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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.
'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red' — the Tower of London poppies — each of the 888,246 ceramic poppies representing one serviceman of the British Empire killed in World War I. The installation was a collaboration of artist Paul Cummins and stage designer Tom Piper. Since November, 2014 the poppies have been installed in other sites in the United Kingdom. Photographed October 3, 2014. © 2014 by John M. Shea
Turkish Interior Minister Talaat Pasha from 'Four Years Beneath the Crescent' by Rafael De Nogales.
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
"During the night of May 29-30 we left Mazingarbe, replaced by the English, who took up positions there. We weren't sure of the direction in which we would be heading. At six in the evening the grenadiers left for the trenches in the 'Ouvrages Blancs' [White Earthworks]. A battalion headed out for the front, soon afterward.Our battalion left around midnight, doubtless following the other one. Upon leaving Mazingarbe we could see the front right nearby, a true volcano lit up by flares of every color. In the continual rumbling of cannon fire you could distinguish the crackling of machine-gun fire and grenades going off.This was the terrible Lorette sector." ((1), more)
"The insatiable war machine had an additional 40 million bodies to draw upon for cannon fodder, a new front was created from Switzerland to the Adriatic, and the stalemate continued. It was a very difficult front, much of it in the high Alps, in a setting of natural grandeur, but truly more suited to the destruction of human life than to it preservation." ((2), more)
"So well was London guarded from hostile air craft that the zeppelins were denied access to the areas above the metropolis until May 31st [1915], ten months after the opening of the War. Near midnight on that day, several zeppelins appeared above the city, raining down shells upon the city and killing six persons.In reprisal the citizens of London declared a boycott upon every person having a name of German origin; German shops were looted, German homes were attacked, and rioting took place in many districts where Germans were numerous." ((3), more)
"From the documents that do exist, we know that the official government deportation decision was made on 27 May 1915 and published in Takvîm Vekâyi, the official government gazette, on 1 June 1915 as the 'temporary law on military measures against opponents of government policy in time of war.' Before this temporary law, other documents confirm the deportation decision, such as two memoranda from the General Staff to the Interior Ministry dated 2 and 26 May; and an inquiry from the Interior Ministry to the cabinet dated 26 May 1915 regarding the need for a temporary law. Again on 30 May, the cabinet passed a regulation regarding the rules of deportation that was subsequently published. These official documents give no sense of the course of events. As we have seen, the expulsions had begun long before the date on which the decrees came into force (1 June)." ((4), more)
"Lorette — a sinister name, evoking scenes of horror, gloomy woods, sunken roads, plateaus and ravines taken and retaken twenty times, where for months, night after night, we cut each other's throats, massacred each other incessantly. We made that little corner of the earth a human charnel house, by the criminal obstinacy of our top brass, who knew quite well that nothing decisive would come from this petty style of fighting a war, these nasty little attacks. But they imagined that in this war of attrition, this cruel game, the Germans would be the first ones to be worn down.'Je les grignote [I'm nibbling away at them],' says paunchy old Joffre — a phrase that the press picks up like a rare pearl, and this futile, bloody offensive dragged on for several months." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from the Notebooks of French Infantry Corporal Louis Barthas. The British took over the left end of the French line, extending their own, and allowing the French to concentrate more troops for the Second Battle of Artois, which had begun on May 9, 1915. The two ridges of Loretto Heights and Vimy dominate the battlefield. The largest French military cemetery is at Notre Dame de Lorette on Loretto Heights, many of the dead having lost their lives in the battle Barthas was joining. An earlier church reputed to have held some bones of John the Baptist had been a pilgrimage site since the late nineteenth century.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, page 69, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
(2) Until May 23, 1915 when it declared war on Austria-Hungary, Italy was the only great power not at war. The Entente Allies expected that Italy's entry in the war would quickly lead to the defeat of first Austria-Hungary, then Germany. As René Albrecht-Carrié writes, the Italian front was very difficult terrain.
Italy from Napoleon to Mussolini by René Albrecht-Carrié, page 102, copyright © 1950 Columbia University Press, publisher: Columbia University Press, publication date: 1960
(3) The prevailing winds and stormy weather provided some of London's defense against Zeppelin air raids. Most aircraft were as yet unable to operate at the altitudes at which the airships did.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 155, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
(4) The attacks by the Government of Turkey on its Armenian citizens had begun by April 15, 1915 around Lake Van, in the Armenian region of eastern Turkey, when as many as 24,000 Armenian men were murdered in three days. On April 20, Turkish troops began a siege of Van which was successfully defended by the Armenians until Russian troops arrived to lift the siege. On April 24, the government began rounding up Armenian intellectuals and political, religious, and business leaders, and began the deportation of the Armenian population to the Syrian dessert. Trying to defend the Armenians, American Ambassador to Turkey Henry Morgenthau spoke to Government leaders including War Minister Enver Pasha and Interior Minister Talaat Pasha. He found Talaat the most implacable of the leaders against the Armenians.
A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility by Taner Akçam, pp. 194, 195, copyright © 2006 by Taner Akçam, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 2006
(5) Excerpt from the notebooks of French Infantry corporal Louis Barthas whose unit took part in the Second Battle of Artois. French Commander Joseph Joffre was trying to capture the high ground of Artois, including Loretto Heights, site of the church Notre Dame de Lorette, and Vimy Ridge. The battle had begun on May 9, and had some success on the first day.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, page 72, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
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