Re: [Leica] Leitz and World War 1

["Alan Hull" <hull@telia.com>]

From Leon  LP6@aol.com 
> Why-especially -WW I interests:  
- ----------------------

Because the most haunting photographs I have ever seen come from WW1. 
As I write this, I am thinking about a photograph of a long line of
weary troops shuffling alongside a canal.  Their faces are turned away
from the camera and the caption reads Anthem for a Doomed Youth.  If
you are not prepared before you see this combination of Caption and
Photograph they will knock the wind out of you.  I am almost sure that
this photograph has been adopted by the War Graves commission but I
can't find the URL to check.  One does get a bit nervous with facts
that are likely to catch the eye of Mark James Small :-)

I am also fascinated by courage.  How a man can obey the "whistle" and
go over the top to an almost certain and painful death.  He is "obeying
orders", of course, which relates to a previous thread.  Or maybe going
over the top is a relief from the mud, desease, rats and shelling etc.

I know its hypothetical and just a dream but I really would like to
spend a few months at the Menin Gate with a camera in say 1917.  Why
the Menin Gate?  Because it was the cross roads at Flanders.  Everyone
and everything passed it at some time or other.  There are a lot of
answers there.  

Wow, did I really write the above?  MJS is going to tear me apart.  Oh
well, live and learn.

Alan