'German 8" How captured on Vimy Ridge. used by my Brigade (164 Siege Battery) until hit against [sic] the Huns', 1917

Photograph, World War One (1914-1918), 1917 (c).

Two captured German 21 cm Morser 10 howitzers on the Western Front. The wheels of the gun in the foreground are fitted with track pads to stop them sinking into soft ground. The remains of trees, shattered by artillery bombardment, can be seen in the distance.

On 9 April 1917, four divisions of Canadian infantry recaptured the four-mile long strategic height of Vimy Ridge as part of the Battle of Arras (1917). Vimy Ridge had been occupied by the Germans since October 1914. Fortified, it commanded the flat countryside for miles around.

From an album of 253 photographs compiled by Charles William Stulpnagel (known as Swinton after December 1914), 50th Heavy Artillery Group, 1889-1920.