0:00:03 > 0:00:06This is the extraordinary untold story
0:00:06 > 0:00:09of soldiers' photography in the First World War.
0:00:11 > 0:00:14These might look like professional photos,
0:00:14 > 0:00:18but they were all taken by ordinary British and German soldiers
0:00:18 > 0:00:22on personal cameras they took with them to war.
0:00:22 > 0:00:23GUNFIRE
0:00:23 > 0:00:27Today, much of our understanding of what the war looked like
0:00:27 > 0:00:29comes from reconstructed battle scenes,
0:00:29 > 0:00:36and iconic yet impersonal official photographs like this one.
0:00:36 > 0:00:38But by exploring the personal photos
0:00:38 > 0:00:40taken by the soldiers themselves,
0:00:40 > 0:00:42many never seen before in public,
0:00:42 > 0:00:46we'll present a new and unexpected picture
0:00:46 > 0:00:48of the front-line experience.
0:00:50 > 0:00:52This is World War I
0:00:52 > 0:00:56viewed from the perspective of the men who fought in it.
0:00:56 > 0:00:58Looking into the eyes of these men,
0:00:58 > 0:01:00almost to see what they were thinking,
0:01:00 > 0:01:02what's going to happen to them?
0:01:02 > 0:01:06It's that connection with another human being
0:01:06 > 0:01:08through the medium of that photograph
0:01:08 > 0:01:11which is extremely important, in my view.
0:01:11 > 0:01:14We'll find out how the effects of war were reflected
0:01:14 > 0:01:17in the photos the soldiers took.
0:01:18 > 0:01:22War is an adventure for a young boy,
0:01:22 > 0:01:24but I think when he made
0:01:24 > 0:01:25this picture,
0:01:25 > 0:01:28he was no boy any more, he was a man.
0:01:30 > 0:01:33And with no veterans alive to tell the tale,
0:01:33 > 0:01:36we'll join the relatives of some of these men, as they go
0:01:36 > 0:01:40in search of the stories hidden within their ancestors' photographs.
0:01:40 > 0:01:42From the pictures we have,
0:01:42 > 0:01:46it does seem that this is the last picture that your grandfather took,
0:01:46 > 0:01:50not only on the Somme, but during the Great War.
0:01:50 > 0:01:54Now we reveal, for the first time,
0:01:54 > 0:01:55the secret history
0:01:55 > 0:01:56of amateur photography
0:01:56 > 0:01:59in the First World War,
0:01:59 > 0:02:01and of the men behind the cameras.
0:02:11 > 0:02:15The First World War was a bloody and brutal conflict,
0:02:15 > 0:02:18but when it began, in August 1914,
0:02:18 > 0:02:23it was, to many, a time of great excitement.
0:02:23 > 0:02:25For the soldiers of Britain's regular army
0:02:25 > 0:02:29and the tens of thousands of idealistic new recruits
0:02:29 > 0:02:30who volunteered to fight,
0:02:30 > 0:02:33war seemed like a great adventure.
0:02:33 > 0:02:35A chance to join friends and colleagues
0:02:35 > 0:02:38in a once-in-a-lifetime trip overseas,
0:02:38 > 0:02:41to give the Germans a bloody nose
0:02:41 > 0:02:43and to return victorious.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48And as a wave of patriotism swept across the country,
0:02:48 > 0:02:52many were determined to record their part in history in photographs,
0:02:52 > 0:02:56both as a personal reminder and as a souvenir to show family
0:02:56 > 0:02:58and friends when they returned.
0:02:59 > 0:03:02Few were prepared for the horrors to come.
0:03:05 > 0:03:07By the outbreak of war,
0:03:07 > 0:03:11amateur photography was already a popular pastime in Britain.
0:03:11 > 0:03:15The launch of the five-shilling Kodak Box Brownie in 1901
0:03:15 > 0:03:19had made cameras affordable to the masses, so, by 1914,
0:03:19 > 0:03:22many people were in the habit of preserving their memories
0:03:22 > 0:03:25with an informal snapshot.
0:03:25 > 0:03:27But it was the introduction
0:03:27 > 0:03:31of a new and sophisticated folding model, in 1912,
0:03:31 > 0:03:33that really paved the way for soldiers' photography
0:03:33 > 0:03:35in the First World War.
0:03:37 > 0:03:41Now, this little camera was one of the most popular cameras of the time.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44Indeed it became so popular with soldiers
0:03:44 > 0:03:47that it became known as "the Soldiers' Kodak".
0:03:47 > 0:03:49It was called the Vest Pocket Kodak,
0:03:49 > 0:03:52"vest" being the American name for waistcoat.
0:03:52 > 0:03:54And it was designed to be small enough to slip into a waistcoat
0:03:54 > 0:03:59pocket or, of course, the tunic pocket of your jacket.
0:03:59 > 0:04:01When a soldier wanted to take a photograph,
0:04:01 > 0:04:03this is what they would have to do.
0:04:03 > 0:04:06Firstly, they would have to pull out the lens panel.
0:04:06 > 0:04:08On the front, he has settings where
0:04:08 > 0:04:10he can change the shutter speed
0:04:10 > 0:04:11and the aperture depending
0:04:11 > 0:04:13on how bright the day was.
0:04:13 > 0:04:15You could either have one 50th
0:04:15 > 0:04:17of a second for a bright sunny day,
0:04:17 > 0:04:18or one 25th
0:04:18 > 0:04:20if it was a bit more cloudy.
0:04:20 > 0:04:23You would choose the setting and then you could change the aperture
0:04:23 > 0:04:27from a distant landscape through to a portrait setting
0:04:27 > 0:04:29and then take the photograph,
0:04:29 > 0:04:31looking down into the viewfinder.
0:04:34 > 0:04:37The Vest Pocket Kodak, known as the VPK,
0:04:37 > 0:04:40wasn't the only folding camera available,
0:04:40 > 0:04:42but it was the most popular.
0:04:42 > 0:04:47Within a year, over 30,000 had been sold in Britain.
0:04:47 > 0:04:49At 30 shillings apiece,
0:04:49 > 0:04:51four times the weekly wage of an ordinary soldier,
0:04:51 > 0:04:55it wasn't cheap, so most sales were made to officers
0:04:55 > 0:04:56rather than privates.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01Given the camera's popularity, it's a mystery that so little
0:05:01 > 0:05:04is known about the photographs the soldiers took with them.
0:05:04 > 0:05:08But in time, many of these men would want to forget
0:05:08 > 0:05:09the horrors they'd seen.
0:05:09 > 0:05:13So pictures and albums were shut away in cupboards and attics
0:05:13 > 0:05:15and eventually forgotten.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25One private soldier who did take a vest pocket camera to war
0:05:25 > 0:05:28was William Smallcombe, who volunteered
0:05:28 > 0:05:33for the 12th Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment in 1914.
0:05:33 > 0:05:38The photographs he took have been handed down to his grandson, Michael,
0:05:38 > 0:05:41himself a professional photographer.
0:05:41 > 0:05:48This is a picture of my grandfather, which I took. He was about 90,
0:05:48 > 0:05:50in his mid 90s, and he lived at our house.
0:05:50 > 0:05:55William Albert Smallcombe looking very dapper there, I think.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59William died in 1992,
0:05:59 > 0:06:03and although Michael had seen his grandfather's photographs before,
0:06:03 > 0:06:05he didn't know much about them,
0:06:05 > 0:06:08because William rarely spoke about the war.
0:06:09 > 0:06:11These are the small end prints...
