Search by or
Search: Quotation Context Tags
Headstone of an unknown soldier of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, Delville Wood Cemetery. Union of South Africa troops began the assault at Delville Wood on July 15, 1916. It was finally taken in September. On the headstone is superimposed the poem 'To My Daughter Betty, the Gift of God' by Lieutenant Tom Kettle of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, killed in action on September 9, 1916 at Guillemont, France, in the Battle of the Somme. He has no known grave. © 2013 John M. Shea
A Turkish funeral with Turkish and German soldiers and officers attending and praying. Is this a young Mustapha Kemal praying?
French General Maurice Sarrail decorating officers near the frame of German Zeppelin shot down on May 5, 1916 by naval gunners in view of the citizens of Salonica, Greece. General Sarrail commanded the Allied troops at the front that included French, British, Serbian, Russian, and Italian troops, as well as a battalion of Montenegrin soldiers. The Zeppelin's frame is in the background, and civilians are among the observers of the ceremony.
Etinehem Military Cemetery, France holds the remains of 1,004 soldiers, primarily French — including colonial troops — and some British, victims of the Battles of the Somme. © 2013 John M. Shea
Italy's armed forces at the ready in a 1915 postcard. In the foreground the artillery, infantry, an Alpine soldier (in feathered hat), and a Bersaglieri (in plumed headgear). Behind them are a bugler and lancer; in the distance marines and colonial troops. The Italian navy is off shore, an airship and planes overhead. On the reverse are the lyrics of a patriotic Italian March by Angelo Balladori, lyrics by Enrico Mercatali. It ends with a call to the brothers of Trento and Trieste, Austro-Hungarian territory with large ethnic Italian populations.
"To My Daughter Betty, the Gift of GodIn wiser days, my darling rosebud, blownTo beauty proud as was your mother's prime,In that desired, delayed, incredible time,You'll ask why I abandoned you, my own,And the dear heart that was your baby throne,To dice with death. And oh! they'll give you rhymeAnd reason: some will call the thing sublime,And some decry it in a knowing tone.So here, while the mad guns curse overhead,And tired men sigh with mud and couch and floor,Know that we fools, now with the foolish dead,Died not for flag, nor King, nor Emperor,But for a dream, born in a herdsman's shed,And for the secret Scripture of the poor.— Tom KettleIn the field, before Guillemont, Somme, 4 September 1916" ((1), more)
"Conflicting versions began to reach us. It was said that large forces of Turkish soldiers had broken through our right flank and were swarming across the countryside, killing everything in their way. We heard alas! too, that it was our 103rd Regiment which had been forced out of their trenches and driven backwards. We had received no orders, so were obliged to remain where we were. In about three hours' time we noted that the great wave of movement on the road had dwindled into small, fitful groups. Soon news was brought that the Turkestanski Division had swept up in the nick of time, suppressed the enemy encroachment and reoccupied our trenches. A feeling of great thankfulness spread among us; we smiled and chatted cheerfully again. The Retreat was at an end!" ((2), more)
"The Franco-Serbian counter-offensive started on September 11th and met with very satisfactory success. The Serbs had in line the whole of their Third and First Armies under General Vassitch and Voivode Misitch respectively. Their Second Army remained where it had been since before the Ostrovo battle, further round on the right, facing the Bulgars among the steep, scrub-covered mountains of the Moglena. And in coöperation with the Serbs, at the northern end of Lake Ostrovo, was practically the whole French force in the Balkans, with a contingent of Russians. The Serbs were also supported by French heavy artillery, having no guns of their own bigger than 120 mm." ((3), more)
"At 13:05 on 12 September [1916], Colonel Adolphe Messimy received a message at his command post, a makeshift shelter hollowed out of the shell-scoured plateau south of Combles. The news was excellent. His chasseurs alpins had seized the trenches of the German third position west of the Bapaume-Péronne road. As sector commander, he requested reinforcements. Two fresh battalions from 44 and 133 RIs were ordered forward. At 18:39 they advanced from the third position, over the road where today Foch's statue stands staring defiantly eastwards, across the final line of trenches protecting Bouchavesnes village. Three companies of chasseurs followed them across, without orders, but determined to press their advantage." ((4), more)
". . . On 13 September [1916], the skies cleared; that afternoon, with the sun at their backs, the Italians sighted their targets. With the help of aerial observers, the heavy batteries reduced much of the Austrian front line to rubble, blowing broad holes in the wire, shattering their communications. Cadorna took heart; he believed the Austrians were packed into their front-line bunkers. In fact they had left only a token force in the front lines, so their losses were relatively slight; their men were nearby, and ready. So were their skilfully disguised batteries." ((5), more)
(1) Tom Kettle, Member of Parliament from 1906 to 1910 as a member of the Irish Parliamentary Party, joined the Irish Volunteers in 1913, and was in Belgium on a gun-running mission when the war began. Appalled at the actions of the occupying army, he volunteered, and was first a recruiting officer, but later, after the apparent government acceptance of Irish Home Rule, became a Lieutenant in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. He returned to Dublin on sick leave after the the Easter Rising (in which his brother-in-law the pacifist Frank Sheehy-Skeffington was murdered), and, although he disagreed with what the rebels had done, believed they would be remembered as heroes. He was killed on September 9, 1916 leading his men at Ginchy in the Battle of the Somme. He has no known grave. He wrote the sonnet to his daughter five days before his death.
