The Belgian Front, August 1914, Cologne, Germany, Luxemburg, Belgium and northern France include the Belgian forts of the Meuse at Liège, Namur, and Dinant, the fortress of Antwerp, and the capital of Brussels. The fortress of Liège (Lüttich) fell on August 16. German troops paraded in Brussels on August 20 as the Belgian Army fell back to Antwerp.
Image text: Westlichen KriegsschauplatzesKöln-Lüttich-BrüsselMaßst[ab]. 1:2000000Festungen, Forts.; EisenbahnenReverse:Logo: LBPostkarten des westlichen Kriegschauplatzes Nr. 2. Import.
A Russian Cossack riding among refugees fleeing before a Central Power advance. The Russians adopted a scorched-earth policy in the months-long retreat before the German-Austro-Hungarian Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive of the spring, summer, and fall 1915, with Cossacks accused of burning homes and crops to deny them to the advancing enemy, and to prevent civilians from remaining behind and providing intelligence to the invader.
Image text: Il Cammino della CiviltàThe Path of Civilization
General Luigi Cadorna, chief of staff of the Italian Army
Image text: Reverse:Postmarked October 10, 1916Generale Luigi Cadorna
Entrenched German soldiers behind sniper plates at Slota Gora, September 26, 1916. Slota (or Zlota) Gora was in Polish Russia, west of a line running from Warsaw to Cracow. An original watercolor (over pencil) by O. Oettel, 12th company of Landwehr, IR 32 in the field. A sketch in pencil and red crayon is on the reverse.
Image text: Slota Gora26.9.16O.Oettel 12L.32.I. FeldeZlota GoraSeptember 26, 1916O. Oettel, 12th Landwehr 32nd RegimentIn the Field
Line on the Ourcq showing advance of the Allies in the Marne Salient from July 18 to July 27, 1918. From The History of The A.E.F. by Shipley Thomas.
Image text: Line on the Ourcq showing advance of the Allies in the Marne Salient from July 18 to July 27, 1918.
"I have the honour to bring to your Excellency's notice the following facts:-On Sunday, the 2nd August, very early, the German troops, according to the information which has up to now reached the Grand Ducal Government, penetrated into Luxemburg territory by the bridges of Wasserbillig and Remich, and proceeded particularly towards the south and in the direction of Luxemburg, the capital of the Grand Duchy. A certain number of armoured trains with troops and ammunition have been sent along the railway line from Wasserbillig to Luxemburg, where their arrival is expected. These occurrences constitute acts which are manifestly contrary to the neutrality of the Grand Duchy as guaranteed by the Treaty of London of 1867. The Luxemburg Government have not failed to address an energetic protest against this aggression to the representatives of His Majesty the German Emperor at Luxemburg. An identical protest will be sent by telegraph to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs at Berlin." ((1), more)
". . . A peasant woman, old and wrinkled as a fairy-tale witch, stopped near us. Peering into our faces, she told us with breathless, excited mutterings that she had seen the villains who had lighted the fire; she had seen them, she avowed, in the act of igniting a straw thatch. 'Kazaki oni byli! Nashi ruskiye; svoi ruskiye! [Cossacks they were! Our Russians; our own Russians!]' and, she continued, 'What could the poor and helpless do when their own people turned against them?'. . . 'German spies!' denounced the soldiers; 'Kazaki!' moaned the peasants under their breath." ((2), more)
"The divisions that had been transferred to the Trentino were brought back to the Isonzo, along with most of the First Army's artillery, without detection. By early August, over 200,000 men were ready to move against San Michele and Gorizia. The heavy guns were placed in front of Gorizia, shells had never been available in such quantities, and the number of mortars quadrupled over the past year." ((3), more)
"In the evening, we sat in front of the old tiled stove, sipping a stiff grog, and listening to the renewed thunder of the battle. A sentence caught my eye from a military communiqué in a newspaper: 'The enemy was held along the line of the Steenbach.'It was an odd thing that our apparently confused actions in the depths of the night had had such pronounced and public consequences. We had done our part towards bringing the attack, which had begun with such mighty force, to a halt. However colossal the quantities of men and matériel, the work at decisive points had been done by no more than a few handfuls of men." ((4), more)
"Moving out from Seringes, the Americans and their French allies reached Fismes on the Vesle River August 2, 1918, having advanced 25 miles in fifteen days and obliterated the Marne salient. On the same day a French division entered Soissons, making an advance of three miles. Thus was celebrated the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the War.These operations marked the close of the first phase of the battle. The Allies, in their brief offensive of two weeks' duration, had forced the enemy back 25 miles and captured 35,000 prisoners, 750 field guns and several thousand machine guns. The Marne salient had been practically wiped out and the army of von Boehm was demoralized. Gen. Foch now decided to strike at the Picardy salient further north." ((5), more)
(1) Telegraph from the Minister of State of Luxemburg to Edward Grey, British Foreign Secretary, August 2, 1914. Britain, France, and Germany were signatories to the 1867 Treaty of London which guaranteed the neutrality of Belgium and Luxemburg. Germany's Schlieffen Plan opened with invasions of the two countries prior to an invasion of France across its northern border.Earlier in the day, the Minister of State had reported to Grey a telegram he had received from Germany's Chancellor, Bethmann Hollweg, assuring the Minister that 'the military measures taken in Luxemburg do not constitute a hostile act against Luxemburg, but are only intended to insure against a possible attack of a French army.'