0:06:13 > 0:06:16..which, uh...come from the camera.
0:06:16 > 0:06:20They're tiny, they're differently exposed, and...
0:06:20 > 0:06:23actually, quite difficult to see what's in a lot of them.
0:06:24 > 0:06:28This is William with his machine gun,
0:06:28 > 0:06:33and I imagine, if you have a machine gun, you point it at people,
0:06:33 > 0:06:35and some of them fall over,
0:06:35 > 0:06:39so that's what he did and...but would never talk about.
0:06:41 > 0:06:45You can see that what interested him were his friends,
0:06:45 > 0:06:51but it's very poignant that you know that a lot of these people
0:06:51 > 0:06:54who are with your grandfather who you knew...never came back.
0:07:00 > 0:07:03I mean, I'd like to know more about these pictures
0:07:03 > 0:07:05and where they were photographed.
0:07:05 > 0:07:08Places have a spirit, I think, probably,
0:07:08 > 0:07:13which comes from the experience of whatever happened there.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17And I'd like to experience that, to find it.
0:07:20 > 0:07:22Like many soldiers' photo collections,
0:07:22 > 0:07:27the secrets to William's story may be hidden in the pictures he took.
0:07:27 > 0:07:29So it's shocking to discover
0:07:29 > 0:07:33that countless numbers of soldiers' photos have ended up as landfill,
0:07:33 > 0:07:36thrown away, unwanted,
0:07:36 > 0:07:40as the generation of veterans who took them began to pass away.
0:07:43 > 0:07:49One man who salvaged some of it is ex-dustman Bob Smethurst,
0:07:49 > 0:07:52who worked on the bins in Lindfield, in Sussex.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55Six of Bob's ancestors died in the war,
0:07:55 > 0:07:58so it's always been a subject close to his heart.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04This is all the stuff, or some of the stuff,
0:08:04 > 0:08:08I picked up over the years of being on the refuse.
0:08:08 > 0:08:11And rescued, I suppose, in a sense.
0:08:11 > 0:08:15From a military medal to photographs.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19Some of my colleagues thought I was totally mad,
0:08:19 > 0:08:22but I said that about a colleague who collected fishing tackle
0:08:22 > 0:08:25and I thought HE was mad.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28And this is just a part of the stuff that was thrown away
0:08:28 > 0:08:30over the 36 years I was a refuse collector.
0:08:33 > 0:08:37Bob began his World War I photo collection in the 1970s,
0:08:37 > 0:08:41in the days before black plastic bin bags, when dustmen could see
0:08:41 > 0:08:44the rubbish they tipped into the back of the dustcart.
0:08:44 > 0:08:45In them days,
0:08:45 > 0:08:48we used to carry the rubbish on our shoulders,
0:08:48 > 0:08:50and therefore, when we emptied the bins,
0:08:50 > 0:08:53you used to see the paperwork coming out
0:08:53 > 0:08:56and the photographs, you know. You didn't find them all the time,
0:08:56 > 0:08:59because, I mean, the only time you was aware of some,
0:08:59 > 0:09:01it was when they started to be mashed up in the back.
0:09:03 > 0:09:07Bob's most treasured find is a large collection of amateur photos
0:09:07 > 0:09:12taken in 1914 by a soldier in the London Scottish Regiment.
0:09:12 > 0:09:16Rare because they're the only known photographs of the battalion
0:09:16 > 0:09:19before their first action, in October that year.
0:09:19 > 0:09:26This is the sergeant, 14th London Scottish, who took the photographs.
0:09:26 > 0:09:29And then there's a photograph here of German prisoners,
0:09:29 > 0:09:32and you can actually see him, the shadow of him,
0:09:32 > 0:09:35taking the photograph in the picture.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38I mean, all I am is a custodian of this stuff
0:09:38 > 0:09:42for future generations, because if we threw it all away,
0:09:42 > 0:09:47this stuff perishes, and we'd be like the Romans,
0:09:47 > 0:09:50you'd be digging it out in years' time, doing that.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53I thought I'd save them the trouble of collecting it now.
0:09:55 > 0:09:58Although many albums and photographs have been lost for ever,
0:09:58 > 0:10:00there are families who cherish the images
0:10:00 > 0:10:02taken by previous generations.
0:10:04 > 0:10:06Fred Davidson was a 25-year-old doctor
0:10:06 > 0:10:09in the 1st Battalion of the Cameronians
0:10:09 > 0:10:14and amongst the first wave of soldiers to take a camera to war.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17The albums he made were left to his grandson, Andrew,
0:10:17 > 0:10:19and he's just spent a year painstakingly
0:10:19 > 0:10:23researching his grandfather's story.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26For me, this was a big personal project, because I had the albums,
0:10:26 > 0:10:32but I knew nothing about the man - he died two days after I was born.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35But what he kept were these three photo albums,
0:10:35 > 0:10:38and I think they obviously meant a lot to him,
0:10:38 > 0:10:41because they covered an extraordinary period of his life.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47Fred set sail for France with Britain's regular army,
0:10:47 > 0:10:52the British Expeditionary Force, on the 13th August 1914 -
0:10:52 > 0:10:55just over a week after the war had begun.
0:10:57 > 0:10:59The first photograph of my grandfather at war
0:10:59 > 0:11:01is taken on the boat,
0:11:01 > 0:11:06the SS Caledonian, that took them across from Southampton to Le Havre.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09They look like they're three or four guys having fun,
0:11:09 > 0:11:11one of them's dangling a camera,
0:11:11 > 0:11:14and they're taking photos of each other,
0:11:14 > 0:11:17in full knowledge that they are creating a pastiche
0:11:17 > 0:11:19as if they're going on a cruise,
0:11:19 > 0:11:23which is extraordinary to think of when we know what happened after.
0:11:25 > 0:11:29The battalion arrived at the French port of Le Havre on the 15th August.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32This photograph of their disembarkation was taken
0:11:32 > 0:11:34by Fred's good friend,
0:11:34 > 0:11:36machine-gun officer Robert Money.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45Within days, the men of the British Expeditionary Force were
0:11:45 > 0:11:49heading towards the Belgian town of Mons, in search of the German Army.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53But by the 24th of the month, they were in full retreat,
0:11:53 > 0:11:56overwhelmed by enemy forces.
0:11:57 > 0:11:59Robert Money was one of the few British soldiers to take
0:11:59 > 0:12:02photographs during this time.
0:12:03 > 0:12:05There's a terrific photo
0:12:05 > 0:12:07of the men resting
0:12:07 > 0:12:10when they're being chased back by the Germans,
0:12:10 > 0:12:12and they're all sprawled out on the grass
0:12:12 > 0:12:16and you can see Robertson, the commanding officer,
0:12:16 > 0:12:17sitting cross-legged,
0:12:17 > 0:12:18cigarette in his mouth,
0:12:18 > 0:12:21looking dazed, straight at the camera.
0:12:21 > 0:12:23Beside him, his number two,
0:12:23 > 0:12:26he's got binoculars pointing up at the sky.
0:12:26 > 0:12:28They're looking at the German plane that follows them
0:12:28 > 0:12:30every mile they march.
0:12:33 > 0:12:35After a few weeks on the move,
0:12:35 > 0:12:39the battalion entered hastily dug trenches,
0:12:39 > 0:12:43initially here, near the tiny French village of La Bouteillerie,
0:12:43 > 0:12:45close to the Belgian border.
