The German use of church towers as observation posts in WW1. This report in the Illustrated War News, dated 1917, claims that the Germans attacked Rheims Cathedral on the premise that it was being used as an observation post. (In fact, it housed wounded German soldiers in the care of the Sisters of Mercy, some of whom were killed in the attack.) Here, the interior of Amy church on the Somme is shown, with scaffolding, platform and ladders to a trap door in the roof, to illustrate the hypocritical use by the Germans themselves of church towers as observation posts.