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A French soldier wearing the uniform of 1914/1915 stands by the side of a water-filled shell crater.
Map of Romania and the Allied and Central Power campaign plans for 1917. 'Romanian Territories under Foreign Rule' include Transylvania, Austria-Hungary, northwest of the Carpathian Mountains, and Bessarabia, Russia, to the east between the Prut and Nistru Rivers, regions with large ethnic Romanian populations. From Romania in World War I, a Synopsis of Military History by Colonel Dr. Vasile Alexandrescu.
German postcard map of the Western Front in Flanders, looking south and including Lille, Arras, Calais, and Ostend. In the Battle of the Yser in October, 1914, the Belgian Army held the territory south of the Yser Canal, visible between Nieuport, Dixmude, and Ypres (Ypern). Further north is Passchendaele, which British forces took at great cost in 1917.
Colonel T.E. Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia, from With Lawrence in Arabia by Lowell Thomas
The Cripple Entente: Great Britain, Russia, and France. Their flags behind them, King George V, Tsar Nicholas II, and President Poincaré show the effects of the initial German victories in 1914.
"October 2nd.—The Division, in tremendous repute is draining the fount of awards. But one becomes more impressed by the all-round economy of the German operations, the few men used to hold us up. Pill-box garrisons are betaking themselves to shell-holes at a little distance. That is an obviously good ruse, for it is the pill-box that magnetizes the attack, but thought and faith are needed to carry it out." ((1), more)
"Our Caucasian Sister has returned from holiday. She said that even there, among the fertile valleys of Caucasia, crops were bad and food was scarce. Tea and sugar were obtainable only by ticket. . . . A letter from a former Sister of our Letuchka says there is famine in Moscow and shops are being raided. Clothes were at excessively high prices; an ordinary fur coat, formerly sold at 80 roubles, would now fetch 500 roubles, or more. Shoes, too, cost from 90 to over 100 roubles per pair. There are no fashionably-dressed people now; everyone wears old clothes. Fuel, too, is scarce. What will it be like when winter descends?" ((2), more)
"Ludendorff grumbled that 'we only came through [the Battle of Broodseinde] with enormous losses. It was evident that the idea of holding the front line more densely . . . was not the remedy.' The German official historian summarizes: 'The new battle scheme had not stood the test of the 4th October.' Prince Rupprecht's chief of staff wrote: 'Crown Prince Rupprecht found himself compelled to consider whether . . . he should not withdraw the front in Flanders so far back that the Allies would be forced to carry out an entirely new deployment of Artillery.' Another enemy monograph referred to the Battle of Broodseinde as 'The Black Day of October 4th.' Foot Guard Regiment No. 5 considered it 'the worst day yet experienced in the war.'" ((3), more)
"When, early on 5 October [1917], a water train arrived from the north and passed over the mine, there was no explosion. At midday, when he hoped the Turkish guards were taking a siesta, Lawrence crept forward again and laid an electric mine beside the pressure mine. . . .At eight o'clock the following morning a train arrived from the north. From off to one side, Lawrence signaled to the men with the detonator when the locomotive was over the bridge. The explosion was devastating. It 'shattered the fire-box of the locomotive (No. 153, Hijaz), burst many of the tubes, threw the l.c. [locomotive cylinder] into the air, cleaned out the cab, warped the frame, bent the two near driving wheels and broke their axles. I consider it past repair.'" ((4), more)
"We marched at 10.15 by Wisques to Wizerne, in a lime-stone district. There was more or less rain nearly all the way. To have some warmth and comfort to-night I carried a full pack and a bundle, and wondered all the time how the men carry what they must, let alone rations, dixies and what not as well. We waited about from noon until 4 to entrain. News came in of a lucky stroke at Passchendaele Ridge, plainly quite a good Show. The whole of the line attacked was thrown into confusion, the front overrun, the reserves staggered. The local civilians know all about the tactical idea of the Ypres moves; they are in high spirits, and talk about a German withdrawal from Belgium." ((5), more)
(1) Entry for October 2, 1917 from the writings — diaries, letters, and memoirs — of Captain J. C. Dunn, Medical Officer of the Second Battalion His Majesty's Twenty-Third Foot, the Royal Welch Fusiliers, and fellow soldiers who served with him, then fighting in the Third Battle of Ypres, started on July 31. The Battle of Polygon Wood was fought on September 26, In his entry for the 28th (pp. 404–405), Dunn wrote, 'The Battalion casualties were one-third of the trench strength with which we went in : more than 60 were dead.' The Germans were then holding their front line lightly, in shell holes rather than trench lines. The pillboxes were more numerous and durable than the British had anticipated.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 405, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
(2) Excerpt from the entry for September 20, (October 3, New Style), 1917 from the diary of Florence Farmborough, an English nurse serving with the Russian Red Cross. Farmborough's unit was then in Romania where the Russians had joined in a Romanian offensive until being ordered on July 25 by Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky to stop any offensive action.
Nurse at the Russian Front, a Diary 1914-18 by Florence Farmborough, page 319, copyright © 1974 by Florence Farmborough, publisher: Constable and Company Limited, publication date: 1974
(3) The Battle of Broodseinde on October 4, 1917 was a British attack within the overall Third Battle of Ypres, begun on July 31. The Germans had initially used a thin defense in the front line, often with men holding shell holes rather than trenches, many of the positions supporting pillboxes and machine gun nests. After British advances, the Germans moved more men and machine guns to the front where they suffered the horrendous casualties to which our quotations testify. Rupprecht was Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Bavaria. With Paul von Hindenburg Erich Ludendorff commanded the German Army, with the latter increasingly responsible for operations.
In Flanders Fields, the 1917 Campaign by Leon Wolff, page 195, copyright © 1958 by Leon Wolff, publisher: The Viking Press, publication date: 1958
(4) T. E. Lawrence — Lawrence of Arabia — and his Arab forces, raided Turkish infrastructure and outposts in Syria, in particular the rail system in the Hijaz, along the west coast of the Arabian peninsula. Rail lines could be easily repaired, but not the engines that were the targets of the sabotage. British General Edmond Allenby, who had recently been transferred to Egypt after what was seen as his failure in the Battle of Arras, was preparing for an assault on Gaza. Both the First Battle of Gaza (March 26 to 28, 1917) and the Second (April 20) were British defeats. The quotation in the second paragraph of our quotation is from Lawrence's report on the action.
Setting the Desert on Fire by James Barr, page 186, copyright © 2008, 2006 by James Barr, publisher: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., publication date: 2009
(5) Entry for October 6, 1917 from the writings — diaries, letters, and memoirs — of Captain J. C. Dunn, Medical Officer of the Second Battalion His Majesty's Twenty-Third Foot, the Royal Welch Fusiliers, and fellow soldiers who served with him, then fighting in the Third Battle of Ypres, started on July 31. The Battle of Broodseinde was fought on October 4. Dunn's unit had fought in the Battle of Polygon Wood
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, pp. 406–407, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
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