Greetings from Austro-Hungarian Landsturm Battalion 171. A pencil sketch of the sun rising between mountains and over a forested hill, dated October 14, 1916, postmarked two days later. In the center an oak-leaf crown of victory above the Hapsburg flag encircles the battalion identifier. The year before the drawing, the battalion had been in the Sugana Valley (Valsugana), Trentino, in the Alps.
LBi 17114.10.1916
". . . on Saturday of the following week (October 14) the Allies attacked again. It was a ghastly shambles. Meeting uncut wire, the French and Russians came to a halt and, as they tried to hack their way through, the Bulgarian machine guns opened up on them. In one afternoon the French lost nearly 1,500 men and the Russians 600. And still the Bulgarian lines remained inviolate. On the extreme right of the valley, the burning village of Brod showed that the Serbs, at any rate, had fulfilled their mission."
The Allies attacked on the Salonica Front in September and October, 1916 in attempts to aid Romania which was falling back before Central Power armies. The Allied army, commanded by French General Maurice Sarrail, included French, British, Russian, and Serbian troops. The offensive would not save Romania.
The Gardeners of Salonika by Alan Palmer, page 86, copyright © 1965 by A. W. Palmer, publisher: Simon and Schuster, publication date: 1965
1916-10-14, 1916, October, Salonica Front,
