Russian troops fleeing a solitary German soldier. The Russian First Army invaded Germany in August 1914, and defeated the Germans in the Battle of Gumbinnen on the 20th. In September the Germans drove them out of Russia in the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes. In September and October, a joint German, Austro-Hungarian offensive drove the Russians back almost to Warsaw. Illustration by E. H. Nunes.
Image text: Die Russen haben große Hoffnungen auf den Krieg gesetzt, - es ist aber auch eine Kehrseite dabei.The Russians have set high hopes for the war - but there is also a downside to that.Reverse:Kriegs-Postkarte der Meggendorfer-Blätter, München. Nr. 25War postcard of the Meggendorfer Blätter, Munich. # 25
Sunset over the trenches; a watercolor by J.M., July 9, 1916. Signed J.M 9/7/16
Image text: Signed J.M 9/7/16Reverse:Werk HabsburgHabsburg Work
'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red' — the Tower of London poppies — each of the 888,246 ceramic poppies representing one serviceman of the British Empire killed in World War I. The installation was a collaboration of artist Paul Cummins and stage designer Tom Piper. Since November, 2014 the poppies have been installed in other sites in the United Kingdom. Photographed October 3, 2014. © 2014 by John M. Shea
Image text:
Folding postcard relief map looking north from the River Aisne to the Oise Canal, from Compiègne to Soissons, and from Noyon to St. Gobain, France. A hand drawn arrow indicates Pimprez, marked with an 'X'.
Image text: Reverse:Cards number 2101 (left/west) and 2102 (right/east). Kunst-u. Verlagsanstalt Schaar & Dathe, Komm.-Ges. a. Akt, Trier.
"Our artillery has begun such a bombardment of the Russian positions on Hill 137 that it feels as if we are in hell. After a short time the Russians respond with fire so heavy that fragments are as big as a child's head. Every moment is filled with an extraordinary amount of dust and noise. Suddenly our infantry breaks out of their positions and storms the hill with incredible speed, taking one position at a time. I see it all in shades of grey, not because it is dusk but because of the sand and dust. Above many of the trenches bayonets appear with white handkerchiefs waving to and fro. The infantry jump straight in and bring the Russians out. Now there's a long train of Russians coming back with their hands held high and their weapons discarded. They are taken in to our old trenches. The infantry cleans up thoroughly. One of the Russian divisional leaders tells me that our artillery had two platoons under heavy fire. When the third came under fire he surrendered." ((1), more)
"On June 12, Brusilov announced that in the advances that his men had made since the start of his offensive eight days earlier, they had captured 2,992 Austrian officers, 190,000 Austrian soldiers, 216 heavy guns, 645 machine guns and 196 howitzers. One third of the Austrian forces facing him had been taken captive. Within another five days the Russians had occupied Czernowitz, the most easterly Austro-Hungarian city, and a center of culture and commercial enterprise." ((2), more)
"On 12 June [1917], I was told to take a troop of twenty men and invest an outpost on the company front. It was late when we left the trench and headed along a footpath winding through the hilly countryside, into the pleasant evening. Dusk was so far advanced that the poppies in the abandoned field seemed to merge with the bright-green grass. In the declining light, I saw more and more of my favorite colour, that red which shades into black that is at once somber and stimulating." ((3), more)
". . . on the following day, June 12th, two or three German divisions delivered a vigorous assault north of the Villers-Cotterets Forest. Cutry and Dommiers were captured, and the French troops driven back on Cœuvres and Saint-Pierre-Aigle; but this turned out to be a purely local operation and was not followed up.On June 13th quiet once more reigned on the whole of the French front." ((4), more)
(1) Excerpt from the writings of German officer Ernst Nopper describing a German attack on June 12, 1915, a day on which German commander August von Mackensen resumed his Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive, a joint German-Austro-Hungarian campaign. Nopper was at the southern end of the German line, along the border of Galicia, Austria-Hungary and Russian Poland. The previous day Nopper had noted that the Russian artillery 'is much weaker than ours.'
Intimate Voices from the First World War by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, page 104, copyright © 2003 by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, publisher: Harper Collins Publishers, publication date: 2003
(2) Russian General Alexsei Brusilov prepared for his great Offensive in ways other Russian generals had not. Czernowitz in the Bukovina, had a population of approximately 87,0000.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 254, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(3) German Lieutenant Ernst Jünger was in the front lines near Joncourt, France, in front of the St-Quentin Canal on June 12, 1917. After leading his men to their outpost, he joined a night patrol, an outing he found 'stimulating.' Resting after the patrol's return, he was alerted to a line of 70 British soldiers advancing from a wood on the German position. In the night, the soldiers are unsure of their opponent, and some think the seeming attackers may be speaking German. But they not respond to passwords, and a battle continues through the night. As morning broke on the 13th, Jünger and his men captured some wounded opponents, and find they are Indian troops.
Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger, page 144, copyright © 1920, 1961, Translation © Michael Hoffman, 2003, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 2003
(4) The fourth of Germany's five 1918 offensives, the Noyon-Montdidier Offensive, began on June 9 on a twenty-five-kilometer front in an attempt to build on the success of the Aisne (Blücher) Offensive begun May 27. But the French were not surprised as they had been in May, and Allied Commander-in-Chief Ferdinand Foch, from whose Memoirs our quotation is taken, had reserves ready for the first opportunity that appeared. General Émile Fayolle commanded the reserves with General Charles Mangin reporting to him. Mangin attacked on June 11, and the Germans counterattacked on the 12th. Cœuvres and Saint-Pierre-Aigle are west-southwest of Soissons.
The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, translated by Col. T. Bentley Mott by Ferdinand Foch, page 330, copyright © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., publisher: Doubleday, Doran & Co., publication date: 1931
