Steel-helmeted Scots entrenched and cheerily awaiting a counterattack

Steel-helmeted Scots entrenched and cheerily awaiting a counterattack

Scots entrenched and cheerily awaiting a counter-attack

V18862

Somewhere in the distance the Germans are scanning the plain, trying to determine just where these sturdy Scotsmen are and how many of them there may be, but the scene that greets their eyes is just as monotonous, just as desolate and devoid of life as those tumbled fields of earth that stretch between you and the horizon beyond that row of stark trees, the mute evidence of the place where there once was a road. One would hardly think that there was any system to war while looking at this jumble of men and material. But those things that have been cast aside are useless, those ammunition cases and hand grenade boxes are empty. The plank was in the way in the trench, so they threw it aside. You can see the handles of broken shovels and the tail stock handle of a trench artillery carriage. The trench was one of those built in the late months of the war. The war then was more nearly approaching a war of movement and consequently the trench was made less elaborate and without the expensive timber work. But look at the men. They are far from useless and unserviceable with their rifles, bayonets fixed, close at hand. Their gas masks at the "alert," steel helmets strapped to their heads, waiting. Passing the time with cigarettes and gossip, waiting for the Germans to attack, and then—those rifles will spit flame and steel. Some of these intrepid Scots will fall but others will live, brush the mud and grime from their kilts and calmly await another attack which the Germans are likely to launch.

1 stereograph : b&w

1 gelatine silver print stereograph (8 x 15 cm) mounted on card (9 x 18 cm)

Copyright. The Keystone View Company

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World War through the stereoscope