Historical Photos

Somme 2016 - Poppies

2016 a field in the Somme

Tour de France: A look back at the past

Mountain stages used to be a little different on the tour , similar routes just the road conditions might have resulted in a few punctures these days. Picturesque mountains in the background.

The 1928 Tour passing through a village, women waiting to cross the road. Again the roads look in poor condition but the riders don't seem to be going too fast here.

Running repairs, bit of grease from a man hanging out of a support car. Health & Safety in full force.

Only a few years old the Tour was growing in popularity and as we see above the 1906 was attracting lots of spectators through a French town.

World Cup 1950: Brazil vs Uruguay

As another Football World cup takes place we look back at the 1950 match between Brazil vs Uruguay. An amazing photo showing so much detail of the players and crowd. Look at the shot seemingly goal-word bound with defending holding up their arms in protest.

Those were the days when the fans would pack in so tight. The legs of the people dangling down over the advertising signs.

Ohh yes, this was the final. Just the 173,000 people in attendance.

WW2 Destruction: Caen & Saint-Lô France, Cologne Germany

Caen, France 1944. Ariel shot of the city showing the devastation left by WW2 and the German invasion.

Saint-Lô France 1944. American troops entering the town. Not often I use colour photos but this one seems to be untouched and natural.

The German city of Cologne 1945, which was destroyed by Allied carpet bombing. In the center is seen the famous Cologne Cathedral

London 1900's: Kensington & Muffins

London 1901. Bangor Street was in the potteries district of Kensington, where a Rag Fair was held. In the early 20th century it was a more renouned street market than Portobello. The street was coloured lowest class black in Booth’s colour coded poverty maps of 1889-1902.

A muffin seller in London early 1900s. Bell to help sell the muffins on the streets.

WW1 Planes: Australian Palestine, Salmson & British crash

A flight of bombing planes 1st Australians flying corpse, Palestine.

French Salmson plane.

A crashed British plane that looks in good condition - other photos show crumpled heaps - so it may simply have run out of fuel and made an impromptu landing.

Flying planes in WW1 was an extremely dangerous task, more died in training than in battle. Given flight being rather new and the very fragile planes they used meant a pilots life was often short.

A Flight of Bombing Planes 1st Australian Flying Corps, Palestine - See more at: http://picturesofworldwar1.com/photographer-frank-hurley/a-flight-of-bombing-planes-1st-australian-flying-corps-palestine#sthash.RK9llAHU.dpuf

WW1 Liberty Bonds Rally: New York Charlie Chaplin

Douglas Fairbanks holding up Charlie Chaplin in front of crowd to promote Liberty Bonds, Lower Manhattan, NYC , 1918. As you can see there was a rather large crowd here!

WW1 Movies: La Grande Illusion, The Road to Glory.

WW1 Battlefield & Trench: Somme

Spanish clearing up some of the mess left on the battlefield at the Somme. A few things we notice similair to many other Somme photos is the total destruction of the landscape, boggy, mud, awful conditions for anyone.

Sadly not the best of photos but it convays over to us the reality of the Somme and other battlefields in WW1. Wire fence behind the water filled trench where lancfusiliers are patrolling.

WW2: London Bombing

1940 WW2, London Docklands. The German bombing of England was more frequent and cities and towns up and down the country were beginning to witness nightly attacks. Here we see Docklands terrace housing area where bombs have completely destroyed a street, total destruction.

WW1 American Troops heading home

American soliders returning home on the Agamemnon, Hoboken, New Jersey after WW1. I think there is room for one or two more soliders on deck :)

China Town: San Fransisco 1899

San Francisco's Ross Alley, "Street of the Gamblers"by Arnold Genthe.

WW1: Fake trees on the battlefield

Thanks to War History Online I am now aware that fake trees were used in WW1. Not sure I would liked to be the person who has to be stuck inside one when it was behind enemy lines! Did they use a radio to send back intelligence? As you see the entrance to the tree was under ground level and normally well covered up.

Allied soldiers discover a fake tree entrance hole. You can see the huge stump next to this too, most probably planted in a large wood before bombs decimated the rest of the real trees. You just have to see Flanders fields to know what they ended up like.

Original drawing plans for fake trees. Right hand one in water location?

WW2 Trench life: Well and truly dug in!

Seen plenty of Trench photo's from across WW1 & WW2 but I really like this one. You can see from the dug out alcoves that this has been a home for soilders for a good period of time. Well dug out shelters to avoid not only gunfire but the weather conditions. Also it looks very dry, not the usual mud bath that we normally see across European trenches. The soliders seem relaxed, most of the gear laid out across the floor and trench walls. Again this would make me believe it was not a front line trench but prehaps a secondry one a few hundred yards from the action.

WW1 Women in work: War Correspondents, Bomb Factory

Women War Correspondents working in the European Theatre of Operations.

An interior view of a workshop in the Belgian Munition Works, also known as the Pelabon Works.