2-547-910 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Ruins of Bethune, France, World War I, c1915-c1918. Smouldering Bethune, ignited by German guns for the defeat at Festubert. The Battle of Festubert was part of the wider Artois Offensive carried out by the British and Empire armies in May 1915. It succeeded in making a small advance through the German lines of about 1 kilometre but cost 16,000 casualties. In April 1918, German artillery bombardment virtually destroyed the town of Bethune during the Ludendorff Offensive. From a box set of stereoscopic cards titled 'The Great War'.