Faces of Great war

10/20/2025

Lt. Alexander Pfeifer’s men eating lunch in the trench (1916) - from the book ‘The Other Trench’:
By March 1916, Lt. Pfeifer was a company commander with one and a half years of war experience. He explains in his diary how well the trenches were built, and that he was glad to be back with his men after some time away. When he returned, he wrote :

https://www.theothertrench.com/

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“That it drips through the ceiling in various places with monotonous regularity; that rats and mice rustle and squeak behind the ceiling and wall coverings; that the boys next door play the harmonica with more enthusiasm than skill — These are little things from before that I have long since gotten used to.”

His diary and photographs have now been published for the first time in both English and German: The Other Trench / Der Andere Graben

10/15/2025

stunning WW1 real footage with sound

10/14/2025

German fighter pilot Alfred Michel surveys his damaged Bf 109G, alongside members of the American 90th Infantry Division and the 455th Anti-Aircraft Battery who brought him down with two well-placed .50-calibre rounds to the engine...on his very first mission.

Germany, January 1945.

10/10/2025

10/10/2025

It was June 1916 when Alexander Pfeifer was trained as a stormtrooper company commander and sent to the Carpathian Mountains to fight the Russians. As a specialised mountain unit, he battled the most unfavourable conditions as well the enemy. It was here that he also was awarded his Iron Cross 1st Class. Despite the unfavourable conditions, he writes in his diary how he preferred it here to the Western Front:

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“The opinions about our new theatre of war are very varied. Most are thrilled about this wild, adventurous, and truly jäger-like life, yet there are several who long for the cushy and less strenuous life in the West. Anyway, I am happy that I am here.”

His diary and photographs have now been published for the first time in both English and German: The Other Trench / Der Andere Graben

09/21/2025

A German officer's day-by-day WWI diary — Raw - Unedited - hidden for over a century - Now revealed to the world for the very first time: get this amazing book now
www.theothertrench.com

In 1914, Lt. Alexander Pfeifer left behind his career, family, and future to serve as a company commander in one of the most elite and utilised units of the Imperial German Army — the 11th Kurhessian Jäger Battalion. Over the next four years, he fought in some of World War I’s fiercest battles across France, the Carpathians (Eastern Front), and the Italian Alps. But what makes his story different is that he wrote about everything and took his camera with him:

“This diary is not just a recollection of experiences written down after the war… These are literally the experiences I wrote down each day - A genuine reflection of the fight against enemy and nature.” — Lt. Pfeifer

After the war, Alexander typed out the pages he had written under all kinds of conditions, combining them into a single book for his family to read. It included maps, hundreds of photos he had taken, postcards, and items from the battlefields. Passed down through generations, the diary was read by family, friends, and a few others, always remembered as something unique.

In 2020, after years of neglect, I decided to preserve it — spending four years compiling its material and stories to publish it in English and German (The Other Trench / Der andere Graben) -

order this book now .
www.theothertrench.com

08/10/2025

07/11/2025

Art Bell and Leah with captured tank in WW1 battlefield
Original caption "English tank - captured by Germans. Note - Bomb on ground. Hindenburg Line"

07/06/2025

Battle of somme

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11/12/2024

Last day of WW1 , France

05/20/2024

German soldiers , WW1
"Anonymous document made in November 1917 before the (fights) of December 1st, 1917. "The day of glory" of the 7th company as described by Ernst Junger in his journal. The losses were huge on this day: "Among all the wounded, some will surely die. The high percentage of deaths is explained by the long and fierce (melee fight), in which the question is always" to be or not to be ". Philippe Wille private collection.
Digitally colored photo by Frédéric Duriez - Histoire de Couleurs

2,037,000 German soldiers were killed in World War I. These losses were a military and demographic catastrophe which had enormously important political, social, economic, and cultural consequences.

"Trench fighting is the bloodiest, wildest, most brutal of all ... Of all the war's exciting moments none is so powerful as the meeting of two storm troop leaders between narrow trench walls. There's no mercy there, no going back, the blood speaks from a shrill cry of recognition that tears itself from one's breast like a nightmare."
Ernst Jünger, Storm of Steel

05/14/2024

At Cambrai, France, German soldiers load a captured British Mark I tank onto a railroad, in Nov 1917. Ironically, it was actually the Germans who would go on to use tanks to greater effect in future conflicts, with the Panzer division often dominating the battlefield in the Second World War.

The British Mark I was the first ever tank to see combat.

Color by Royston colors
150 were built, divided into male and female types with 75 of each. Male tanks had sponsons, each one mounting a 57mm, six-pounder gun. Female tanks, on the other hand, each mounted two cumbersome sponsons, designed to carry two Vickers, water-cooled, heavy machine guns instead, with tiny escape doors at the back. Both had a wheeled tail assembly at the back which could be used for steering and as a counter-balance when going over a ridge or even additional support when crossing a wide trench.

Mark I tanks went into action for the first time on 15 September 1916 on the Somme. Eight others were shipped out to Palestine and saw action at Gaza, the first time tanks were ever used in a desert setting. Later in 1916 the wheeled tails, which were proving more trouble than they were worth, were removed and it was found that the tanks ran just as well without them. Other modifications included fitting stronger brakes and better track rollers and removing the teeth from the idler wheels at the front. Some minor actions took place later in the year and fifteen Mark I tanks were earmarked to take part in the Battle of Arras in April 1917.