Mounted reserves fording a stream on their way to Verdun, a photo from the archives of the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Daily News. The back of the photo is stamped Oct — 3 1916. A hand-written note indicates it would cover two columns on the home page.

Reverse:

Stamp: Oct — 3 1916

Affixed clipping:

Reserves on way to Verdun

The sector around Verdun still continues to be the scene of terrific fighting. Both the French and the Prussians continue in their attacks, and as a result troops are constantly being sent to take the places of fallen comrades.

Hand-written:

2 col

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Saturday, December 2, 1916

"In my old company, the 21st (Hudelle's company), my old active-duty Sergeant Darles had been killed by a shell. His brother, a private in the same unit, went to his aid, but a second shell killed him, two minutes later.

This was a simple fact. What did it matter that it was two brothers, two friends, or two strangers? But think about a father and a mother with two children—their hope, their help in the future, in their old age, upon whom their thoughts settled—who learn, all of a sudden, the brutal news, the horrible death of their two children.

Go talk about glory, victory, the fatherland to these poor old people. They'll ask you not to insult their misery."

Quotation Context

Excerpt from the notebooks of French Infantry Corporal Louis Barthas whose division had been relieved by the British on December 1, 1916. The division moved to Salouel, a suburb of Amiens. Their previous relief had been after the division had attacked, and their casualties were much heavier then, but Barthas notes 'the shells had claimed victims every day, even in the quietest sectors.'

Source

Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, page 284, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014

Tags

1916-12-02, 1916, December, children, death, brothers