The Battlefields of the First World War: The Unseen Panoramas of the Western Front

Peter Barton: foreword by Richard Holmes

ISBN 10: 1841197459 / ISBN 13: 9781841197456

Published by Constable / Imperial War Museum, London, 2005

About this Item

Red/brown cloth with silver lettering to spine, in pictorial dust-jacket and similar cardboard slipcase. 308 x 248 x 38mm. 376pp. Includes 2 CD-ROMs containing over 200 panoramas; numerous illustrations throughout, in colour and b/w; timeline; bibliography; index. A little minor scuffing to edges of cardboard slipcase; neither book nor dust-jacket show any significant signs of wear. NB: An extra shipping charge may be requested for heavier or more valuable items. All our 'Seller Images' show the actual item you will receive.

Seller Inventory # 003546

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Battlefields of the First World War: The Unseen Panoramas of the Western Front
• Publisher: Constable / Imperial War Museum, London
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1841197459
• ISBN 13: 9781841197456
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First edition
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • AC books

About this title

Synopsis

The first publication of a unique, unseen collection of over 500 panoramic photographs of the Western Front. Here are the great battlegrounds of the First World War as you have never seen them before, from the First Battle of Ypres where gallant men on horseback find things do not go to plan to the closing horror of the mud at Passchendaele. The book showcases the most eye-opening panoramas, along with poignant personal photographs and the recollections of the soldiers caught in action in the battles shown.

These panoramic photographs were the nearest thing to satellite mapping in their day, taken by the British Royal Engineers for intelligence purposes thoughout the war. The photographers had to spend tens of minutes with their head above the parapet - a view normally seen by the troops only through a trench periscope. Many of the images give a field of view of up to 160 degrees, and so sharp that individual figures - a soldier picking lice on his shirt, a sniper lying in wait - can be made out.

The images cover the whole of the Western Front, end to end. For the general buyer they have an impact unlike anything seen before. For the specialist, they document a lost world, putting other forms of archive into temporal, topographical and geographical context. What they reveal challenges existing perceptions of the First World War. As well as tortured landscapes of featureless mud, they also show fields of flowers, beaches, churches still standing. There are desperate scenes for sure, but an important lesson is that much of the war was fought in a real, recognizable landscape.

About the Author

Peter Barton is a historian, archaeologist and film-maker. He authored The Battlefields of the First World War after researching the forgotten Imperial War Museum panorama archive for eight years. His other books include The Somme, and Passchendaele.

He continues to lead an ongoing project to recover, interpret and publish all surviving battlefield panoramas - widely regarded as the 'missing link' for our full understanding of the First World War. He has since uncovered several equivalent unseen collections of panoramas in German archives, included here.

Barton has also led several major excavations on the Western Front, and produced the critically acclaimed documentary films The Underground War, The Soldiers' Pilgrimage and Conviction. He is co-secretary of the All Party Parliamentary War Graves and Battlefields Heritage Group.