It is a little known fact that color photography existed prior to WWI. Fully armed and equipped
Zouaves in field order advance through the woods in this prewar original color photo.

A bearded Zouave prepares his rations in this prewar WWI color photo. 

French Metropolitan Infantry march through the streets of Paris upon
mobilization with their Mle 1886/93 Lebels at shoulder arms.

French Infantry columns march through vineyards on the way to the front in August 1914.

Serried ranks of French troops armed with Mle 86/93 Lebels advance at the quick step in this rare
photograph of a bayonet charge taken in the first weeks of the war. The French tactical doctrine of
“Attaque a outrance,” the cult of “élan” and the bayonet, resulted in mass slaughter as the brightly festooned
French troops were thrown time and again in sweeping charges across open ground in the face of machineguns and repeating small arms fire supported by rapid firing artillery. By the end of the Battle of the Frontiers, the
French Army had suffered more than 600,000 casualties.

French infantry exchange fire with German troops across open fields in the early days
of the war. Note the NCO’s kneeling behind the front rank monitoring the fire discipline of
the troops. The prone soldier in the right foreground is reaching for cartridges to feed into the
Kropatchek magazine through the top of the open action of his 86/93 Lebel.

French Infantry await a German counter attack following a failed assault that has left members
of their own unit strewn dead across the field in front of their position. Amazingly, the astronomical
butcher’s bill resulting from continued frontal assaults in the early months of the war forced both sides
to ground, however it did nothing change the practice of sending young men to their deaths across open
ground into the teeth of modern weaponry, a practice repeated time and again over the next four years.

Sheltering from enemy fire in a rubble-strewn ditch on the edge of a field, French troops
exchange fire with the “Boche”. The second soldier from the left is in the process of thumbing
another cartridge into the tubular magazine of the Lebel.

French soldiers, rifles at the ready, shelter behind the bank of a canal while they wait for the enemy to
appear. A French officer scans the countryside for evidence of the approaching German columns.

French soldiers scan no-man’s-land through a trench periscope in one of the earliest photos of trench
warfare. Three Mle 1886/93 Lebels can be seen resting against the trench wall on the fire-step.

A “Poilu” takes aim through the periscope of a makeshift sniping rig. As the war progressed, more sophisticated sniping periscopes were developed by all of the major combatant countries. The purpose of these contraptions was to allow harassing fire to be directed at the enemy positions without exposing the soldier to counter sniping.

A Lebel armed Chasseur Alpine posses for the camera sometime after 1916 as is
evidenced by the replacement of the original prewar dark blue uniform with standard with
standard issue Horizon Blue. The distinctive beret identifies him as a member of the
elite Chasseur Alpine light infantry. 

French “Poilu” engaged in a firefight with the enemy. The soldier in the center is reaches into his ammunition pouch for another cartridge to feed into the open action of his Mle 1886/93 Lebel. The presence of the Adrian helmets and the Horizon Blue uniform places the photo circa mid to late 1915. An unusual feature of the uniforms shown in the photo are the presence of M1913 leather gaiters, which by this time had been replaced in most units by puttees.

French Infantry fire on the enemy from the concealment of a bombed out building. Note the prone soldier in the foreground picking up a single cartridge from the ammunition he has placed in a small pile for easy access. If he were armed with a Mauser or Mannlicher rifle, he would be picking up a charger or clip with five to six rounds of ammunition in the same amount of time and effort.

Heavily laden French Poilus with rifles slung trudge through the mud of a drainage ditch alongside a hedgerow. Three soldiers sport tobacco pipes, the preferred method of smoking among the soldiers of the Great War.

Early Uniforms Made Troops Easy Targets

The four regiments of Zouaves in the French Army in 1914, while dressed in traditional North African style uniforms, were composed entirely of native Frenchmen rather than Colonials. The uniform was composed of a vest (sedria), which was worn underneath the short waste jacket (tombo), atop a pair of triple width baggy trousers (saroul). A 13’ long dark blue woolen sash was wrapped around the waste over the vest and trousers and was intended to provide additional lower back support while on the march. The cartridge belt in turn, was worn over the woolen sash. The entire affair was topped off with a soft red cap with blue tassel (chechia). The traditional gaudy uniform was completely abandoned before the end of 1914 for obvious reasons! The uniform in this display is perhaps the rarest example in the author’s collection.