Cambrai Road - Western Front - World War One

On the Cambrai Road looking toward Arras on the Western Front during World War One, circa 1918. The Western Front was a meandering line of fortified trenches extending from the North Sea to the Swiss border with France. Its front lines remained virtually unchanged for most of the duration of the war. From 1915 to 1917 there were several major offensives along the Front, namely the Battles of Verdun, the Somme and Passchendaele, but, despite the loss of nearly two and a half million lives in these conflicts alone, no signficant advances were made. It wasn't until their Spring Offensive of 1918 that the Germans were able to progress westward by nearly 100 kilometres which very nearly succeeded in making a breakthrough, but the consistent advance of the Allied armies soon after resulted in the defeat of the Central Powers and the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. In total, conflicts along the Western Front from 1914 to 1918 resulted in nearly 8 million casualties of war. This image is one of a series of photographs likely to have been taken at the end of the war, circa 1918. (Photo by Popperfoto via Getty Images/Getty Images)