History in Motion

The commanders of three Allied armies photographed together during the Crimean War, 6 June 1855.

The REAL British Redcoats of the Zulu War (1879) British soldiers of the 24th Regiment of Foot, photographed during the era of the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. Armed with Martini-Henry rifles.

A German prisoner of war lights a cigarette for a wounded British soldier during the First World War, c. 1916–1918. The German soldier, wearing a steel helmet and carrying his field equipment, offers a light to a British infantryman whose head and neck are wrapped in bandages.

Japanese Officers at Lunch During the Russo-Japanese War, 1904–1905

German infantrymen wearing gas masks emerge from a cloud of poison gas in Flanders during the First World War, c. 1916–1918.

An unidentified American infantry drummer photographed during the Mexican-American War, 1846–1848.

National Guardsmen pose on a barricade during the Paris Commune, March 1871. This remarkable photograph shows approximately 57 armed men of the Paris National Guard gathered around a barricade on the Chaussée de Ménilmontant, in eastern Paris.

A Canadian infantryman covered in mud returns from the front lines, c. 1918. A lone Canadian soldier makes his way along a deeply rutted road, his uniform, equipment and boots heavily coated in mud.

Passengers gather outside the White Star Line offices at Queenstown, Ireland, on 11 April 1912, waiting to begin the final stage of their journey aboard RMS Titanic. Today the town is known as Cobh.

French infantrymen wearing gas masks in a trench during the First World War, 1917. A group of French soldiers, or poilus, stand crowded together in a narrow trench, their faces concealed behind protective gas masks.

Men of B Company, 2nd Battalion, 24th Regiment of Foot, photographed at Pinetown, Natal, in September 1879. Only eight months earlier, B Company had formed the core of the British garrison that defended Rorke’s Drift on 22–23 January.

Wounded British soldiers at a dressing station in Aveluy Wood, France, 13 November 1916. A British soldier with a heavily bandaged head examines his damaged steel helmet with a medical attendant.

Four German artillerymen operate a field gun while wearing gas masks during the First World War, 1917. The men are positioned around a gun emplacement enclosed by wooden walls and partly concealed by vegetation.

German soldiers resting in a trench near Arras, northern France, c. 1916–1918. In a narrow trench cut deep into the earth, a group of German infantrymen take advantage of a lull in the fighting.

An Italian officer poses for a studio portrait, probably during the 1860s or 1870s. At first glance it is a conventional military photograph. The officer stands formally in the uniform of the recently unified Kingdom of Italy, complete with sword and fringed epaulettes.

German assault troops emerging from a trench during the First World War, c. 1917–1918. A German assault party, or Stoßtrupp, advances out of a trench, its men carrying rifles as they scramble over the uneven ground.

German stormtroopers move through a training trench near Sedan, France, in May 1917. This photograph shows German assault troops advancing through a deep practice trench while smoke drifts across the ground beyond.

German machine-gunners man a forward trench position during the First World War. A soldier crouches behind a belt-fed machine gun, its barrel projecting across the open ground.

French soldiers inspect a flooded trench during the First World War, December 1915. Four French soldiers, or poilus, gather around a narrow trench filled with muddy water. One man crouches at the edge, holding a stick into the flooded passage, while his comrades look on.

German soldiers smoke, read and write in a trench in Flanders, Belgium, around 1914–1915. While one soldier keeps his rifle trained over the parapet, his comrades occupy themselves with rather more ordinary activities.