The Tangier archive. THE GREAT WAR CHRONICLE

THe tangier ARCHIVE

THE GREAT WAR CHRONICLE

To Ángel Fuentes, maestro.

Casa de la Imagen, Logroño, Spain.

First edition, June 2014. © of the present edition: Casa de la Imagen. © of the texts: Carlos Traspaderne.

General coordination: Jesús Rocandio.

Historical investigation and texts: Carlos Traspaderne.

Graphic design: Jorge Elías.

Analogue laboratory: Mila Ruiz.

Documentary backgrounds: Casa de la Imagen Archives.

Archives property of: Carlos Calavia, Jesús Rocandio and Pablo San Juan.

Restoration and digital conversion: Casa de la Imagen.

Printing: Industrias Gráficas Castuera, S.A. ISBN: 978-84-697-0630-5.

Legal deposit: LR-351-2014.

Acknowledgements: Carlos Castuera, Elise Comarteau, Hervè Faure, Forum 14-18, Andrés García de la Riva, Gorka Lejarcegui, Teo Martínez, Javier Muro, Gala Pagniez, Ricardo Romanos, Bernardo Sánchez.

THe tangier ARCHIVE

THE GREAT WAR CHRONICLE

THe tAngIer ARCHIVE

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THE THREE DIMENSIONS OF AN ARCHIVE The archive found in Tangier is not three-dimensional only because of the technique used to take its pictures, it is also because of the importance and depth that it provides to the knowledge of an era that currently we can only sense with indirect narrations, once the seventy four millions of mobilised who saw and lived the First World War are deceased. Although it is an indirect source, this archive questions us personally and forces us to reconsider our prejudices about the Great War and what it meant to its participants. It can be stated that these photographs expand in several dimensions closely related: • A historic dimension, providing a unique documentary information about the Great War, adding unknown data until now and clarifying old mysteries. The great battles portray a quotidian life at the front and at the rear-guard of the troop and of the officers, the engineers of war and of the damage. This is completely free and personal, without political propaganda or commercial restrictions.

• An aesthetic dimension, where the important historic information is not framed in a series of images lacking more value. The archive’s photographs are truly beautiful (often in a cruel way) without the need of historic context to justify them. They are autonomous and conclusive images that speak to us of the true author, even without intending it.

• A biographic dimension, because this is the personal narration of an individual immersed deep into one of the biggest cataclysms in history. An autobiography that does not need words to be told but that structures itself as a long film in which each photograph reaches the relevance of a scene, of a sequence, individually important but acquiring its true meaning when it is linked to the one preceding and the following one.

This cinematographic sense can be viewed throughout our investigation, as confronted by the archive silence, the questions to unravel were accumulating: what these photographs were taken for? why are they stereoscopic images?, are they original and unpublished?, are they

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from an only a single author or several?, why did they end up in the remote Tangier? Most importantly one: who took the pics? The answer to this last one was not more relevant by itself than the others, going beyond satisfying our curiosity and giving importance to a lost author in the haze of history. Because the archive has enough autonomy to have its own voice and to be appreciated exclusively because of its extraordinary quality, without the need of being justified by a name. This could simply have been a homage to an unknown photographer, although it was not that way.

CASUS BELLI / The Great War began by chance. Because, aside of important national, economic, social or historic factors, at the end it was a random encounter between a student and a prince, a buildup of unexpected events and lack of foresight that pushed the world to the biggest tragedy it had ever known. The morning of June 28th 1914 was a splendid summer day, the sun was shining in Sarajevo, but the visit from the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife was twisted already. The Austrian Hungarian crown’s heir earlier in the day had escaped from a bomb attempt which had hurt several members of his retinue. The royal couple were unharmed although outraged.

One of the members of the Balkan conspiracy, a man called Gavrilo Princip, had watched the imperial car pass at full speed without being able to act; his moment to become infamous had passed. Crestfallen, he decided to eat a sandwich at Moritz Schiller café, opposite to Latin Bridge, weighing suicide before the plot was discovered. In the meantime, the imperial retinue decided to visit the wounded from the attack, without finding a better route than the one they had already went through; yet by going at high speed to avoid more unpleasant surprises. But the security chief was one of the wounded and nobody remembered to inform him of this change to the drivers, which followed the prearranged route into the Old City. The two first entourage cars entered into the narrow streets, followed by the Archduke’s Gräf & Stift Double Phaeton, which rounded the corner before being observed. The driver tried to reverse, but the clocks had stopped already. They were stopped precisely opposite the café by the Latin Bridge and Princip only needed to take some steps before standing five meters away, take out his gun and let off two mortal shots to inaugurate the XX Century.1 1 Currently, the vehicle and the Archduke’s blood stained mess jacket can be visited at the Heeresgeschichtliche Museum of Vienna.

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The same chance, that randomness of huge events, connected that moment with another one, quite less tragic, eighty five years later. In 1999, photo reporter Pablo San Juan (Logroño, 1960) was in Tangier working on a project about the frontier areas, those places that connect north and south physically and psychologically. The city where Kaiser William II provoked one of the crisis that heated up the climate for the Great War2 (another chance) was a propitious place for his work, due to the confluence of African cultures, as well as French and Spanish. During a pause in his work he approached one of the markets that fill the city asking for photography related objects, a common habit between professionals in foreign lands. Quickly, one of the sellers took him to the tiny shop of an antiquarian, far from the market, promising him something that may interest him. There, the seller showed him an ensemble of ten small wooden boxes drilled by bugs. After opening one of the boxes, in the interior was awaiting a jumbled group of glass plates.

Some slots were keeping them aligned showing timidly their upper part. The only way to see its content was taking them out and seeing them against the light, sheet by sheet. San Juan took one randomly. What he saw left him stupefied: a double image negative was showing a rudimentary tank surrounded by soldiers with the famous Adrian3 helmet. Carefully he returned it back to the box. He took another one. This time it was a biplane in an aviation field. Exultant, he deduced they were stereoscopic negatives from some military quartering, maybe from an old war. He asked if the photographer was known or if there was any clue about his identity. Inconnu, they answered.

San Juan decided to contact his colleague Jesús Rocandio (Logroño, 1958), director of the Casa de la Imagen and an expert in antique photography. After his short story, Rocandio’s answer was categorical: it was an historical discovery and those negatives had to be saved. After some brief negotiations, San Juan landed in the Peninsula with the archive, but even before arriving to Logroño a strange toxin ravaged him: he suffered dizziness and fever of inexplicable origin leaving him in bed for several days. When he finally arrived in Logroño, other members of the team, eager to see the plates, realised that the skin and the respiratory tracks became irritated 2 For a complete description on the crisis that lead to the war, The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914, by Margaret MacMillan (Turner Noema 2013).

3 The characteristic French iron helmet that was introduced from May 21st 1915, getting its name from the general foreman that adapted it, August-Louis Adrian. It was used until after the Second World War.

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when coming into contact with the negatives. Without any doubt, unknown custody conditions of organic elements such as the gelatine and the wood had produced the perfect habitat for parasites: the archive had created its own little Ypres.

THE TANGiER boxes / In its material aspect, we are talking about ten unvarnished wooden boxes eighteen centimetres deep, twelve wide and five height, with top lid and metallic clasps. The conservation estate is frankly bad, having being devoured by termites. The interior shows a series of slots to place fifty plates in vertical position, which allows fast access to any determined negative with the help of some guides attached to several of the boxes. These guides, printed on cardboard, same size as the lid interior have on one of the side’s instructions of use, explained in French under the title Classeur Vèrascopique. On the other one, there is a numbered list from one to fifty, with a line for the user to incorporate a brief description of each sheet. Placed on the lateral border of the box, the numbers coincide with the plates, which facilitate the search. The presence of these guides indicates the industrial origin of the boxes, since they were a frequent accessory for the photography enthusiasts to keep their works. Curiously, this efficient classification method was disregarded by the author of the photographs, since the guides appear empty. It is possible that because of being negatives he thought that, once developed, their search would not be as frequent. Nevertheless, the author did make his own general classification method. He numbered the boxes from zero to nine with small stickers, while dividing the archive in three big blocks: from box zero to four they were named as GE, number five and six as Montagne, and from seven to nine as Famille. A very generic compartmentalisation written with pencil on the box front, but solving the selection of the wanted theme. The last two epigraphs, Mountain and Family, cannot be clearer, but the meaning of the initials GE is darker. As shown later on, these five boxes amass the part of the archive referring to the First World War. In respect to the strictly photographic part, the archive is formed by 478 negative stereoscopic plates4. The fact of being negatives indicates that they were taken by hand by the author.

By definition, the negatives are camera originals, therefore unique. They are conserved in the photographer’s archive to make some positive copies whenever he wishes. They are the original matrix from which the positives are made, that will be seen by the images consumer, this one being 4 And one positive, made from one of the negatives. Its presence is an incognita.

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private or public. At the same time, a simple review of the addressed themes indicates that these photographs never left a domestic ambit. The author did not take these photographs to sell them and satisfy a public demand. He took them for personal use, and their exposition was reduced to the friends and relatives circle. This function gives these images the total creative freedom they show, as we will see.

The format of the plates is 45x107 mm, with two apparently identical images, although subtly different, of 40x45 mm, separated by an empty stripe. The slight divergence between the couple of images is explained by the ruling principle of the stereoscopic effect which corresponds with the average distance between human eyes. In this case, the measurement of the stereoscopic base5 is 63 mm. All this data indicates that the author used a Verascope Richard camera to take the photographs. The Verascope, which first model was released by Jules Richard in 1893, was a camera that was specially designed for the amateur photographer that wanted to produce images in the common three-dimensional format of the era. They were made up of more than 52,000 units during the sixty years its production was kept. Its incredible longevity and popularity was caused by the ease of use and the possibility of user’s personalisation, who could choose between different kinds of lenses, shutters, formats and even opt for using plates or film. The model that our photographer used, for glass plates 45x107 mm, was incorporating a chassis that allowed carrying twelve lists to expose. the augmented reality / Although the principles that rule the three-dimensional vision of the human being were known before, the first device that recreated them was the stereoscope from the British physicist Sir Charles Wheatstone (1802-1875).6 It was presented to the Royal Society of London on June 21st 1838, anticipating a year to the publication of the photographic inventiveness by Daguerre. Wheatstone’s invention was quite simple: by a system of mirrors it created the sensation of depth in some geometric figures drawn on paper. Its device, praised in scientific circles, was completely ignored by the public until it allied with the novel photographic 5 Separation of the two points of view. The bigger the separation, the bigger the volume sensation, although the parallax can be distorted, changing the relation between the objects.

6 Other of his inventions are the English concertina, the portable harmonium, the kaleidophone and the bridge that has his name.

