Embossed postcard of the flag and coins of Russia, with fixed exchange rates for major currencies including Germany, Austria-Hungary, England, the Latin Monetary Union, Netherlands, and the United States of America. The Russian Ruble equaled 100 Kopeks. Tsar Nicholas II is on the obverse of most of the gold and silver coins; Tsar Alexander III is on the 7 1/2 ruble gold piece.
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Chosen Boy, a 1918 watercolor by Paul Klee. From Paul Klee: Early and Late Years: 1894-1940. © 2013 Moeller Fine Art
Headstones at La Nécropole Nationale de Pontavert. The cemetery contains the remains of 6,815 soldiers, 67 of them British, 54 Russian, and the remainder French. Of the total, 1,364 are entombed in the ossuary. © 2014 by John M. Shea
Three Australian dead, 'known to be buried in this cemetery,': A. L. Day, W. T. Hart, and J. Mc Auley, died June, 1918, and buried in Dive Copse Cemetery, Sailly-le-Sec, France. © 2013 by John M. Shea
Image text: Known to be buried in this cemeteryAustralian Imperial Forces4695 PrivateA. L. Day32nd Bn. Australian Inf.21st June 1918 Age 26While you lie in peaceful sleepYour memory we will always keepKnown to be buried in this cemeteryAustralian Imperial Forces2418B Lance Cpl.W. T. Hart27th Bn. Australian Inf.11th June 1918 Age 22Great our sorrow . . .God knew . . .Known to be buried in this cemeteryAustralian Imperial Forces5905 Lance Cpl.J. Mc Auley27th Bn. Australian Inf.11th June 1918 Age 25Peace Perfect Peace
"Friday, June 11, 1915There has been unrest in Moscow for several days. Rumours of treason were circulating among the crowd and accusations have been made openly against the Emperor and Empress, Rasputin and all the influential persons at Court.Yesterday grave disorder broke out and it is continuing today. A large number of shops belonging to Germans, or with signs with German terminations, have been looted." ((1), more)
"During the evening we saw to our surprise companies of cavalrymen returning to Buchach; their oboz followed them. Some of the wounded told us there had been a severe counter-attack and certain sectors of the Russian Front Line had been forced to withdraw. We listened in consternation. Withdraw! Does that mean retreat? We asked first one man, then another, but no one knew what had happened. Our doctors thought it wise to despatch all our wounded to Dzurin. After they had left we felt better; at least one great responsibility had been lifted from our shoulders. As far as we were concerned, we must remain at our posts. We finished cleaning the rooms and then, all very tired, we decided to retire. The divans were hard and pillowless, but they provided makeshift beds." ((2), more)
"Pétain's pronunciamento to the officer corps was followed up in a message to the commanders of armies and groups of armies dated June 11. In it he discussed the need for forthright action in suppression and held up the actions of the commander of the XXXVIIth Army Corps as being exemplary in this regard. His message concluded with a threat, 'All officers, from the commander of a platoon to the commander of a corps, must have the same sense of duty. It is necessary that all realize that they must exercise their responsibilities or else they will themselves be brought before conseils de guerre.'" ((3), more)
"If the counter attack should be launched on the 12th, it would find [the Germans] better prepared than on the 11th.This insistence of General Mangin and the clearness of his views finally convinced General Fayolle, and he drew up his orders, dated 4 P. M. the 10th, for the attack to be carried out as soon as possible on the 1th. These orders, which were communicated to the troops, concluded with these words:'To-morrow's operation should be the end of the defensive battle which we have been fighting for more than two months. It should mark the definite check of the Germans and the renewal of the offensive on our part. It must succeed. Let everyone understand this.'The attack did, in fact, begin the following day, the 11th, at 11 A. M. The effect was astonishing. The villages of Méry and Belloy were taken, the valley of the Aronde was cleared, and more than a thousand prisoners with several guns were captured." ((4), more)
(1) Entry from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia, for Friday, June 11, 1915. The Tsaritsa, Empress Alexandra, wife of Tsar Nicholas, was German by birth. On October 14, 1914, Paléologue had recorded that, 'the Empress and those about her are suspected of carrying on a secret correspondence with Germany . . . The Emperor's weakness with the Empress, Vyrubova, and Rasputin comes in for severe criticism.' Nicholas and his family were isolated from the public and from the court. Among the few people they saw regularly were the monk Rasputin and the Tsaritsa's companion Madame Vyrubova.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. I by Maurice Paléologue, page 12, publisher: George H. Doran Company, publication date: 1925
(2) Florence Farmborough, an English nurse serving with the Russian Red Cross, writing on June 11, 1916 (May 29 Old Style) as Russia's Brusilov Offensive continued. The next day, Farmborough hears reports that German troops had arrived to support the Austro-Hungarian front. Austro-Hungarian Commander-in-Chief Conrad von Hötzendorf had also begun to redeploy two divisions from his Asiago Offensive in northern Italy to face the Russians.
Nurse at the Russian Front, a Diary 1914-18 by Florence Farmborough, page 197, copyright © 1974 by Florence Farmborough, publisher: Constable and Company Limited, publication date: 1974
(3) French general Henri Philippe Pétain was given command of the French Army on May 15, 1917 after the failure of Commander in Chief Robert Nivelle's spring offensive, and as mutinies spread in the army, ultimately affecting nearly half the army. Pétain's carrots were assurances to soldiers that he would not squander their lives, and that France would build the weapons of war—tanks, heavy artillery, aircraft—that could bring victory. His stick was the suppression of the mutinies by force, with trials, imprisonment, and executions. Earlier in the war, French commanders had abused cours martiales, in which soldiers had no appeal beyond the army itself. These were replaced by conseils de guerre, in which the convicted retained a right of appeal to a higher court, and death sentences had to be approved by the President. Pétain insisted on retaining courts martial, with his own approval being required and final, until the mutinies were controlled. French Prime Minister Paul Painlevé reasserted his authority on July 14, when the mutinies were clearly drawing to a close.
Dare Call it Treason by Richard M. Watt, page 232, copyright © 1963 by Richard M. Watt, publisher: Simon and Schuster, publication date: 1963
(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. In the spring of 1917, Mangin was under the command of Robert Nivelle during his disastrous Second Battle of the Aisne. Both men had been sacked. A year later, French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau insisted on reinstating Mangin, who was referred to as 'the Butcher'.
The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, translated by Col. T. Bentley Mott by Ferdinand Foch, pp. 329–330, copyright © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., publisher: Doubleday, Doran & Co., publication date: 1931
