Postcard of Kaiser Wilhelm II and Kaiser Franz Joseph, in the Secessionist style. Kaiser Wilhelm is wearing the uniform and shako of the Death's Head Hussars.
Völkerkrieg (people's war)1914; In Treue FestPeople's WarFirm in Loyalty
"Little by little we edged our trenches forward from the side of the wood toward the road from Servon to Vienne-le-Château. By the end of December we reached the road. From there we could see a broad horizon. In front of us, just beyond the slope where the lines of the enemy trenches became clearly visible against the darker surrounding soil, we could see the belfry of Binarville pointing to the sky. When we wanted to speak of a great struggle or a brilliant offensive, we would not say, 'When we are at Mézieres' or 'at Lille,' but 'When we are at Binarville.' I believe that we are not there yet."
Excerpt from the memoir of French historian Marc Bloch, a sergeant in the 272nd infantry regiment in the line in Champagne. Mézieres, the chief town of the Ardennes, had a population of 9,393. Lille, a major manufacturing center, one of 205,602 (Baedeker's Northern France, 1909), Binarville a few hundred at most.
Memoirs of War 1914-15 by Marc Bloch, page 152, copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988, publisher: Cambridge University Press, publication date: 1988
1914-12-30, 1914-12-31, 1914, December
