Austro-Hungarian soldiers marching through a city, their officers bawling orders. Women and a child watch and talk, possibly shouting to be heard over the marching feet. An original watercolor on blue paper, signed W. Rittermann or Pittermann, December 26, 1915.
Image text: signed W. Rittermann or Pittermann, December 26, 1915.
In July 1915, British and German forces fought three engagements in Hooge, a village near Ypres with a destroyed chateau held by the Germans, and its stables held by the British. A British mine on July 19 opened a crater 120 feet across. On July 30, the Germans attacked with flamethrowers, the first time the British had faced the weapon. Map from Military Operations France and Belgium, 1915, Vol. II, by Brigadier-General J.E. Edmonds and Captain G.C. Wynne. Map by Major A.F. Becke R.A. (Retired) Hon. M.A. (Oxon.)
Image text: Sketch 14Hooge, 30th and 31st July 1915.The Liquid-Fire AttackLegend:German Front Line before the AttackGerman Front Line at the close of the ActionBritish trenches, captured or evacuatedBritish Front Line at the close of the ActionBritish trenchesUnoccupied crater
A Russian artillery detachment from the Black Sea Division pulling its guns across a stream, February 24, 1915. © Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N.Y.
Image text: S 178291Reverse:Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N.Y.Russian Artillery, Black Sea Division Going into Action.Russian artillery has become famous as the most useful and efficient of the Czar's forces in the field. They are highly trained and have on more than one occasion proved their value. A gun crew and the horses are seen here pulling their guns through a stream at full speed. The detachment here shown is part of Russia's Black Sea Division. 2/24/1915.
A Russian Maxim machine gun squad on the front in a 1917 photograph. In the middle of the line one soldier wears a French Adrian helmet.
Image text:
The dazzle ship HMS Justicia photographed from the USS St. Louis. Launched on July 9, 1914 as SS Statendam for the Holland America line, the ship was requisitioned by the British government and used as a troop transport. It sank on July 22, 1918 after a 24-hour fight with German submarines.
Image text: Handwritten: USS St Louis & H.M.S. JusticiaReverse, Handwritten: U.S.S. St Louis and Justisia convoyed to ? England loaded with American troops We left Halifax Canada May 5 - 1918
"Unless people are absolutely blinded, it must be recognized here that a violent blow has every chance of being fatal both to the Austro-Hungarian army and to the cohesion of the nationalities governed by the Emperor, which has already been so much compromised." ((1), more)
"Two other attempts to seize important parts of the enemy's line near Hooge were made on the evening of the 22nd July [1915]. The first was directed a little to the east of the salient captured on the 19th, in the 3rd Division area; the other further north near Railway Wood, in the area of the 14th Division. Both were carried out without mining or other element of surprise and both failed, breaking down under heavy fire. In each case, two platoons, supported by bombers and an R.E. detachment, took part." ((2), more)
"The past, gloomy year of 1915, with its hopeless defeats, culminating in the great Spring and Summer Retreat of the Russian Armies, was stamped with unspeakable tragedy, suffering and frustration. It was warfare at its cruellest and worst. Now the tables have been reversed. Instead of retreat, it is ADVANCE! We traversed the Austrian countryside — still showing signs of springtime's generous flowering — and we revelled in that knowledge that our Russian armies, and those of our brave Allies on the far-Western Front, were gaining success after success. But as we followed in the rear of our advancing troops, the trail of devastation left by war was painfully visible . . ." ((3), more)
"The most violent of the attacks against troops of the Commander in Chief on the East front took place at Krevo, south of Smorgon, on July 9 and the days following. Here the Russians broke through a division of the Landwehr occupying a very long front, though it defended itself with extraordinary courage.For a few days, things looked extremely serious, until our reserves and artillery fire restored the situation. The Russians evacuated our trenches. They were no longer what they had been." ((4), more)
"Depredations of U-boats off Cape Cod were reported in 1918. In view of thousands along the beach, a German submarine shelled and burned a tugboat and sank three barges without warning. Of the 41 persons on board these craft, three men were wounded. Two hydroplanes from the Chatham aviation station, circling over the U-boat, caused her to submerge, only to reappear and resume firing.On July 22d, after a 24-hours' fight with submarines, the White Star liner Justicia sank off the Irish Coast. Four hundred of the passengers and crew were saved." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from a communication of M. Dumaine, French Ambassador at Vienna, to M. Bienvenu-Martin, Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, from Vienna, Austria-Hungary July 22, 1914. In London, Paris, St. Petersburg, Rome, and Belgrade, Foreign Ministers are expecting Austria-Hungary to deliver an ultimatum to Serbia very soon, and are exchanging reports and telegrams with their ambassadors. The French do not believe that Germany does not know what Austria-Hungary is about to do, and point to the decline in the German stock exchange as evidence. Reports are circulating that Germany is in the initial stages of mobilization, and that Austria-Hungary has eight army corps moving to the Serbian border.
Collected Diplomatic Documents Relating to the Outbreak of the European War, 150, 151, publisher: His Majesty's Stationery Office by Harrison and Sons, publication date: 1915
(2) In July 1915, British and German forces fought three engagements in Hooge, a village near Ypres, with a destroyed chateau held by the Germans, and its stables held by the British. The British set off a mine that opened a crater 120 feet across to begin an attack on July 19. They gained and held a small amount of ground. Their attack on the 22nd had no mine, no element of surprise, and failed. 'R.E.' is the Royal Engineers, which had dug the mine fired on the 19th, in this case, the 175th Tunnelling Company.
Military Operations France and Belgium, 1915, Vol. II, Battles of Aubers Ridge, Festubert, and Loos by J. E. Edmonds, page 103, copyright © asserted, publisher: Macmillan and Co., Limited, publication date: 1928
(3) Florence Farmborough, an English nurse serving with the Russian Red Cross, writing on July 22 (July 9 Old Style), 1916, as the Russian advance of the Brusilov Offensive continued to drive back the Austro-Hungarians and again, as in 1914, threatened an advance through the Carpathian Mountains to Budapest. In 1915 the Russians had retreated as much as 300 miles before the German-Austro-Hungarian Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive. In 1916, the French had held against the German siege of Verdun, French and British Empire forces we pushing back the Germans in the Battle of the Somme, and the Italians had lost ground but ultimately held in the face of the Austro-Hungarian Asiago Offensive.
Nurse at the Russian Front, a Diary 1914-18 by Florence Farmborough, page 209, copyright © 1974 by Florence Farmborough, publisher: Constable and Company Limited, publication date: 1974
(4) German General Erich Ludendorff's assessment of a Russian attack on July 22, 1917 (July 9, Old Style), an action in the Kerensky Offensive begun July 1, quoted in Alexander Kerensky's Russia and History's Turning Point. The German Landwehr were the territorial guard, generally older soldiers, although many older soldiers had been lost by 1917.
Russia and History's Turning Point by Alexander Kerensky, page 293, copyright © 1965 by Alexander Kerensky, publisher: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, publication date: 1965
(5) Chatham, Massachusetts is the southeastern-most town on Cape Cod. Further north in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, Guglielmo Marconi built one of his first three wireless stations (the other two being in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia and Poldhu, England). SS Justicia was sailing from Belfast to New York when she was hit, first by UB-64 with four torpedoes, then by UB-124 the following morning. Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Justicia; July 19, 2018) dates the attacks on July 19 and 20, 1918.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 511, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
