match: The scene at Cape Helles, Gallipoili on April 25, 1915 where 20,761 British, Australian and Indian soldiers were killed
Haunting: The Fort de Douaument - a defence near Verdun, France which saw one million casualties in the Great War - from Mike St Maur Sheil's collection
Mists of time: Flooded fields on the Yser plain in Belgian where battle one raged. Michael St Maur Sheil's pictures reveal modern landscapes shaped by war
Shell shock: Lochnagar Crater at the Somme as it is today. The picture is part of a collection of World War One landscapes which still bear the signs of war damage
The big bang: The detonation of buried British mines that formed the Lochnagar crater. The blast was heard 160 miles away in London in 1917
Blast damage: This image from within the crater gives a sense of its depth and the force of the explosion which created it
Underground sanctuary: The chapel at Confrecourt in the French lines near Soissons, from a collection by British photographer Michael St Maur Sheil
Trench footprint: The still pockmarked landscape of Beaumont Hamel on the Somme where the Newfoundland Regiment were decimated by German machine guns
Metal detection: Mike St Maur Sheil's picture of the Somme battlefield today where farmers are still finding shells and war debris known as the 'Iron harvest'
Monument: Grave of French soldier Edouard Ivaldi in Champagne. This is the only grave left from WW1 and still has Ivaldi's helmet marking the spot he fell in 1917
Crossfire: German cemetery at Le Linge near the Weiss valley which was attacked by the French in 1915. Today the German tranches are remarkably well preserved.
Laid to rest: German cemetery on the battlefield of Tete des Faux - the highest point on the Western Front. 10 million soldiers died in the conflict almost 100 years ago
Ruins: The remains of the Chateau de Soupir after the village in northern France was cleared by elite British unit the Brigade of Guards on the 14th September 1914
Obliterated: Original site of the village of Butte de Vaquois which was destroyed between Feb 1915 and Feb 1918. American forces captured the hill on Sept 26 1918
Killing fields: An image of rich farmland at the Somme from a photographic collection showing how the battlefields of the Great War still shape today's landscape
Aerial bombardment: The scarred landscape of Beaumont Hamel on the Somme taken from the air shows the wartime topography preserved after almost 100 years
Reflected glory: A peaceful pond is what remains today of the craters made by massive mines on the Messines Ridge near Ypres. Their explosion was heard in London
Ah yes, mankind, the only intelligent life in the universe.
Isn't it just great that we are stupid enough to let a few meglomaniacs talk us all into doing things like this over a "Lie"
The same bunch of "Liars" are still doing it today! I think it's about time we put the liars on a deserted island & let them have each other! The rest of us could & would get along just fine without the Khazar Lie Machine. They are the:1% & if we could find the spine to just say NO! what could they really do! Time to make a stand for ourselves or these scociopaths will burn us all. RC
Amazing all the "CROSSES" as tomb markers!
that's one big crater.
Incredible post. Thank You.
stunning
FYI: A good read about WWI from a US farm boy's perspective: "Suddenly We Didn't Want to Die: Memoirs of a World War I Marine," by Elton E. Mackin. Published nearly 80 years after being written and 20 years after its author's death. Mackin (1898-1974) entered WW I in June 1918 as a 19-year-old Marine infantryman. He was immediately thrust into the front lines. The "Boche" crouched a thousand feet away, on Hill 142 in the Belleau Wood of France.It was the job of Mackin and other raw boys to win the hill and then the war. They did--although not, as this stylish diary makes clear, without exposing themselves to unspeakable horrors. The horror of war never departs: rain of bullets, threat of mustard gas, corpses sprawled in trees. Mackin didn't fulfill his literary potential; after the war, he worked as a laborer, bus driver, appliance-store owner, and custodian. What a shame: the diary has the faults one expects, and the promise one prays for. A fine addition to WW I literature. Were we ever that young...
Incredible!
Beautiful photos, sad memories
97 years have gone by, and virtually no one under the age of 20 knows anything about it. What did all these men die for, if their cause is to be forgotten, buried with time?
These photos make me wonder. It's hard to imagine that these peaceful landscapes hide such unimaginable terror ...THIS is the reason I will NEVER partake in war; they prove that no matter how MASSIVE of an endeavor is undertaken by multiple countries waging war, one's efforts will always be forgotten. It's not worth dying for.
