3-038-978 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Bursting of Prussian shells within the Porte d'Auteuil, Paris, (sketch by balloon post), 1871. The Franco-Prussian War. 'It is more particularly in the south and south-west quarters of Paris that the greatest mischief has been done by the fierce bombardment from the Prussian batteries situated on the hills or ridges of Meudon, Sevres, St. Cloud, Montretout, Clamart, Chatillon, may, and, fiercest of all, from above the Pavilion de Breteuil. But the shells have also fallen thickly in the western suburbs; on the road between Auteuil and Boulogne, around the Porte d'Auteuil, they stopped the march of a detachment of National Guards and put them to flight'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.