‘The well camouflaged spotter of enemy batteries’, 1917 circa (b/w photo)

‘The well camouflaged spotter of enemy batteries’, 1917 circa. Photograph, World War One, Air Operations (1914-1918), 1917 circa. Two French observers prepare to rise up in their balloon basket. Their job was to spot enemy artillery and troop concentrations and then use a telephone to direct their own guns on to them. The basket of this balloon is fitted with a machine gun for defence as spotters were regularly attacked by enemy aircraft. Observers also used primitive parachutes. One of 193 British and Allied official photographs taken on the Western Front.