archiwalia arch

Soldiers crossing the River Ancre, France, during World War I. This photograph depicts four British soldiers using a fallen tree-trunk as a temporary bridge over the River Ancre. They do not appear to be in a danger area as only one man is wearing a steel helmet. The landscape is bleak, full of war-blasted trees. THE HEROES of World War One have been brought into the twenty-first century thanks to a series of stunning colourised images to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the war. Striking pictures show men hauling a howitzer out of the mud at Beaucourt sur Ancre, four British soldiers using a fallen tree-trunk as a temporary bridge over the River Ancre and six soldiers looking out of a dugout on the Western Front. Other vivid colour photographs show soldiers digging a trench viewed between strands of barbed wire, officers showing a map to their men at the Somme in France and infantry waiting in a trench for their turn to advance. The original black and white photos were expertly colourised by electrician Royston Leonard (56) from Cardiff, Wales. Royston Leonard / mediadrumimages.com