Beautiful pictures. They are a testament to the stupidity of war. It was truly the stupidest of all wars. Unless you are a Jew that started it and made all the money bankrolling the killing. But it was not enough so they started WWII because the Jews liked Europe and did not want to steal Palestine.
Every generation of alleged leaders always find a reason for another war. The "leaders" never are in battle, just the little people. We never learn.
Truly amazing pictures...painfully beautiful!
intense
But this is the cost of war. Fortunately the Great War was the war to end all war, and these scars now are just a horrible memory of what war was like.
Stunning, just stunning. My grandfather was in France during WWI as a bugler for the American Expeditionary Forces. Very impressive, thank you.
Google Earth shows the front as well, especially near Ypres, Belgium
Thanks for sharing the amazing images.
Rupert Brooke (1887-1915), The Soldier
“…There shall be In that rich earth a richer dust concealed; A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware, Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam…”
will we ever stop?
ABSOLUTELY FASCINATING!!
One day we will outgrow the dastardly genetic defects of our warlike gods and be better than them. Peaceful.
Where have all the flowers gone, a long, a long time ago. Where have all the young men gone, gone to graveyards every one. When will we ever learn, when will we ever learn. Kingston Trio
World had not been better since that war. Many wars had happened since then. Are people (read : politicians) have not learned from the history of wars ?
Both side are loosers.
Can we criminalised war ?
http://criminalisewar.org/
Thank you, Fiona, for a heart-wrenching and graphic reminder of the lasting imprimatur the war-mongering central bankers and "elites" have left on the landscape as a testament to their senseless and sinister machinations that linger long after their destructive impulses have been exhausted.
"War is a Racket" by Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler, an insider, is a Must Read as is patriot extraordinaire Benjamin Freedman's "A Jewish Defector Warns America."
Cheers.
WHAT GREAT HUMAN LIFES ENERGY HAS BEEN WASTED.IT COULD HAVE ENDED IN ABOUT 1916 WHEN THE GERMANS OFFERED TO WITHDRAW BACK TO GERMANY IF ALLIES WITHDREW LIKEWISE. THIS WAS REFUSED AS THE POWERFULL MONEY LENDERS PROMISED TO GET AMERICA INTO THE WAR TO CONTINUE FIGHTING. THIS WAS THE CITY OF LONDON ROTHSCHILDS BANKS WHO IN EFFECT CAUSED THE DEATH OF MILLIONS MORE. THIS IS TRUE HISTORY AND HAS BEEN SUPPRESSED .
war is a racket - and must be banned!
Really amazing.
How well I remember that terrible day
How the blood stained the sand and the water
And how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter
Johnny Turk he was ready, he primed himself well
He chased us with bullets, he rained us with shells
And in five minutes flat he'd blown us all to hell
Nearly blew us right back to Australia
But the band played Waltzing Matilda
As we stopped to bury our slain
We buried ours and the Turks buried theirs
Then we started all over again
Wouldn't it be fun if someone declared a war, and no one showed up?
If we ever get off this planet a war is sure to follow us to the next planet because Everyone will still have the notion they know whats best for everyone else....F'n Disgusting!!
Fascinating photos, Its wonderful to see the French helmet is still on that man's grave.
If every country minded there own business
Well done to the human race well done sheeple !!!
Thoes not willing to fight for freedom can only enjoy its use by the price others have paid for it.
If the time comes that no one is willing to defend freedom for all, then only the few that make the rules will have freedom of choice.
With Freedom Comes Responsiblity
We the people are stuck between the Bankers and the Communists/Socialists. War is needed to pusuade people to give up freedom for socialism and the bankers are all to willing to fund them. They are about to do it again.
What an incredible waste of mankind,nearly a century on and have we learned from the past.
Probably not.
We wouldn't have war if we made it mandatory for the leaders of the countries to lead the wars themselves and have their oldest son fight in war along side everyone else.
War, war never changes....
This planet has been ruled for millennia by a small group of unevolved souls (not yet capable of compassion) who think that empathy or compassion are a proof of stupidity; hence they think they are superior to us and hence they should rule over us. For a soul WITH compassion it is inconceivable that other beings could plan such atrocities, so this soul is incapable of seeing the whole picture and is blind for the fact that this Earth is ruled by unspeakable evil; evil that thinks it is intelligent.
