Austrian-Hungarian soldier, 1918

It looks like a thousand-yard ledge, it looks like there's nothing there. The rank insignia indicates that he is an Austrian-Hungarian soldier, not a German, that he is a lance corporal.

In case you're wondering, they had mounting lugs for air vents on the side of the Stahlheim helmet and an extra armor plate for nervous soldiers. Some soldiers used these sternpanzer plates and the lugs were removed from later helmets.

The plates were issued for special roles, snipers, machine gun crews, raiding parties, soldiers who may have to expose the top of their heads more often.

The German World War One Stalheim is a masterpiece of engineering. The shape provided optimum bullet protection while maintaining great utility (a decorated doctor and a university engineer designed it).

It was the best helmet around trenches in battle, its distinctive design influencing modern helmets. The Austrian-Hungarian helmet, a variation of the Stalhelm, was manufactured by the Krupp Berndorfer Metalwehrenfabriken, and was brown in colour.

The Austrian-Hungarian uniform jacket was more similar to the French Army's skyline blue than any shade of blue-grey field. Rank badges were worn on patches on the stand collar.

The fitted for some but not all blouses had a shoulder roll over the right shoulder for rifle carrying convenience. The officers' blouses were not fitted with shoulder straps.

From 1915 onwards the jacket was produced in various shades of field gray and field green, usually with stand and fall collars, and captured Italian tunics were used due to supply and production difficulties.