The British Empire entered the First World War on the 4th of August, 1914, with a declaration of war on the German Empire.
This declaration drew Britain’s territories overseas into the conflict, including Australia.
This image is of a military recruitment station in the Australian village of Jerseyville, New South Wales. The Recruitment Officer (beside the flag), new recruits, and their families pose for a photograph, circa 1914.
4th August 1918: British soldiers in Ranchicourt, France hold a service to mark the fourth anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War. The British Army military band stands in the foreground.
People gather outside Winchester Cathedral, Hampshire on the 4th of August, 1918 to mark the fourth anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War.
The Outbreak of the First World War, 1914:
A Berlin crowd listens as a German officer reads the Kaiser’s order for mobilisation on 1st August 1914. The following day, following the requirements of the Schlieffen Plan, Germany invaded Luxembourg and demanded free passage for its troops through Belgium in order to attack France.
By John Warwick Brooke, Britain’s second official war photographer.
The Battle of Pilckem Ridge, part of the larger Battle of Passchendaele in the First World War, was fought between the 31st July and the 2nd of August, 1917.
In this photograph, British soldiers struggle through thick mud to carry a wounded man to safety near Boesinghe (Boezinge) on the 1st of August.
The Battle of Passchendaele, also known as the Third Battle of Ypres, was fought between the Allies and the German Empire in the First World War.
Part of the larger Battle of Pilckem Ridge, Passchendaele began on the 31st of July, 1917.
This photograph, taken on that first day, shows German prisoners and British wounded crossing a canal near Boesinghe (Boezinge) in Belgium.
28th July 1941: Red Army soldiers captured by the Nazis during food distribution at a camp in occupied Vinnytsia, Ukraine.
In contrast to their treatment of British and American prisoners, the Germans employed a policy of deliberately mistreating Soviet prisoners of war, which resulted in 3-3.5 million deaths – an estimated 57% of all soldiers captured.
