Members of the 2nd Pioneer Battalion filling in one of the several large craters caused by German ...

Place Europe: France, Picardie, Somme, Albert Bapaume Area, Le Sars
Accession Number E00343
Collection type Photograph
Object type Black & white - Glass original negative other
Place made France: Picardie, Somme, Albert Bapaume Area, Bapaume
Date made March 1917
Conflict First World War, 1914-1918
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain

Description

Members of the 2nd Pioneer Battalion filling in one of the several large craters caused by German mines on the main Bapaume Road between Le Sars and Bapaume. This crater, the nearest to Bapaume, was forty five feet wide and forty feet deep. In order to allow artillery and motor lorries to move forward, timber and corduroy tracks were hastilly built on either side of the cavity, which was later filled in after the advancing troops had pushed on. Identified, but some positiions unknown: 2716 Private Percival Thomas Sharrock, right foreground; Lieutenant Gilbert James Furnell (later killed at Swan Chateau near Ypres 19 September 1917), directly behind Sharrock; 4921 Sergeant A B Thomas, behind Furnell, standing straight; 4901 Private J J Stacey, position unknown.