and charged after it. It is shot on the actual ground where this action took place." The football was kicked by the LIR across No Mans Land on Sept 25th 1915 as they attacked the German positions in the town of Loos. [read more about this at bottom]
Chemin des Dames, France
This was the site of three major battles during the war, the First (1914), Second (1917), and Third (1918) Battles of the Aisne. The second battle was the scene of the Nivelle Offensive — an engagement that cost the French 40,000 casualties on the first day alone. After 12 days of battle, French losses amounted to 271,000, compared to 163,000 German casualties. It was considered a disaster by the French public — one that cost General Robert Nivelle his job.
The Lochnagar Crater, France
At 7:28 AM on July 1st, 1916 — the first day of the Battle of the Somme — British forces detonated 24 tons of ammonal (an explosive made up of ammonium nitrate and aluminium powder) in a packed mine underneath German forces. The explosion, which was reportedly heard in London, was witnessed from the air by 2nd Lieutenant C.A. Lewis of No. 3 Squadron RFC:
The whole earth heaved and flashed, a tremendous and magnificent column rose up in the sky. There was an ear-splitting roar drowning all the guns, flinging the machine sideways in the repercussing air. The earth column rose higher and higher to almost 4,000 feet. There it hung, or seemed to hang, for a moment in the air, like the silhouette of some great cypress tree, then fell away in a widening cone of dust and debris.
The crater remains to this day, running nearly 70-feet deep.
The Cratered Remains of Butte de Vaquois, France
This used to be a small village. Located atop a strategic ridge, both sides resorted to digging and setting off explosive mines underneath the hill. In all, some 531 mines were detonated, including a 60-ton mine that vaporized the church and 108 men along with it. By the end of the engagement, the village ceased to exist in any recognizable form. It's estimated that 8,000 French and German soldiers went missing on the hill, their bodies never found.
The Battles of the Isonzo River, Italy
From June 1915 to November 1917, Italian forces fought the armies of Austria-Hungary in a series of 12 battles along the Isonzo River. Also known as the Isonzo Front, the engagements were disappointing for both sides and without any tangible tactical merit. But the casualties were enormous; about 300,000 for Italy and 200,000 for Austria-Hungary.
Belleau Wood, France
This is the scene of the first major battle fought by American soldiers in the Great War. The Battle of Belleau Wood (June 1st-26th, 1918) was, in the words of General Pershing, "for the U.S. the biggest battle since Appomattox and the most considerable engagement American troops had ever had with a foreign enemy." Some 1,811 American soldiers were killed, but the marines were largely successful in expelling German forces from the forests.
In 1915, Allied troops staged an amphibious landing in an effort to secure the Gallipoli peninsula and open a new front in Turkey. But after eight months of fighting, the land campaign had to be called off — an ill-planned and poorly thought-out engagement that forced Prime Minister Asquith to end his Liberal government and form a coalition with the Conservative party. It also cost Winston Churchill his job as First Lord of the Admiralty. In the picture above, the remains of an ancient castle, Sedd el Bahr Kale, can be seen from V Beach.
The Masurian Lakes, East Prussia (Poland)
Early in the war, in order to support France in the west, Russia launched an attack on Germany. Though outnumbered 2-to-1, the Germans responded by flushing out the Russian armies in the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes. It was a crushing defeat for Russia — one that contributed significantly to the prolongation of the war and the stalemate in the West.
In regards to the soccer ball picture, the following description was written by Patrick Macgill who achieved fame after the war as a poet and writer and who was a stretcher bearer during 