No close family anniversaries. On this date in 1914, in the early days of World War I, Germany invaded France, setting off four years of bloody, slow-moving, indecisive trench warfare. It was not over yet in 1918, when granduncle Smith Larson saw combat in the Battle of St. Mihiel. Top photo: Machine gun company, French Army.
“Capture of the German Trenches at Neuve-Chapelle” by Charles Mills Sheldon