0:12:46 > 0:12:49And as the war settled into a deadly battle of attrition,
0:12:49 > 0:12:54Fred and Robert Money began to document their experiences.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59At that time, Secretary of State for War Lord Kitchener,
0:12:59 > 0:13:03had banned the press from following the movements of the BEF,
0:13:03 > 0:13:07so soldiers' photographs provide the only visual record
0:13:07 > 0:13:10of the British front line during this period of the war.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14There's a lot of mud, there's a lot of guns,
0:13:14 > 0:13:16you're starting to feel that
0:13:16 > 0:13:19there's real fighting going on,
0:13:19 > 0:13:20not just a retreat.
0:13:21 > 0:13:24Some of my favourite photos are the group shots,
0:13:24 > 0:13:28where you can see my grandfather's assembled fellow officers,
0:13:28 > 0:13:31almost like a football team.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34And I think these are remarkable photos, because, by this stage,
0:13:34 > 0:13:36although they're on the front line,
0:13:36 > 0:13:40everyone is buying into the idea of a group photo.
0:13:40 > 0:13:41They want to be seen together,
0:13:41 > 0:13:43they want to remember each other,
0:13:43 > 0:13:45they want THIS to remind them
0:13:45 > 0:13:46of what they went through.
0:13:48 > 0:13:50In those first few months of the war,
0:13:50 > 0:13:53photographers like Fred Davidson and Robert Money were making up
0:13:53 > 0:13:56the rules of war photography as they went along.
0:13:58 > 0:14:00However, one enthusiastic soldier
0:14:00 > 0:14:02drew up a set of simple guidelines,
0:14:02 > 0:14:05later published in Amateur Photographer Magazine,
0:14:05 > 0:14:10which suggested that a little common sense was all that was required.
0:14:10 > 0:14:13There's an article written by "Medico",
0:14:13 > 0:14:16somebody who'd been invalided back from the front.
0:14:16 > 0:14:18And it's called "Photography At The Front,
0:14:18 > 0:14:22"some practical notes by one who has been there."
0:14:22 > 0:14:24Starts off here - "Don't flourish
0:14:24 > 0:14:27"your camera in the faces of generals.
0:14:27 > 0:14:29"Cameras are not popular at the front,
0:14:29 > 0:14:33"and you might find yourself minus your camera.
0:14:33 > 0:14:36"Don't use all your film on the voyage out!
0:14:36 > 0:14:37"Save some of it for later -
0:14:37 > 0:14:39"you might get better ones."
0:14:39 > 0:14:41This temptation, it was so exciting that you would use
0:14:41 > 0:14:43all your film before you even landed in France!
0:14:43 > 0:14:46And lastly here,
0:14:46 > 0:14:47"Don't take a photograph
0:14:47 > 0:14:50"that could be of help to the enemy."
0:14:50 > 0:14:53If you were captured, would you have photographs that could aid them?
0:14:56 > 0:14:59Unfortunately, by the time the article was published
0:14:59 > 0:15:04in March 1915, the rules had changed.
0:15:04 > 0:15:06That's because some soldiers' photos
0:15:06 > 0:15:10had begun to appear uncensored in the papers back home.
0:15:10 > 0:15:13Like this one of Robert Money's which was
0:15:13 > 0:15:16published in The War Illustrated in November 1914.
0:15:17 > 0:15:21It's not known how much Robert Money was paid for the image,
0:15:21 > 0:15:23but the market for soldiers' photographs
0:15:23 > 0:15:25was beginning to open up.
0:15:25 > 0:15:30And when the authorities found out, they acted immediately.
0:15:30 > 0:15:32Now, Sir John French - the Commander-in-Chief -
0:15:32 > 0:15:36knows that something has to be done, and on the 22nd December 1914,
0:15:36 > 0:15:39he issues a General Routine Order, 464,
0:15:39 > 0:15:43saying that photographs were no longer permitted.
0:15:43 > 0:15:46Now, the problem with the GRO is that it's a local fix,
0:15:46 > 0:15:48local to the Western Front.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51No officer of rank about to embark for France
0:15:51 > 0:15:53would have been aware of that ban.
0:15:54 > 0:15:57But despite the ban, Fred Davidson and Robert Money,
0:15:57 > 0:16:03photographed here together, continued to document their war.
0:16:03 > 0:16:05It's about control.
0:16:05 > 0:16:10That being in this war, especially after the retreat, there was
0:16:10 > 0:16:13a feeling amongst a lot of the soldiers that they'd lost control.
0:16:13 > 0:16:16That every decision is made for them by the army
0:16:16 > 0:16:19and some of the decisions aren't very good. Even the officers felt that.
0:16:19 > 0:16:21In taking photos,
0:16:21 > 0:16:24they're almost reasserting their own control over certain things.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27They're choosing what they remember, they're choosing to do something
0:16:27 > 0:16:31that the army doesn't want them to do and they don't care.
0:16:34 > 0:16:38In Germany, the high command took a different view of photography.
0:16:38 > 0:16:40When war was declared,
0:16:40 > 0:16:45Kaiser Wilhelm immediately appointed 19 court photographers
0:16:45 > 0:16:49to document what was expected of them to be a swift and decisive victory.
0:16:50 > 0:16:53And for even the lowliest private soldier,
0:16:53 > 0:16:56recording the war through photographs was regarded
0:16:56 > 0:17:01not only as an enjoyable pastime but also a patriotic duty.
0:17:01 > 0:17:05If you get into the whole story of amateur photography
0:17:05 > 0:17:09from World War I, you get astonished about
0:17:09 > 0:17:13the gigantic amount of pictures which were produced.
0:17:13 > 0:17:18Photography for soldiers was not forbidden.
0:17:18 > 0:17:22It was not forbidden. You had to ask their next lieutenant
0:17:22 > 0:17:26or something like if they were allowed to take pictures.
0:17:26 > 0:17:31But I think, if you think about the order in these changes, nobody asked
0:17:31 > 0:17:34these questions, because everybody was interested in photographs.
0:17:36 > 0:17:38Within weeks of arriving at the front,
0:17:38 > 0:17:42many soldiers wrote home, asking for a camera to be sent out.
0:17:42 > 0:17:47Such was the demand for cameras that nationwide schemes were set up
0:17:47 > 0:17:51by photography enthusiasts to ensure there were enough available.
0:17:51 > 0:17:53One of these actions
0:17:53 > 0:17:57we know is from the German Photography Society.
0:17:57 > 0:18:04They asked their members to take cameras which were lying around
0:18:04 > 0:18:10at home and send them to soldiers for recording this world history.
0:18:12 > 0:18:15One of those who would write home for his camera was
0:18:15 > 0:18:20Walter Kleinfeldt, a boy soldier with a keen interest in photography.
0:19:07 > 0:19:11Like his father, Volkmar Kleinfeldt has been taking photos
0:19:11 > 0:19:13since he was a boy.
0:19:13 > 0:19:18And for over 40 years has run this photography shop in the German town
0:19:18 > 0:19:23of Tuebingen, a business first set up by his father in the late 1920s.
0:19:27 > 0:19:30Volkmar doesn't remember much about his dad,
0:19:30 > 0:19:33because he died when he was still a child.
0:19:33 > 0:19:36For many years, this home movie footage
0:19:36 > 0:19:38of them together in the 1930s
0:19:38 > 0:19:43was, along with his father's old war diaries, the only reminder.
0:19:48 > 0:19:52The photographs Walter took during the war were thought to have
0:19:52 > 0:19:58been lost, but then just three years ago, Volkmar found a box containing
0:19:58 > 0:20:03over 120 glass plates stored in his father's archives.