But the time of evil rule is coming to an end soon.
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Awesome pictures.
lol@1stPost
very good photos,im glad to see someone remembers!
"Only the dead have seen the end of war"-Plato
Bless the men who believed in something greater than themselves and put it all on the line. Reading the comments leads me to believe that these sentiments are mostly lost here.
And we are about to do it all over again, only with bigger bombs !
mutha mutha fuck. mutha mutha fuck fuck. YEAH BOYYYYYY
The comments on the photos are almost as touching and thought provoking as the photos themselves. I keep hearing over and over on chat sites after sites that we the people need to take back our governments and that we all agree we do not want war. An idea to help push these adjends might be through websites dedicated to signing up citizens that will be activated to do massive sits ins or whatever the movement maybe when a certain amount of people are singed up, I would think that number would have to be well into the millions 50+. It would help unite and oraganize a real chance at freedom. God bless and think about it.
Under my bed, tucked away wrapped in moth balls is an olive drab woolen army blanket left over from the Spanish American War. Another made up war that wasn't so "bully". That should have been our last, but no...more money was yet to be made; and you and I have just been witness to the chilling after affects of ten million deaths. But that wasn't enough either, there was even more money to be made and so it went and still it goes. Thanks for the pictures. Captain Kent
Dulce et decorum est pro patria moria
Just look in a mirror, and you will see the liar
War. What is it good for?
Stunning photos!
REMEMBER THEM
If you are able, save for them a place inside of you and one backward glance when you are leaving, for the places they can no longer go.
Be not ashamed to say you loved them, though you may or may not always have. Take what they have left and what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own.
And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind.
Written January 1, 1970 by Major Michael Davis O'Donnell
Dak To, South Vietnam
Major O'Donnell was Killed in Action in Cambodia on March 24, 1970.
"War is a Racket" by Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler...
And now they're at it yet again, our latest enemy, Iran... We never learn...
"War is a Racket" by Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler USMC
Dulce Et Decorum Est
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.
GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori*.
*"it is sweet and right to die for your country."
Wilfred Owen, KIA 4Nov1918, Sambre-Oise Canal
I can't believe you allowed a post blaming Jews for World War I and World War II to stay up. Jews fought valiantly on both sides because they were loyal to the countries they were citizens of, just as Christians were, and they were among the dead, wounded, and shellshocked. My grandfather was among them - he fought for the US Army during World War I, and I believe he was in the poison gas brigade, but he never talked about it and became a pacifist after his horrendous experience. However, the next generation - my father and two uncles - were in the military during World War II and the Korean War period. My eldest uncle was shot down on a bombing run over Bavaria and, after surviving the fall, pitchforked to death by Bavarian peasants. My brother and I were lucky to be born too late to be drafted into the Vietnam War. That's real history, but some people would rather just blame the Jews for everything, including their own deaths in war and being murder victims.
i wonder how many of you have seen war, to speak of it such.
- american veteran iraq afganistan
Beautiful photographs. Thank you.
Any war only serves to make some more rich, keeps the Earth hurt and the (not always too bright) humans growth down.
Mary. you can make all the english quotes you like about WW1; the fact is WWl was used as part of the Highland Clearances. Look at the stats for war dead. For a " union " the size of UK; Scotland with 10 % of the population was organized to carry 22% of the war dead.
My familly supplied One grand father --- WIA. his son and heir ---WIA and other two sons MIA and KIA in one battle.
Whole villages were empty of any male over 18 years of age.
Look at WWll the retreat from Dunkirk was organized to save english and French lives at the cost of the Highland Division who were ordered to fight until the beaches were clear and then surrender.
A picture of tragic beauty
It's the pomposity of the ones who stay behind the lines and order the wars that I find repulsive - the latest to churn my stomach is William Hague, the war-mongering UK Foreign Scretary. Where next, Will? Syria? - oh no, they've got no oil. Okay, Iran then.
WE MUST NOT FORGET THESE BRAVE MEN WHO FOUGHT ON BOTH SIDES
Free speech can be a hurtful thing, but we Americans have it and that is also a good thing. I apologize for the uncaring, hurtful words of others here while at the same time still do support their right to say such things.
