Trading salt air for salty mud

110 years ago today. July 6, 1916, a fortified sector of Pirnar, Greece, on the Salonika front along the Vardar River, showing a well-sandbagged artillery position held by French bachi-capped and pith-helmeted sailors on a “dirt” cruiser. By this point in the Great War, with the Germans and Austrians bottled up in their respective harbors and the French in dire need of large bore artillery, numerous French cruisers and battlewagons gave up their less usable casemated 100mm, 138mm, and 165mm guns for emplacement ashore, served by naval gunners who gave up worrying about U-boats and mines for the joys of a nice, soggy berth in a bunker somewhere on the line. A camouflaged canon de 138/55 Modèle 1910 naval gun at La Raperie near Terny-Sorny (Aisne) during World War I. This photograph is part of the Fonds Raoul Berthelé, preserved by the city archives of Toulouse. Another camouflaged canon de 138 mm Modèle 1910 naval gun near Vacherauville, France, 1915. This photograph is part of the…