Collected Diplomatic Documents Relating to the Outbreak of the European War, 105, 105 (and 96), publisher: His Majesty's Stationery Office by Harrison and Sons, publication date: 1915
(2) Frances Farmborough, an English teacher in Moscow when war broke out, trained for and joined a Red Cross unit serving with the Russian Army. The joint German-Austro-Hungarian Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive, launched on May 2, had broken the Russian front, splitting the northern and southern armies, and driving the Russians back hundreds of miles. Trying to leave nothing for the advancing enemy, the Russians, in Farmborough's account chiefly Cossacks, set villages ablaze. The night of August 1, 1915 (July 19 Old Style), Farmborough's unit had turned in for the night after pitching its tents in the village of Rymachi when she was awakened to cries the village was burning. By the morning Rymachi was ruins, and still more refugees joined the estimated one million driven eastward.
Nurse at the Russian Front, a Diary 1914-18 by Florence Farmborough, pp. 104, 105, copyright © 1974 by Florence Farmborough, publisher: Constable and Company Limited, publication date: 1974
(3) After facing five Italian offensives in one year along the Isonzo River in northeastern Italy, Austro-Hungarian Commander in Chief Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf launched the Asiago Offensive on May 14, 1916 in Trentino, striking behind the Italian armies, hoping to cut them off with a successful drive to the Adriatic Sea. Surprised by the successful attack, General Luigi Cadorna shifted troops from the Isonzo to Trentino, while the government pleaded with the Russians for a relief offensive against Austria-Hungary. Russian General Alexsie Brusilov responded with one of the greatest and most successful offensives of the war, one that threatened to destroy the Austro-Hungarian Army. As Conrad stopped the Asiago campaign to fight the Russian threat, Cadorna redeployed his forces in preparation for the next battle of the Isonzo.
The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919 by Mark Thompson, page 170, copyright © 2008 Mark Thompson, publisher: Basic Books, publication date: 2009
(4) German Lieutenant Ernst Jünger left Cambrai, France on June 25, 1917, for Flanders, where the British artillery bombardment in preparation for the Third Battle of Ypres was in progress. The Germans suffered as many as 30,000 casualties in the intense bombardment. When the British advanced on July 31, some of the German troops at the front fled before them. Jünger rallied his men and passing stragglers, some at the point of the gun, to defend the ruins of a building. After nearly being surrounded, they fell back to defend another improvised line. He and his men saw the British advancing as if there were no danger, and made it clear there was. They hindered the British through the day, subject at times to intense bombardment to drive them out. Gentle rain that began to fall around midnight was 'bucketing down' by dawn on August 1, further hindering the British offensive. Jünger was resting by the stove the evening of August 2.
Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger, pp. 173–174, copyright © 1920, 1961, Translation © Michael Hoffman, 2003, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 2003
(5) The Franco-American Aisne-Marne Offensive, begun on July 17, 1918, continued through August 6. Allied Commander-in-Chief Ferdinand Foch's next blow would be the Battle of Amiens.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 450, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