0:20:03 > 0:20:07This is the first time the images have been seen in public.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41Volkmar showed the images to photography historian
0:20:41 > 0:20:43Dr Ulrich Haegele.
0:20:44 > 0:20:49And I saw it immediately, that these pictures are very special.
0:20:49 > 0:20:53Really special and really extraordinary.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57Walter Kleinfeldt was 16, 17 years,
0:20:57 > 0:21:02but he has a view of photographer, of an old photographer,
0:21:02 > 0:21:05of a reporting photographer.
0:21:05 > 0:21:11I think perhaps it was the easiest way for him to record the war.
0:21:11 > 0:21:18And for him and for his family, that they know at home what war is.
0:21:21 > 0:21:25Meanwhile, back in the British lines, it had been just three days
0:21:25 > 0:21:29since the ban on photography was introduced when an extraordinary
0:21:29 > 0:21:34event occurred which would seriously undermine the military authorities.
0:21:35 > 0:21:41On Christmas Day 1914, along much of the 30-mile front line
0:21:41 > 0:21:44south of Ypres, there was an unofficial truce
0:21:44 > 0:21:47as friend and foe put down their rifles,
0:21:47 > 0:21:52climbed out of their trenches, and met in no-man's-land.
0:21:52 > 0:21:54And over the next few hours,
0:21:54 > 0:21:57Tommy and Jerry shook hands, exchanged gifts
0:21:57 > 0:22:01and significantly photographed the event.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07In fact, if it weren't for the soldiers' photographs,
0:22:07 > 0:22:12no visual record of the Christmas truce would exist today.
0:22:12 > 0:22:16Letters and diaries tell us the extraordinary events of that day,
0:22:16 > 0:22:19but it's the actual photographs that prove that
0:22:19 > 0:22:22that fraternisation took place.
0:22:22 > 0:22:25Images of British officers and other ranks intermingling happily
0:22:25 > 0:22:29with the enemy are some of the most extraordinary documents of our time.
0:22:29 > 0:22:34Would the Christmas truce be remembered today
0:22:34 > 0:22:38were it not for those photographs? I doubt it.
0:22:40 > 0:22:46On the 8th January 1915, photos of the event made the front pages.
0:22:47 > 0:22:51It was the last thing the authorities wanted.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55These pictures caused a sensation in the British press.
0:22:55 > 0:22:59The government knew it was vital to keep the public full square
0:22:59 > 0:23:00behind the war effort.
0:23:00 > 0:23:04All of a sudden, people were going to look at these photographs and think
0:23:04 > 0:23:06these people are not really any different from us,
0:23:06 > 0:23:08except for the colour of their uniform.
0:23:09 > 0:23:12But the images of the Christmas truce only fuelled
0:23:12 > 0:23:15the demand for soldiers' photos.
0:23:15 > 0:23:19And soon, British newspapers, which were read at the front,
0:23:19 > 0:23:21started to run competitions,
0:23:21 > 0:23:24offering vast sums of money for the best photographs.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27There was a fear that soldiers would take their eye off the ball.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31That they would load, aim and shoot their cameras
0:23:31 > 0:23:34as opposed to their revolvers and rifles.
0:23:34 > 0:23:38So it was critical that the government stood on what was
0:23:38 > 0:23:41effectively a press frenzy at that time.
0:23:41 > 0:23:47And on the 16th March 1915, they introduced a War Office instruction
0:23:47 > 0:23:48that banned cameras completely.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51You would not be allowed to take photographs,
0:23:51 > 0:23:54you would not be allowed to take a camera overseas,
0:23:54 > 0:23:56you would not be allowed to have contact with the press.
0:23:56 > 0:24:00It finished photography, in their minds, at that point.
0:24:01 > 0:24:05Anyone caught breaking the rules faced court martial,
0:24:05 > 0:24:07as some discovered to their cost.
0:24:07 > 0:24:11One individual private, Ernest Mullett of the Gloucester Regiment,
0:24:11 > 0:24:14was caught with a camera in November 1915.
0:24:14 > 0:24:18He was given three months' imprisonment with hard labour.
0:24:20 > 0:24:25Whether Fred Davidson would have obeyed the new ban is unknown,
0:24:25 > 0:24:29because on the 13th March, three days before it was introduced,
0:24:29 > 0:24:31he was shot in no-man's-land
0:24:31 > 0:24:34as he went over the top to help a wounded colleague.
0:24:36 > 0:24:38Although he was badly injured,
0:24:38 > 0:24:43Fred survived and was sent home to England to recover.
0:24:43 > 0:24:45From his hospital bed in Folkestone,
0:24:45 > 0:24:50he took perhaps his most important photograph of the war.
0:24:50 > 0:24:53When he wakes up, he takes a photograph. The first photograph
0:24:53 > 0:24:57he takes when he recovers is of a beautiful nurse sitting
0:24:57 > 0:25:00at the end of the bed, reading a magazine, with a pot of daffodils,
0:25:00 > 0:25:02and the sun streaming in.
0:25:02 > 0:25:07It's so different to what he's been photographing and where he's been.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10And you really feel that difference. And that's my favourite photo,
0:25:10 > 0:25:13because that nurse turned out to be my grandmother.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16They ended up having a love affair and later married.
0:25:16 > 0:25:21So for my family, that is a photo that means everything
0:25:21 > 0:25:23and is really why we're here.
0:25:32 > 0:25:34Meanwhile, on the Western Front,
0:25:34 > 0:25:38the new ban on photography was being taken seriously
0:25:38 > 0:25:41and soldiers with cameras were hastily sending them home.
0:25:42 > 0:25:4622-year-old Robin Gybbon-Monypenny was a second lieutenant
0:25:46 > 0:25:51in the Essex Regiment and had taken his camera to war.
0:25:51 > 0:25:53When the ban was introduced,
0:25:53 > 0:25:55he wrote home urgently to his Aunt Ethel,
0:25:55 > 0:25:58who he lived with in England.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01Today, his daughter, Sheila, still has his letters.
0:26:02 > 0:26:07There is a letter here dated March 26th 1915,
0:26:07 > 0:26:10it is from my father to his...
0:26:10 > 0:26:12"My Dear Aunt Ethel,
0:26:12 > 0:26:15"many thanks so much for your letters
0:26:15 > 0:26:19"and for the parcel of food and the underclothes,
0:26:19 > 0:26:23"both of which I found on my arrival in Billets this time.
0:26:23 > 0:26:27"By the by, I am sending my camera home, as a strict order
0:26:27 > 0:26:30"has just been issued that no officers can have them.
0:26:30 > 0:26:34"Any we've got, we must send home. Let me know when you get it."
0:26:34 > 0:26:38And she did get it, because, basically,
0:26:38 > 0:26:40we still have that camera here.
0:26:40 > 0:26:43The camera that my father actually took to France.
0:26:43 > 0:26:44And this is the camera.
0:26:46 > 0:26:51The VPK. It was called VPK, wasn't it?
0:26:51 > 0:26:54I remember that name. It looks to be quite a heavy one.
0:26:54 > 0:26:58It opens out. Ah, that's right, that looks familiar.
0:26:58 > 0:27:01It's really lovely to have it still.
0:27:01 > 0:27:04After all these years, it's still with us.
0:27:09 > 0:27:13The negatives that Robin Gybbon-Monypenny took
0:27:13 > 0:27:16with his vest pocket camera have only recently been discovered
0:27:16 > 0:27:19by the family, left undeveloped in an envelope.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24When they were processed, this is what they revealed.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32Sheila doesn't know why her father didn't want to see
0:27:32 > 0:27:37his photographs, but to her, they're a fascinating insight into his war.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44It was extremely interesting to see them -
0:27:44 > 0:27:47it made it all become even more vivid and alive.
