Collection related to the service of 704 Ernest Charles Barnes

Accession Number C00452
Collection type Photograph
Object type Black & white - Glass original half plate negative
Maker Barnes, Ernest Charles
Place made France: Picardie, Somme, Albert Bapaume Area, Pozieres Area, Pozieres
Date made June 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

The ruins of the German concrete pillbox (fortified observation post) that stood on the western edge of the village of Pozieres, called Gibraltar by the British because of its strength. Comprising a covered stairway down to a cellar of a house that formerly occupied the site, plus a larger excavated chamber, the pillbox was reinforced with steel. It housed three officers and 23 men, and enabled the Germans to cover all of the surrounding countryside with machine gun fire. The 2nd Battalion captured it on 23 July 1916. (From the collection of 704 Driver Ernest Charles Barnes who served with the 1st Field Artillery Brigade, 21st Howitzer Brigade and 2nd Field Artillery Brigade.)