Almost
all of my World War One material is by H. D. Girdwood, an English company,
who sold their views under the trade name 'Realistic Travels'. Most of
their views are of a higher quality than WWI views by Underwood although,
due to the high gloss, they do not scan very well. They will therefore
almost all be of far higher quality than they appear on the screen.
Please
click here for a high quality
scan which gives a true indication of the quality.
Underwood
photographers were not present on the battlefield sites between 1916 when
the Kaiser said he could not guarantee the safety of war photographers,
and the end of hostilities in 1918. Girdwood's views therefore have more
immediacy and action. They were issued in sets of between 50 and 500 views
so the numbering sequence is pretty muddled. Customers could also pick
out the views they required and so a box or collection may have non-sequential
numbering. They come on Underwood-type mounts or on lighter mounts with
curved or beveled edges. These are interchangeable and most views appear
on both types of mount.
Our
valued American customers may ask why there are practically no US troops
in these views. The reason is simple; despite Holywood rewriting history,
most of these views were taken between 1915 and 1917 when the USA was a
neutral country.
These are ALL condition 8, 9 or 10 and priced at $8 each unless otherwise mentioned.
'Male
tadpole tank especially designed to cross the Hun trenches, moves forward
in battle line'.
Order
#9311.
Price
$18.
Keystone
'Huge armoured tank making its way through a smoke screen'. Descriptive
text.
Order
#9314.
Price
$18.
'One
of our first tanks disabled in the Battle of the Tanks on the Somme'.
Order
#9316.
Price
$15.
Keystone
'Ripped and battered to death by the enemy - a derelict tank, Cambrai'.
Descriptive text.
Order
#9317.
Price
$18.
'Our
whippet tanks dash thro the mud-caked battle fields and penetrate the German
lines at Morcourt'.
Order
#9318.
Price
$18.
'Sappers
remove a derelict tank obstructing the "corduroy" road built over the mud,
near Peronne'.
Order
#9320.
Price
$15.
'Gunners,
suspicious of an approaching "Taube" don masks as protection against German
gas shells'.
Order
#9321.
'Casualties
coming back from the line, pass tanks worsted in Battle of the Tanks, Villers
Bretonneux'.
Order
#9324.
Price
$12.
'Spoils
of war, hundreds of captured German guns in a gun park at Brussels'.
Order
#9325.
'Captured
German gun outside King Albert's Palace, Brussels'.
Order
#9326.
'Out
of action! Remains of one of our howitzers which was blown up by a direct
hit'.
Order
#9327.
'11-inch
shells abandoned by the Germans in their headlong flight across the Rhine'.
Order
#9329.
'Hundreds
of guns captured by the Australians and Canadians at Couralette in Battle
of the Somme'.
Order
#9330.
'In action.
Hidden by a screen of foliage, our batteries prepare to put down a barrage
for the infantry'.
Order
#9331.
'Rapid
fire! Having found the range our guns - one is seen in recoil - make it
hot for the Bosche'.
Order
#9332.
Keystone
'Loading a trench mortar in a hillside dugout on the Serbian front'. Descriptive
text.
Order
#9334.
Keystone
'How Italian guns are carried up the steep, narrow paths of the Alpine
front'. Descriptive text.
Order
#9335.
'Removing a field gun from a flooded position, greatly damaged by enemy fire'.
Order
#9336.
'A sudden
alarm to a battery of Artillery resting in a wood'.
Order
#9338.
'A sudden
alarm to a battery of Artillery resting in a wood'.
Order
#9339.
'The
gun teams are hurridly hooked in, and the battery moves off at a gallop'.
Order
#9340.
'Naval
gun landed at Waldfisch Bay; a valuable asset to our invading forces'.
Order
#9341.
'An ammunition
column bringing up some of the endless stream of shells to the ever-devouring
guns'.
Order
#9342.
'A battery
of British heavy howitzers on the way to take up new positions'.
Order
#9343.
Keystone
'French "75" gun in action against battle planes'. Descriptive text.
Order
#9345.
Price
$12.
'Anti-aircraft
gun captured by our victorious troops, from the defeated Germans'.
Order
#9346.
Price
$12.
Keystone
'A French 155-mm gun trained on the German trenches'.
Order
#9348.
Keystone
'Off for Berlin! High power autotruck delivering large cannon to the firing
line in France'. Descriptive text.
Order
#9349.
Keystone
'"Through it all the horror runs the red resentment of the guns", Oise,
France'. Descriptive text.
Order
#9350.
Keystone
'Great naval gun and its protecting fort of sand bags on the Saloniki front'.
Descriptive text.
Order
#9351.
'Gunners
digging a gun-position for 4.5 howitzer, completely concealed by camouflage
from Hun airmen'.
Order
#9352.
'Gunners
digging a gun-position for 4.5 howitzer, completely concealed by camouflage
from Hun airmen'.
Condition
7 (slight production fault and slight creases).
Order
#9353.
Price
$5.
Keystone
'Artillery observers telephoning headquarters from the front, on the Marne'.
Descriptive text.
Order
#9355.
'Machine
gun section and infantry crossing a flooded river by pontoon bridge'.
Condition.
Both images damaged at top center.
Order
#9356.
Price
$3.
'Machine
gun section of Dragoon Guards crossing stream on aerial span'.
Condition.
Slight brown mark in center of l/h image is small production fault.
Order
#9357.
'Eighty yards from the enemy; a machine-gun emplacement in an advanced firing bay'.
Order
#9358.
'A battery
of Royal Artillery snatching a few minutes' rest'.
Order
#9359.
'Men
of a cavalry ammunition (?column) park in a Flanders lane awaiting orders'.
Order
#9360.
'A battery
of field artillery crossing a bridge at eventide'.
Order
#9361.
'Spoils
of war, guns captured from the Turks, Palestine'. I also have had a copy of this view captioned '...guns captured from the Germans, East Africa'.
Order
#9363.
'A direct
hit from our monitors off the Belgian coast wipes out a Hun defence battery,
??Meriakeine'.
Order
#9364.
To page one - Troops on the move
To page five - In the trenches, over the top, fixed defenses, communications, materiel
To page seven - Battlefield landscapes, prisoners
To page eight - Miscellaneous and war damage
To page nine - The wounded, the fallen, war graves
