Sars-Poteries, France

Depicts a railway yard with piles of ammunition in Sars-Poteries, France. A lone Australian soldier stands with his back turned looking across the yard, his hands in his pockets, wearing a slouch hat. Train carriages on railway tracks are situated on both sides of the yard; wagons are pictured in the middle distance and buildings in the background suggest the yard is on the outskirts of town. The artist recounts that the yard was previously used by the Germans as an ammunitions dump. "All the fields around the station were covered with piles of shells of all kinds. These piles are kept as far apart as possible owing to the danger of bombing by aircraft. The enemy had evidently meant to put up a very strong resistance on a line a few miles in advance of this place as there is sufficient ammunition on this dump alone to last for some time. The dump had evidently only been established a few days prior to its capture by the British forces and the enemy left so hurriedly that he had been unable to destroy it."