WWI images captured by British soldier who smuggled a camera into trenches

Astonishing moment German troops surrendered during Battle of the Somme is revealed in 'amazing' collection of WWI images captured by British soldier who smuggled a camera into trenches

The image was taken in July 1916 by a soldier who defied Army chiefs in the First World War to take secret photographs of life in the trenches. Amateur photographer Lance Corporal George Hackney (inset) took candid pictures of the Great War when he was called up to fight in October 1915. He captured the moment the 36th (Ulster) Division forced the Germans to surrender in the bloody battle (pictured), which saw more than a million men killed. The soldiers can be seen on the horizon of the dramatic photograph, and the battle was far from over - it would last a further four months. Author and First World War historian Richard Van Emden has described the photograph as 'amazing' and 'extremely rare', Belgian Ministry of Defence chief Franky Bostyn hailed it as the 'photographical WWI discovery of the century'. The photograph is thought to have been taken on a Vest Pocket Kodak, a folding camera which was no bigger than a smartphone which would've been used discreetly by the Corporal.