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mechanism. In fact, in the year 1840, Wheatstone collaborated with the pioneer Fox Talbot to create images adapted to stereoscopy; although successful, they were isolated experiments. It would not be until the Scottish physicist Sir David Brewster (1781-1868)7 simplified the invention in 1849 and especially, from the success harvested at the Universal Exposition of London in 1851, when the invention was popularised. In fact one of the first people fascinated with the instrument was Queen Victoria herself, who in one of her visits spent a long time scrutinising the exposed stereoscopies. The period between 1856 and 1857 can be considered the golden age of the stereoscopic views industrially manufactured in the United Kingdom and France, just before languishing before the empire of the carte de visite, the bad quality of the offered copies by the manufacturers and the weariness of the public.

It will not be until the 1890’s that stereoscopy came back from its ashes after the arrival of American manufacturers with their offer of great quality views and, mainly, because of the irruption of the amateur figure, to whom the industry supplies with the resources to create their own relief photographs. Around 1900, the amateur photographers in France are estimated between 250,000 and 300,000, and many of them became interested in the stereoscopic method.

In 1903 the Stéreo-Club8 was founded in Paris, dedicated to this kind of photography through the promotion of publications, contests, outings, etc.

Although with the new century it came into competition with the postal card and the press photography, stereoscopy was very popular with amateurs in 1914, and many of them left with their devices to war when they were mobilised. Even after the conflict there was a notable reappearance of the industrial stereoscopic views following the recent war events, mostly portrayed with some kind of prudery and self-censorship.

As we can verify, the author’s election of the stereoscopic format, far from being a solitary extravagance, is according to the common tastes and habits of its time, social as much as photographic. But he will know how to add a personal impression through a unique look.

7 Inventor as well of another optic device: the kaleidoscope.

8 Still currently existing, counting with five hundred members.

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LEtters from the front / After checking the plates, some crucial data emerges: all the plates were noted down by the author, with more or less profusion. In the empty four centimetre square stripe between the images of the stereoscopic pair, the photographer had the space to write on the glass all that he wanted to remember about what was represented. This way, he expressed the date, which he always indicated; the place, which sometimes he omits, and his impressions, which go from the descriptive to the ironic and from the succinct to the exhaustive.

After the transcription of the annotations, almost palaeographic work because of the deterioration of ink, the support size and the taste of the author for acronyms, some data of vital importance is revealed, framing what would otherwise be meaningless images in a historical context giving them sense.

Beginning with the chronological space, the extreme dates point out that the photos were taken between February 1916 and August 1935. This timeframe confirms that the photographs of war theme that monopolise the first five boxes correspond to the First World War. In the wide space of two decades, it is surprising that 254 images correspond to the period of the Great War, from halfway through until its conclusion on November 11th 1918, while some are scarce 224 cover 17 years of post-war. The fact that the author dedicated such a wide percentage of his work to barely two and a half years of conflict marks the vital and photographic importance that this was for him, on top of his ambitious intention of representing it in many varied aspects. The evident doubt is why there are no photos of the first phase of the war from 1914 to 1916 or even previous ones. It is not probable that a box got lost with the unexpected events of the archive, because the zero box looks like the oldest one. He did not take the camera to the front or he did not have it yet? Are the photos of 1916 the first ones that he took in his life? Did he shoot also with other cameras, other formats? These are some of many mysteries that the archives do not clarify.

With respect to the geographic location, our photographer was a French soldier serving in the called Western Front. This consisted in a line of trenches that meandered between the Vosgos and the English Channel through the territories of North France and Belgium. Our man travels the French regions most punished by the conflict: Aisne, Marne, Oise, Somme and Pas-de-Calais, alternating on occasion the battles that happened during this time: Verdun and the Somme on 1916, Chemin des Dames on 1917, the German offensives and allied counter offensives on 1918.

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The war will end in the recently liberated Belgium, not without having passed before by the municipalities that were marked by fire in the horror of war: Arras, Ypres, Amiens, Combles or Laffaux. Luckily, he will pass this hard time with army leave that he enjoys with his family, although it will not be until the post-war period when he will be able to travel comfortably to the Alps, Vienna, Cannes, Turin and Algiers. A leisure calendar truly privileged for those times, which looks like convergence on the area of France between the Alps and Rhône. In this epoch emerges a special link with the French territories of the North of Africa, most prominent are the visits in the 1930’s to advanced positions right in the Moroccan-Algerian desert.

Finally, the comments with his impressions show great diversity of theme, extension and tone. Keeping ourselves within the war period, they are quite austere during 1916, with scarce geographic indications; they are reduced to the calibre of the cannons and to a matter that he is passionate about: the historical architecture. Thus, he usually writes down the name and location of each church or castle that he takes photographs of, complementing it several times with the century of construction. This is a motive that frequents as a witness to the destruction provoked by the brutality of the war. In the next year, 1917, he becomes more explicit in his notes, clarifying what we see, although sometimes he asks or exclaims himself. He lavishes with the destructions provoked by the Boche burnt soil politics (a term of disrespect referring the Germans, which he never abandons) after their retreat to the Hindenburg Line, and he feels an ironic curiosity for the British, especially for the Scottish. In 1918 he frequently depicts the modern devices that begin to populate the battle field: tanks, planes and other machines. Between the absences, it should be noted that on very few occasions it is indicated the name of a regiment or a soldier.

Even more relevant: on no annotation, not even on the post-war period ones, is produced any data that clearly clarifies the author’s identity. Despite a thorough exam, the written information does not clarify this point by itself. It must dialogue with the image.

PARts of war / The reduced size of the plates and the difficulty of visualisation inherent to the negative compel to the complete digitalization of the archive. Once developed, these digital images reveal a detail level impossible to appreciate otherwise, unravelling many of their mysteries. With respect to the part of the archive concerning the Great War, two characteristics stand out:

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•

•

The first one, the huge thematic variety, especially if two restrictive factors are accounted for: the limitation to a work corpus quite reduced (let’s remember that there are only 254 images that also include the permissions far from the front), and the presence of the war conflict itself, where the military obligations tend to leave little time for leisure and tourism. Without a doubt, the reason for this profusion of themes is explained by some concrete cause related to the identity of our unknown soldier, as we will confirm. The photographed motives cover the practical totality of aspects that generate the war on the Western Front. Any detail escapes the binocular look of the camera: the trenches, the marches, the parades, the cannons, the planes, the tanks, the damages and the dead play out in front of the observer. All the nationalities that fought were there: from the Scottish with kilt digging holes through to the downhearted German prisoners burying the corpses of the battle field, to the Annamite workers from the Indochinese colonies, forced to set up the rear-guard. And of course English and French, who logically are the most photographed. The photographer moved with ease through the fronts and rear-guards, with letter of marque to capture what looked interesting or curious to him. Always getting to the preparations or consequences of the battle, appearing careless and without taking all of that too seriously, more like a natural phenomenon, cataclysmic but unavoidable. Therefore his predilection for documenting the anecdotic of the Grande Guerre; either being a railway sleeper on the roof of a house, the observation positions of the enemy or the games of some officers at the beach.

The second relevant characteristic is the aesthetic quality and technical solvency of the photographer. They are not simple images with historical interest as documents of a decayed era: on a visual level they are photographs attractive to the contemporary spectator. This aesthetic fascination is closely related to the technical capacity of the author, who resolves with ease complicated conditions for the photographic fact without losing the decisive instant that gives life to his images. The author had exceptional visual acuity, very far from the wizened official and journalistic photography of the time. In conscientious compositions he knows how to enclose the immediacy of a fast and mechanical conflict through the instantaneity, a quality that photography had conquered not long ago thanks to the more sensitive emulsions and reduced cameras. Thus he constructs a blunt and solid work that brings him closer to the great war photo reporters yet to come than to the artificial set ups

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characteristic of the 1914’s war. An amateur reporter reveals himself as a true author (even without intending it), dealing in a skilled way the particularities of the photography in three dimensions, composing successive scenes that highlight the relief effect and help understand the real proportions of what is photographed. Thus this three-dimensional war is presented to the observer as a phantasmagoria sinisterly realist, which knocks down the time frontier to reveal itself near and disturbing.

To appreciate the auteur’s particular look, let’s take two images from the archive and confront them with many other examples of the usual kind of photography that was consumed through newspapers and postcards. On May 19th 1917 our photographer took a series in the town of Ribécourt, amongst them an image stands out in which they are tearing down the battered tower of a church [PHOT. 106]. At the same time, an agency photo taken that very same day and widely spread by the newspapers showed identical scenery with a very similar framing. But the differences are evident: where the professional photographer only generates a registry, our author knows how to wait for the action moment to freeze the instant of the fall, preventing the moment where the image will express all its power.

In the case of the postcard, the château next to Soupir [PHOT. 93] is shown with correction, an illustration of the Boche’s savagery. Nevertheless, our man decides to depict the same theme distancing himself, giving it context. Thus, he goes around the building until he finds the take that gives him the most information, many of it contradictory. From the garden with lake, he builds up a picture in the classic way accumulating the reading layers. The photo is taken by a wire fence that reminds us to the proximity of the front, a character who provides the scale, a combination of frivolous actions at the bank of the artificial river (which includes soldiers fishing, washing and boating), a sumptuous stair and, at the back, the devastated palace. With the game of contrasts and contraries, what could be reduced to the cold verification of a destruction gains interest.

Once all the annotations and images have been reviewed the identity of the author is not yet garnered. But when the photographs are chained chronologically a coincidence emerges. On August 8th 1917 a series of five photographs were taken of a jovial group of officers at the bank of a river, with the note Groupe Givord au Monchy-Humières. But two of the photographs [PHOT.

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Up left: RibÊcourt church (unknown photographer, 1917) Up right: Phot. 106: 19/5 1917 Down left: Postcard of château de Soupir (unknown photographer, 1918) Down right: Phot. 93: 3/5 1917

147 AND 149] are practically identical: a frontal shot of the group with the river on the background.

Observed thoroughly we discover that, from all the characters, only one changes position in the lapse between one image and the other, going from being sat down on the first row to place himself standing still at the back. That individual cannot be any other than the photographer himself, the owner of the photographic machine who got up to prepare the device and change the sheet.

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Up: Phot. 147: 8/8-17 (08/08/1917) Down: Phot. 149: 8/8-17 Groupe au Givord MonchyHumières (08/08/1917 Groupe Givord at Monchy-Humières)

Now that his physical appearance has been set, it begins to stick out in other photographs, as much from the war years as of subsequent ones. In that summer of 1917 he shows up as a mature man of decisive gesture and sharp looks, with a dense moustache and silver temples. By the insignias he wears, at this point he has the rank of Captain of the French army,9 he has been for at least two years destined to the front10 and he has been awarded with the Croix de Guerre.11 Nevertheless, his uniform does not help us to clarify in what element of the army he is serving.

The annotation of the series contains two clues more to solve the enigma: Groupe and Givord.

9 The képi has three embroidered sashes.

10 By the three chevrons of his left sleeve. The first one was awarded after a year of service in the known as army area and the next ones for every six months period.

