Some nice WWI photographs

[bruto]

I was browsing and came across a nice little set of WWI photographs, including some from underground cities that I'd never seen before. Thought I'd throw in the link here.

Hidden worlds of WWI


From that page you can link to more, or go straight to this one for far more pictures:

http://jeffgusky.com/portfolio/

 

[Grey2000]

Ta.

The underground city carvings are particularly interesting.

 

[JohnG]

Fascinating. I hadn't heard of the underground cities prior to seeing this. Thanks.

 

[Trebuchet]

There were some real artists in the trenches!

 

[rjh01]

I think these are modern photos. The subject is WW1.

Not sure what they meant by "underground cities". But see ""Beneath Hill 60"

 

[bruto]

I think these are modern photos. The subject is WW1.

Not sure what they meant by "underground cities". But see ""Beneath Hill 60"

Yes, they are modern photos, my poor captioning.

The underground cities were carved into quarries, it seems, and something I had not been aware of before this.

 

[Hubert Cumberdale]

Yes, they are modern photos, my poor captioning.

The underground cities were carved into quarries, it seems, and something I had not been aware of before this.

They were cut into chalk. Some of them were actually the cellars of Champagne houses which can themselves be vast and extensive. The point of them was to keep large numbers of soldiers safe from artillery while also allowing the unobserved movement of relatively large numbers of troops

Chalk makes a very stable substrate for tunnelling and mining so sectors with chalk subsoil tended to experience a lot of this type of thing. Vimy being a good example.