Tommy’s novel oven made out of oil drums
Image by National Library of Scotland
Oil drums have been set, on their sides, into a brick wall. The tops of the cans have been turned into lids for each separate cavity. There is a soldier doubled over retrieving food from the first drum and the other drums all have items lying in the bottom of them. There are tents and a grass field in the background.
The energy and organisation required to fuel the war effort, to ensure supplies of mundane daily life such as food and clothing were immense. During this period of fluidity these were often the first areas to be affected and so soldiers often had to fend for themselves.
[Original reads: 'OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN ON THE BRITISH WESTERN FRONT. Tommy's novel oven made out of oil drums.']
Ingenious. It’s sometimes the little things that make a place feel like home. WWI was hell, every account of that war just amazes me.
The whole idea of the German Blitzkrieg in WW2 was to avoid such horrible trench war brutality, of course it meant a brutal & bloody onslaught that moved like a thunderstorm…. not any less inhumane or ugly. War sucks, too bad we (the human race) can’t break the cycle.