11 Military award created on April 2nd 1915, destined to reward the value in combat, individual or collective. It is estimated that there were distributed more than two millions throughout the war.

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In the French army, the groups receive the name from the officer in command, in artillery12 as in the Service Automobile. That team was formed on August 2nd 1914 as part of the called Train des équipages militaires (military transport)13 and it was in charge of providing drivers to the motorized vehicles, from commandment to trucks. Without having more data, the doubt between artillery and Service Automobile is cleared with an opportune excerpt of the Revue des deux mondes which narrates the combat of March 30th 1918 at Le-Plèssis-de-Roye:14

This confirms the existence of a Groupe Givord within the Service Automobile, other theories are discarded such as the belonging of the author to the 99e Régiment d’Infanterie, who poses solemnly with his General Staff on July 1917 [PHOT. 133], for reasons which his biography will explain. At the same time, several Journal official issues confirm the service on the Train of a Pierre Antoine Henri Givord, sometimes simplified as PAH Givord. Having consigned complete name and division, we proceed to consult his military record, currently conserved in the Service historique de la Défense (SHD) from the French Ministry of Defence. The documents confirm that we found our author. From now on he has abandoned the pit of oblivion.

12 They were formed by the conjunction of three or four batteries.

13 Which also included the hipomobile transport.

14 Revue des deux mondes January 1st 1919, page 343.

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Phot. 133 detail: 7/7-17 E.M. du 99e Inf.ie (07/07/1917 General Staff of the 99e Régiment d’Infanterie)

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THE GLORY PATHS OF CAPTAIN GIVORD

Pierre Antoine Henri Givord was born on January 9th 1872 in the 2e arrondissement of the city of Lyon. He was the first-born son of a couple Jean Baptiste Givord (born in 1831), civil engineer and trader and Adelaïde Marie Joséphine Françoise Troccon (from 1844), who got married in 1866. When their son was born, Jean Baptiste was already mayor of Marlieux, a little town of six hundred inhabitants in the department of Ain, where he had lands.15 We know about his humanist interest because of a brief treatise published a couple of years before about the situation in this swamp region: Les victims de la fièvre en Dombes devant l’opinion publique.16 The Givords were a prosperous family, as it is shown by their well-off residence, number 1 of place Gensoul of Lyon and because of the assets exploitation by his paternal grandfather Pierre Antoine, activity that allowed him to live with ease at rue des Celestins, right in the centre of city. His implication in the city life can be ascertained by the belonging of Jean Baptiste to the Societé d’Agriculture, Histoire Naturelle et Arts Utiles of Lyon from 1878.17 Some years later the family moved to the medieval rue de la Baleine, 2.

In the meantime, France launched its Third Republic after the disastrous politics of Napoleon III, who had driven to the Franco-Prussian war, the defeat of Sedan and the humiliating proclamation of William I of Prussia as German emperor at the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles.

In addition to the social convulsion of the Commune and its bloody repression there was a 15 Journal de l’Ain November 5th 1871, page 3 and Journal officiel de la République française May 19th 1872, n. 137, page 3345.

16 Translatable as The victims of the fever at Dombes before the public opinion. Printout of Vve Chanoine, Lyon 1869.

17 Annales de la Societé d’Agriculture, Histoire Naturelle et Arts Utiles, several numbers from 1879.

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discomfort towards the barbarian Boche, aggravated with the painful annexation to the Reich of Alsatia and Lorena. The territoires perdus, symbolised by the Strasbourg sculpture of place de la Concorde covered with a black veil, will feed the revenge wish in the French collective subconscious for the years to come. In this period Lyon consolidated itself as one of the main cities in the country, counting 333,417 inhabitants the year Pierre Antoine was born. The material prosperity and the population growth that brought the extensive industrialization led to the reform and urban extension of ample areas of the city, modernising according to the rational spirit of the epoch. The economic and cultural strength give good testimony to the universal expositions celebrated in 1872 and 1894. Between the Lyonesse industries of that epoch one stands out that will have great repercussion in the image world: Lumière, maker of the dry photographic plates.18 After reaching twenty years old, and while he directed his studies towards Law, Pierre Antoine Henri enrolled on November 11th 1882 as volunteer for the army for a period of three years. His file describes him as a young man of 1.72 metres of height, brown hair and grey eyes.19 While the Lumière brothers gave the first turns of the handle of the cinematograph invention, Givord was strolling with his rifle on the shoulder through the quarters of the 99e Régiment d’Infanterie, stationed on those days right in Lyon.20 The next year, Givord was promoted to corporal while he was passing to the reserve and his regiment was transferred to Gap, a city located two hundred kilometres South, in the very Alps. It looks like the beautiful outlook of this area fascinated young Givord, as shown by the numerous post-war photos that capture visits to the city and nearby mounts. As a reserve soldier, Givord had the obligation of returning to his unit periodically for instruction exercises; that is how he spends some of the summer months while he was the rank 18 Antoine Lumière (1840-1911), father of the famous brothers, had stablished a photographic studio in Lyon where he also offered virgin plates. Commercialised under the denomination Etiquette bleue, its stunning success allowed opening a specialised factory at the Monplaisir district, immortalised on the first production of the cinema history: La sortie de l’usine Lumière à Lyon (1895).

19 It is added to this: ordinary forehead, hooked nose, medium mouth, rounded chin and oval face.

20 The 99e RI is a historic unit of the French army, which after its formation in 1757 had battled in almost all its country wars to this days. For more information about its role before and after the Great War, consult Le 99e Régiment d’Infanterie. Historique du 99e Régiment d’Infanterie de 1757 jusqu’a os tours Printed B. Arnaud, Lyon s.f.

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of Sergeant.21 The last year of the century was important for his double life military and civil: in April he was promoted to sub-Lieutenant of the reserve:22

And in October he presented at the university his doctoral thesis under the title Les sociétés de secours mutuels et l’assurance obligatoire contre la maladie.23 Doctor in Law, shortly after he was already practising as clerc d’avoué (judicial secretary).

These years were marked by the heated dispute in the core of French society by the affaire Dreyfus. This case, in which the official Alfred Dreyfus was accused of a shady case of espionage for the Germans, more because of the fact of being a Jew than there was the minimum evidence of guilt, cracked France between his supporters, or dreyfusards, and opponents, or antidreyfusards.

Its long judicial journey, which began in 1894 with the defendant’s military reduction in grade, followed by several jail sentences and ended with the reintegration of Dreyfus in 1906, shocked national conscience with its traces of anti-Semitism and chauvinism, as Émile Zola reported on his article J’acusse.24 Without a doubt, Givord must had felt involved in the subject because of his double condition of lawyer and military, since further his juridical interest, the affaire splashed especially the resistant to change military class, that bunched up to not have to listen to the reproaches of society.

To start the century, Givord got married on July 30th 1900 with Marie Louise Joséphine Besson, born in 1878 and native of Lons-le-Saunier (Jura department).25 The couple will find their home at chemin des Massues, Champvert district, inhabiting a maison belonging to the Givords from 21 The years 1895 (when he is promoted), 1898, 1899, 1902 and 1904.

22 Journal officiel de la République française April 29th 1899, n. 116, page 2341.

23 Translatable as The societies of mutual aid and the compulsory insurance against illness.

24 This plea in Dreyfus favour was published as an open letter to the president Faure on the front page of the newspaper L’Aurore of January 13th 1898.

25 Among the witnesses that attended the act, stands out Henri Jean, president of Civil Tribunal of Lyon.

25

before 1868. In this area of the 5e arrondisement, on the other side of the river but next to the centre and with vast green areas, it was the favourite place for the Lyonesse high society to build their leisure mansions and get away from the urban agglomeration. In 1903 his father Jean Baptiste died, remembered as a civil engineer and founder of the magazine Nouvelles affiches26, dedicated to the edition of legal notices.27 Despite this loss, during this time the Champvert family grew with Pierre Antoine three children, two males and a girl.

With respect to the martial life, on 1905 and after thirteen years of service, Givord passed to the Armeé Territoriale, changing his destination to the 109e Régiment d’Infanterie Territoriale (or RIT) in Vienne, very close to Lyon.28

The territoriale was the last phase of military service for the French, where they stayed put until they were forty five years old, with some eventual manoeuvres similar to the ones that Givord practiced in the summers of 1906, 1908 and 1910. The humorously called pépères (grandpas) only had to have rear-guard functions in a hypothetical conflict, though during the Great War this mission would change. In 1907, Givord was promoted to Lieutenant in the reserve.

26 Nos Lyonnais d’hier: 1831-1910 by Adolphe Vachet. Lyon 1910. The complete text states: GIVORD (JEAN BAPTISTE), né en 1831, mort le 10 mars 1903, fut un ingénieur civil, et le fondateur des «Nouvelles affiches». Ce fut un homme de bien qui se concilia l’estime de tous.

27 Recueil des arrêts du Conseil d’État November 23rd 1895, page 750 and s.

28 Journal officiel de la République française November 21st 1905, n. 316, page 6760.

26

On these dates, and just behind the political agitation generated by the Dreyfus case, the nationalist and pre-war climate intensified in the whole of France, mostly motivated by the increase of frictions with Germany because of Morocco. These disagreements, provoked by the French ambition of colonising directly or indirectly the Atlantic territories in the North of Africa, will be known as Moroccan crisis. The first one, provoked in 1905 by the visit of Kaiser William II to Tangier and his false proclamation guaranteeing Moroccan independence, settled in a kind of draw at the conference in Algeciras the next year. This pact did not avoid the militarisation of the common frontier and the army mobilisation, setting a dangerous precedent as a way of diplomatic pressure. The tension rise brought about the reinforcement of the Entente Cordiale formed by France, United Kingdom and Russia against the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. The armed peace was every time less peaceful and more armed.

The second Moroccan crisis was provoked by sending the German war ship Panther to Agadir’s port on 1911 as a direct challenge to France. Its diplomatic aim with some territorial compensations could not hide the fact that Europe was accelerating its march towards an international war.

Unaware of this agitation, Monsieur Givord decided to incorporate to the Cercle du Comerce of Lyon while he continued his calm life at Champvert’s suburb, where in 1910 he and his mistress used to receive visits on Thursdays.29

All this tranquillity will be brutally distorted/twisted with the international tension rise after the Archduke’s murder in 1914. This time the shady diplomatic deals did not work and on July 28th Austria-Hungary crossed the Serbian frontier, accelerating a cascade of crossed war 29 Le Tout Lyon. Annuaire des salons à l’usage des gens du monde: Lyon ou ses environs. Print. P. Legendre, Lyon 1910, page 141.

27

The continuous line represents the Western Front in this German map of the time.

28

declarations. Finally, at four pm on August 2nd France decreed the order of its army’s general mobilisation. The Grande Guerre had begun.

Between the ones called to serve the Patrie there were the territorials, such as our protagonist.

