New-York tribune., 1919-01-12
CAMERA man killed,
PLATES GIVE UP TALE
Lieut.. Estep Photographs Hill
Which Quickly Becomes
His Grave
DIES in SIGHT OF SEDAN
Pictures Reveal Drama of Bursting
Shells and Crawling Men
Above Deadly Valley
DIES in SIGHT OF SEDAN

In the dark room of q Photographic
laboratory near Paris this week two sensi-
tized gelatine plates gave up the secret of
the last minutes of Lieutenant Ralph Estep,
who was killed within sight of Sedan, after
he had faced death almost daily for three
months, so that millions of people could see
through the eye of his camera what mod
ern war is like.
Gradually taking lights and shadows,
the two plates showed the crest of a barren
hill with shells bursting and casting up
great spouts of earth, and just beyond the
crest valley black with the shadows of
late afternoon, valley that holds Lieu
tenant Esteps grave.
Lieutenant Estep had snapped the photo
graphs few moments before another one
of those big shells burst and left him life
less at the side of his camera and plate
pack. That about p. m. of November
three days before the last guns of the
war were fired.
dozen pencilled lines in his notebook,
titles for the dozen pictures he had taken
just before he was killed, make complete
the story that the last photographs tell. He
had written titles for every plate by num-
bers, and plates No. 1, 2, 8, and showed
the platoon forming for the reconnaissance.
Plate No. pictured Slight brush," the
first sight of the enemy.
Writes: "Men Crawling"
The dramatic climax was shown in plates
II and IL, his last ones and in his note
book the record. stands:
11.-Burst-Killed.
12.-Men crawling
The pictures were all taken on cloudy
day and are full of shadows, with little con-
trast, and No II shows only the edge of the
Hill and the huge funnel shaped she'll burst
The word "kiled" probably referred to what
he had seen happen to the men just ahead
of him. Picture No. IL shows another huge
column of flying earth with line of dough-
boys dmly silhouetted against the dark
ness of the valley.
The last writing on the page-the lieu
tenants last words-were simply: "Nov 7
Pack 49, Lieutenant Estep had reloaded
his camera just before he fell
Lieutenant Estep's death is only one of
the casualties among the 100 Signal Corps
officers and men who have been taking still
and motion pictures of the fighting Ameri-
cans One other photographer was danger
ously wounded and six others were wounded
more or less seriously. Another camera
man. who had been listed as killed, has lust
been accounted for as prisoner of war
through post card he mailed from a Ger
man prison camp, asking his buddy to send
him his heavy sweater.
He is Corporal Daniel j. Sheehan, and
his story is typical of the hazards the
camera man takes. Corporal Sheehan and
fhor acJ
Mihiel sector after the advancing infantry
and took several reels of pictures before the
roads became thick and almost motionless
with traffic and embargo was placed on
the movement of everything except men
and food and munitions. So, after his au-
tomobie had been seized to haul back
wounded and his camera had been salvaged
by the Q. NJ. c., Corporal Sheehan picked up
rife and started out with a patrol
That was the last account his command