German troops resting in Poland. After withdrawing from southern Poland, Hindenburg came from the area southwest of Thorn to strike the Russians who were advancing towards the Silesian border in a flank attack. The Battle of Lodz and Lowicz finally brought the Russian steamroller to a halt at the end of November. A card from Der Weltkrieg 1914-1918, a 1930s German history of the war illustrated (or not) with pasted-in cigarette cards.
Image text: Rastende Truppen in Polen. Nach dem Rückzug aus Südpolen stieß Hindenburg aus der Gegend südwestl. Thorn den gegen die schlesische Grenze vordringenden Russen in die Flanke. Die Schlacht bei Lodz und Lowicz brachte Ende November die russische Dampfwalze endgültig zum Stehen. - Unter die schweren Kämpfe bei Lodz zählt auch der berühmte Durchbruch Litzmanns bei Brzeziny.Troops resting in Poland. After the withdrawal from southern Poland, Hindenburg came from the area southwest of Thorn to strike the Russians advancing towards the Silesian border in the flank. The Battle of Lodz and Lowicz finally brought the Russian steamroller to a halt at the end of November. - Among the heavy fighting in Lodz, Litzmann's famous breakthrough in Brzeziny ranks highly.
Food supplies in the French trenches. A Susini tobacco / cigarette card.
Image text: En las trincheras Francesas-llevando viveresIn the French trenches - carrying food suppliesReverse:No. 1267La Guerra EuropeaPostal para la colección Del NuevoAlbum UniversalObsequio de SusiniNo. 1267The European WarPostcard for the new collectionUniversal AlbumGift from Susini
Memorial statue to Prime Minister David Lloyd George in Parliament Square, London, United Kingdom. © 2013 John M. Shea
Image text:
Damaged British Tank, one tread partially off, painted with a Maltese cross, in Champagne. A soldier lies beside it.
Image text: British Tank disguised by Huns (Champagne)
"Between Lodz and Lowicz stubborn fighting is still continuing ; the Russians are giving way.The Grand Duke Nicholas has had me informed that he is as determined as ever to pursue his advance on Silesia; but his Chief of Staff, General Janushkevitch, sees a fatal obstacle in the transport difficulty and the high wastage. In the course of the last five weeks the Russians have lost 530,000 men — 280,000 of them against the Germans." ((1), more)
"Two hours later, when we came back [from the work detail], we saw with horror that an enormous mound of earth had collapsed onto the very spot where we had earlier been lying. If not for this work detail, we would have been buried alive. They wouldn't have needed a grave digger to bury us.A big shell had fallen onto the shelter a few days earlier, leaving a big crater which filled up with rainwater, which seeped into the ground, causing the landslide. Now the water was rushing into the shelter in multiple streams, and we had to struggle for several hours to dig out our blankets, our weapons, all our gear, and to seek out a slightly drier spot.. . . Despite our working day and night to keep the trenches in shape, they became more and more impassable. Some rationers met horrible deaths there, buried in mudslides. We worked for four hours to dig out a medical officer from the 296th Regiment. He was lucky that we were close enough to hear his cries for help." ((2), more)
"As all delay is fatal in war, I place my office without further parley at your disposal. . . .As I am fully conscious of the importance of preserving national unity, I propose to give your Government complete support in the vigorous prosecution of the war; but unity without action is nothing but futile carnage, and I cannot be responsible for that. Vigour and vision are the supreme need at this hour." ((3), more)
"December 5th [1917].—What is to be thought of the Cambrai affair the Staff seemed so proud of, and of which others were so hopeful until word of the stickiness of the cavalry, and of their mishandling, leaked out? We were left in a bad salient. And now! Above—slackness and want of supervision, below—panic affecting several brigades, have undone everything; the fleeing infantry uncovered their guns." ((4), more)
(1) Entry from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia, for Saturday, December 5, 1914. Both the Russians and the Germans had suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Lodz in Polish Russia. On December 6, Paléologue would record the Russians had evacuated the city. The Russians had greater success against Austria-Hungary, but, with German support, the Austro-Hungarians had mounted a successful counterattack near Cracow. Despite the enormous manpower available to Russia, the country's losses for five weeks are staggering.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. I by Maurice Paléologue, page 215, publisher: George H. Doran Company, publication date: 1925
(2) Excerpt from the Notebooks of French Infantry Corporal Louis Barthas from the first week of December, 1915 when his unit returned to the front after six days of 'rest' in Agnez-lès-Duisans, west of Arras, where heavy rain kept them indoors and hunting lice. The medical officer he helped dig out was fortunate. Struggling through mud and freezing water on their return to the trenches, Barthas and his men tried but failed to get one man out of the mud, leaving him with a shovel and a promise to return in the morning.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, page 140, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
(3) Excerpts from the resignation letter of Secretary of State for War David Lloyd George to British Prime Minister H.H. Asquith the morning of December 5, 1916, quoted in John Grigg's Lloyd George: From Peace to War 1912–1916. With other resignations, that of Lloyd George brought down the Asquith Government. King George V asked Secretary of State for the Colonies Andrew Bonar Law to form a Government. Law tried to form one that included Asquith, but the latter refused to serve in a government he did not lead. After Law's failure, King George asked Lloyd George who successfully formed the new Government on December 6.
Lloyd George: From Peace to War 1912-1916 by John Grigg, pp. 462–463, copyright © John Grigg 1985, publisher: Harper Collins Publishers, publication date: 1997
(4) Entry for December 5, 1917 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, and fellow soldiers who served with him. The British launched the largest tank offensive yet seen on November 20, 1917 with three tank brigades, 380 tanks in all, near Cambrai, France. The first day was a success, with an advance of as much as 4½ miles on a 6-mile front. With no fresh reinforcements, specifically none trained to coordinate with tanks, the advance bogged down, with the role of the tanks diminishing. Failures of the British to achieve their goals and a German counterattack on November 30 left the British in an exposed salient. British commander General Douglas Haig ordered a withdrawal beginning the night of December 4–5. In The Tank Corps, Major Clough Williams-Ellis reports that the order to retreat was not communicated to the Tank Corps, then in the process of repairing tanks that had to be abandoned.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, pp. 420–421, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