0:27:47 > 0:27:51To actually see the photographs taken on the spot.
0:27:51 > 0:27:56They're a remarkable record of his time in the war.
0:28:03 > 0:28:07In the spring of 1915, many territorial battalions
0:28:07 > 0:28:10were preparing to leave Britain for the Western Front.
0:28:10 > 0:28:14These part-time volunteer soldiers were needed urgently
0:28:14 > 0:28:18to bolster the heavily depleted Expeditionary Force.
0:28:18 > 0:28:21And despite the risk of court martial,
0:28:21 > 0:28:24some men still took cameras with them.
0:28:26 > 0:28:28Among them was Harry Colver,
0:28:28 > 0:28:31a second lieutenant in the 1st/5th Battalion
0:28:31 > 0:28:34of the York and Lancashire Regiment.
0:28:34 > 0:28:38This is him. Caught on camera shortly before leaving for France.
0:28:40 > 0:28:43Historian Jon Cooksey has spent years researching
0:28:43 > 0:28:46the story behind his photographs.
0:28:46 > 0:28:51What we have here is a record of the experiences
0:28:51 > 0:28:54of a unit, a territorial unit in the First World War,
0:28:54 > 0:29:01and of one man's desire to capture every single second of that.
0:29:01 > 0:29:05The battalion arrived in France on the 14th April
0:29:05 > 0:29:09and was dispatched to trenches near the village of Fleurbaix.
0:29:10 > 0:29:14Once there, Harry Colver began to document their daily life
0:29:14 > 0:29:19in a collection of both informal and artistically posed photographs.
0:29:19 > 0:29:22Photos of such clarity and invention, they rank
0:29:22 > 0:29:25amongst some of the best soldiers' pictures of the war.
0:29:27 > 0:29:29He's obviously got an eye for composition.
0:29:29 > 0:29:33He arranges them in quite purposely into various poses
0:29:33 > 0:29:36and he fills the frame with these men.
0:29:37 > 0:29:40He doesn't just want to record
0:29:40 > 0:29:44what they're doing - he wants to record it in an artistic fashion,
0:29:44 > 0:29:48and I think that comes through very strongly on many of the photographs.
0:29:54 > 0:29:57Culver photographed all ranks,
0:29:57 > 0:30:00from the private soldiers who reported to him,
0:30:00 > 0:30:03to his fellow junior officers.
0:30:03 > 0:30:07He even photographed his commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Fox
0:30:07 > 0:30:10sitting him alongside the privates,
0:30:10 > 0:30:13revealing the informality that often existed
0:30:13 > 0:30:16amongst these part-time volunteer soldiers,
0:30:16 > 0:30:19something that was rarely seen in the regular army.
0:30:21 > 0:30:25So it actually shows almost the equality in this unit,
0:30:25 > 0:30:29and the camaraderie that exists between all ranks,
0:30:29 > 0:30:33not just between the officers or the men, but across the whole battalion.
0:30:35 > 0:30:40Of course, Colver shouldn't have been taking these photographs at all.
0:30:40 > 0:30:44But the fact that he did that and took so many photographs,
0:30:44 > 0:30:47and the fact that sometimes his commanding officer
0:30:47 > 0:30:50is quite a willing participant in this tableau,
0:30:50 > 0:30:52meant that nobody was saying he couldn't do it.
0:30:52 > 0:30:55In fact, the contrary. I think he was encouraged to do it.
0:30:57 > 0:31:01Initially, there was an optimism to Harry Colver's photography,
0:31:01 > 0:31:05but as his war progressed, all that would change.
0:31:09 > 0:31:11In the German army, photography continued
0:31:11 > 0:31:14to be championed, and books of soldiers' photos
0:31:14 > 0:31:18were sold on the home front to an enthusiastic audience.
0:31:18 > 0:31:21And there was no shortage of new would-be photographers
0:31:21 > 0:31:23to satisfy the demand.
0:31:29 > 0:31:33In 1915, 16-year-old Walter Kleinfeldt
0:31:33 > 0:31:37arrived on the Western Front as part of an artillery unit.
0:31:37 > 0:31:39And when his mother sent him a camera,
0:31:39 > 0:31:43he began taking the photographs that his son Volkmar recently found.
0:31:45 > 0:31:49His early images display an eye for subject and composition
0:31:49 > 0:31:51that belies his age.
0:32:51 > 0:32:54Like many soldiers' photographs,
0:32:54 > 0:32:57Kleinfeldt's images show a fascination with friends,
0:32:57 > 0:33:00destruction and the latest military equipment.
0:33:01 > 0:33:05But as his photography grew in confidence, he revealed
0:33:05 > 0:33:07an ability to look beyond the surface
0:33:07 > 0:33:09of the strange world around him.
0:33:10 > 0:33:13This is one of the most impressive photographs
0:33:13 > 0:33:16which are remaining from Walter Kleinfeldt.
0:33:16 > 0:33:23It's a tree which is completely destroyed by guns.
0:33:23 > 0:33:28And this expressive style of documentation,
0:33:28 > 0:33:31it's like Dadaistic document.
0:33:31 > 0:33:37Why did he make this photograph? This motif?
0:33:37 > 0:33:44Perhaps he saw the symbol of this image,
0:33:44 > 0:33:50because you see no dead soldiers on the picture, you only see violence.
0:33:52 > 0:33:54And this is the importance.
0:33:56 > 0:34:00This image was a sign that Walter Kleinfeldt's photography
0:34:00 > 0:34:01was starting to change.
0:34:09 > 0:34:11By the autumn of 1915,
0:34:11 > 0:34:15Harry Colver's photographs had changed too.
0:34:15 > 0:34:18By then, promoted to captain,
0:34:18 > 0:34:20his battalion had spent weeks in trenches
0:34:20 > 0:34:25next to the Yser Canal, one of the most dangerous positions
0:34:25 > 0:34:28on the Western Front, where they'd suffered terrible casualties.
0:34:28 > 0:34:32And the psychological effects were beginning to tell.
0:34:32 > 0:34:36Colver's pictures from this period look blurred and overexposed,
0:34:36 > 0:34:39and the change in the men who'd once posed happily for his photos
0:34:39 > 0:34:42is plain to see.
0:34:44 > 0:34:47Their uniform seemed to take on a different air,
0:34:47 > 0:34:50they start to wear scarves, they start to look a little bit
0:34:50 > 0:34:55more like brigands or pirates, if you like, in the trenches.
0:34:55 > 0:34:59Their mood seems to change visibly from shot to shot.
0:34:59 > 0:35:02There's a sense of that thousand-yard-stare,
0:35:02 > 0:35:06that there's almost a blankness somewhere behind the eyes
0:35:06 > 0:35:08as they've seen, starting to see, too much of this war.
0:35:08 > 0:35:13They're starting to see death, they're starting to see destruction.
0:35:15 > 0:35:18I don't think Colver's meaning to record this,
0:35:18 > 0:35:22but this is just a by-product of his cataloguing
0:35:22 > 0:35:26and recording the experiences of his men.
0:35:26 > 0:35:29And I often wonder whether that was having a telling...effect,
0:35:29 > 0:35:32was the condition having a telling effect on Colver as well?
0:35:32 > 0:35:35Was he beginning to sense that?
