Then & Now: Photos Remember World War I On the 100th Anniversary

As commemoration of the First World War, these composite images compare the Europe of 1914 with the Europe of 2014. The above image has been made of Les Halles in the Grote Markt. Commemorations of The First World War Centenary begin in 2014 and will last until 2018. Les Halles is in the Belgium town of Ypres, the site of three major battles during World War I, and was almost completely devastated by bombing. (Getty)

November 1914/2014: In Trafalgar Square, London street urchins dressed as soldiers with paper hats and canes as guns stand to attention, watched by a small crowd. Behind them is a notice declaring “The Need for Fighting Men Is Urgent.” (Getty)

Traffic runs from Basilica of Notre-Dame de Brebieres on March 13, 2014, in Albert, France. A number of events will be held this year to commemorate the centenary of the start of World War One. It is combined with the view of the basilica with tilted statue of the Virgin because of a shell in blast in 1915. (Getty)

The British Army on the Western Front, March 1917. Members of a Royal Garrison Artillery working party carrying duck-boards across the frozen Somme canal at Frise, March 1917 and 2014. (Getty)

In this composite image a comparison has been made of Scotland Yard. A gated barrier runs near Scotland Yard on March 17, 2014, in London, England. It is placed over an image of a large crowd of men responding to a call by the War Office for married men ages 36 to 40 to become munition workers. They gathered outside the Inquiry Office at Scotland Yard in London, England, during World War 1. (Getty)

The contemporary version of the building is placed behind an image of German troops sitting on the steps of the Vareddes Town Hall, France, 1914. German soldiers taking a rest during the First Battle of the Marne. (Getty)

A 1917 image of soldiers standing outside the ruins of the railway station at Roye, Somme, France, is placed before the same building in 2014. (Getty)