Entrance to Dugout, Neufmaison

War Department · 1918-04

Mixed media sketch on paper. The subject of this drawing is a camouflaged dugout. Three soldiers are in the background surrounded by trees. An original label on the drawing read, "I am told that this dugout is large enough to shelter an entire battalion. This is one of 6 or 7 entrances, the others being located on the top of the hill and leading into the dugout by a series of steps extending well below the surface of the ground. These entrances as well as the surface of the raw earth have been carefully covered with camouflage netting." Dugouts such as these were a regular feature of the landscape during the trench warfare of World War I.