0:35:35 > 0:35:38Is the experience of war starting to tell on the men,
0:35:38 > 0:35:41but is it starting to tell on Harry Colver too?
0:35:44 > 0:35:50On the 19th December 1915, 23-year-old Harry Colver
0:35:50 > 0:35:55was in the trenches when the Germans launched a deadly new weapon - phosgene gas.
0:35:56 > 0:36:02The shells land with a dull splash, is what all the records say,
0:36:02 > 0:36:04and I think take some of the men unawares,
0:36:04 > 0:36:06until the release of the gas.
0:36:06 > 0:36:10Men start coughing and spewing and clutching their throats again,
0:36:10 > 0:36:15and Colver is completely overcome by the phosgene gas.
0:36:15 > 0:36:19And he dies of the effects of the phosgene.
0:36:19 > 0:36:23And that, in effect, brings to the end this great album
0:36:23 > 0:36:25of his great adventure.
0:36:26 > 0:36:31Except for one final photograph, which, ironically, he never took.
0:36:31 > 0:36:34And he's on the other side of the camera.
0:36:34 > 0:36:36And that's the photograph of his grave.
0:36:41 > 0:36:44I really wanted this man to go on.
0:36:44 > 0:36:46I really wanted this man to come home.
0:36:46 > 0:36:49I'd seen it in his eyes, I'd seen the humour,
0:36:49 > 0:36:53I'd seen the pathos, I'd seen the care, I'd seen the humanity,
0:36:53 > 0:36:56but to see the finality of the grave...
0:36:58 > 0:37:00..that really quite moved me.
0:37:01 > 0:37:06And the adventure had come to a tragic close.
0:37:15 > 0:37:191916 would prove to be a significant year for photography
0:37:19 > 0:37:22in the First World War.
0:37:22 > 0:37:26By then, the army had a new Commander-in-Chief - General Haig -
0:37:26 > 0:37:30a man who recognised the importance of front-line photographs
0:37:30 > 0:37:32and who appointed Ernest Brooks
0:37:32 > 0:37:35as the army's first official photographer.
0:37:36 > 0:37:39In time, Brooks would capture some of
0:37:39 > 0:37:41the most iconic images of the war,
0:37:41 > 0:37:45like these dramatic silhouettes of soldiers on the skyline.
0:37:45 > 0:37:50But for him, the propaganda value of the image was key, and in contrast
0:37:50 > 0:37:52to many of the soldiers' own photos,
0:37:52 > 0:37:55the men he photographed were anonymous.
0:37:58 > 0:38:01Brooks' first main role was to photograph the build-up
0:38:01 > 0:38:04to the Battle of the Somme - the big push planned
0:38:04 > 0:38:07by Haig to break through the German lines.
0:38:07 > 0:38:09EXPLOSION
0:38:09 > 0:38:13It would be the first real test for Britain's new volunteer army,
0:38:13 > 0:38:16over a million patriotic recruits
0:38:16 > 0:38:19who'd enlisted at the beginning of the war.
0:38:19 > 0:38:23Many had been formed into the so-called Pals battalions,
0:38:23 > 0:38:27fighting units made up of friends, neighbours and work colleagues,
0:38:27 > 0:38:30who joined up together at local recruiting stations
0:38:30 > 0:38:32around the country.
0:38:32 > 0:38:36Among them was William Smallcombe, a machine gunner
0:38:36 > 0:38:39in the 12th Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment.
0:38:39 > 0:38:41Known as Bristol's Own Battalion.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47Against all the rules, William photographed his war, photographs
0:38:47 > 0:38:50which have now been passed down to his grandson, Michael.
0:38:52 > 0:38:55Today, Michael has come to the Somme to see historian
0:38:55 > 0:38:58Richard van Emden, who met and interviewed William
0:38:58 > 0:39:01in the 1990s.
0:39:01 > 0:39:03Well, I've brought along some photographs.
0:39:03 > 0:39:06I've always been aware we have these pictures
0:39:06 > 0:39:08that he took in the trenches.
0:39:08 > 0:39:12I think you know a bit more about them so perhaps, if we had a look...
0:39:12 > 0:39:16- Of course, yeah.- You could tell me something about them.
0:39:16 > 0:39:20What I remember, when I spoke to William 20 years ago now,
0:39:20 > 0:39:24such a long time, but he showed me these photographs,
0:39:24 > 0:39:27and I was taken with them immediately.
0:39:27 > 0:39:31These photographs are very rare, because they're taken in 1916.
0:39:31 > 0:39:34So this is post-ban photography.
0:39:34 > 0:39:37But what's exceptional is the fact that William's a private,
0:39:37 > 0:39:39he's a private soldier with a camera.
0:39:39 > 0:39:41Now, I've spent a lot of time,
0:39:41 > 0:39:44I'm fascinated by the images taken by the soldiers in the Great War,
0:39:44 > 0:39:47and the vast majority are taken by officers.
0:39:47 > 0:39:51So to have a private's photographs of the Battle of the Somme
0:39:51 > 0:39:54is exceptionally rare. I mean, really rare.
0:39:56 > 0:39:59Mostly taken before the battalion had seen action,
0:39:59 > 0:40:02there's an innocence, an easy-going informality
0:40:02 > 0:40:05to many of William's photographs.
0:40:05 > 0:40:09But there are also clues within the images that hint
0:40:09 > 0:40:12at how surreptitiously they were obtained.
0:40:12 > 0:40:15And what's interesting about these photographs is
0:40:15 > 0:40:17you don't see officers.
0:40:17 > 0:40:19There are no officers in these pictures.
0:40:19 > 0:40:22They're all taken when he's on his own with his mates.
0:40:22 > 0:40:26- Who are not going to give him away. - People he can trust, that's crucial.
0:40:26 > 0:40:29And you see that with other ranks' photographs -
0:40:29 > 0:40:32they're almost invariably taken when you're in a trench,
0:40:32 > 0:40:37nobody's there, whip your camera out, quick photograph, done.
0:40:37 > 0:40:40The occasional blurred image might reveal the haste with which
0:40:40 > 0:40:43William took some of his photos.
0:40:43 > 0:40:47But he was always careful when obtaining new and illegal film.
0:40:49 > 0:40:52The story William told me is that
0:40:52 > 0:40:56when he wrote home to his fiancee, later my grandmother,
0:40:56 > 0:40:58he would ask for a piece of cake.
0:40:58 > 0:41:02Which meant that he wanted her to send him a film.
0:41:02 > 0:41:06Right, well, that's interesting in itself, because that suggests,
0:41:06 > 0:41:08in a way, that must be pre-arranged.
0:41:08 > 0:41:11So when he goes to France at the end of 1915,
0:41:11 > 0:41:14he clearly knows there's a ban on cameras.
0:41:14 > 0:41:16You can't write home and say,
0:41:16 > 0:41:19"My word for 'send me another film' is 'piece of cake',"
0:41:19 > 0:41:22so he must have known that and had that all set up.
0:41:22 > 0:41:24All the letters would have been read by censors?
0:41:24 > 0:41:26It would be a sample, so you would never know
0:41:26 > 0:41:28whether your letter would be read or not.
0:41:28 > 0:41:30You couldn't take that chance,
0:41:30 > 0:41:32- you couldn't have written home asking for that.- Right, I see.
0:41:32 > 0:41:35Talking to my grandfather, he told me
0:41:35 > 0:41:37what happened behind the trenches,
0:41:37 > 0:41:41but he never really talked about the battles, any action.
0:41:41 > 0:41:45And I know you know more about it, so perhaps you can tell me.
