Two unidentified soldiers from the Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 185 from Baden, sitting in a dugout carved into the chalk. The sniper rifle likely belongs to the man in front reading a newspaper, the "Stockacher Tagblatt” (Stockach being a town and tagblatt meaning roughly daily newspaper), which is dated May 1st, 1916. The man in back is cleaning a G98 rifle.
There’s no explanation for the alarm clock box, but my personal theory is that the man in back either lost or damaged the tin or pouch for his gun cleaning supplies and is temporarily using a random box he found.
Photo was taken by Gustav Hotz who was himself from Stockach. When he died in July of 1916, his large collection of photographs of the Western Front were given to his family and ended up in the museum in Stockach.
Colorized by Colour by RJM.
