One of the Big Guns on the Salonica Front - Stereograph Card

Great naval gun and its protecting fort of sand bags on the Saloniki front

The British who occupied Salonica brought with them a number of naval guns which they placed behind their front lines with which they could do long distance bombarding.

Here we see one of those long slender "Naval Beauties" poking its threatening nose out of its fortified position on the hillside. The gunners have covered the barrel with grass so that from above it will blend into the landscape and also prevent the sun's rays reflecting from it.

A great deal of labor has been necessary to build the huge sand bag fortification in which the gun is housed. An excavation was necessary in the first place. At the rim of the excavations were placed barrels full of concrete, on top of this an elaborate sand bag and earth protection, so that nothing but a direct hit from a very heavy gun would destroy this position.

We have here a typical piece of Balkan scenery which is well outside of Salonica itself. A Balkan village is plainly visible and it can be reached by the winding road yonder. Judging from the dust rising from the road in the distance a military transport column is moving toward us.

• Excerpt from: The World War through the stereoscope a visualized, vitalized history of the greatest conflict of all the ages / / edited by Major Joseph Mills Hanson.
• Published/Created by: Meadville, Pa.; New York, N.Y.; Chicago, Ill.; London, England: 
• Keystone View Company, photographed between 1914 and 1918, published 1923
• Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA