This image is a British Admiralty official photograph which is held at G00408 and H10324. “In an ...

Accession Number H10324
Collection type Photograph
Object type Black & white - Print silver gelatin
Maker Brooks, Ernest
Place made Ottoman Empire: Turkey, Dardanelles, Gallipoli
Date made 1915
Conflict First World War, 1914-1918
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain

Description

This image is a British Admiralty official photograph which is held at G00408 and H10324.
“In an Australian trench at Anzac showing a man using a periscope rifle, while a comrade ‘spots’ for him through a periscope. The periscope rifle was invented by an Australian soldier on Gallipoli.” (G00408 original caption)
“An Australian trench at the Dardanelles, showing a soldier using a periscope rifle, and another keeping watch by means of a periscope.” (H10324 caption)
“Men of the Royal Naval Division and Australians in the same trench. One is using a ‘sniperscope’ and another a periscope. Defence of the ANZAC. Scene in a trench during the period 28th April – 12th May, when the Marine and 1st Naval Brigades of the Royal Naval Division reinforced the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps in the area about what were later known as Quinn’s and Courtney’s Posts. The Marines brought a few periscopes with them, and the Australians improvised a supply from looking glasses sent ashore from transports.” (Caption for this image held by the Imperial War Museum at Q 13427)

Identified from original Australian War Memorial documents are, left to right: 274 Sergeant Ernest William Crain; unidentified; 313 Trooper Arthur Snowdon Demaine; Lieutenant Joseph Burge (killed in action 7 August 1915). These men belong to the 2nd Light Horse Regiment. These identifications are from a G series key sheet. Immediately after the First World War the Australian War Museum (now the Australian War Memorial) sought identifications from veterans to augment official captions. These identifications were recorded in the key sheets.

Many veterans have felt an affinity with images such as this. Over time, multiple conflicting identifications have been suggested for these servicemen and the units in this image. The Memorial is maintaining the identifications received in the immediate post war period. The unidentified serviceman will remain unidentified while there is no compelling supportive evidence to confirm an identification.