A German soldier by the side of a water-filled crater, June 15, 1916. The handwritten note says it is 'The crater of St. Elleu', possibly St. Eloi, near Ypres.
'The crater of St. Elleu on Jun 15 1916' (Translation courtesy Thomas Faust, eBay's Urfaust.)
"The heavy rains of the last few days had turned the crater field into a morass, deep enough, especially around the Paddelbach, to endanger life. On my wanderings, I would regularly pass solitary and abandoned corpses; often it was just a head or a hand that was left protuding from the dirty level of a crater. Thousands had come to rest in such a way, without a sign put up by a friendly hand to mark the grave."
German Lieutenant Ernst Jünger on the battlefield over which the Third Battle of Ypres was fought. Men drowned in the water and mud of shell holes, and in mud from which they could not be extricated.
Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger, page 196, copyright © 1920, 1961, Translation © Michael Hoffman, 2003, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 2003
1917-10-22, drowning, shell hole pool, crater pool, German soldier shell pool
