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 Schulter

Untrennbar vereint

in Freud und in Leid!'



Shoulder to shoulder

Inseparably united

in joy and in sorrow!

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Sunday, May 21, 1916

"Insolently looking the commandant up and down, from head to toe, [the soldier] lashed him with a stream of scornful phrases: 'You little runt, you little ragamuffin. It's out there, on the front lines, that you should come visit us, and now on the first day of rest we have, you show up and bother us. On Cote 304, you didn't even dare come out of your hole. Now get out of my sight.'

. . .

'I'm saying that on Cote 304 we never saw you. Here we don't salute anymore.'"

Quotation Context

Soldiers returned as changed men from the front lines of the Battle of Verdun and its fearsome bombardments. In the first paragraph a commandant is offended that a soldier continued shaving and showed no respect. In the second, a sentry continued smoking his pipe and failed to salute when his commanding officers passed. French Infantry Corporal Louis Barthas had also been on Cote 304, and further observes of his commanders, 'It was long ago that they had lost the esteem of their men. Now they had earned their scorn.'

Source

Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, pp. 215, 216, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014

Tags

1916-05-21, 1916, May, Verdun, Battle of Verdun, Mort-Homme, Mort Homme, Cote 304