The very same day Givord was called to reintegrate in his unit, the 11th company of the third battalion of the 109e RIT. At the beginning of the war this battalion counted with troops of 14 officials, 666 soldiers, 7 horses and 9 mules.30 The unit remained in the reserve to defend the Lyon area, not departing to the front until October, when the French setback of August was stopped in the decisive Battle of Marne in the beginning of September.31 The 109e RIT deployed in the North of France, in the Champagne region, between Reims and Verdun. That autumn, the war would know a series of successive violent blows, known as the race to the sea, before stabilising in winter as a positions war with entrenched armies, thus beginning a bloody period of halt for more than three years.

The territorial regiments did not occupy first line positions except in areas considered calm, participating only indirectly in the combat. The pépères missions include, between other tasks, the vigilance of forts, deposits and positions, guarding prisoners, the adaptation of aviation camps, train lines, roads and trenches, building accommodations and staff transport, ammunition and provisions.

Precisely, this last mission is the one our protagonist will hold. On April 1st 1915, Lieutenant Givord received his new destination, passing to an automobile formation of the 4e Armeé. The rest of the year was spent by the French army in a series of expensive offensives in Artois and Champagne which did not achieve any result.

The archive’s visual support details Givord’s geographic vicissitudes in the war, being able to follow his odyssey almost daily. Nevertheless we have to wait until next year’s February 8th for Givord to use for the first time his stereoscopic camera with a shot of the bombarded church of Souain, in Marne department [PHOT. 1]. A couple of weeks after his first photo, on February 21st 1916, began the most brutal battle of the war for the French army: Verdun. Despite the huge cost

30 JMO (Journal de marches et operations) 109e Régiment d’Infanterie Territoriale.

31 An excellent narration of that first month of war was given by Barbara Tuchman in The Guns of August (Península 2004).

29

German map of the retreat to the Hindenburg Line. The discontinuous line indicates the line of the front before March 1917, the continuous is the Hindenburg Line (known as Siegfriedstellung by the Germans) and the dotted one shows the results of the Arras and Chemin des Dames battles.

30

in human lives and material resources32 of the three hundred days battle, it seems that Givord did not participate in it with his transport unit, between March and May he is still in Marne, more than a hundred kilometres from the devastating fight.

Although he continues taking photos, Givord resists to note down more locations during that decisive year, but the documents report that in July he was promoted to Captain as a temporary title, within the automobile service of the 8th squadron of the Train:33

For 1917, the brand-new Captain Givord begins to expand on his photographic annotations, taking much more than a hundred of photos between February and August. This profusion coincides with the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line, a skilled defensive manoeuver where they relinquished terrain to shorten their front to forty kilometres, entrenching themselves in the new impregnable bunkers.34 What the French found in that given area between Arras and Soissons left them astonished. The Germans had put into practice their doctrine of burnt earth with brutal precision: blown up houses, burnt down farms, mined monuments, pulled up trees, poisoned wells. Cities such as Ham, Noyon, Roye or Nesle did not have a stone unturned. Givord, sent to that barren terrain and terrified by what he saw, he devoted himself to photograph it systematically, as personal testimony of the war consequences.

In the meantime, on the other side of the front at the West of Soissons, the French army was bleeding with the absurd offensive in which the general Nivelle was insisting on Chemin des Dames, a plateau solidly defended by the Germans. Between April and May, the French suffered 187,000 casualties there. Assault after assault, the troops were close to rebellion, the 32 France counted 61,000 dead, 101,000 disappeared and 216,000 wounded, with a consumption of 23 million of shells.

33 Journal officiel de la RÊpublique française August 3rd 1916, n. 209, page 6958.

34 This manoeuver was denominated Operation Alberich and it was carried through between February 9th and March 15th of 1917.

31

French map of the protrusion of Laffaux, with the front line of October 23rd and 25th 1917.

The blue dot marks the fort of La Malmaison, which named the battle.

situation exploded in the summer with the mutinies. The soldiers rejected going back to the front. A mix of repression and improvements relieved the situation before the enemy noticed, but made it impossible for the Gallic army to recover the initiative until quite later on.

Resolutely ignoring these events in his images, on July 11th the temporary Captain Givord achieved the definitive degree:35

35 Journal officiel de la RÊpublique française July 15th-16th 1917, n. 190, page 5506.

32

A new situation that seems to celebrate with his former colleagues of 99e RI [PHOT. 133]. This designation qualified him to command a group of transport de materiel: the Groupe Givord. Each groupe of the Service Automobile was commanded by a Captain, from which it received the name and whose orders left four sections, each one provided with twenty vehicles, forty five men and one officer.36 In August were taken a famous series with the other unit officers at the banks of the river, before the Capitaine enjoyed a two week leave permit that he used to have tourist visit with the whole family in the centre of France.

The French recovered the offensive impulse with a limited but well planned manoeuvre.

On October 23rd they attacked the protrusion known as Laffaux, on the West end of Chemin des Dames. The operation, preceded by six days of bombardment,37 was a success, concluding in two days with a consistent advance of three kilometres. It was precisely when Givord appeared on the terrain, taking pictures of the German prisoners forced to clean the corpses from the combat area near to the Moulin de Laffaux; a small fraction of the ten thousand captured enemies. Thanks to this success France recovered the optimism, but decided to wait until their American allies finished their deployment for them to take over the next war efforts. In November, the Groupe Givord was transferred by the orders of the 3e Armeé while the fear to the German definitive offensive grew, once Russia had abandoned the fight. A concentration of German offensives at the Western Front was carried out that winter, while the Groupe Givord passed to depend on the Groupement Heilman, formed by the ammalgomation of six groups. Captain Givord was destined to the tranquil Combles, preceding the storm that was coming.

On March 21st 1918 the German thunder burst with a spectacular advance of sixty divisions between Arras and Oise river that put full stop to the positions war. The allied retreat was generalised, as Givord photographed, immersed in the chaos of the roads when his Groupe was hastily reassigned to the 3e Armeé on March 24th.

36 Historique du 8e Escadron du Train: guerre de 1914-1918. Print. J. Belvet, Dijon 1920. A summary of the intervention of these units in the war: La Voie Sacrée. Le poumon de Verdun (Direction de la mémoire, du patrimoine et des archives).

37 It is considered the battle with highest artillery concentration by lineal metre of the whole First World War.

33

While the Boche were advancing, threatening Paris as they were four years before, Captain Givord directed a spectacular evacuation in Le-Plèssis-de-Roye on March 30th. Between the 5th and the 15th of the next month he moved sanitary material under enemy fire from the hospital in Ressons-sur-Matz, a fact that shines as a milestone in his record.

After these frenetic events, and with the German offensive still at its peak, Givord received a permit that allowed him to return home on May 9th, in time to attend the First Communion of his son Leon. Back to service, Givord spent May and June at the North coast, close to Dunkerque, possibly on instruction exercises. Some time on the beach that he dedicated to have bucolic views and entertainment with his artillery colleagues. In July, Captain Givord went back to the front line as part of the 20th squadron of the Train:38

By then the German offensive had already ended and the allies passed to the counterattack.

From July 18th to 21st, Givord carried out in charge of his Groupe a risky task of resupplying ammunition to the front lines. In August, the German line was in tatters and their moral sunk.

Givord returned to the destruction subject while he advances through conquered terrain. The footprints of the battle are devastating yet the allies penetrate deeper into the enemy positions each time. In September our Captain was designated deputy of Commander Lebel. By October Givord was assigned to Belgium, passing by Ypres before ending up in the town of Hooglede where he was surprised by the armistice that ceased the fire at eleven hours of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918. The Grande Guerre had ended.

Nevertheless, that ceasefire did not mean official peace, hence the troops were kept guard in their positions. It would not be until the end of the year that our protagonist would be demobilised. In January 1919, while the details of the Versailles treaty were being completed, Givord was reassigned to be part of the 14e Escadron of the Train, already stationed in his home town. Now he had time to practise his two great hobbies: alpinism and tourism. He visited 38 Journal officiel de la RÊpublique française July 12th 1918, n. 188, page 6012.

34

Algiers in 1921, Austria in 1922, Tunisia and Italy in 1923, Monaco in 1925, the African desert in 1932 and 1934, Italy again in 1935... without enumerating the numerous routes as he went through the whole France.

Returning to the martial subject, on November 11th 1920 and to celebrate the victory’s second anniversary, Pierre Antoine Henri was officially designated Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur:39

Next year, the family visited the battle camps of Verdun, where Pierre Antoine Henri immortalised his kids in places that will always remain in the collective memory of French people, such as fort Vaux.40 When in 1922 he was fifty years old and he had spent already thirty in the army, the old Capitaine asked to continue providing service to the boards of the Armeé Territoriale, which was granted to him.

A little detail from that year reveals how Givord felt the historical importance of the times he had lived as protagonist. In April 1922 he organised an excursion with his children to Noyon, where four years before he photographed the destruction of the nearby château of Mont Renaud [PHOT. 236]. Although the castle was devastated, he made them pose in the very same place where before there was not any trace of humanity, as a modest family victory.

Finally he was promoted to the rank of chef d’escadron41 in 1928. His military life ended due to his age, the day before turning sixty one years old, on January 8th 1933. Strangely enough, his photographic life (at least the stereoscopic one) ended a couple of years later. In the 30s, on top 39 Journal officiel de la République française November 11th 1920, n. 308, page 18038. The Honour Legion is the most important French distinction and it is given to civilians or soldiers, nationals or foreigners, for extraordinary merits.

40 Georges Blond wrote a vivid short story of the fort resistance and the rest of the battle in Verdun (Inédita 2008).

41 Journal officiel de la République française May 10th 1928, n. 111, page 5220. The rank is equivalent to Commander and it is the first degree of superior officer.

35

Left: phot. 236: 7-1918 Restes du château au Mont Renaut (07/1918 Château rests at Mont Renaud) Right: Avril 1922 Voyage a Noyon (April 1922 Trip to Noyon)

of travelling and enjoying family life, Monsieur Givord dedicated himself to editing, a task in which he continued to immerse himself in after the Second Great War, adding his belonging to the Association des Anciens Etudiants en Droit of Lyon University.42 Pierre Antoine Henri Givord died on January 1st 1960 at the arrondissement of the city of Lyon. He was about to turn eighty eight years old.

The photographer Givord shows us that amateurs, those who feel a curiosity for what surrounds them, can achieve great works, even better than those by constrained professionals.

His photographs do not have a propaganda or utilitarian intention, not even an exalting one.

They were taken by the simple pleasure of having those images. To show, while in slippers, dad’s war to the family. In his independence, Givord reveals himself as a singular exception within the photographic story of the First World War. Without a doubt, the means’ history has to include that unique conjunction of technique ability, aesthetic sense and documentary vigour. It must be now, a hundred years later, after coming across his work in an African flea market. It is for sure that he would think the same thing he noted down in several of his negatives: curieux.

