Ralph's excellent collection of photographs have appeared in books - one just published - and on the cover of Stand To!
(You can buy The Other Side of the Wire Volume 1: With the German XIV Reserve Corps on the Somme, September 1914-June 1916: With the German XIV Reserve Corps on ... 1914-June 1916 v. 1 via the WFA's Book Shop.)
Ralph has kindly allowed us to show some of his images on the WFA Website, below.
I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.
Please look below for the captioned images.
At the foot of the page you will find a slideshow of all these images for you to enjoy.
All images © Ralph Whitehead.
An unidentified unit in a trench, the one man is aiming his M98 Mauser over the parapet at the opposing lines.
Shot of a machine gun crew. The unit is either the 10th Bavarian Regiment of 10 Bavarian Reserve Regiment. The photo was taken in September 1917 in a well constructed German trench. There is a gun platform so I am assuming at this point it is an MG position. I have seen several that have these stands where the guns were placed. The gun is the standard MG08 Maxim with a 2 1/2 power Goerz prismatic site. The men are armed with the P08 Luger and one is holding a M98 Carbine. THe man standing on the right has an injured right thumb that is bandaged, the man sitting on the left has several Austrian cap badges on his Feld Mutze, possibly gifts from a friend or relative in the Austrian army.
Reported to be English dead after the battle of Fromelles in July 1916. It was in fact a propaganda attempt. The dead are from Bavarian RIR 16 awaiting burial in a mass grave.
Group from RIR 121 in the trenches on the Somme (From the book ‘On the Other Side of the Wire’ just published)
Infantry Group, IR 180 at the start of the war including several musicians. (From the book ‘On the Other Side of the Wire’ just published)
An MG 08/15 gun and crew in 1917/1918. The unit is not known. At this stage of the war the carrying belts for the machine gun were made of canvas or fabric and not leather as in the earlier years.
Die Stürmers von Neuve Chappelle, 10th Coy, RIR 247. This group was involved in a successful trench raid in June 1916 at Neuve Chappelle. The men are armed with a variety of weapons including some rifles and the ever popular trench raid tool, the sharpened trench shovel that many carry. The men all wear a white canvas strip around their tunics for easy identification in the dark. Some men wear blanket rolls that could be used as improvised stretchers during the attack.
Assault training by men of Saxon IR 106 sometime in 1915/1916. This regiment was part of the 24th Division and stationed in Flanders during this period. The men are armed with practice hand grenades for the most part except for the two on the far right who appear to be holding live hand grenades. The men also have a close range weapon, the Granatenwerfer with the typical segmented shells. It was a spigot mortar used from the front line trenches.
15cm heavy field howitzer and crew circa 1918
Two medics from the XIV Corps
Light 7.6cm minenwerfer and crew
Infantry Company from IR 121 wearing what appears to be brand new uniforms and equipment. Some men are drinking beer from bottles with porcelain stops.
Handley Page 0/400 L’Amazone that mistakenly landed on a German airfield and was captured.
MG 08 machine gun crew at the start of the war from IR 74. The men provided a warlike pose with several holding bayonets or lugers.
Handley Page 0/400 L’Amazone that mistakenly landed on a German airfield and was captured.
Handley Page 0/400 L’Amazone that mistakenly landed on a German airfield and was captured.
Winter trench scene of three men and two Lanz minenwerfer. The man in the center also holds a Kugelhandgranate, a spherical segmented hand grenade.
Trench scene with hand grenades at the ready at La Basseé
All images © Ralph Whitehead
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