Elephants do Their Part
a Parade of Patriotic Pachyderms
two photos of elephants being used in France and Great Britain
above : a hand-colored photo taken from a series of cigarette cards
News editors loved photos of dogs and horses with the army, but were no less enamored when circus elephants were put to work in the general war effort. Were these behemoths actually worth their weight in fodder or was it all just an exercise in propaganda ? Whatever the case, they were more than photogenic enough to be regularly photographed.