0:41:45 > 0:41:49Well, he goes through the Battle of the Somme. And I'm not talking
0:41:49 > 0:41:52about going over the top once - he goes over more than that.
0:41:52 > 0:41:55There is one photograph here that really stands out to me
0:41:55 > 0:41:59as being emblematic of what happened to the battalion.
0:41:59 > 0:42:01- And this is this picture here. - Oh, right.
0:42:04 > 0:42:06And it's a picture taken of a grave,
0:42:06 > 0:42:10- and I think that day changed William for ever, really.- Really?
0:42:10 > 0:42:12Really did.
0:42:15 > 0:42:19Just three miles from where William took that photograph,
0:42:19 > 0:42:21on the other side of the Somme battlefield,
0:42:21 > 0:42:24was German boy-soldier Walter Kleinfeldt.
0:42:26 > 0:42:30Today, his son Volkmar is making his first trip to the Western Front,
0:42:30 > 0:42:34to see for himself some of the places where his father fought
0:42:34 > 0:42:36and took his photographs.
0:43:10 > 0:43:13For seven days before the Battle of the Somme began,
0:43:13 > 0:43:16British artillery bombarded the German lines here,
0:43:16 > 0:43:21firing over a million-and-a-half shells along a 16-mile front
0:43:21 > 0:43:24in an attempt to destroy the enemy defences.
0:43:25 > 0:43:29Walter Kleinfeldt had never experienced anything like it,
0:43:29 > 0:43:33and for a curious boy, it was an opportunity too good to miss.
0:43:34 > 0:43:38So in the heat of the bombardment, with his camera in hand,
0:43:38 > 0:43:40he peered out from a trench
0:43:40 > 0:43:43and by chance captured the exact moment
0:43:43 > 0:43:45a nearby church was hit.
0:43:47 > 0:43:51It's a photograph that has always intrigued his son, Volkmar.
0:44:25 > 0:44:28The war was coming to Walter Kleinfeldt.
0:44:29 > 0:44:32The same day he took this photograph,
0:44:32 > 0:44:34the first man in his unit was killed.
0:44:36 > 0:44:37He wouldn't be the last.
0:44:40 > 0:44:44Six days later, the Somme offensive began
0:44:44 > 0:44:46as British soldiers went over the top,
0:44:46 > 0:44:50believing that the German defences had been destroyed
0:44:50 > 0:44:54in the bombardment, but they were still intact.
0:44:54 > 0:44:57And the advancing Tommies went
0:44:57 > 0:45:00straight into a hail of machine-gun bullets and artillery fire.
0:45:02 > 0:45:05Walter Kleinfeldt and his artillery unit
0:45:05 > 0:45:07were in the thick of the action.
0:45:07 > 0:45:09They lost men and some guns
0:45:09 > 0:45:12but, by the end of the day, had helped to repel the attack.
0:45:15 > 0:45:17Later, Kleinfeldt even found time
0:45:17 > 0:45:20to take this photograph of his gun crew,
0:45:20 > 0:45:22and to write a postcard home to his mother,
0:45:22 > 0:45:26the card giving the merest hint of the ordeal he'd been through.
0:45:29 > 0:45:32TRANSLATION FROM GERMAN:
0:46:04 > 0:46:08But Kleinfeldt's apparent optimism would be short-lived,
0:46:08 > 0:46:10as the British offensive continued.
0:46:10 > 0:46:16Over the coming days and weeks, he began to lose more and more friends.
0:46:16 > 0:46:18And, as the war dragged on,
0:46:18 > 0:46:22his changing state of mind was reflected in his photographs.
0:46:24 > 0:46:27TRANSLATION FROM GERMAN:
0:46:41 > 0:46:43His landscapes and portraits
0:46:43 > 0:46:49were replaced by stark photographs of the dead and dying,
0:46:49 > 0:46:53like this one he called After The Storm.
0:46:54 > 0:46:58It was rare for soldiers to photograph their dead countrymen,
0:46:58 > 0:47:01but Kleinfeldt was making a point.
0:47:01 > 0:47:03And I think this is the impressive...
0:47:03 > 0:47:05a very impressive picture, because it is...
0:47:05 > 0:47:12There is no way to see any patriots
0:47:12 > 0:47:15or nationalistic or so aspect.
0:47:16 > 0:47:18All men are equal,
0:47:18 > 0:47:25er, and the death is for all men, it's the same thing.
0:47:25 > 0:47:28For me, it's a kind of anti-war photography.
0:47:32 > 0:47:35Walter Kleinfeldt wasn't the only soldier
0:47:35 > 0:47:38whose loss of innocence was captured in a photograph.
0:47:39 > 0:47:42Michael Smallcombe has come to the battlefields
0:47:42 > 0:47:46with historian Richard van Emden to find out more about this photograph
0:47:46 > 0:47:50that his grandfather, William, took during the Battle of the Somme.
0:47:53 > 0:47:56It's a story that begins in this muddy field,
0:47:56 > 0:47:59above a feature known to the soldiers who fought here
0:47:59 > 0:48:01as Wedge Wood.
0:48:03 > 0:48:07We're here because, on the 3rd of September 1916,
0:48:07 > 0:48:12William went over the top in one of the defining moments of his life.
0:48:12 > 0:48:14The Bristol's Own were up here on the ridges here,
0:48:14 > 0:48:16just over here, in their trenches,
0:48:16 > 0:48:19and they were to come down straight across here
0:48:19 > 0:48:21and head towards Wedge Wood.
0:48:21 > 0:48:23As they come down this slope here,
0:48:23 > 0:48:26they're enfiladed by machine guns from the right here,
0:48:26 > 0:48:29from Germans up at the farm on the ridge,
0:48:29 > 0:48:31from over there, from the trenches over there.
0:48:31 > 0:48:33I mean, you can see how exposed...
0:48:33 > 0:48:35how exposed they are, all the way down here.
0:48:35 > 0:48:38No, I mean, it's quite shocking, really.
0:48:38 > 0:48:40Of course, we're here because of the significance
0:48:40 > 0:48:44of that one photograph, that picture of the grave.
0:48:44 > 0:48:47You know, it's terribly, terribly important to William.
0:48:47 > 0:48:50I'll show you pretty much where I believe it was taken.
0:48:53 > 0:48:56Against the odds, William made it across this field
0:48:56 > 0:48:57and into Wedge Wood.
0:48:59 > 0:49:02But nearly 400 of the Bristol Pals
0:49:02 > 0:49:05had been killed or wounded in the attack.
0:49:06 > 0:49:10Many of those who died had no known grave,
0:49:10 > 0:49:14but, thanks to William Smallcombe, one did.
0:49:14 > 0:49:16At least for a while.
0:49:16 > 0:49:17And it was somewhere...
0:49:17 > 0:49:19in here.
0:49:21 > 0:49:23William was here and this is where
0:49:23 > 0:49:26one of his really close friends, Ernest Fry, was killed.
0:49:26 > 0:49:29And where your grandfather buried him.
0:49:29 > 0:49:33And then took out the camera and took this photograph of his grave.
0:49:33 > 0:49:35Right.
0:49:35 > 0:49:38And he felt that it was important to him,
0:49:38 > 0:49:41in the middle of this battle, or shortly after,
0:49:41 > 0:49:43when he's still in grave danger,
0:49:43 > 0:49:46to take his camera out and take this photograph.
0:49:46 > 0:49:49And did he know Ernest Fry's family?
0:49:49 > 0:49:50Yes, he did, yes.
