French soldiers in the ruins of Chauny.
Chauny was a small provincial town with 11,000 inhabitants, equidistant of Paris and Brussels. When the war ended it was nothing but a heap of ruins.

French cuirassiers helping a wounded comrade at St. Quentin, on the French route of retreat to Paris in the first stage of the war.
Picture made by photographers working for the American Underwood & Underwood Agency.
The French had twelve regiments of cuirassiers, a survival of the 17th century, wearing steel cuirasses and helmets with horsehair plumes. They also carried a long double-edged stabbing sword.

Chasseurs alpins, who are trained to fight in the French Alps.
Each carries an alpenstock and a pack. More stuff is loaded on the Alpine mule, a surefooted climber.
The original captions by this picture reads: Among the Vosges Mountains these sharp shooters tied themselves in trees, so when wounded they would not drop and betray their position.

The Royal Scots Greys, the first regiment of dragoons raises in Great Britain (1681).
The famous Greys counted big in the British defense in France en Belgium.
The 'Grey' does not refer to the uniform, but to the horses, which all have their tails trimmed half-short.

The Black Watch, the Highlanders of Scotland.
American picture. The original byline reads:
These are the men who are said in the present war to have repeated the famous charge made by their ancestors at Waterloo a century ago. Each infantryman, grasping the stirrup of a cavalryman of the Scots Greys, kept pace with the horses, as the two regiments rushed with terrific momentum against the hostile lines.

The British Grenadier Guards marching towards Buckingham Palace in London.
In the Boer War these troops shared the brunt of the fighting, and it was in South Africa that their leader lost his arm.
The Prince of Wales was a second lieutenant in this regiment.

British field artillery at the Marne.
This 18-pound ordnance shoots faster and further than the German Krupp field guns.

The famous French 75 millimeter guns at the Marne
These guns, by many military experts, proved to be superior to any other field artillery. The initial velocity and accuracy are greater than the German guns and their lightness made them more mobile in action.
The original caption with this (American made) picture reads: A battery has about the same effect on an advancing line as a mowing-machine on a harvest field.

They might be riding to a picnic, instead of to war. German field artillery on the move.
The smiling soldiers are still wearing early helmets, although not the usual ones. These are tipped with a brass ball instead of a spike such as the infantry have, in order that the eyes may not be injured when the men bend over the guns to aim them.

Exhausted French Dragoons camping in a village street.
American picture made on the French line of retreat toward Paris.
The original caption reads: The bivouac on piles of straw, with weapons stacked ready for instant service, suggests vividly the condition of these soldiers in the intervals of hard fighting.
Dragoons were originally trained to fight either on horseback or afoot. Many of them carried bamboo lances, said to be stronger than steel.

This photograph was made near the imperial castle at Posen and published as a German Red Cross Picture in 1915.
The Kaiser and Oberste Kriegsherr Wilhelm II (left) has his standard cigarette in his hand. And, as usual, he hides his deformed left arm.
Hindenburg (1847) was already retired, but the Kaiser recalled him on the outbreak of the Great War. In 1916 he became Chief of Staff.
After the war Hindenburg retired again but he continued to take interest in politics. In 1925 he replaced Friedrich Ebert as President of Germany. Re-elected in 1932 he did not oppose the rise of Adolf Hitler who appointed him Chancellor in January 1933.
Hindenburg was so popular with the German people that Hitler was unable to overthrow constitutional government until his death in 1934.

The Canadian Ninetieth Winnipig Rifles on the march from their training camp at Valcartier.
This camp, at that time the largest practice encampment ever established in North-America, lay eighteen miles north of Quebec.
Many of Canada's soldiers were veterans of the British army. Some saw service in South-Africa, the others were farmer's sons or young business men from the cities. Ten weeks after the start of the war the first 33,000 Canadian soldiers disembarked at Plymouth, England, with many more to follow.

Canadian Royal Horse Artillery on the move.
The original caption with this picture reads: Canadian horses are noted for their strength and beauty. They play a large part in the development of Canada's rich agricultural resources, and the Royal Artillery took the finest of Canadian horses across with them.

French Hussars at Rouen, the old capital of William the Conqueror in Normandy before he crossed the Channel.
The Hussars are light cavalry inted for scouting. They use much smaller horses than the other cavalry.
Many French race-horses were seized by the government for the use of these troops (a maxium price of about 200 dollars was paid though some of the thouroughbreds were valued at 10,000 dollars by their owners).

Red caps and trousers had been the uniform of French soldiers sinds Napoleon's days. These colors provided the enemy with a good target.
France had no time to equip the army with khaki, and in August 1914 the poilu's took the field in historic garb.
On this picture French infantry soldiers march by a monument of Napoleon near the village of Vauchamps, in the department of the Marne. It was in this region that the French finally stopped the German advance - despite their red colors.

The German Uhlans - a variety of light cavalry - who played a role in the beginning of the war.
The Uhlans were introduced in central Europe by the Tartars of Asia in the middle ages. They were armed with sabre, pistol and lance, at first carried in the left hand. The pennon is intended to frighten the enemy's horses and identifies the men as Prussians.
In the course of the war this type of cavalry lost its importance completely.

A German field bakery: feeding the men in the trenches.
Each wagon supplied 1,600 men. According to the original caption with this photograph there are 25 of these wagons with each army corps of 40,000.
The war rations included bread, biscuit, eggs, meat, beans, rice, dried vegetables, salt en coffee.
Napoleon said: 'An army travels on its stomach".

They were not called Flak, yet. This is a Krupp aeroplane gun, mounted on a Mercedes auto truck.
The rear wheels are braced to steady the gun from vibration under the shock of firing.
The original caption with this picture (made by the Brown Bros.) reads: An aeroplane is a very difficult target, not only on account of its rapid flight, but also because the only vital spots are the engine and the passengers.

One of Germany's mammoth Zeppelins.
In the right background is the hangar, in which the craft is housed. The sheep have become accustomed to the hovering giant and feed quietly under it.
American made picture (by the Brown Bros.). The original caption reads: These great dirigible airships, hundreds of feet long, were invented and perfected by the aged Count Zeppelin. They are effective within a range of one thousand miles. The German Empire has unquestionably surpassed all its rivals in Europe in the thorough application of the inventions of modern science to the making of war.

A detachment of the French Aviation Corps.
The original caption with this picture reads: The aeroplane is one of the factors that have revolutionized warfare. Its use for dropping bombs on hostile cities gives it a spectacular place in the news columns of today, but its real military value consists in scouting, getting the range for artillery, and preventing surprises by the enemy.