No. 1. L'Attaque Brusquée: d'après "le Bystander". The Sudden Attack, August 24, 1914. In French territory, with Luxemburg and much of Belgium behind him, a helmeted Kaiser Wilhelm knocks Joffre back with a powerful uppercut. The western end of the Allied line was held by the British. Their retreat from Mons, Belgium on August 24 brought the full length of the Allied line into France.From L'Attaque & la Riposte — Originale présentation des phases de la Guerre (The Attack & the Retort — Original Presentation of the Phases of the War)Ehrmann, Édition Lorraine, a set of six postcards and envelope.Over maps of the French theater of operations on the western front in 1914 — Luxemburg, Belgium, northern France — cartoon figures of the French and German armies struggle. General Joffre represents the forces he commands. His adversary's upward-pointing mustache indicates Kaiser Wilhelm.The titles of the cards appear only on the envelope.1re SérieOn the reverse of each card: Carte PostaleTous les Pays étrangers n'acceptent pas la Correspondance au recto. (Se renseigner a la Poste).Edition Lorraine
Image text: 24 Aout d'après "le Bystander" (August 24, after "The Bystander")[No. 1. L'Attaque Brusquée: d'après "le Bystander". The Sudden Attack, August 24, 1914.1re Série]On the reverse of each card: Carte PostaleTous les Pays étrangers n'acceptent pas la Correspondance au recto. (Se renseigner a la Poste).Edition Lorraine
Australians at Anzac Cove, December 17, 1915, from 'Gallipoli' by John Masefield. The Allied completed evacuating their positions at Suvla Bay and Anzac Cove on December 19.
Image text: Australians at Anzac two days before the evacuation took place.
Propaganda postcard of General Paul von Hindenburg as Colossus astride East Prussia and Russian Poland. Hindenburg commanded German forces in East Prussia.
Image text: Nur über meine Leiche geht Dein Weg 'Koloss'Your way goes only over my corpse — 'Colossus'Reverse:Künstler-Karte; logo: CAES DresdenCarl A. E. Schmidt, Künstverlags-Anstalt, DresdenUnser Hindenburg
Russian soldiers resting in the field. Card postmarked November 28, 1916.
Image text: Reverse:Postmarked November 28, 1916.
Headstone of an unknown officer of a Canadian regiment at High Wood Cemetery, Longueval, France. © 2013 by John M. Shea
Image text: A Soldier of the Great WarUnknown OfficerA Canadian RegimentKnown Unto God
". . . the [German] First Army reported on the 28th August [1914] that it had defeated the British Army, and that it was already half-way between the Belgian frontier and Paris . . . The idea that the French retirement was according to plan was only expressed by a few solitary individuals." ((1), more)
"A dull, implacable ennui began to settle on the Allied Army. It was not exactly hopelessness, not cynicism, it was an absence of purpose in their lives, a mechanical focusing down of their minds on to the simplest and the nearest things, the next meal, the last mail from home. The 'awful, horrible, lethargic flies' persisted, and the high dry winds of the early autumn sent the dust billowing through the air. Once more the soldiers began to report sick. Many of them were so weak with dysentery they moved at no faster pace than a crawl, and on the Anzac sector in particular, it was noticed that the former panache had gone . . ." ((2), more)
"[General Falkenhayn's] star, moreover, was now setting, for too many heavy responsibilities lay on his shoulders: the check at Verdun, the unfortunate Austrian undertaking against the Italian front, the disastrous revival of Russian activity, the appearance in line of the British beside the French along the Somme, the using up of German effectives, the resulting moral depression in the Central Empires, and, to crown it all, during these last days in August, the declaration of war against Germany by Italy and that against Austria-Hungary by Rumania. On August 28th, Marshal Hindenburg was appointed Chief of the General Staff with General Ludendorff as his Quartermaster General." ((3), more)
"We drove quickly over the hill, for we saw enemy foot-soldiers on the neighbouring hills. Just before Khatna, we met many Russians soldiers. I was sitting by the driver. One soldier looked at me and shouted to his companions: 'Kakoy tam zvyer sidiyt? [What kind of wild beast is sitting there?]' And a chorus of derisive mirth greeted his words. I willed myself not to think of those offensive words but I was deeply hurt. I had thought that the bands of unruly soldiers would somehow have contrived to remain in Russia; but here they were at large in Roumania too. Would they infect the Roumanian Infantry? What would happen then?" ((4), more)
"But the defence of even the strongest positions relies upon the men behind the guns, and during the days immediately following the arrival of the Canadians on the northern hinge of the Line, opposite Arras, it became increasingly evident that morale was not very high amongst the Germans holding it. Artillery bombardments from the guns still in position 'to guard the coalfields behind Béthune' caused a certain amount of damage to the wire belts, but even more to the fighting spirit of the defenders, for during August 28th the Canadians broke through the belts and into the line, and by the 29th they had killed or captured the majority of the occupants and driven the survivors either south into the main Siegfried Position or straight back into the Drocourt—Quéant Switch." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from the report of the Chief of the Operations Section on the thinking of the German Supreme Command that it had already achieved a decisive victory over the French and British. German forces advanced through northern France, the First Army on the right wing preparing to envelop Paris. The 'few solitary individuals' who doubted France had been defeated noted that few prisoners and little materiel had been captured, and that the Allied retreat was orderly.
