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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.
Chosen Boy, a 1918 watercolor by Paul Klee. From Paul Klee: Early and Late Years: 1894-1940. © 2013 Moeller Fine Art
Memorial to the French Moroccan Division at Vimy Ridge. The face commemorates the Division's victory at the Second Battle of Artois, in which the Moroccan Division broke the German front for the first time and took Hill 140, their objective.Listed on the sides of the memorial are the sectors and battles where the Division fought:1914The ArdennesAugust 28 — La Fosse a l'EeauAugust 30 — BertoncourtSeptember 1 — AlincourtThe MarneSeptember 6 to 9 — Coizard, MondementDecember 30 — Ferme d'Alger1915BelgiumJanuary 28 — Nieuport, la Grande DuneArtoisMay 9 — la Cote 140June 16 — Ravin de SouchezChampagneSeptember 25 — Butte de Souain, Bois Sabot1916the SommeJuly 4 — Assevillers, Bellov en Santerre, Barleux1917ChampagneApril 17 — Moronvilliers, Mont sans Nom, AuberiveVerdunAugust 20 — Cumieres, Bois des Corbeaux, Forges Regnieville1918LorraineJanuary 8 — Flireythe SommeApril 26 — Villers-Bretonneux, Bois de Hangardthe AisneMay 30 — Vauxbuin, ChazelleJune 12 — AmblenyJuly 18 to 20 — Dommiers ChaudumSeptember 2 to 8 — Terny-Sorny, Moulin de Laffaux, AllemantNovember 11 — VictoryNovember 17 — Entered Chateau-Salins © 2013, John M. Shea
View over the battlefield of the Loretto Heights, France. Notre Dame de Lorette, a pilgrimage site, stood on the Heights, and was, with Vimy Ridge, part of the high ground seized by German troops in the Race to the Sea after the Battle of the Marne in 1914. French commander Joffre hoped to capture Loretto Heights and Carency, a village the Germans had fortified, in the First Battle of Artois in December, 1914. He tried to take the hill again in mid-February, 1915.
The poet, novelist, and political activist Gabriele d'Annunzio speaking in favor of Italy's entry into the war on the side of the Entente Allies, and against 'Giolittismo' at the Costanzi Theater in Rome, May, 1915. Giovanni Giolitti was five-time Prime Minister of Italy, and opposed intervention in the Great War. Illustration by Achille Beltrame.
"The British thought they had killed everyone but they hadn't. The shells fell too far behind the Turkish lines. The Turks were intact and ready for us. As soon as the bombardment finished we were ordered over the top. When we ran across the Daisy Patch toward the Turk line there was thousands of rifles and machine-guns trained on us. They were across open country 400 yards away. We were getting shot from all directions. It was just a mass of bullets. The ground was hopping with bullets like it was hailing. The Turks was all in trenches. All you could see was their heads. They weren't in the open at all. . . . There was a machine-gun trained across where I was. There were five chaps killed in front of me. One, two, three, four, five, as quick as that." ((1), more)
"It has become siege warfare again as in France." ((2), more)
". . . the new chief of the [French] Tenth Army, Gerneral d'Urbal, on May 9th [1915] at 10 A.M., launched [the Artois offensive] against the Vimy Ridge.In the centre the success was immediate. In less than an hour on a front of four miles and for a depth of two or three, the enemy's positions were captured; more than 6,000 prisoners, 20 guns, 100 machine guns, remained in our hands; the crest at its culminating point, hill 140, was reached and even passed. The German artillery ceased firing and we had the impression we had broken through. Unfortunately, this satisfaction was of short duration.Our reserves were too far in rear to follow up our success or widen the breach while there was yet time. . . . On the Lorette plateau and farther along, towards Pont-à-Vendin, we had gained little or no ground, while to the north of La Bassée the British had very nearly completely failed." ((3), more)
"To wrap up this day of emotions, we saw a French airplane hit the ground right between the two front lines. That night one of our patrols courageously went out to bring back the aviator, but he was burnt to a crisp, the airplane having caught fire when it crashed.The next day, no order having arrived for us to participate in the battle — about which no one appeared particularly upset — we made our customary trip up to the front-line trenches to relieve the battalion which was there." ((4), more)
"A new attack, which we undertook on the 11th [May, 1915], failed under flanking fire coming from the villages of Carency, Souchez, and Neuville-Saint-Vaast, and it was evident that these points of resistance must be captured before trying to advance to the ridge." ((5), more)
(1) New Zealander Hartly Palmer on his attempt to cross the 'Daisy Patch' against entrenched Turkish Infantry on May 8, 1915. Within days of the Allied invasion of Gallipoli on April 25, 1915, neither the Turks nor the Allies could advance, and struggled to reinforce their troops. Allied commander General Sir Ian Hamilton brought troops from Egypt and redeployed men of the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps who had landed at Gaba Tepe — Anzac Cove — south to the Anglo-French position at Cape Helles on the end of the Gallipoli Peninsula. Achi Baba, the objective, was a 709-foot high hill from which the Turks dominated the Allied position. The attempt to cross the open 'Daisy Patch' was a disaster for the men who tried. Joe Gasparich, another New Zealand survivor, referred to the Turkish troops as 'Jacko,', and observed that he was 'safe as houses' in his entrenchments.
Voices of Gallipoli by Maurice Shadbolt, page 31, copyright © 1988 Maurice Shadbolt, publisher: Hodder and Stoughton, publication date: 1988
(2) Jack Churchill writing to his brother Winston from Gallipoli. Quoted in Martin Gilbert's The First World War, a Complete History, page 161.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(3) Excerpt from French General Ferdinand Foch's account of the first day of the Second Battle of Artois. The British launched a simultaneous attack at Aubers Ridge. In 1914's Race to the Sea, German troops were very effective at seizing and holding high ground in the battles that shaped the Western Front. From October 4, 1914, German forces held high ground in Artois including Vimy Ridge and the plateau of Notre Dame de Lorette. The First, Second, and Third Battles of Artois were failed French attempt to regain these heights. The Allies did not capture Vimy Ridge for two more years, finally succeeding in April 1917.
The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, translated by Col. T. Bentley Mott by Ferdinand Foch, page 208, copyright © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., publisher: Doubleday, Doran & Co., publication date: 1931
(4) Corporal Louis Barthas was 35 when he was mobilized, and served in a unit held in reserve on May 9, 1915 during the Second Battle of Artois. Despite initial success in the center of the French line, the reserves were too far removed to help exploit the situation. The British were fighting the same day at Aubers Ridge on the French left.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, pp. 61, 62, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
(5) The great French offensive to seize the high ground of Vimy that began on May 9, 1915, advanced on a front of four miles, to a depth of two or three miles. But on either flank, there was no advance, and further progress could not be made without the reinforcements who were seven miles back. The French, including the Moroccan Division that had broken the German line, could not hold their position. In the coming days, the French proceeded as General Foch wrote, taking Carency on May 12. French Commander Joffre continued the Second Battle of Artois until June 24. The Germans held Vimy Ridge until the Canadians took it in 1917.
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