On August 12, 1914, Belgian and German lancers clashed at Haelen. The Germans rode into a broad ditch from which their horses struggled to escape. Many failed to. Days later visitors could still find fallen lances, helmets, and other gear.
Image text: Scenes in Belgium after the Battle of Haelen.© by the International News Service, NYReverse:Scenes in Belgium after the Battle of Haelen.Having driven the Germans back at Haelen, the brave Belgian infantry takes a well earned rest.W. C. A. 145
The problem children of a housewife, 1914-1916: token money, banknotes and ration cards from 1916 including cards for potatoes, flour, cooking fat, dried vegetables, potatoes, and whole milk. The items that can be identified are from Dresden, Germany, where the card was printed, and are dated February and March, 1916.
Image text: Die Sorgenkinder der Hausfrau 1914-1916The problem children of a housewifeReverse:Verlag Carl Döge, Dresden~N.
Wooden cigarette box carved by Г. САВИНСКИ (?; G. Savinskiy), a Russian POW. The Grim Reaper strides across a field of skulls on the cover. The base includes an intricate carving of the years of war years, '1914' and, turning it 90 degrees, '1918.'
Image text: ПДМЯТЬ ВОИНЬ 1914-18To the memory of the soldiers 1914-18Reverse:19141918Г. САВИНСКИ (?)G. Savinskaya
Salonica (Thessaloniki), a base of Allied operations in the Balkans, suffered enormous damage in the fire of August 18, 19, and 20, 1917. In the postcard, the Quay: Olympos-Palace.
Image text: Salonique - Incendie des 18-19-20 Août 1917 - Les Quais Olympos-PalaceSalonica - Fire of 18-19-20 August 1917 - the Quay: Olympus-PalaceReverse:[É]dition Parisiana, ParisImp. Photo. des l'Ablissements Cm Collas & Cie, Cognac (Chte)
Two American soldiers march with an angel overhead. In the background, a woman with a Red Cross flag leads ships, tanks, planes, soldiers marching and hauling cannon. The postcard by Arthur Mayeur for the August, 1918 Pas-de-Calais Days was to raise funds for widows in the Département Pas-de-Calais in northwestern France. The first fundraisers were held on August 13 and 15, 1916, the second two years later on August 13, 18, and 23, 1918. Mayeur illustrated fundraising postcards on both occasions, with three in 1918. America entered the war in April, 1917, but did not join the battle till May of 1918. Thanks to fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journée_du_Pas-de-Calais, August 7, 2018, for information.
Image text: La Journée du Pas-de-Calais; Pas-de-Calais day, août 1918.Nous gagnerons la guerre!We shall win the war.Reverse:Imp. Lafontaine, 27 Rue Froideveaux - Visé Paris.
"German troops, however, continued to pour into Belgium, and by the 17th the space between the Meuse, the Demer and the Gette was occupied by them in strength, . . . On the 18th, the Germans again attacked and carried Haelen, and also entered Tirlemont. They then fell upon the front and left flank of the Belgian 1st Division, and only by hard fighting were held at bay. The Gette position was now evidently in imminent danger." ((1), more)
"Again, in the country districts, anywhere and everywhere, they have only one question : 'When will it end?' But all these desires drift about helplessly. The Censor gags the papers. And the Deputies don't hear and don't want to hear those whom they represent.— If you mention peace, they say you are in the pay of Germany. It is a clever formula." ((2), more)
"— A sentence from Lavedan's article in the Intransigeant for August 18th [1916]: 'On the field of battle, where for the last two years, to the pealing bells of machine-gun and the rolling organ of the Supreme Sacrifice, the Mass of Right and Honour—that field of battle which is, as it were, the Church of our country . . . etc., etc.' Very well, then, you gentlemen who love war, do you now see Whom you are serving?" ((3), more)
"The Great Fire [of Salonica] began in the middle of the afternoon siesta on August 18 [1917] up in the oldest quarter, where jutting stories jostled each other so closely that the narrow street became a wood-roofed arcade. After four rainless months every balcony was tinder dry, and with a fierce northwest wind blowing, the city had as little hope of escaping destruction as Chicago in 1871 or London in 1666. The two oval watering tanks, which formed the municipal fire brigade, were hurriedly pulled up the steep alleys by a noisy and confused crowd of men and boys. But this was little more than a pathetic gesture. Soon people were pouring out of their houses, loading possessions onto donkeys or into carts or dragging beds and clothes and household utensils after them in a panic flight toward the waterfront. With virtually no water in the upper town, the walls in street after street began to crash as though they were trees in a flaming forest." ((4), more)
"Next morning [August 18, 1918] the Germans attempted to reënter Frapelle but were repelled by the Americans who were holding on to the much-battered remnants of the village. The casualties suffered were heavy for the result achieved. A total of 571 casualties of whom 1 officer and 35 men were killed and 11 officers and 176 men were gassed, was a costly affair for taking so small a section of useless trench, except that it gave the division its first taste of actual war. Relieved on August 23, the 5th Division moved to the American Area and joined the First American Army Corps." ((5), more)
(1) On August 12, 1914, Belgian and German lancers clashed at Haelen. The Germans rode into a broad ditch from which horses and men struggled to escape. Many failed to. Days later visitors, among them Hugh Gibson, Secretary to the American Legation in Brussels, could still find fallen lances, helmets, and other gear on the battlefield.Earlier in the month, the Belgians had been pushed back from the Meuse River to the Gette. With their capture of the fortress of Liège, the Germans could turn their strengthening army against the Belgians who saw their victory in the first Battle of Haelen reversed in the second.
Military Operations France and Belgium, 1914, Vol. I, August to October by J. E. Edmonds, page 34, copyright © Second Edition 1925, publisher: MacMillan and Co., Limited, publication date: 1925
(2) Extract from the diary of Michel Corday, a senior civil servant in the French government. In preceding entries, Corday had written about the attempts to portray any calls for peace, even those by the Pope, as emanating from Germany.
The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, page 101, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934
(3) Entries from July 6 to 10, 1916 from the diary of Michel Corday, a French senior civil servant who frequently recorded reports, writings, and conversations of those who opposed peace without victory including politicians, writers, colleagues, men past fighting age, and mothers and fathers who had lost half a dozen sons.
The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, page 191, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934
(4) The Great Fire of Salonica broke out on August 18, 1917, apparently ignited by a small cooking fire. People who fled to the waterfront for safety found themselves threatened from land and sea when petrol from a burning ship set the surface of the harbor near them ablaze. The port of Salonica, Greece, was the primary port for the Allied armies — French, British, Serbian, Russian, and Greek — on the Salonica Front.
The Gardeners of Salonika by Alan Palmer, page 152, copyright © 1965 by A. W. Palmer, publisher: Simon and Schuster, publication date: 1965
(5) The 5th Division was in the Vosges mountains, and easily took the village of Frapelle on August 17. Holding it the next day was a far greater challenge. Until August 25, 1918, American troops had been fighting under French or British command. Although some continued to do so, the formation of the First American Army Corps began to bring most under direct American command under General John J. Pershing. Frapelle is about 70 km southeast of Strasbourg.
The History of The A.E.F. by Shipley Thomas, page 199, copyright © 1920, by George H. Doran Company, publisher: George H. Doran Company, publication date: 1920