0:49:50 > 0:49:52In his service book, there is the full address,
0:49:52 > 0:49:54so he was in contact with their family.
0:49:54 > 0:49:58So this could have been a record for their benefit as much as his?
0:49:58 > 0:50:01I suspect, absolutely, this was to show the family.
0:50:01 > 0:50:04- To show the family that their son had had a decent burial.- Yeah.
0:50:07 > 0:50:11As the war continued, Ernest Fry's grave was lost.
0:50:12 > 0:50:17But William's photograph remains as a permanent reminder
0:50:17 > 0:50:21of the sacrifice his battalion made that day.
0:50:21 > 0:50:24And the photograph is significant for another reason, too.
0:50:25 > 0:50:28From the pictures we have,
0:50:28 > 0:50:32this does seem that this is the last picture that your grandfather took,
0:50:32 > 0:50:35not only on the Somme but during the Great War.
0:50:35 > 0:50:37So it seems he... By then, he'd just had enough.
0:50:37 > 0:50:40I think he'd had a bellyful, yeah. Absolutely.
0:50:42 > 0:50:45The fact that William didn't want to take any more photographs
0:50:45 > 0:50:47is not unusual,
0:50:47 > 0:50:50as the horrors of war began to wipe away
0:50:50 > 0:50:54the sense of adventure the soldiers once had.
0:50:54 > 0:50:56By the end of the Battle of the Somme,
0:50:56 > 0:50:58private photography is increasingly rare.
0:50:58 > 0:51:00You really get the impression
0:51:00 > 0:51:05that men no longer see this as the adventure they had embarked upon.
0:51:05 > 0:51:07Now, I'm not saying these men were disillusioned,
0:51:07 > 0:51:10I'm not saying these men lacked morale,
0:51:10 > 0:51:13but the last thing they wanted to do was to take photographs
0:51:13 > 0:51:16to remind themselves of the terrible images
0:51:16 > 0:51:18that they were witnessing every day.
0:51:24 > 0:51:28The following morning, Michael Smallcombe returned to Wedge Wood,
0:51:28 > 0:51:32the place where his grandfather fought and would never talk about.
0:51:35 > 0:51:38William might have lost his love of photography here,
0:51:38 > 0:51:41but there was one image that Michael wanted to capture.
0:51:44 > 0:51:46The resonance that comes from knowing
0:51:46 > 0:51:49that my grandfather was here -
0:51:49 > 0:51:51a man I knew very well -
0:51:51 > 0:51:55as he came here as a young man under fire,
0:51:55 > 0:51:57that his best friend was killed here,
0:51:57 > 0:52:01you know, it makes the place very special.
0:52:02 > 0:52:06And, hopefully, even if the photograph doesn't show that,
0:52:06 > 0:52:09it will show it to me when I take it home.
0:52:12 > 0:52:14CAMERA CLICKS
0:52:24 > 0:52:28Almost 100 years ago, William Smallcombe
0:52:28 > 0:52:33and Walter Kleinfeldt were enemies who fought on these battlefields.
0:52:33 > 0:52:37Both volunteer soldiers and keen photographers,
0:52:37 > 0:52:41they had, at times, been less than two miles apart.
0:52:43 > 0:52:47Today, their ancestors are meeting up.
0:52:47 > 0:52:50It's really nice to meet you, I'm so pleased you're here.
0:52:50 > 0:52:51- Ja.- Shall we go inside?
0:52:53 > 0:52:58Michael and Volkmar want to compare the photos their forebears took.
0:52:58 > 0:53:01TRANSLATION:
0:53:04 > 0:53:08- Siebzehn...?- Il a dix-sept ans.- Ah. - Oui?- 17 years old, yes.
0:53:18 > 0:53:20By Pozieres, yeah.
0:53:20 > 0:53:25He's just 17, in a trench, carrying ammunitions...basket,
0:53:25 > 0:53:28I don't know what it's called, a carrier.
0:53:28 > 0:53:30I mean, this is...
0:53:30 > 0:53:33- Here, this is my grandfather, mein Grossvater.- Mm-hm.
0:53:33 > 0:53:38Also in a trench with his machine gun.
0:53:38 > 0:53:43And he's a bit older - he's 20, 22.
0:53:43 > 0:53:48But they're so similar, both without helmets, before helmets came in.
0:53:49 > 0:53:52Two young men sent to war.
0:53:52 > 0:53:53Well, they volunteered,
0:53:53 > 0:53:57but just standing in trenches the opposite sides of each other.
0:54:04 > 0:54:08- Three friends.- Three friends of your father's. Ah, yeah.
0:54:25 > 0:54:27Well, it's so similar, you know.
0:54:27 > 0:54:31We both have your father's pictures and my grandfather's pictures
0:54:31 > 0:54:36of groups of friends, and here's his friends,
0:54:36 > 0:54:41- all looking happy, relaxed, um...- Mm-hm.
0:54:41 > 0:54:44Probably before...
0:54:44 > 0:54:45they'd had a chance to see the horror
0:54:45 > 0:54:47that they were going to go through.
0:54:49 > 0:54:51Very similar, yes.
0:54:51 > 0:54:57These people are enemies who are trying to kill each other, really,
0:54:57 > 0:55:00but...they're the same.
0:55:00 > 0:55:03It's just groups of friends, that's all they are, just young men.
0:55:04 > 0:55:06The similarities in the photographs
0:55:06 > 0:55:10taken by William and Walter are striking,
0:55:10 > 0:55:14and the parallels are seen in all photos taken by soldiers
0:55:14 > 0:55:16of both sides during the war.
0:55:17 > 0:55:21There's a preoccupation with friends and colleagues,
0:55:21 > 0:55:24an intimacy born out of camaraderie.
0:55:26 > 0:55:29There's a pride in the weapons of war,
0:55:29 > 0:55:33and a fascination with the often surreal landscape around them.
0:55:35 > 0:55:38And in William and Walter's case,
0:55:38 > 0:55:40both men photographed the tragedy too.
0:56:09 > 0:56:12For a boy of 17 to take that picture,
0:56:12 > 0:56:13I think it's amazing, really.
0:56:13 > 0:56:16It's a very, very powerful image
0:56:16 > 0:56:18and it's sort of slightly similar to this,
0:56:18 > 0:56:21because we have here a crucifix,
0:56:21 > 0:56:24and this is the grave
0:56:24 > 0:56:27of my grandfather's best friend,
0:56:27 > 0:56:30who was killed and he buried him...
0:56:30 > 0:56:34- made this crucifix of shells.- Mm-hm.
0:56:34 > 0:56:37Having done that, he then took out his camera
0:56:37 > 0:56:39and took a picture of the grave.
0:57:01 > 0:57:05Walter Kleinfeldt died when Volkmar was still a boy,
0:57:05 > 0:57:09so he was never able to ask his father about the war
0:57:09 > 0:57:12or talk about their mutual love of photography.
0:57:12 > 0:57:15But finding the glass plates he left behind
0:57:15 > 0:57:19has helped to shed new light on the man he never really knew.
0:57:23 > 0:57:25Before making the journey home,
0:57:25 > 0:57:29there's one more place that Volkmar wants to visit.
0:57:29 > 0:57:32The largest German war cemetery on the Somme.
0:57:34 > 0:57:38It's a chance for him to reflect on his father's experiences
0:57:38 > 0:57:43and, of course, the extraordinary photographs he took during the war.
0:57:44 > 0:57:48A permanent reminder of what was supposed to be
0:57:48 > 0:57:50a young boy's great adventure.