42 Journal officiel de la République française May 10th 1928, n. 111, page 5220. The rank is equivalent to Commander and it is the first degree of superior officer.

36

war wounds The conservation state of these plates of gelatine-bromide is in general correct, with the typical alterations that can be expected in this kind of material with an age of around a century (silver reflection, abrasions, etc.). Nevertheless, it is surprising that the most damaged material corresponds to latest dates, being better conserved the images from the first epoch belonging to the World War. This late wearing seems due to developing defects and the action of residual chemicals than to the passing of the years.

Subjected to restoration and digitalised with high resolution camera, assuring the minimum stress to such delicate materials, the plates have been individually isolated to guarantee their conservation to the maximum. The archives digitalised by this procedure have the maximum tonal rank without exaggerating the contrast and the characteristic grain of the emulsions used in that era. The posterior visual reintegration has been the most limited possible, eliminating only what years had added and a careless manipulation: scratches, dust specks, etc.

With respect to developing and the copy printing, lacking of other first-hand examples from the author, attempts have been made to emulate the tone and contrast of the war photographs published during and after the conflict. As a reference emerging formats from that era have been used: the photographic book. By fascicles or loose volumes they were edited, several volumes over the visual history of the war, complemented many times with descriptive texts. Between those used for the Givord archive process we can name: Episodios de la Guerra Europea by Julián Pérez Carrasco (A. Martín, Barcelona 1919); Der Stählernen Jahre and Der Weltkrieg im Bild

by Werner Beumelburg (National-Archiv, Berlin 1929 and 1930); Das Antlitz des Weltkrieges and Tempestades de Acero by Ernst Jünger (Neufeld & Henius Verlag, Berlin 1930 and Iberia, Barcelona 1930).

Carlos Traspaderne. Casa de la Imagen.

37

38

PHOT. 73

PHOT. 75

PHOT. 76

39

PHOT. 112

PHOT. 124

PHOT. 128

40

PHOT. 136

PHOT. 169

PHOT. 177

41

PHOT. 193

PHOT. 195

PHOT. 197

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LIFE La fotografía (Salvat 1976).

BRUCE, J.M. Bristol Fighter vol. 1 (Albatros Productions 1997).

BRUCE, J.M. Bristol Fighter vol. 2 (Albatros Productions 1998) BULL, S. World War I Trench Warfare (1) 1916-18 (Osprey 2006).

BULL, S. World War I Trench Warfare (2) 1916-18 (Osprey 2006).

CHAPPEL, M. Scottish Units in the World Wars (Osprey 1994).

CHAPPEL, M. The British Army in World War I (1) The Western Front 1914-16 (Osprey 2003).

CHAPPEL, M. The British Army in World War I (2) The Western Front 1916-18 (Osprey 2006).

CLARKE, D. British Artillery 1914-19 .Heavy Artillery (Osprey 2004).

CLARKE, D. British Artillery 1914-19 .Field Army Artillery (Osprey 2004).

DONNEL, C. Fortifications of Verdun.1874-1917 (Osprey 2011).

FLETCHER, D. British Mark I Tank 1916 (Osprey 2004).

FLETCHER, D. British Mark IV Tank (Osprey 2007).

FLETCHER, D. Mark V Tank (Osprey 2011).

FRANKS, N. Nieuport Aces Of World War I (Osprey 2000).

FRANKS, N. Sopwith Pup Aces of World War I (Osprey 2005).

GILBERT, M. La Primera Guerra Mundial (La Esfera de los Libros 2004).

GRAY, R. Kaiserschlacht 1918. La ofensiva final alemana (Ediciones del Prado 1994).

GRIFFITH, P. Fortifications of the Western Front 1914-1918 (Osprey 2004).

GUDDMUNSON, B.I. The British Army on the Western Front 1916 (Osprey 2007).

GUTTMAN, J. Bristol F2 Fighter Aces of World War I (Osprey 2007).

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GUTTMAN, J. SPA124 Lafayette Escadrille (Osprey 2004).

HOLBORN, M. The Great War (Jonathan Cape e Imperial War Museum 2013).

HORSFALL, J y N. CAVE. Cambrai. The Hindenburg Line (Pen & Sword 1999).

HOLMES, R. The First Wold War in photographs (SevenOaks 2001).

LAVÉDRINE, B. (Re)conocer y conservar fotografías antiguas (CTHS 2007).

MCCLUSKEY, A. Amiens 1918 The Black Day of the German Army (Osprey 2008).

MACMILLIAN, M. 1914. De la paz a la guerra (Turner 2013).

MARTIN, W. Verdun 1916 ‘They shall not pass’ (Osprey 2001).

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PLEGER, M. British Tommy 1914-18 (Osprey 1996).

REED, P. Combles. Somme (Pen & Sword 2002).

REYNAUD, F., C. TAMBRUN y K. TIMBY. Paris in 3D (Paris Musées 2000).

ROGERS, L.A. Bristol Fighter (Albatros Productions 1987).

SÁNCHEZ DURÁ, N et al. Ernst Jünger: guerra, técnica y fotografía (Universitat de València 2000).

SUMMER, I. The French Army 1914-18 (Osprey 1995).

SUMMER, I. French Poilu 1914-18 (Osprey 2009).

TAYLOR, A.J.P. La guerra planeada. Así empezó la Primera Guerra Mundial (Nauta 1970).

TUCHMAN, B. Los cañones de agosto (RBA 2006).

TURNER, A. Messines 1917. The zenith of siege warfare (Osprey 2010).

VERNEY, J.P. y J. TARDY. ¡Puta guerra! (Norma 2010).

VERNEY, J.P. The Great War in 3D (Black Dog & Leventhal 2013).

WILLMOTT, H.P. La Primera Guerra Mundial (Inédita 2004).

ZALOGA, S.J. El carro ligero Renault FT (Osprey 2010).

the great war

46

Église de Souain (Ruines) 8/2/16

PHOT. 1 Ruins of Souain church 08/02/1916 After the stabilisation of the Western Front in 1914, the town of Souain (department of Marne) remained dangerously close to the combat zone.

47

PHOT. 2 220 mm mortar 14/02/1916 This mortar model designed at the end of XIX century was out-oftime for the era, but it was one of the few heavy units that could be found in the French arsenals. Their projectiles weighed 98 kg.

Mortier de 220 M/M 14/2/16

48

Ruines of Souain 17/2/16

PHOT. 3 Ruins of Souain 17/02/1916 The town of 416 inhabitants was devastated during the Second Battle of Champagne, in September 1915. The French had 180,000 casualties to take three kilometres in a front of five.

49

PHOT. 4 24/02/1916 One of the entrusted missions to territorial soldiers was road reconditioning. The earth was compacted with rubble to allow circulation of vehicles with tyres of solid rubber. This job was essential during the Battle of Verdun, because only one road connected the city with the rear-guard at Bar-le-Duc. Through the called Voie SacrĂŠe (Sacred Road) a truck passed every fourteen seconds, hence they were needed 8,500 men working continuously to maintain it.

24/2/16

50

24/2/16

PHOT. 5 24/02/1916 A 220 mm mortar in action. The process of charge and shoot took about three minutes.

51

PHOT. 6 24/02/1916

24/2/16

52

155 M/M Long 24/2/16

PHOT. 7 155 mm Long 24/02/1916 The De Bange 155 mm of 1877 was another old relic that French incorporated hastily to the combat. It was so archaic that it did not have recoil movement. They were progressively substituted from May 1916.

53

PHOT. 8 27/02/1916 Fire barrier at the No Man’s land, a term that this war invented.

27/2/16

54

16/3/16

PHOT. 11 16/03/1916 Campaign kitchens in the rear-guard. The food arrived to the soldiers on the front line, in the best of cases, cold, and in the worst, never.

55

PHOT. 13 19/03/1916 The famous soixante-quinze of 75mm, pride of Gallic engineering and base of its doctrine of attaque Ă outrance (attack at all costs), which revealed especially useless for the positions war. An experimented dotation was able to shoot twenty projectiles per minute.

19/3/16

56

St Hilaire le Gd L’Êglise Peytral 20/3/16

PHOT. 14 Church of Saint-Hilaire-le-Grand 20/03/1916 This town barely six kilometres from Souain also knew the artillery fury.

Peytral could be the surname of one of the officers visiting the ruins.

57

PHOT. 18 Church of Saint-Hilaire-le-Grand 20/03/1916 The gothic church was reconstructed in 1925. By then the municipality barely counted with half of their 500 pre-war inhabitants.

Église de St Hilaire le Grand 20/3/16

58

22/3/16

PHOT. 20 22/03/1916

59

PHOT. 21 The Ain 29/03/1916 The Ain is a little river that runs between Souain and Saint-Hilaire-leGrand. During the war it was the main stage for the first Champagne battles of 1914 and 1915. The smiling deputy with the pipe is a character that appears in many of the photographs of these months.

La Ain 29/3/16

60

Église de Souain 29/3/16

PHOT. 22 Church of Souain 29/03/1916 In this town occurred one of the most shameful facts of French military history. On March 10th 1915, the 21st company of the 336e Régiment d’Infanterie rejected undertaking a suicidal attack by bayonet, so the general in command, Réveihac, ordered bombing their own lines, and his own artillery refused. Nonetheless he executed four corporals chosen randomly as an example.

61

PHOT. 23 29/03/1916 Another perspective of the same church. The execution of the known as Souain corporals Théophile Maupas, Louis Lefoulon, Louis Girard and Lucien Lechat cause deep indignation in French society and served as inspiration for the novel and film “Paths of glory”.

29/3/16

62

30/3/16

PHOT. 24 30/03/1916

63

PHOT. 25 30/03/1916

30/3/16

64

5/4/16

PHOT. 28 05/04/1916

65

PHOT. 29 13/04/1916

13/4/16

66

23/4/16

PHOT. 33 23/04/1916 The trench system was extended in three lines (front-line, support and reserve, usually) lengthening over the terrain for several kilometres.

67

PHOT. 34 17/05/1916 This deep concrete shelter was an exception at the French lines. Its positions had fame for being the most uncomfortable and unhealthy.

17/5/16

68

17/5/16

PHOT. 35 17/05/1916

PHOT. 38 19/05/1916 Officers waiting the general Gouraud’s arrival. The troops review was carried through in a terrain placed two and a half kilometres south to the Suippes station, very near to Souain.

19/5/16

70

19/5/16

PHOT. 37 19/05/1916 The general Paulinier salutes general Gouraud with motive of his visit to the 6e and 21e Corps d’Armée on May 19th 1916. Marie-Jean-Auguste Paulinier (1861-1927) was by then Commander of the 6e. Givord’s camera was very similar to the one used by the man on the left.

71

PHOT. 36 19/05/1916 The music band belongs to the 10e Bataillon de Chasseurs Ă Pied (hunters on w foot).

