Normandy Invasion, June 1944

Troops in an LCVP landing craft approaching "Omaha" Beach on "D-Day", 6 June 1944.
Note helmet netting; faint "No Smoking" sign on the LCVP's ramp; and M1903 rifles and M1 carbines carried by some of these men.

WW2 Pyramids Egypt

Airplane Flies Over The Pyramids During World War II, 1943 Jumhuriyat Misr al-Arabiyah – Arab Republic of Egypt

Bempton Cliffs 1900's: Egg collecting

These men are Egg collecting off the cliffs at Bempton / Flamborough. Otherwise known as 'climmers'. A rather dangerous persuit but it provided much needed food and income for communities around the turn of the 1900's. Some rare footage can be seen at the Yorkshire Film Archive.

Leeds City Square

Old postcard from Leeds. Not sure on the exact date but the mixture of trams and horses gives you a rough idea. The main circle of the square shape of the square remains but most of the buildings have long gone.

San Francisco, 1906 Earthquake

This photo was taken on April 18th, 1906. It is the most famous photograph of the devastation caused by the great fire and earthquake. It was taken by Arnold Genthe on a borrowed camera.

Camino Del Ray Spain

In 1901 it became obvious that workers at the hydroelectric power plants at Chorro Falls and Gaitanejo Falls needed a walkway to cross between the falls, to provide for transport of materials, and for the inspection and maintenance of the channel. Construction of the walkway took four years and it was finished in 1905.

It recently became famous again due to daring climbers posting videos of  trips there.

African American Soldiers WW1

Photo taken 1919 "Some of the colored men of the 369th (15th N.Y.) who won the Croix de Guerre for gallantry in action."

Ypres WW1 1917

Soldiers of an Australian 4th Division field artillery brigade on a duckboard track passing through Chateau Wood, near Hooge in the Ypres salient, 29 October 1917.

 

Iconic photo, must have been dense woods at some point prior to WW1. Look at the complete devastation left behind.

Gallipoli Campaign 1915

Australian sniper using a periscope rifle at Gallipoli, 1915. He is aided by a spotter with a periscope. The men are believed to belong to the Australian 2nd Light Horse Regiment and the location is probably Quinn's Post.

A few aspects of this photo worth discussing. How uninterested do the men look? they look shattered and most probably have had enough. How on earth can he fire that rifle with any accuracy? a wooden contraption holding it up.

World War 2 Blitz

World War 2: A double decker bus, advertising Swan Vesta matches, in a bomb crater in Balham, London, during the Blitz. October 1940

Holzminden POW camp: The Great Escape of 1918

Scanned from the original which is part of the Liddle collection.

 

Holzminden POW Germany, July 1918, 60 officers began the escape attempt, getting away through a nearby field of rye. But the tunnel collapsed on the 30th man, blocking the escape route. Here we have a original note from the camp drawn by a POW which details the camp layout and where the escape tunnel was located. 

Keeping up ones Spirits!

Unidentified group with their secret distillery at Stalag 18A, a German prisoner of war camp in Wolfsberg, Austria, circa 1944. Photograph taken by John H Ledgerwood.

I really like this photo, its amazing the contraptions prisoners would make in a POW camp! I bet there was a tunnel under those barrels too. 

Conscientious objectors Prison

Continuing our theme of Prison photo's I have found this one from the Leeds University Liddle collection.

Compulsory military service (conscription) for all men aged 18-50 in Britain was introduced in 1916 with the Military Service Act for WW1. Those who refused to go into military service were often imprisoned or sent to work camps, and there was one of these at Dyce, near Aberdeen.

In those day being a Conscientious objector was not the easy option. Many died in those prison work camps.

Prison Life

New blog, hopefully interesting for users to read and look at some fine photo's from the past. Kicking off this week I will theme the photo's around Prison.

Here we can see inmates put through their paces on some kind of wooden structure called the 'Treadmill'.

The really interesting thing is that the treadmill is huge, a wheel similar to those seen in water mills. The major difference being the inmates turn the wheel not water. If they got tired and couldn't keep up with the pace they would have to hold on to the side groves or risky injury falling down.

In the early part of the century prisoners were put on the treadmill for up to six hours a day. It had no useful purpose. It was just monotonous hard work. In 1843 the Prison Inspectors' General Survey stated that the treadmill was 'an improper punishment for females and boys under 14 years of age'.

This photo is from Pentonville Prison in England 1895.