Military Operations France and Belgium, 1914, Vol. I, August to October by J. E. Edmonds, page 223, copyright © Second Edition 1925, publisher: MacMillan and Co., Limited, publication date: 1925
(2) The Allied Campaigns in the Dardanelles and Gallipoli had failed. The naval campaign to force the Dardanelles, the April landings at Helles and Anzac Cove, the August 6 landing at Suvla Bay in an attempt to end the stalemate had all failed. The Allies could not advance; the Turks could not drive them into the sea. Bodies lay unburied between trench lines that were in some places only yards apart. Heat, flies, disease, and failure oppressed those men who were still alive. The last major Allied offensive took place on August 29, 1915. It failed.
Gallipoli by Alan Moorehead, page 289, copyright © 1956 by Alan Moorehead, publisher: Perennial Classics 2002 (HarperCollins Publications 1956), publication date: 2002 (1956)
(3) For all the reasons French General Pétain catalogs, German Chief of the General Staff Erich von Falkenhayn was replaced by Paul von Hindenburg on August 28, 1916. Hindenburg and his second Erich Ludendorff commanded the German army and increasingly large sectors of the German economy. Falkenhayn was immediately responsible for the siege of Verdun and its failure. He opposed both the Austro-Hungarian Asiago Offensive, which broke through the Italian front in Trentino but exposed the Austro-Hungarians to Russia's Brusilov Offensive, and the Italian counter-attack in the Sixth Battle of the Isonzo, Italy's most successful offensive to date. The British, French, and German forces suffered heavy losses in the Battle of the Somme, with a German toll of roughly 250,000 casualties by August 29. Germany had tried but failed to woo Romania to enter as its fourth ally or to remain neutral. The Russian and Italian military successes, and Germany's and Austria-Hungary's failures, helped lead Romania into war against the latter.
Verdun by Henri Philippe Pétain, pp. 197–198, copyright © 1930, publisher: The Dial Press, publication date: 1930
(4) Entry for August 28 (August 15, Old Style), 1917 from the diary of Florence Farmborough, an English nurse serving with the Russian Red Cross. She had first encountered rude, and sometimes threatening, Russian soldiers in the retreat following the collapse of Russia's Kerensky Offensive in July. Her unit then accompanied Russian troops moving into Moldavia to support the Romanian Mărăşti offensive. The German counter-attack, the Battle of Mărăşeşti, began on August 6, the Austro-German Battle of Oituz two days later.
Nurse at the Russian Front, a Diary 1914-18 by Florence Farmborough, pp. 305–306, copyright © 1974 by Florence Farmborough, publisher: Constable and Company Limited, publication date: 1974
(5) The Third Battle of the Scarpe was fought from August 26 to 30, 1918. The town of Monchy-le-Preux was taken on the first day. The Scarpe River flows by Arras. Drocourt is north of the river, and northeast of Arras, Quéant is south and southeast.
1918, the Last Act by Barrie Pitt, page 220, copyright © 1962 by Barrie Pitt, publisher: Ballantine Books, Inc., publication date: 1963