19/5/16

72

19/5/16

PHOT. 39 19/05/1916 Presentation of the flag to the general Gouraud. Henri Joseph Eugène Gouraud (1867-1946) was a famous general, Africa veteran, who around these dates commanded the 4e ArmÊe destined in Champagne. He lost his right arm the year before in Gallipoli.

73

PHOT. 43 22/05/1916 The French soldier arrived in 1914 with a flashy uniform which included blue combat jacket with red trousers and kepi. This patriotic outfit of high display revealed very dangerous in modern war, hence it was substituted by the bleu horizon. This strange option was fruit of the determination in maintaining the tricolour essence with a mix of blue (60%), red (30%) and white (10%). After the official approval it was established that the international production of red colourant was concentrated in Germany, hence they ended combining blue and white. This synthesis was not suitable for the imitation, but unfortunately the bad quality of colourants caused the uniform to discolour quickly, acquiring a similar tone to the mud of Artois and Champagne.

22/5/16

74

22/5/16

PHOT. 44 22/05/1916

75

PHOT. 51 29/09/1916

29/9/16

76

13/2 1917

PHOT. 56 13/02/1917 From these dates, Givord is destined between Amiens and Soissons.

Here we see a Farman F40 for reconnaissance belonging to the escadrille F54 opposite to a hangar of the aviation camp of Montididier. Probably the most important mission undertaken by the aviation squadrons was reconnaissance, equipped with special cameras. In the last year of war, some French units got to reveal up to 10,000 plates per night.

77

PHOT. 57 13/02/1917 Pilots with flight clothing pose in front of a Caudron G.4 of the escadrille C28 de la Aéronautique Militaire. In those days the unit was destined to the 14e Corps d’Armée with night bombarding missions, hence it used this aerodrome for the first time just two days before. This plane with numeral 2639 was incorporated to the squad on January 27th. At the back we can see the plane and the hangar from the last photograph.

13/2 1917

78

Dépot d’artie à Moreuil (Somme) 13/2 1917

PHOT. 58 Artillery deposit in Moreuil 13/02/1917 The assembly and disassembly process to transport heavy artillery pieces was long and complicated. Each of the mortars weighed more than four tons.

79

PHOT. 60 15/02/1917 Mechanisation arrived to the battle field with artefacts as strange as this opentrenches.

15/2 1917

80

17/3 1917

PHOT. 64 17/03/1917 These two pilots are members as one of the most famous hunting units of all times: the escadrille N124 Lafayette of American volunteers. The one on the left is the Lieutenant Alfred de Laage de Meux, executive officer of the unit that died on May 23rd of that year while he was testing the new Spad VII. The one on the right is the maximum ace of the squad: Raoul Lufbery (1885-1918). This iconic pilot made his first knock down over Verdun in the summer of 1916, achieving seventeen accredited victories before falling downed in May 1918. Currently he is remembered at the Lafayette Memorial du Parc de Garches in Paris. According to the journal de marches de la escadrille, that day Lufbery flew between the 13 and 15 hours in patrol mission over Roye, Lassigny and RibĂŠcourt, without locating any enemy apparatus. Other pilots did detected suspicious movements which corresponded with the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line.

81

PHOT. 65 17/03/1917 The planes of both pages, stationed at the field of Ravenel-dans-la-Somme, are Nieuport 17. On the previous page, the apparatus that is by the pilots, with engine of 110 CV, possibly has numeral 1587, being received by the squad in September 1916. Behind the Lieutenant it can be appreciated the famous Sioux profile, emblem of the unit. This fast and agile plane mounted in his first series a Lewis machine gun on the wing, as shown in the photograph above. Because of the initials on this device no. 2116 could belong to Yves Chambaudoin d’Erceville, Commander of the escadrille N15.

17/3 1917

82

Roye 19/3 191

PHOT. 66 Roye 19/03/1917 With this photograph, Givord begins his series about the destruction left by the Germans in their retreat to the Hindenburg Line. In the sign on the right appears written with chalk the date of liberation by the French, the very same day.

83

PHOT. 67 Roye, a factory?

19/03/1917 Answering to M. Givord, it was a sugar factory. An agency photographer took a very similar view, although with less humour.

Roye Une usine ?

19/3 1917

84

Roye 19/3 1917

PHOT. 68 Roye 19/03/1917 The city of Roye was systematically pillaged (if it could be taken to Germany) and devastated (if it could not be moved from its place).

85

PHOT. 69 Roye 19/03/1917 The French private of the Great War passed to History with the nickname of Poilu, literally furry but can be translated as tough guy.

The proliferation of beards and moustaches in the not so hygienic trenches made the rest.

Roye 19/3 1917

86

25/3 1917

PHOT. 72 05/03/1917 The communication paths were a preferential target of the German sappers.

88

Ham Entonnoir boche à l’entreè (...)

27/3 1917

PHOT. 74 Boche bottleneck at the entrance of Ham (…)

27/03/1917 In their meticulously planned retreat, the Germans blew strategic spots with tons of explosives to slow down the allied advance. The historical castle of Ham was dynamited to its foundations. On the illegible part of the annotation was included the name of the officer in the forefront.

89

PHOT. 77 31/03/1917 Visit to a cemetery. The drivers of the vehicles were supplied with thick coats to protect them from the cold at the open cabins.

31/3 1917

90

Chauny pont sur le canail 6/4 1917

PHOT. 78 Bridge over the channel at Chauny 06/04/1917 An engineer’s team builds an alternative to the bridge blew up by the Germans.

91

PHOT. 79 Council and palace of justice of Chauny 06/04/1917 In this photograph appears for the first time the vehicle that Givord used use on his trips. The Council’s sign is written in German.

Chauny Mairie Palais de Justice 6/4 1917

92

Leurs vestiges ?

6/4 1917

PHOT. 82 The remains?

06/04/1917 A German post in a crossroad of Flavy-le-Martel. Life at the rear-guard brought along with it luxuries such as the cinema that indicates the writing on the wall.

93

PHOT. 83 06/04/1917

6/4 1917

94

Nesles Soldats anglais 6/4 1917

PHOT. 84 English soldiers in Nesles 06/04/1917 Some English soldiers and a Scottish 2nd-Lieutenant pose for the camera.

95

PHOT. 85 Scottish soldiers in Nesles 06/04/1917 A Scottish unit preparing a road.

Nesles Soldats ĂŠcossais 6/4 1917

96

Ancien abri boche 30/4 1917

PHOT. 86 Old Boche refuge 30/04/1917 In general, German shelters were deeper and better built than the French ones.

This corresponded with the German certainty that they occupy foreign land and to the Gallic illusion that it was only a temporary situation before advancing to liberate the rest of France. It was not like that.

97

PHOT. 88 Old Boche refuge 01/05/1917 Quartering carefully dug in the slope of a hill, in which lintels were sculpted the Iron Cross and the German’s Reich motto: Gott mit uns (God with us).

Ancien abri boche 1/5 1917

98

Pont sur l’Aisne Soupir 1/5 1917

PHOT. 89 Bridge over the Aisne at Soupir 01/05/1917 The Captain Givord poses beside a bridge of barges erected to supply the explosives.

99

PHOT. 90 01/05/1917 The car that Givord was using, with military plate 170238, was a Panhard et Levassor type X 24 or 26 with 20 CV engine.

1/5 1917

100

Pont sur l’Aisne près Soupir 3/5 1917

PHOT. 93 Bridge over the Aisne at Soupir 03/05/1915 Here we can appreciate what is left of the south façade of the XVI century château next to Soupir, seen from the park.

101

PHOT. 94 Nearby Soupir 03/05/1917 A battery of modern cannons Saint-Chamond calibre 155 mm (1915 model) just at the moment of firing.

Près Soupir 3/5 1917

102

Soupir Le Château 3/5 1917

PHOT. 95 Château of Soupir 03/05/1917 View of the main façade of the small palace. Currently, from all the ensemble it is only conserved the forge gate.

103

PHOT. 97 Exterior door of Coucy-le-Ch창teau 11/05/1917 The huge castle towers from XIII century that give its name to the town were volatilised by the Germans with 38 tons of explosives on March 27th 1917 to avoid its use as an observation point.

Coucy-le-Ch창teau le porte ext.

11/5 1917

104

Coucy le Chateau La place 11/5 1917

PHOT. 98 Coucy-le-Ch창teau Plaza 11/05/1917 The town had similar luck with an intensive bombarding on the very same day.

105

PHOT. 100 Ribécourt 18/05/1917

Ribécourt 18/5 1917

106

Ribécourt Camp de prisonées boches 18/5 1917

PHOT. 103 Boche prisoner war camp at Ribécourt 18/05/1917 One of the assigned missions of the territorial soldiers was the vigilance of the prisoner war camps, like this one habilitated in the XVIII century château.

107

PHOT. 104 Ribécourt 18/05/1917 Mealtime at the camp. The German prisoners, marked with a PG (prisonnier de guerre) on their backs, were forced to reconstruct the battered town close to the château.

Ribécourt 18/5 1917

108

Ribécourt Clocher á démolir 18/5 1917

PHOT. 105 Ribécourt, bell tower to demolish 18/05/1917 The town’s church, finished in 1887, had suffered important bombardment by the French since 1914.

109

PHOT. 106 RibĂŠcourt A precaution!

19/05/1917 The tower was torn down because it was unstable on top of the danger that was presented by being offered as a reference point for enemy artillery. In its retreat the Germans had prepared stone barricades to block the main street, which rests can be seen in front of the cafe.

RibĂŠcourt Mesure de prudence !

19/5 1917

110

Vaux (Somme) Incendie d’un dÊpot munitions 23/5 1917

PHOT. 107 Fire in a powder magazine in Vaux 23/05/1917 In the little town of Picard fell a year later Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron.

112

Chaulnes Somme 28/5 1917

PHOT. 115 Chaulnes (Somme) 28/05/1917 Chaulnes was one of the priority targets for the French during the terrible battle of the Somme the year before. However, it was tenaciously defended by the Germans until their retreat to the Hindenburg Line in March 1917. The battle of the Somme cost 419,000 casualties to the British, 204,000 to the French and 465,000 to the Germans.

113

PHOT. 116 Chaulnes (Somme) 28/05/1917 Panoramic of what was left of the village of 1,200 inhabitants. After the war it was classified as red zone: totally devastated.

Chaulnes (Somme) 28/5 1917

114

Une observatoire dans les lignes anglaises 28/5 1917

PHOT. 118 Observation point in the English lines 28/05/1917 The observation of enemy territory was essential, to monitor their movement as to direct the artillery shooting. The positions were intended to cover up on the most effective way possible to avoid suspicion.

116

Cimetière boche 24-6 1917

PHOT. 122 Boche cemetery 24/06/1917 The Teuton’s graveyards became a recurrent subject for the allies’ trophy photographs.

118

Un convoi anglais 28/5 1917

PHOT. 119 An English convoy 28/05/1917 Despite being the first mechanised war, animals were still fundamental for transport in the First World War. However, the cavalry did not recover its old tactical function and had to un-mount to the trenches.

