Great War Pictures
- Archive of First World War Photos -


Great War Postcards - Original picture postcards of the Great War
The Great War Postcards website shows a varied collection of all kinds of picture postcards from the period of the First World War. These war postcards show us not only fine pictures, they are historically valuable war documents as well and teach us about the way many aspects of war were imagined in several belligerent and neutral countries. 

World War I – named the Great War at the time - started at August 2, 1914. It was supposed to be ‘The war to end all wars’. It would be a short war (‘Home before Christmas’) but was to rage on for four long years with extreme devastating force. It was the first complete, large-scale, industrial war that would not only demand millions of dead, wounded, mutilated and missing among military and civilian people - children, women and men – but in addition was to bring incomprehensible material damage. 

- Great War Pictures - shows this war in all its gruesomeness. Please remember that reality can never be resembled more effectively than in these photos. This reality is really beyond any description. Some photos are truly hair-raising, but are shown nevertheless without reserve because they represent the Great War – any war.  Menno Wielinga (webmaster)

Choose a category:
The beginning of World War I 
Trenches on the battlefield

The Battle of Verdun
Pictures of the battlefield 

Each category is presented as a slideshow - you can interrupt any time you want.
Use the F11 key to get the optimal screen for - Great War Pictures -

 

Other Great War webpages

Medical aspects of the First World War
Article based on the extended content of the book Before My Helpless Sight - Suffering,
Dying and Military Medicine on the Western Front 1914 - 1918
by dr. Leo van Bergen.
Contrary to most books in the field this study does not focus on one single issue - such as venereal disease, plastic surgery, shell-shock or the military medical service - but takes a broad view on wounds and illnesses across both sides of the conflict. Drawing on British, French, German and Dutch sources it shows the consequences of modern warfare on the human individuals caught up in it, and the way it influences our thinking on 'humanitarian' activities.


Photographic impressions of the Western Front today
Photographs of British and German monuments and cemeteries on the former frontline
of the Western Front 1914 -1918 made by Menno Wielinga


Slideshow: Battle of the Somme - the battlefield today

Slideshow: The battlefield of the Vosges (France) - the battlefield today

The English Camp
Internment of 1,500 British sailor/soldiers of the Royal Naval Division in Groningen (The Netherlands)
during the First World War.

Piëta's (mourning women) on French First World War monuments
This moving photo serie shows us mourning widows and mothers holding their beloved one, killed in the Great War. (Photographs made by Dutch journalist/photographer Waldemar Ysebaert.)

VERDUN - the greatest battle ever    
The Battle of Verdun, which was fought in 1916 between France and Germany,
is said to be the largest in world history and caused over 700,000 casualties.

The Royal Naval Division - Sailors in the First World War trenches
Originally, this division was part of the Royal Navy, manned by sailors and marines. Shortly after the outbreak of war, they were told they had to become infantry-men. A search for traces of this division leads to Antwerp, Gallipoli, the Somme, Arras, Passchendaele, to end in London.

All photos are taken from my private collection books and picture postcards. 
Any use of copyrighted images is accidental, and any such material will be promptly
removed from this site upon notification from the copyright holder.
 

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