After destroying the Russian Second Army at the Battle of Tannenberg, von Hindenburg hoped to do the same to the Russian First Army in the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes. Visible in the lakes and swamps are cannon and horses of the defeated Russians.
Image text: Text on sign at the water's edge:Dr. v. Hindenburgs Kaltwasserheilanstalt Masurische Seen Frequenz Saison 1914 150,000 GästeDr. von Hindenburg's hydropathic establishment Masurian Lakes rate season 1914 150,000 guestsCaption:Hindenburgs Kaltwasserheilanstaltbottom left Wilh. (for Wilhelm) Wachtel [many thanks to Peter Ebner for clearing up my question on the artist's name]Reverse: Serie 259 - 35
Map of the Trentino, part of "Italia Irredenta," unredeemed Italy: Venezia Tridentina (Trentino and Alto Adige)
Image text: Venezia Tridentina (Trentino and Alto Adige)Confine del Regno d'ItaliaConf.[ine] Geografico d'ItaliaConfine fra Trentino e Alto AdigeFerrovieTramvieIst. Geogr. De Agostini-Novara - Riproduzione InterdettaVenezia Tridentina (Trentino and South Tyrol)Border of the Kingdom of ItalyGeographic boundary of ItalyBorder between Trentino and Alto AdigeRailwaysTramwaysGeographic Institute of Agostini-Novara - Reproduction prohibitedReverse:Message dated December 14, 1917
A Turkish funeral with Turkish and German soldiers and officers attending and praying. Is this a young Mustapha Kemal praying?
Image text: Türk[isches] BegräbnisTurkish funeral
Allied Commanders Henri Philippe Pétain, Douglas Haig, Ferdinand Foch, and John J. Pershing. Foch was Allied Commander in Chief, the other men commanders of the French Army, the British Expeditionary Force, and the American Expeditionary Force respectively. From The Memoirs of Marshall Foch by Marshall Foch.
Image text: Commanders of the Allies in 1918 and their autographs.Pétain Haig Foch Pershing
Headstone of Private C.W.K. Hicks, New Zealand Entrenching Battalion, died August 21, 1918, age 29, buried in Cabaret Rouge British Cemetery, Souchez, France. © 2013 by John M. Shea
Image text: 63160 PrivateC.W.K. HicksN. Z. Entrenching Battn.21st August 1918 age 29New Zealand
"The whole weight of all that is sensuous in an army presses for rest and refreshment. It requires exceptional vigor on the part of a commander to see and feel beyond the present moment and to act at once to attain those results which at the time seem to be the mere embellishments of victory — the luxury of triumph." ((1), more)
"August 21, 1915Yesterday was the most thrilling day of my life. I passed it right in the very midst of the war zone, having been fortunate enough to be allowed as the only woman correspondent to join the other representatives of the Italian and foreign papers who are up here in the Trentino. Being an Italian by birth, this experience is doubly wonderful to me as it enables me to see at close quarters the splendid work which my countrymen have done and are doing, and also to have had the privilege of being the first Italian woman to cross the new boundary line between Italy and Austria." ((2), more)
"Through its retreat and panics the [Turkish] Third Army had lost a great part of its strength, because thousands of men left the ranks without leave. About the middle of August [1916] the Third Army reported the capture of 13,000 deserters. The prefect of Sivas had engaged to apprehend and collect 30,000 deserters in a short time." ((3), more)
"The arithmetic of German casualties was in British numbers so enormous that, from forty years of hindsight, one wonders how any but the most gullible could have been deceived by them. Haig reported an even hundred thousand on August 21 and flatly stated that the end of Germany's resources was at hand—this on the basis of a paper written by Charteris, who, however, protested in his diary (he does not seem to have protested elsewhere), 'D. H. has not only accepted in toto my report . . . but he has gone much further.'" ((4), more)
"About eleven o'clock the greater number of Mark V. Tanks and Whippets had reached the line of the railway. A few leading Tanks had even crossed it, when all in a moment the mist lifted with the suddenness of a withdrawn curtain. A blazing sun appeared, and each advancing Tank stood out clearly under its bright light. The German artillery, which was covering the railway, immediately directed a deadly fire on the Tanks, and each individual machine became the centre of a zone of bullets and bursting shells. The infantry as they advanced had to avoid these little whirlwinds of fire. It was at this time that most of the thirty-seven Tanks which were hit by shells during the day were accounted for." ((5), more)
(1) Clausewitz quoted by Barbara Tuchmann in The Guns of August. After his victory at Gumbinnen, Russian commander von Rennenkampf allowed a staff officer to rest, but in his uniform. Von Rennenkampf woke the officer an hour later to tell him he could undress and sleep because the Germans were retiring. His failure to pursue the Germans, his German heritage, and his subsequent failures would lead to claims he was a traitor.
The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman, page 312, copyright © Barbara W. Tuchman 1962, publisher: Dell Publishing Co., Inc., publication date: 1963
(2) Magdeleine ver Mehr, writing on August 21, 1915 from Trentino on the Italian Front for the American general interest magazine Littell's Living Age or simply Living Age.
Lines of Fire: Women Writers of World War I by Margaret R. Higonnet, page 140, copyright © Margaret Higonnet, 1999, publisher: Plume/Penguin Group, publication date: 1999
(3) Russian forces under General Nicholai Yudenich has repeatedly defeated Turkish forces of the Second and Third Armies in the mountains of Eastern Turkey, and held a line from the Black Sea to Persia.
Five Years in Turkey by Liman von Sanders, page 130, publisher: The Battery Press with War and Peace Books, publication date: 1928 (originally)
(4) Brigadier General John Charteris was Chief of Intelligence to General Douglas Haig, commander in chief of British forces in France. Haig had launched the Third Battle of Ypres on July 31, 1917. He failed to reach his first day objectives, and rain and heavy artillery had made his battlefield impassable by the second day. Our author, Leon Wolff, writes (page 150) of Charteris: 'It can safely be said that from July 31 to the end of the Flanders campaign Charteris lied steadily to the press, to the War Cabinet, and to his own chief, Field Marshall Haig.' 'D. H.' was, of course, Haig.
In Flanders Fields, the 1917 Campaign by Leon Wolff, page 156, copyright © 1958 by Leon Wolff, publisher: The Viking Press, publication date: 1958
(5) The Battle of Bapaume began on August 21, 1918 in a heavy mist that blinded both attackers and the defending Germans, but favored the former, shielding the British Mark V heavy tanks and faster, lighter Whippet tanks. Despite the losses, our author concludes, 'We had reached the general line of the railway practically along the whole front of the attack. We had captured Achiet-le-Petit and Logeast Wood, Courcelles and Moyenneville. Most important of all, the position we needed for the launching of our principal attack had been successfully gained, and we had taken over 2000 prisoners.' (page 227)
The Tank Corps by Clough Williams-Ellis & A. Williams-Ellis, page 226, publisher: The Offices of "Country Life," Ltd. and George Newnes, Ltd., publication date: 1919
