German fighter pilot Max Immelmann at the site of his fourth victory on October 10, 1915. With 15 victories to his credit, Immelmann died on June 18, 1916, after brushing wingtips with a fellow pilot.
Reverse:Das vierte von Leutnant Immelmann am 10.10.1915 bei Lille heruntergeschossene englische Kampfflugzeug, wobei ein englischer Offizier den Tod fand, ein anderer leicht verwundet in unsere Gefangenschaft geriet.The fourth of Lieutenant Immelmann on 10/10/1915 at Lille down shot British fighter aircraft, an English officer was killed and another slightly wounded fell into our captivity.Das vierte von Leutnant Immelmann am 10.10.1915 bei Lille heruntergeschossene englische Kampfflugzeug, wobei ein englischer Offizier den Tod fand, ein anderer leicht verwundet in unsere Gefangenschaft geriet.HANDWRITTEN:Anstehend seht Ihr ein Englisches Flugzeug, das ich am 10. Oktober vorigen Jahres wo ich in Frankreich, bei Lille, war, fotografiert habe.Onkel MaxThe fourth warplane downed by Lieutenant Immelmann. On October 10th, 1915 he shot down this warplane. Thereby an English officer died, another came slightly wounded to our captivity.HANDWRITTEN:At the front of the postcard you see an English airplane, which I took a photo of last year on October 10th near Lille in France.Uncle MaxTranscript and translation by www.old-german-script.com/index.html
"In 'carping at our victory' in a letter of a week ago, for which you scold me, I share and expressed a general feeling out here. An angrier lot of men never was than the infantry I had been speaking to for a week before writing. They cursed our 'Cavalry Generals' from their hearts. Still, if the Censor at the Base had opened my letter . . . Since then there have been questions in Parliament about Hill 70. It is only an item in what has been lost; in fact, most of the gain has been undone. A good thing too, in a way, for the 'great advance' that set London mafficking, and sundry bigwigs wiring congratulations to each other, would have left us with just such another running sore as our sentimental Salient.'"
London was mafficking, celebrating with extravagant public displays, a victory in the Battle of Loos, when many of the hopes of September 25 had already been lost, in costly renewals of the attack on September 26, 27, and 28, and in German counter attacks on October 3 and 8. An entry from October 10, 1915 from the writings — diaries, letters, and memoirs — of Captain J.C. Dunn, Medical Officer of the Second Battalion His Majesty's Twenty-Third Foot, The Royal Welch Fusiliers. The 'sentimental Salient' is likely Ypres, where the British had suffered, and continued to suffer, heavy casualties. Dunn was no less bitter in the coming days. On May 17, 1900, British troops relieved the 217-day siege of Mafeking during the Boer War.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 162, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
1915-10-10, 1915, October, Battle of Loos