I came back here again tonight to once again view the pictures and read the new comments. Most comments are positive and some downright beautiful as the pictures. To all of you who have seen war I apologize that I was never chosen to go to war. That has always haunted me. I served from 1963 - 1981 and had no control over the orders I received. Three times in the sixties I volunteered to go to Vietnam and three times I was passed over.
For one assignment the spot was between myself and another young man, Kip. Kip was killed his first night on guard duty. That could have been me. All of us were up for grabs to those making the assignments. Just because in any war some are not sent doesn't mean they shirked their duty. A good example is General of the Armies Eisenhower who despite his desire during The Great War was kept stateside. That is why in the United States we have The American Legion for all like me who never saw war. To the reader: I am just an old man "letting it out." Thank you to ALL my Brothers and Sisters in arms. Old Captain Kent
The level of idiocy in these comments is incredible. I'm sure Hitler would've withdrawn to Germany if only those darned Allies would've cooperated! And he would've stopped with all the anti-semitism and Christian hatred too.
You children better wake up. Countries DON'T mind their own business and sometimes war is necessary to forge lasting peace. With all the rabble in the Muslim Middle East, I'm not for wasting another single American soldier. If Emperor Barack quits destroying our nukes, I'd hope he'd have the sense enough (ha!) to drop one each on Ahmanutjob, the Ayatollah, Egypt, Turkey and Syria. Peace through strength.
The lines of the soldier poets have moved me to tears. How can they
be so blithely sacrificed. The world has lost such profound beauty and wisdom in these brave misguided men.
Isaiah 2:4
And he will certainly render judgment among the nations and set matters straight respecting many peoples. And they will have to beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning shears. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war anymore.
Thank you for these beautiful and haunting pictures; reminders of how terrible we humans can be to one another. I am currently reading a book about female Resistance members in France during WWII and it is just mind blowing. The acts of brutality committed against those who disagreed with the Germans is just unfathomable.
I agree that today's young people should be taught and shown the ravages of war and human behavior.
I thank all those who have served, past and present.
Of course, all wars are horrid. But to say that no war is ever necessary only shows the ignorance of so many people today.
Was the American Civil War not a war worth fighting to free the slaves and forever unite our country (until recently)? Was not World War Two a necessary war to stop Hitler and the Japanese war lords from dividing the world between them? It is this fuzzy thinking so often exhibited in these comments that kept us from stopping Hitler in 1939 before 90 million people had to die.
World War One WAS an unnecessary conflict brought about by national egos. How can any sane person blame the Jews for either World War?
War is horrible but sometimes necessary. Do we sit by now and wait until Iran has nuclear weapons (1939 all over again) or fight a defensive war once they get THE bomb and share it with all the other crazies in the Mideast and elsewhere in the world? Hoping that Obama and his Socialist allies will do anything about it is a forlorn hope.
I just returned home after my Anzac Day in Turkey, marking the 95th Anniversary of the Anzac Day memorial services at Gallipoli, Turkey.I would like to make a special thanks to everyone at Turkey for their efforts in putting together the tours for us .I have been to Gallipoli for an Anzac Day service before, this time my first trial in ;Turkey, Their value for money packages far exceed the quality and level of service we experienced on other tours especially the way our guide handled our bus at Anzac Cove when the New Zealand president decided www.privatetoursinistanbul.com make a private tour of the museums.The food at the barbeque was nice and fresh, but the venue is a little outdated. Me and my husband feel we are really lucky this year because we were provided an Anzac conference, a forum presented in a 5 star hotel in the centre of taksim, full of information about the history and significance of the event. The expert historians from New Zealand, Australia and Turkey were fantastic. Thank you for giving us an informative and well-rounded experience this year.
awesome :)
These are really awesome in scope. It's like looking at the Overland Trail (still visible) in Nebraska. Everyone needs to just look at these pictures without all of the POLITICAL undertones.
Where have all the flowers gone ?
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As beautiful as Mike Shiel's photos are, it is even more moving to visit (and respectfully preserve) these sites of sacrifice, valor, and tragic purposes. See, too, other past and present conflict sites around the world. The Middle East, Oradour sur Glane, and Auschwitz come fast to mind. Breathtaking through a lens, agonizing in experience. Comments of hatred in this context are especially poignant and frightening. What would enable more people, in more places, to say NO?