The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1919-02-21
LIVES SACRIFICED IN
MAKING WAR PICTURES
Camera Men Heroes of Battlefields,
But Their Names Are Seldom
Heralded.

cCSLSO VI ~ A"DS
ant Ralph Estep, who was killed with
in sight of Sedan after he had faced
death almost daily for three months,
so that millions of people could see
through the eye of the camera what
modern war is like, says Stars and
Stripes.
Gradually taking on lights and
shadows, the two plates showed the
crest of a barren hill with shells burst
ing and casting up great spouts OF
earth, and just beyond the crest a
valley black with the shadows of late
afternoon, a valley that holds Lieu
tenant Estep's grave.
Lieutenant Estep had snapped the
photographs a few minutes before an
other one. of those big shells burst
and left him lifeless at the side of
his camera and plate rack. That was
about 5 D. m. of November Three
DAYS before the last guns of the war
were fired.
A dozen penciled lines in his note
book, 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 tt
ties for every plate by numbers, and
plates Nos. /, 2, 3, 4 and 5 showed the
platoon forming for the %reconnais-
sance. Plate No. 6 pictures a "slight
brush," the first sight of the enemy.
Wrote "Men Crawling"
The dramatic climax was shown in
plates II and IL, his last, and in his
notebook the record stands:
IL. Burst-Killed.
u. Men crawling.
The pictures we're all taken on a
cloudy day and are full of shadows,
with little contrast, AMI No. II shows
only the edge of the hill and the huge
funnel-shaped shell burst. The word
"killed" 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 a line of doughboys dimly sill
houetted against the darkness of the
valley.
The last writing on the page-the
~lieutenan's last words-were simply:
"Nov. 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 pic
lures of the fighting Americans. One
other photographer was dangerously
wounded and six others were wounded
more or less seriously.
Up in the Photographic laboratories
where they develop films of the still
and movie pictures the camera mer
take, they tell you that the camera
mar must face a shell for every click
of the camera shutter, a bullet fol
every flicker in the film.
Preserve Historic Battles.
Through the work of these me1
American soldiers all through France
and the folks back home are shown
what St. Mihiel was like, why the
Argonne had to be battered at as il
it were a wall and how the grea'
American army battered out and leap
ed away for Sedan when it BROKE
through the dam of manpower tina
Germany tried to i%nterpose.
There were dark, rainy days whe1
the camera-man's game was bad, ant
then cameras were put aside TO
rifles. The camera men have bee
pinch hitters in almost every othe
branch of the service, helping to bull
bridges and haul back wounded. L
addition, there are several photog
raphers who can tell you manful tale
of closeup fighting with the enem
and of prisoners taken at the poin
of a lens.
One thing they'll emphasize, though
That is, it's dangerous to use a movi
camera too neal the front. 1t wi
draw fire. 1t looks too much like
n%ew-fangled machine gun, and
doughboy can't always stop to inquir
/ Il. =: Ll:.l