119

PHOT. 121 The rests of a station in Chauny 04/06/1917 The state of the train station exemplifies the level of destruction achieved in this Picard town. The Germans pulled out even the rails before evacuating it.

Les restes d’une gare Chauny 4/6 1917

120

Sortie au Roye Artillerie lourde à tracteur 26/6 1917

PHOT. 124 Heavy artillery by tractor at the exit of Roye 26/06/1917 In front of Givord’s car passes an English howitzer MK VII 8 inches dragged by a French vehicle.

121

PHOT. 126 Heavy artillery being pulled by tractor 26/06/1917 The tractor that pulls the pieces is a Latil 40 CV equipped with four directive and driving wheels.

Artillerie lourde Ă tracteur 26/6 1917

122

Intérieur église de St. Martin aux Bois (Oise) XIIIe siècle 28/6 1917

PHOT. 127 Interior of the XIII century church of St. Martin aux Bois (dep. of Oise) 28/06/1917 The Captain Givord poses besides the gothic coir enclosure of this church. The wrist watch he wears is an accessory whose use was generalised in this war. The first ones asking for it were the artillerymen, because the pocket watch proved uncomfortable as a chronometer and to observe the projectiles trajectory at the same time.

124

Un avion anglais Ă Faverolle !!

1/7-17

PHOT. 128 An English plane in Faverolle!

01/07/1917 An Airco DH. 5 of the Royal Flying Corps after a forced landing. It had a wing configuration with the superior plane behind with respect to the inferior one, what left an excellent visual field to the pilot. However it was slow and not very reliable, hence it was active for only eight months. One of the aviation problems was the continuous demand for apparatus, which led to combat designs not tested thoroughly.

126

Un train de travailleurs anglais 2/7-17

PHOT. 129 A train of English workers 02/07/1917

128

Observatorie boche !! 80m de nos lignes Fransart 3/7 1917

PHOT. 132 Boche observatory!

80 metres away from our lines in Fransart 03/07/1917 The bombarded farms could be adapted to monitor the enemy, such as this one, so close to the enemy lines that was unperceived.

130

E.M. du 99e Inf.ie 7/7-17

PHOT. 133 General staff of the 99e Régiment d’Infanterie 07/07/1917 Givord (left) poses with his old regiment comrades.

Amongst them, his commander the Lieutenant-Coronel Borne (centre), his deputy the chef d’escadron Nativelle (between Givord and Borne), the music boss July (at the back, with his arms crossed arms) and two military doctors (on the right, with dark badges on the neck).

132

Un observatoire boche près Chaulnes 2/7/17

PHOT. 130 A Boche observatory close to Chaulnes 02/07/1917 The observation watchtowers could be disguised between the bare trees.

133

PHOT. 131 Boche observatory in Fransart 03/07/1917 The positions were hidden too in the shattered churches.

Fransart Observatorie boche 3/7 1917

134

Arras Place du MarchĂŠ 20/7-17

PHOT. 135 Arras Market Plaza 20/07/1917 The Battle of Arras of 1917 was carried out by the English in two phases, the first one between April 9th and April 15th, and the second one between April 23rd and May 16th. Its intention was to entertain the Germans while the French attacked at Chemin des Dames but in this effort the British lost 150,000 men.

The Germans had 100,000 casualties.

135

PHOT. 139 English batteries close to Souchez (department of Pas-de-Calais) 20/07/1917 These British howitzers of 9.2 inches weighed 14 tons and it took 36 hours to disassemble them for transport.

Bateries anglaises près Souchez P. de C. 20/7-17

136

Chez les anglais une saucisse 20/7-17

PHOT. 140 A sausage with the English 20/07/1917 The captive balloons, nicknamed sausages, had a fundamental role to direct the artillery fire. They were raised up to 500-1,500 metres by a steel cable, the anchor is set on a truck in the case of the photograph. Once there, the observer corrected the shot communicating with earth through telephone. Its stillness, flammability and tactical importance made them preferred objective for the enemy fighter planes equipped with rockets. In fact, the observers were the only aeronauts equipped with parachutes.

138

Embarquement des tropes Ă Faverolles 7/8-17

PHOT. 145 Troops loading in Faverolles 07/08/1917 Several men collaborate in loading a campaign kitchen.

139

PHOT. 146 07/08/1917 The rail network had influence on the stillness of the trench war, because when facing an enemy interruption at any point of the front, reserves could be mobilised with rapidity to block a breach.

7/8-17

140

8/17

PHOT. 143 08/1917 A French captain of the General Staff in front of some barracks.

141

PHOT. 149 08/08/1917 The Groupe Givord enjoys of a leisure day at the banks of the river in MonchyHumières, in the department of Oise. Givord is sitting in the centre, with a lighter uniform.

8/8/17

142

12/10/17

PHOT. 162 12/10/1917 Several members of the Groupe Givord joke in front of a section of the Transport de MatĂŠriel. Each groupe was formed of four sections of twenty vehicles. In this case it is the section TM12, which emblem was a funny Alsatian.

144

Dans la forêt de Compiègne 17/10/17

PHOT. 165 At the woods of Compiègne 17/10/1917 Asian workers improving the rails where a year later the armistice was signed.

The French companies could hire workers in their country of origin, China, to whom they paid between one and two francs per day. At the end of the war there were around 100,000 in the whole France.

145

PHOT. 166 At the woods of Compiègne 17/10/1917 The German prisoners were also a recurrent workforce.

Dans la forêt de Compiègne 17/10/17

146

Utilisation des boches (‌) les champs de bataille 25/10/17

PHOT. 169 Using the Boche (‌) the battle fields 25/10/1917 The German prisoners were useful to bury the dead as well, as these men are doing close to Laffaux after the battle. The battle also known as La Malmaison had begun on October 23rd and ended on the same 25th.

148

Nettoyage du champs de batailles par les boches 25/10/17

PHOT. 171 Cleaning of the battle fields by the Boches 25/10/1917 During this battle the French captured 11,157 prisoners, 200 cannons and 220 heavy mortars.

149

PHOT. 170 Nearby the Moulin de Laffaux on the day after the attack 25/10/1917 Despite the corpses we see on the foreground, the French casualties were relatively low: 2,241 deceased, 8,162 wounded and 1,460 disappeared.

Près du Moulin de Laffaux le lendemain de l’attaque 25/10/17

150

Chau de la Motte!

Lendemain d’attaque 25/10/17

PHOT. 172 The château de la Motte!

Next day after the attack 25/10/1917 The Germans counted around 8,000 dead and 30,000 wounded, being forced to go back 10 km. The rests of the château of La Motte were one of the targets behind the German lines.

151

PHOT. 168 At Laffaux 25/10/1917 After the combat there was nothing left of the little village of Laffaux. Although Louis Aragon would immortalise it in his verses: Beacon of memories where to rise its flames / the dreams of twenty years to a sky that lied; / and instead of love, the black Road of Dames, / and the crackle of the red mill of Laffaux.

Ă€ Laffaux 25/10/17

152

Un tank 25/10/17

PHOT. 173 A tank 25/05/1917 The French used at La Motte for the first time combat tanks in a coordinated way, launching 63 on the first day of combat. When the day was over only 21 remained in use, between them the one on the photograph, a Saint-Chamond M1 belonging to the Groupe AS (Artillerie Spéciale) 33 of captain Mottet de la Fontaine. This tank commanded by the Lieutenant Guy Edouard Frémont (which was the first tank of 1st battery of the AS33) got stuck that very same day in a hole 500 metres north to the Moulin de Laffaux. Frémont died when trying to get off the tank.

153

PHOT. 178 30/01/1918 The 75 mm campaign cannons (PHOT. 13) were reconverted in anti-aircraft guns, such as this fixed set up one which defend a strategic point. It is an indicator of the increase of aerial power at the end of the war.

30/1/18

154

Le 147e dĂŠfilant dans Combles 23/2 18

PHOT. 179 The 147e marching in Combles 23/02/1918 Givord spent the winter in the small Lorenese town of Combles-en-Barrois, photographing the units that passed by the Grande rue. The buildings in the photograph are conserved at present without alterations.

155

PHOT. 180 Marching in Combles 24/02/1918 This town is located by Bar-le-Duc, which was still the main point of supply for the Verdun protrusion.

Ă€ Combles (Marche) 24/2 1918

156

Sous la niege Combles (Marche) 3/3/18

PHOT. 181 March under the snow in Combles 03/03/1918 Possibly Givord was billeted in this street, because almost all the photographs have the same framing.

157

PHOT. 182 March under the snow in Combles 03/03/1918 A French column marches towards the front; 1,400,000 compatriots never return. 27% of the French male population between 18 and 27 years old died.

Sous la niege Ă Combles (Marche) 3/3/18

158

Combles Une beautĂŠ 17/3/18

PHOT. 183 A beauty in Combles 17/03/1918 An officer of General Staff performing as a French man. In the background is seen a column of trucks of the 644 TM, which emblem was a rocking horse.

159

PHOT. 184 17/03/1918 A shot of the same street with a piece of meat to feed the meal that is going to be made at the motorised kitchen on the back. One of the reasons for mutiny from the year before was the troops’ poor diet, a matter that improved with the guidelines of General PÊtain.

17/3/18

160

Combles 21/3/18

PHOT. 185 Combles 21/03/1918 Disembarkment of a regiment of zouaves. The Zouaves belonged to the ArmÊe d’Afrique (African Army) being recruited between the French bloodline men.

These regiments attacked with a ferocity unknown by the metropolitan units and they became elite units, although at the end of the war the losses reduced their fury.

161

PHOT. 186 (…) of a Zouaves regiment at Combles 21/03/1918 At this time the French army was changing to the Berthier rifle, a weapon that only allowed three consecutive shots but which was an advance with respect to the one-shot-only Lebel.

(…) d’un regt de zouaves à Combles 21/3/18

162

Les effects d’une bombe d’avion boche à Châlons 25/3/18

PHOT. 187 The effects of a Boche plane bomb in Châlons 25/03/1918 Châlons-en-Champagne was a town of 30,000 inhabitants located at the French rear-guard nearby Reims, which made it a target for a new war concept: the indiscriminate aerial bombardment.

163

PHOT. 188 Fire provoked by a Boche bomb in Châlons 25/03/1918 Four days before the massive spring German offensive began, between the 25th and 26th Givord sets off with his unit towards the north, to the Picard.

Incendie allumé par une bombe boche Châlons 25/3/18

164

Pris la route de Lassigny près de Machemont 26/3/18

PHOT. 191 On the route of Lassigny close to Machemont 26/03/1918 Setting up position of a modern cannon 155 Long GPF. This type of cannon had a maximum range of 18 km. In the foreground, a Latil truck.

165

PHOT. 192 The refugees at the Ressons-sur-Matz plaza 26/03/1918 The tremendous German push provoked the massive escape of civilians, such as in 1914.

