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Uniforms of the British Army, 1914, from a series of postcards of uniforms of the combatants in the 1914 European War.
Gun turrets of Fort Douaumont in the rain, September 22, 2015. © 2015 John M. Shea
Wall panel by Jo Roos, the second of two portraying South Africa's participation in World War I, primarily covering events of 1917 and 1918. Sections include the Campaign in East Africa, the sinking of the Mendi, and scenes from South Africa's participation in the war on the Western Front. © 2015 John M. Shea
Skulls, bones, helmets, rifle parts in a trench at Verdun, a ravine of death.
Austrian postcard of the inundations at Nieuport, Belgium, with soldiers at the flood barrier. Driven to a corner of Belgium by Germany's advance, the Belgians tried to make a stand on the Yser Canal in the flat terrain of Flanders. Driven back, they retreated behind the railway embankment that ran from Nieuport on the coast to Dixmude 20 miles inland. On October 27, 1914 they opened the locks to flood the plain before them, a process that took several days. Unable to break through, the Germans abandoned the Battle of the Yser on October 31.
"A Highland sergeant-major stood magnificently before us, with the brass brutality called a Hales rifle-grenade in his hand. He explained the piece, fingering the wind-vane with easy assurance; then stooping to the fixed rifle, he prepared to shoot the grenade by way of demonstration. According to my unsoldierlike habit, I had let the other students press near the instructor, and was listlessly standing on the skirts of the meeting, thinking of something else, when the sergeant-major having just said 'I've been down here since 1914, and never had an accident,' there was a strange hideous clang. Several voices cried out; I found myself stretched on the floor, looking upwards in the delusion that the grenade had been fired straight above and was about to fall among us. It had indeed been fired, but by some error had burst at the muzzle of the rifle: the instructor was lying with mangled head, dead, and others lay near him, also blood-masked, dead and alive. So ended that morning's work on the Bull-Ring." ((1), more)
"On 8 May a series of explosions wracked the depths of the fort, spreading from a box of hand grenades to the petrol canisters used in flamethrowers and, finally, to a magazine of artillery shells. Some 650 German soldiers died—underground, in darkness, blown to pieces, seared by fire or choked by smoke—in the worst disaster of its type that either army suffered at Verdun." ((2), more)
"I was just bursting for a bayonet charge. An enemy machine gun crept up to within thirty yards of us and opened from behind some rocks. We could not dislodge it, so we led out a platoon and smothered it, bayoneting all its personnel. I ended up by using my rifle as a club — with disastrous results — for my stock broke, but it was great. The South Africans behaved splendidly: quite steady, quiet and collected." ((3), more)
"The weather is fine here. It is sad to think about death when you're in good health. What's the good of it all? What's the point of the wholesale wiping out of masses of decent fellows who only want to live peacefully with their families? It's the madness, the wickedness, and the idiocy of a minority which is oppressing the masses—set of sheep that we are!" ((4), more)
"On May 11 [1916], an air accident took the life of the mastermind behind France's fighter effort up to that point. Having turned down offers of a bomber command or a joint fighter and bomber command, Commandant de Rose had convinced the military authorities that the French fighter arm should have a free hand to preemptively seize control of the air over any critical area of the front, taking on defensive or escort roles as secondary options as needed. Upon his return to the Verdun sector, he was doing a demonstration flight for the Ve Armée's new quartermaster-general when his Nieuport suddenly crashed." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from Edmund Blunden's account of a session at the training ground, the Bull Ring, in Etaples, Blunden's first base in France after the crossing from England.
Undertones of War by Edmund Blunden, page 18, copyright © the Estate of Edmund Blunden, 1928, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: November 1928
(2) German troops captured Fort Douaumont, one of the principle forts protecting the fortress city of Verdun, on February 25, 1916, surprising a garrison that had no idea it was at risk. The Battle of Verdun at that date was only in its fourth day. The explosion on May 8 convinced General Mangin the time was ripe for the French to retake the fort. A plaque at Fout Douaumont puts the number of Germans killed in the explosion at 679. In a footnote our author Ian Ousby elaborates on 'the worst disaster of its type that either army suffered at Verdun': Between 400 and 500 French 'using the Tavannes railway tunnel as command post, emergency hospital, garrison and place of refuge' died in an explosion and fire on September 4, 1916.
The Road to Verdun by Ian Ousby, page 275, copyright © 2002 by The Estate of Ian Ousby, publisher: Anchor Books, publication date: 2003
(3) Excerpt from the May 9, 1916 diary entry of Richard Meinertzhagen, a British officer of German and Danish extraction pursuing the forces of German Lieutenant Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck in East Africa. Since the turn of the year, the British campaign had been led by General Jan Smuts, who had fought in the Boer War. The action Meinertzhagen describes was part of the Battle of Kondoa Irangi, fought between May 7 and 10, 1916 in German East Africa. Soon after killing the men manning the machine gun, Meinertzhagen killed a German officer Kornatsky in hand-to-hand combat.
Intimate Voices from the First World War by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, page 176, copyright © 2003 by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, publisher: Harper Collins Publishers, publication date: 2003
(4) A soldier's letter, one of two quoted by Michel Corday, a senior civil servant in the French government in his diary entry for May 10, 1916. Corday observed that, 'the newspapers have printed only the heroic soldiers' letters.'
The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, page 164, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934
(5) Escadrille or Squadron 12 was formed in 1912 at Reims, France, under the command of Jean Baptiste Marie Charles de Tricornot de Rose. In February 1915, the 12 took the name MS 12 for the Morane-Saulnier Parasols that replaced earlier planes. On September 21, 1915, equipped with the Nieuport 11, the Bébé, the escadrille was designated N.12, the first single-seat fighter squadron. It was attached to the French Fifth (or Vème) Army.
The Origin of the Fighter Aircraft by Jon Gutman, pp. 52, 53, copyright © 2009 Jon Gutman, publisher: Westholme Publishing, publication date: 2009
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