Zweibund — the Dual Alliance — Germany and Austria-Hungary united, were the core of the Central Powers, and here join hands. The bars of Germany's flag border the top left, and those of the Habsburg Austrian Empire and ruling house the bottom right.
Schulter an SchulterUntrennbar vereintin Freud und in Leid!'Shoulder to shoulderInseparably united in joy and in sorrow!
"At that time the farmers were harvesting the hops. One day one of our bosses had the bright idea of issuing an order at roll call authorizing us to help harvest the hops that afternoon . . .To win the favor of the Flemish girls, the young poilus posted themselves alongside them and helped them to fill their sacks. And these young people, careless as they have always been and always will be, sang, laughed, flirted, and embraced, indifferent to the dull roar of cannon fire which sounded over toward Ypres."
Excerpt from the Notebooks of French Infantry Corporal Louis Barthas from around September 10, 1915. His unit had deployed to Flanders near the village of Oost-Cappel, on the Franco-Belgian border. Barthas, 'an old papa,' helped two old people with their harvest, 'a pretty meager one even counting the few sous which my help added to their earnings.'
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, pp. 104, 105, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
1915-09-10, 1915, September, harvest, harvesting, harvest time
