The print shows the market place among the ruins of Albert, with British soldiers in the foreground. The statue of the Virgin and Child on top of the cathedral had been knocked over at a precarious angle by a shell in 1915 but had not fallen to the ground. A legend grew that when the statue did fall, the war would end. It was finally brought to earth in the spring of 1918 when Albert fell to the Germans. The town was recaptured by the British on 22 August 1918. Gallery label for Doomed Youth The Poetry and the Pity of World War I (Yale Center for British Art, 1999-06-22 - 1999-09-26)
