Battles Gallery

Matania - Last Absolution of the Munsters

'The Last General Absolution of the Munsters at Rue du Bois' - painting by Fortunino Matania. This painting relates to an incident in France in May of 1915, when the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Munster Fusiliers suffered very heavily at Rue du Bois, in the Pas de Calais close to Arras. The action was only one of many local attacks which ended disastrously through lack of support. Colonel Victor Rickard, recently appointed to command, was killed in the attack, as was his Adjutant, Captain Filgate. Both are represented in the picture, alongside Father Gleeson, who is shown giving the Absolution on the evening prior to the action taking place.
1915

© Mary Evans Picture Library 2015 - https://copyrighthub.org/s0/hub1/creation/maryevans/MaryEvansPictureID/10510942

The Last Stand of the Imperial Guards at Waterloo

The Last Stand of the Imperial Guards at Waterloo. General Hill calling on upon the Enemy to Surrender.Print by Riddle and Goughman after the painting by Robert Hillingford, published by Sketchy Bits, 1896. Associated with Gen 1st Viscount Rowland Hill, French Army (Imperial Guard Grenadiers). Associated with Napoleonic Wars, Waterloo (1815). Print Date: 1815

© The National Army Museum / Mary Evans Picture Library

Australian troops counter-attack at Amiens, WW1

Australian troops hold the line at Villers Bretonneux nine miles east of Amiens during a German attack during the Battle of Amiens in April 1918. The image was an accurate impression by Sphere special artist, Fortunino Matania, having been reconstructed with the help of eyewitness accounts and official material. In the foreground, an infantryman, his rifle slung over his shoulder, takes over a Lewis Gun whose crew had been put out of action. Behind that can be seen another soldier hitting a German with his tin helmet (having already strangled another with his bare hands) while a third German attempts to flee down a railway cutting but is stopped by the gun fire of the Australian officer's batman. Date: 1919

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans