French soldiers posing for a photograph with captured German equipment in a conquered German trench on the Somme, 1916.

French soldiers posing for a photograph with captured German equipment in a conquered German trench on the Somme, 1916.

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Here is a marvelous photograph, acquired from Carnets de guerre 1914-1954, which I thought I'd share today.

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We see five French soldiers from the 170th Infantry Regiment, one of them wearing a German Stahlhelm and gas-mask (though a French overcoat), likely imitating a captured German soldier for the photograph. The German hand-grenades and German 'Reichsadler' eagle badge on the left suggests this is a former German trench, perhaps conquered shortly before the photograph.

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On the back of the photograph is simply written: "In the trenches. Somme." It identifies the man in the back as a Private Georges Hutter, who was killed on the Somme on September 14, 1916, and thus marked with an X on the photograph. The identities and fates of the other men remain unknown.