As they enjoy their sparse meal at Beaumont-Hamel on 25 December 1916, the men seem indifferent to a fellow soldier’s grave just inches away.
Behind the Image
BEHIND THE IMAGE: Churchill visits the docks
In the Second World War, the dockyards and riverside factories of London’s East End were essential to the country’s struggle against the Nazis. But this also made them a key target for enemy attack.
BEHIND THE IMAGE: D-Day in colour
This image, Into the Jaws of Death, is one of the most famous of the Second World War. It was taken by US Coast Guard photographer Robert F. Sargent early in the morning of 6 June 1944, as Allied soldiers at Omaha Beach began their attack on Nazi-occupied Europe.
BEHIND THE IMAGE: The Paris Exodus
This campaign of terror provoked an exodus – and the Biblical term is appropriate. The French government fled, soon followed by many of the city’s inhabitants.
BEHIND THE IMAGE: B-52 storage area, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona
The boneyard here at Davis-Monthan was established in 1946 to store WWII bombers and transports.
BEHIND THE IMAGE: Kristallnacht, by Charlotte Salomon, from Life? Or Theatre? 1940-1942
With its warm tones and bustling figures, this month’s image could – at first glance – appear almost to represent a scene of innocent activity. The truth, however, could not be more different.
BEHIND THE IMAGE: The Unknown Warrior, 1920
On 11 November 1920, one of the largest funerals ever held in London took place – and yet the deceased was a man unknown to the hundreds of thousands of mourners who turned out in his honour.
BEHIND THE IMAGE: Number of people mobilised in World War II
The Second World War was the deadliest conflict in human history – involving 30 belligerent nations, it was fought from the far north of Europe to the South Pacific, and mobilised 1 in 9 of the global population. Estimates of the total number of soldiers and civilians killed range from 56 million to 85 million.
BEHIND THE IMAGE: Spectators at the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, 28 June 1919
Perched on sofas and peering in from every angle, these Allied officers were obviously desperate to catch a glimpse of the momentous events unfolding next door. The Great War was finally coming to an end with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in the dazzling surroundings of the Palace of Versailles’ Hall of Mirrors.
BEHIND THE IMAGE: The Prague Spring, 1968
Fifty years ago, during the so-called ‘Prague Spring’ of 1968, the citizens of Czechoslovakia enjoyed a few brief, tantalising months of liberation from some of the worst effects of Soviet domination.
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