Flares Gallery

In No Mans Land

"In No Man's Land: The Dread Territory Which Belongs to Neither German nor Briton" Royal engineers, working in the dark of No Man's Land to construct barbed wire barriers in front of British trenches, are exposed by German magnesium flares, giving this illustration a Caravaggioesque quality. Such work was extremely risky, or "nervy", as one Royal Engineer described it to The Times. He went on to say, "..it is done in the open and out of the kindly cover afforded by a trench... fortunate indeed is the working party if the enemy does not hear the sound of the picket being driven into the ground and open fire..." Flares lasted for 15 seconds, an eternity for men who had to throw themselves flat to the ground and lie inert until darkness returned. Bruce Bairnsfather depicted a similar situation in a cartoon accompanied by a quote from Wolfam's aria in Tannhauser. "Oh star of eve, whose tender bean Falls on my spirit's troubled dream." Date: 1915

© Illustrated London News/Mary Evans

Trenches at La Boutillerie, forward of Fleurbaix, WW1

By the light of the flare. My first impression of the trenches, at La Boutillerie, forward of Fleurbaix, Jan.15. The front line consisted of separate trenches of primitive construction without any communication. Bosche flares cast a ghastly glare over all. Enemy lines are seen in front of the distant trees. Annotated on back of picture - La Boutillerie, Fleurbaix sector. An impression actually painted in the trenches on the night of 15 January gives a good idea of how the flares sent up by the Germans lit up the country around. By Lieutenant Major John Empson Tindall, MC (b.1885). He joined the Royal Engineers as a Lieutenant and rose to the rank of Captain in the 1st Home Counties Field Company, Royal Engineers (later the 490th Field Company, Royal Engineers), 8th Division, BEF and then became Major commanding the 505th (Wessex) Field Company, 57th Division, BEF. Date: 1915

© David Cohen Fine Art/Mary Evans Picture Library

Inflatable German dinghy by G. H. Davis

Saving the Luftwaffe: an inflatable dinghy for defeated German airmen. It was carried by the larger German aircraft during the Second World War. Below is a photograph showing pilots of a British Spitfire squadron with a German collapsible rubber dinghy, discovered among the wreckage of a Junkers 87 plane which had been attacking a convoy at sea. It was shot down, and crash landed. Date: 1941

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans