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Lost Soliders
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I came across a fascinating story about a cache of more than 3000 photos and photographic negative plates from WWI - recently discovered in a farmhouse in France.

Quote:"The Thuillier collection", named after the photographers, local farmer Louis Thuillier and his wife Antoinette, was almost lost to history because the farmhouse where they were stored is likely to be sold in coming months and their descendants had no idea of the historical significance of the plates.
According to the article, the find offers an amazing insight because soldiers were not allowed to bring their own cameras, and only official photographers were allowed to take photos on the Western front, many of them censored by the military.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/diggers-at-p...1b97y.html

Quote:The Thuilliers shot their souvenir photographs of French, British, Australian, Canadian, Indian and South African soldiers, and Chinese labourers, as regiments arrived to recuperate from frontline action. The soldiers were often billeted with families and some of the pictures show local children and mademoiselles posing with them.

For many, the photo shoots were a brief, happy lull before they returned to the slaughter that lasted until November 1918 and the war's end. Many of the photographs are of soldiers from the 1st and 5th Division in November and December 1916, survivors of the carnage of PoziÌÌÌres and Fromelles. In just four days at PoziÌÌÌres, 5285 Australian soldiers were killed or wounded.

“Nearly two-thirds of the young men who came through Vignacourt would have gone on to be killed or wounded,” Burness said. “The losses were appalling. In all likelihood these images are the last photographs taken of these young men before they died.”
The story was also covered by a local TV program here - with more galleries and some videos.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/sunday-night/bl...t-diggers/
http://au.news.yahoo.com/sunday-night/lost-diggers/
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