French soldiers' dining area underground with wine bottles, canteens and a serving dish. Photographed 6 December 2011. Vauquois, France. (Copyright (c) 2013, Jeffrey Gusky. Used with permission)
French soldiers' dining area underground with wine bottles, canteens and a serving dish. Photographed 6 December 2011. Vauquois, France. (Copyright (c) 2013, Jeffrey Gusky. Used with permission)
WWI soldiers inscriptions in the subterranean city at Naours – Bocage Hallue. (Copyright (c) 2013, Jeffrey Gusky. Used with permission)
WWI soldiers inscriptions in the subterranean city at Naours - Bocage Hallue. (Copyright (c) 2013, Jeffrey Gusky. Used with permission)
WWI soldiers inscriptions in the subterranean city at Naours - Bocage Hallue. (Copyright (c) 2013, Jeffrey Gusky. Used with permission)
WWI soldiers inscriptions in the subterranean city at Naours - Bocage Hallue. (Copyright (c) 2013, Jeffrey Gusky. Used with permission)
WWI soldiers inscriptions in the subterranean city at Naours - Bocage Hallue. (Copyright (c) 2013, Jeffrey Gusky. Used with permission)
WWI soldiers inscriptions in the subterranean city at Naours - Bocage Hallue. (Copyright (c) 2013, Jeffrey Gusky. Used with permission)
WWI soldiers inscriptions in the subterranean city at Naours - Bocage Hallue. (Copyright (c) 2013, Jeffrey Gusky. Used with permission)
WWI soldiers' graffiti. Photographed 30 January 2013. Picardy, France. (Copyright (c) 2013, Jeffrey Gusky. Used with permission)
Former underground city beneath the trenches. Photographed 11 March 2013. Picardy, France. (Copyright (c) 2013, Jeffrey Gusky. Used with permission)
Sculpture of French soldier wearing uniform of 1914. Photographed 16 January 2014. Picardy, France. (Copyright (c) 2013, Jeffrey Gusky. Used with permission)
Sculpture of French soldier praying. Photographed 22 January 2014. Picardy, France. (Copyright (c) 2013, Jeffrey Gusky. Used with permission)
Carving reads: “Liberty leaving the world", "September, 1917, a soldier of the 278", "the disasters of the 20th Century", "the sun of my youth”. Picardy, France. Photographed 26 January 2014. (Copyright (c) 2013, Jeffrey Gusky. Used with permission)
Street sign in underground WWI city. Photographed 26 January 2014. Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France. (Copyright (c) 2013, Jeffrey Gusky. Used with permission)
Stairway from an underground city to the trenches. Photographed 26 January 2014. Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France. (Copyright (c) 2013, Jeffrey Gusky. Used with permission)
An engraving left behind by U.S. soldiers from the 1st Division in France during WWI reads "U.S. Forever." Photographed in January 2014, in Cantigny, France. ( Copyright (c) 2015, Jeffrey Gusky. Used with permission )
Stuck under the battlefields near Cantigny, France, soldiers from the U.S. 1st Division took to the cavern walls to relieve what must have been terror and boredom.
One sentiment carved in the rock is as timeless as it is plain: “U.S. Forever.”
Photographer Jeff Gusky found these haunting scenes and revealed them in a photography collection called “The Hidden World of WWI.” In honor of the 100th anniversary of the Great War, he’s releasing one image a day until the centennial remembrance is complete in 2019.
The collection of thousands of photographs shows a world stuck in time. Soldiers carved in underground quarries, which were turned into makeshift cities – complete with power stations, communication lines and hospitals. The abundance of inscriptions shows just how long and how agonizing the stay must have been.
“The raw emotional impact of WWI soldiers’ hand-written inscriptions compels me to find more undiscovered places where soldiers left their mark,” Gusky said in a news release. “To think that these young men, who were facing the unimaginable horror of the world’s first modern mass destruction, left behind messages to the future, not knowing if anyone would ever see them, is deeply moving. In these underground spaces beneath the trenches, the soldiers’ emotions are frozen in time. It’s as if 100 years ago is yesterday.”
Enjoy this collection of 16 photos released by Gusky, and follow his daily releases of new images on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
