German casualty lying next to knocked-out field artillery, 1918

Photograph, World War One, Western Front (1914-1918), 1918.

Counter-battery fire was a key part of any successful operation on the Western Front. Enemy guns were located by spotters in balloons and aircraft or by observers on the ground. They looked for muzzle flashes and used sound ranging methods to detect them and then directed their own guns, often firing gas as well as high explosive, on to the targets.

From an album of 24 photographs.