Ressons sur Matz Les refugiĂŠs sur la place 26/3/18

166

Les boches avancent Les anglais s’en vont !

26/3/18

PHOT. 193 The Boche advance!

The English in disbandment!

26/03/1918 The German offensive focused on the British sector that was forced to go back.

Here we see how the heavy artillery moves away dragged by caterpillar tractors, although they are not English, they are from RCA (Royal Canadian Artillery).

167

PHOT. 194 The English retreat!

26/03/1918 Around 4 pm of March 21st 10,000 German cannons and mortars crews open fire simultaneously in a bombardment 70 km wide. In five hours the German army spent 1,160,000 projectiles, each piece discharging from 200 to 600 shots.

Les anglais se retirent !!

26/3/18

168

Un avion près Estrées Saint Denis 28/3/18

PHOT. 195 A plane nearby Estrées-Saint-Denis 28/03/1918 A French two-seater biplane Voisin X with Renault engine, painted in black for night time bombardment.

In the foreground there are American and French officers mingling.

170

D Ă­l Argt du 359 Ct. Rouchon 11/4/18

PHOT. 196 Commander Rouchon of the 359 11/04/1918 In the foreground appears the Commander Camille Rouchon, of the 359e Regiment d’Infanterie. Born in Gap in 1870, probably met Givord before the war.

171

PHOT. 197 English tractor on the route from Poix to Amiens 11/04/1918 During the move of the 359e RI, Commander Rouchon finds a moment to be photographed besides some artillery tractors on caterpillar tractors of the brand Holt. The second one at the back was baptised as The Yank. At the end of the war the transport of heavy pieces was mechanised already.

Tracteur anglais sur la route de Poix a Amiens Le com.

Rouchon 11/4/1918

172

Tank anglais 12/4/18

PHOT. 198 English tank 12/04/1918 Some trucks of the Transport de MatĂŠriel pass by a disguised British Mark IV. The one on the photograph belongs to the male version that had two 6 pounds naval cannons, while the female version was only equipped with machine guns.

Going into battle inside a tank was a real torture. The 8 men crew suffocated with the gases of the cannon and the 105 CV engine, although its peak speed did not exceed 6 km./h. The term tank was the fruit of an English strategy to hide the true mission of these apparatus, making them look like mobile water deposits.

173

PHOT. 199 15/04/1918 A cavalry section tries to wade across a flooded area. On this day in April Givord concluded the evacuation of the hospital in Ressons-sur-Matz.

15/4/18

174

15/4/18

PHOT. 200 15/04/1918 The colonial empires called their vast contingents of population to collaborate in the war effort. For instance, the French resorted to the Annamites (Vietnamese).

175

PHOT. 201 23/04/1918 Around 50,000 Annamites and 13,000 Chinese from the French Indochina had to work on the army workforces and at the ammunition factories.

23/4/18

176

Avion anglais tombĂŠ Ă Heuzecourt 25/4/18

PHOT. 202 English plane fallen down at Heuzecourt 25/04/1918 Rests of a Bristol Fighter F.2b with numeral C4673 of the 11 Squadron of the recently created Royal Air Force. It had crashed the day before after skimming some trees whilst it was doing a reconnaissance mission at dusk. In the impact died the pilot, Edward Woollard P. Lamb (n. 1892) and the observer, Bertie Joseph Maisey (n. 1898). Both rest at the nearby cemetery of Doullens.

178

La plage Ă Malo les Bains en temps de guerre 18/5/18

PHOT. 209 The beach of Malo les Bains in times of war 18/05/1918 This beach is at Dunkerque, operations base of the British army placed at the English Channel.

179

PHOT. 212 An English plane at the beach of Mardyck 04/06/1918 This kind of biplane Airco DH.9 had a quite poor performance in combat due to its deficient engine. The apparatus of the photograph with plate B7601 belonged to the RAF 218 Squadron of bombardment, stationed nearby Dunkerque. A week before it had been damaged by an engine failure while it was flying by Lieutenant B. H. Stata.

Un avion anglais sur la plage Mardyck 4/6/18

180

Pecheurs au port Dunkerque 23/5/18

PHOT. 211 Fishermen at Dunkerque’s dock 23/05/1918

182

Au Clipon (Nord) 20/6/18

PHOT. 215 In Clipon (department of Nord) 20/06/1918 Clipon is placed in Loon-Plage, very close to Dunkerque.

183

PHOT. 216 The men from the groups at the casino in Loon-Plage, going for a walk!

20/06/1918 At the background we can see the emplacement of two naval cannons, while on the right hand some sailors observe the meeting.

Au casino de LoonPlage Les groupeurs !

En ballade 1918 20/6

184

20/6/18

PHOT. 217 20/06/1918

185

PHOT. 218 20/06/1918

20/6/18

186

Blessés américains à Pierrefont Juillet 1918

PHOT. 222 American wounded at Pierrefonds (sic) July 1918 The Americans entered fighting during summer 1918, as it can be appreciated in the photograph. The image is taken at the Picardian town plaza close to Compiègne, famous for its castle, where the front arrived after the German attack. In the background it can be appreciated the help post of the next photograph.

187

PHOT. 223 Boche wounded at Pierrefonds (sic) July 1918

Blesses boches Ă Pierrefont Juillet 18

188

Petit tank vers (‌) 7bre 1918

PHOT. 224 Small tank for (‌) September 1918 Several Renault FT-17, probably needing a repair. This light tank is the predecessor of modern tanks with its layout of rotatory turret and back engine.

It only weighed 6.5 tons and two crewmen: driver and commander, who also had to deal with shooting the cannon and moving the turret by hand.

189

PHOT. 225 /5/ 07/07/1918 A German Lanz artillery tractor.

/5/ 7/7/18

190

Un tank près en Moreuil Août 1918

PHOT. 227 A tank nearby Moreuil August 1918 The Renault FT-17 number 66889, photographed in a road close to Moreuil. The allied attack in this sector was carried out on August 8th and 9th. If the picture was taken on those days, it is very probable that this tank belonged to the 504e RAS (Régiment d’Artillerie Spéciale). The identification of these French tanks was done by a combination of colours, geometric figures and playing card symbols: a clubs ace inside a square indicates it was destined to the 4th section of the 2nd company. On August 8th the allies had passed to the offensive nearby Amiens, achieving such success that the German Commander Erich Ludendorff baptised it as the black day of the German army.

191

PHOT. 229 A 220 mm Boche taken close to Moreuil August 1918 We must correct Givord and point that this heavy cannon captured from the enemy really is a 21 cm M枚rser 16. This mortar designed by Krupp used two kinds of projectiles, the 21 cm Gr 18 (HE) that weighed 113 kg and the 21 cm Gr 18 Be (anti-bunker) of 121 kg and an explosive load of 11 kg of TNT. It has a maximum reach of 11 km.

Un 220 M/M boche puis pris de Moreuil A么ut 1918

192

Noyon - Place de l’Hôtel de Ville 7bre 1918

PHOT. 232 Town square of Noyon September 1918 This Picard town had been finally liberated by the French on September 30th after having been subjected to a tremendous bombardment to complicate the German advance. On the signs written in German are pointed out the retreat directions towards Ham and a campaign hospital.

194

Tanks incendies près Roulers Belgique 10/18

PHOT. 239 Burnt down tanks nearby Roulers (Belgium) 10/1918 With the unstoppable ally advance, Givord is assigned to the North of Flanders. These battered FT-17 belonged to the 1st battalion of light tanks of the 501e RAS or to the 12th of the 504e RAS, since they were the only units with this model in Belgium. These small tanks were essential to break the stillness of the trench war overtaking the German defences.

196

10/18

PHOT. 240 10/1918 Entrance to Ypres town, heroically defended by the British during four years being the last part of Belgium not occupied by the Germans. The net on the right hid the movements on the road.

197

PHOT. 241 Ypres 10/1918 The lakenhalle (market) from the XIII century was erected as a symbol of the continuous erosion of the city.

Ypres 10/18

198

Dans Ypres 10/18

PHOT. 242 In Ypres 10/1918 The band preceding the march of the Scottish unit.

200

Sur l’Yser 10/18

PHOT. 243 At the Yser 10/1918 British observation post in the region of Yser river, which crosses France and Belgium.

201

PHOT. 244 Yser region 10/1918 In this area of the front the mud was an enemy as dangerous as the Germans, swallowing indistinctly material, mules and soldiers that were never seen again.

Region d l’Yser 10/18

202

Canon anglais contre avion 10/18

PHOT. 245 English cannon against planes 10/1918 The 13 pounder 9 cwt cannon was the British army standard for anti-aircraft defence and frequently was set up on trucks, like this American Peerless TC4 4-Ton. Its shooting cadence was about eight projectiles per minute.

203

PHOT. 246 10/1918 A smiling driver shows up by the porthole of his FT-17. The men on the left belong to the 177e RI.

10/18

204

Derniére resistance des boches ce qu’il reste d’un poste de mitrailleuses Hooglède (Belgique) 21/10/18

PHOT. 248 Last resistance of the Boche in what is left of a machine guns post in Hooglede (Belgium) 21/10/1918 At the end of the war, this German bunker was taken by assault and the defendants corpses looted, as can be seen on the body in the foreground with the unbuttoned jacket and without boots. The scattered masks indicate they were gassed.

206

s/f

PHOT. 252 s/f

epilogUE

210

Sur la coupole du fort de Vaux Verdun 28 Mars 1921

On the dome of the fort of Vaux in Verdun March 28 th 1921

211

At the trench of Calonne March 27 th 1921

Ă€ la tranche de Calonne 27 Mars 1921

212

Au Bourget Laurent Eynac sous secretaire d’Etat de l’Aeronautique 9/7/1921

The Deputy Secretary of Estate of Aeronautics Laurent Eynac at Le Bourget 09/07/1921

213

Demonstration in favour of the deceased of the motherland at the cemetery of Gap 13/07/1919

Au cimitière Gap Manifestation en faveur des morts pour la patrie 13/7/19

214

Au Sommet Bucher (H.A.) 27/8 1922

At Sommet Bucher (department of Hautes Alpes) 27/08/1922

215

Disembarkment of Navy Ministry Ghisthau in Algiers April 1921

Alger - Debarqt du Ministre de la Marine Ghisthau April 1921

216

2/8/16

PHOT. 48 02/08/1916

217

Fountain of Meshi 04/1932

Source des Meshi 4-1932

218

Allevard – Dans la chambre du mine en charge 25/7/19

Allevard - At the chamber of a support mine 25/07/1919

The present edition of “Tangier archive. The Great War chronicle” finished printing at the workshops of Industrias Gráficas Castuera in Pamplona, on June 28th 2014, coinciding with the centenary of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria’s murder in Sarajevo.

Givord commanding the shot (photographic).

FOT. 150: 8/8-17 (08/08/1917, detail.)