The Lost Voices of World War I, An International Anthology of Writers, Poets and Playwrights by Tim Cross, page 43, copyright © 1989 by The University of Iowa, publisher: University of Iowa Press, publication date: 1989
(2) Excerpt from the diary of Florence Farmborough, an English nurse serving with the Russian Red Cross, writing on September 10 (August 28 Old Style), 1916. The advance of Russia's Brusilov Offensive was nearly at its limit, with intermittent advances at its southern end. At this time, Turkish troops were deployed to Europe both against Russia and as part of Mackensen's army invading Romania. German General Liman von Sanders had advised Turkish War Minister Enver Pasha against sending any of his troops to fight in Europe when they were needed in the Caucasus Mountains, where the Turks were fighting the Russians, and in Mesopotamia and Palestine, where they were battling the British.
Nurse at the Russian Front, a Diary 1914-18 by Florence Farmborough, page 236, copyright © 1974 by Florence Farmborough, publisher: Constable and Company Limited, publication date: 1974
(3) Excerpt from an account of the Battle of Monastir by G. Ward Price, official correspondent with the Allied forces in the Balkans. Anticipating an offensive against Bulgaria by the Allied forces in Greece, and aware Romania was about to join the Allies in the war against Austria-Hungary, the Bulgarians had struck first, on August 17, 1916. Under the command of French General Maurice Sarrail, the Allied line included French, British, Russian, and Serbian troops. The Bulgarians had struck along the Serbian sector of the Allied line on the Greco/Serbian frontier in the Salonica Front. On September 11, Sarrail struck back. Voivode is a Serbian Field Marshal.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. IV, 1916, pp. 379–380, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
(4) The British and French renewed the Battle of the Somme at the beginning of September with separate but coordinated attacks. That of the French on September 12 was a predecessor to one by the British planned for the 15th. The German defenders were increasingly stretched by the Franco-British assault. Our quotation, from William Philpott's Three Armies on the Somme, describes the entry into a chiefly intact village poorly held by a largely drunken garrison. The advance could have been the beginnings of a French breakthrough, but the gap was too narrow, allowing enfilade fire on the flanks, and reinforcements could not be brought in quickly enough to exploit the breach in the German line.
Three Armies on the Somme by William Philpott, page 316, copyright © 2009 by William Philpott, publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, publication date: 2009
(5) In an attempt to build on the success of his Sixth Battle of the Isonzo, Italian Commander in Chief Luigi Cadorna launched his Seventh on September 13, 1916. General Svetozar Boroević's Austro-Hungarian troops mimicked the defensive tactics of German troops, lightly defending a front line supported by machine gun nests, so that casualties would be relatively light during the bombardment that typically preceded an infantry assault. Cadorna thought the Austro-Hungarians had two defensive lines; they had four.
The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919 by Mark Thompson, pp. 219–220, copyright © 2008 Mark Thompson, publisher: Basic Books, publication date: 2009
1 2 Next
