Strange picture

[Konrad]

Guns are dragged over a ditch.
There are soldiers in the ditch.
They fill the ditch with their bodies.
The wagons and guns drive over them.
Can this be?

[Peter]

Looks like a human bridge indeed Konrad. And in my opinion they aren't all dead looking at the equipment lying aside that ditch.

It's a bit like passing barbed wire, one man throws himself over the barbed wire and the others step on him.

[steve_pickstock]

The soldiers in the ditch are acting as fascines.

[gerry7944]

This was an accepted practice by the Russian Army who treated thier sildiers as Slaves and was accepted by them .

I f I remember rightly this picture is from the Russo Ottoman war of the early 18th centuary.

Cheers

Gerry

[Emperor]

@Konrad- About dead solders in the ditch I think that was common thing back then. It was quite normal for soldiers back that to go over dead soldiers bodies even comrades. There is one record during battle of Čegar that when Ottoman forces attacked the fortress on Čegar hill they filled the trenches around sconce redoubt with soldiers who died trying to get into the sconce. The trench got filled with dead soldiers who died in trench from rebel fire. Huršid pasha sent soldiers many times who died in the trench until trench was full. That was one of many pictures of how war is cruel. Main mechanism of war is death.

[Emperor]

@Konrad- It would be an interesting diorama if you ask me.

[Zed1]

One may say that drastic times call for drastic measures.
Look here:

http://funsubstance.com/fun/77131/soldiers-doing-the-right-thing/
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2016/01/04/North-Korea-airs-footage-of-human-bridge-in-construction-project/5441451930100/

I found something about this painting and it's historical background here:
http://russianarmedforces1700-1917.blogspot.de/2015/06/iran-and-russia-clash-of-hegemonies-in.html

[FredG]

A painting from 1892 depicting a scene in the Russo-Persian war of 1804 -13. I think a decent amount of sodium chloride needs to be partaken.