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Greetings from Austro-Hungarian Landsturm Battalion 171. A pencil sketch of the sun rising between mountains and over a forested hill, dated October 14, 1916, postmarked two days later. In the center an oak-leaf crown of victory above the Hapsburg flag encircles the battalion identifier. The year before the drawing, the battalion had been in the Sugana Valley (Valsugana), Trentino, in the Alps.
'December snow.' Hand-painted watercolor calendar for December 1917 by Schima Martos. Particulates from a smoking kerosene lamp overspread the days of December, and are labeled 'December höra,' 'December snow.' The first five days or nights of the month show a couple at, sitting down to, or rising from a lamp-lit table. The rest of the month the nights are dark, other than four in which the quarter of the moon shows through a window, or Christmas, when the couple stands in the light of a Christmas tree.
Y Ravine Cemetery, Beaumont-Hamel, France. © 2013 John M. Shea
Italian troops marching into the mountains where Italy fought much of its war against Austria-Hungary. A poster postcard encouraging the purchase of war bonds yielding 5.55%.
An artillery crew dragging and pushing a field howitzer forward. From a painting by Anton Hoffmann. On the back is a message dated January 6, 1916. The card was postmarked the next day.
". . . on Saturday of the following week (October 14) the Allies attacked again. It was a ghastly shambles. Meeting uncut wire, the French and Russians came to a halt and, as they tried to hack their way through, the Bulgarian machine guns opened up on them. In one afternoon the French lost nearly 1,500 men and the Russians 600. And still the Bulgarian lines remained inviolate. On the extreme right of the valley, the burning village of Brod showed that the Serbs, at any rate, had fulfilled their mission." ((1), more)
"Theodor Wolff, editor of the Berliner Tageblatt, also noted the mounting misery. In October 1916, 371 smugglers and profiteers including 126 fruit and vegetable sellers were arrested in Berlin. Special 'profiteering courts' (Wuchergerichte) handled up to 4000 cases per month." ((2), more)
"October 14th.—Rossignol Wood is off. Things are not going well farther south. At a divisional lecture on 'Tanks and their October 16th.—Tactical Use,' we were told that the Rossignol Wood affair was just to have been a feint: as things are Fritz is having to shorten his line." ((3), more)
"'The food problem,' [Trepov] said, 'has certainly become very worrying; but the opposition parties misuse it to attack the government. I'll tell you frankly what the position is. In the first place, the crisis is far from being general; it attains serious proportions only in the towns and certain rural areas. But it is true that the public is nervous in certain cities, Moscow for example. On the other hand, there is no shortage of food, except certain products which we used to import from abroad. But the means of transport are inadequate and the method of distribution is defective. . . .''There is now a deadlock on the Russian front, from one end to the other,' [Wrangel] said. 'You must not expect any further offensive on our side. In any case we're helpless against the Germans; we shall never beat them.'" ((4), more)
"On October 18 [1916], the bombardment reached a hitherto unseen degree of violence. The order came down, to be ready to leave camp at any moment. A cold shower fell, and we shuddered at the thought of leaving camp in such weather. But it wasn't until the next day that we went up to the front lines, to the place of sacrifice for those who would spill their blood and end their lives so miserably." ((5), more)
(1) The Allies attacked on the Salonica Front in September and October, 1916 in attempts to aid Romania which was falling back before Central Power armies. The Allied army, commanded by French General Maurice Sarrail, included French, British, Russian, and Serbian troops. The offensive would not save Romania.
The Gardeners of Salonika by Alan Palmer, page 86, copyright © 1965 by A. W. Palmer, publisher: Simon and Schuster, publication date: 1965
(2) Food shortages were an increasing problem in Germany and Austria-Hungary as 1916 went on, and ration cards were required. Holger Herwig, author of today's quotation, notes that cheese had disappeared in November, 1915. In the summer of 1916 a weekly ration included two eggs, two pounds of bread, and 1/16th of a pound of butter.
The First World War: Germany and Austria Hungary 1914-1918 by Holger H. Herwig, page 291, copyright © 1997 Holger H. Herwig, publisher: Arnold, publication date: 1997
(3) Entries for October 14 and 16, 1916 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. The Battalion was then serving in the Somme sector. Rossignol Wood is north of Thiepval where the fighting was very heavy in September and October.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, pp. 263–264, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
(4) Excerpts from the diary entry for October 17, 1916 of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia, host of a farewell dinner for Japanese Ambassador Viscount Motono who had been appointed Japan's Minister of Foreign Affairs earlier in the month. The first speaker is Russian Minister of Communications Trepov; the second General Wrangel, aide-de-camp to Grand Duke Michael, the brother of Tsar Nicholas II. Throughout the war Russian forces were frequently successful against both Austria-Hungary and Turkey, but not against Germany.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. III by Maurice Paléologue, pp. 59, 60, publisher: George H. Doran Company
(5) Excerpt from the notebooks of French Infantry Corporal Louis Barthas, writing on October 18, 1916, when his 296th Infantry Regiment was in the Battle of the Somme. Barthas describes the fate of the regiment in the immediately preceding days as three acts. In Act I, the men learn the regiment, which had been slotted for a role in the coming action, will not be going into battle after all. Act II: 'humiliated' young officers ask their commanding general for the honor of fighting alongside other divisional regiments. In Act III, the commanding general approves the officers' request, granting the regiment 'the favor of going to gather up the laurels of victory.' Barthas had fought in the battles in Artois in 1915 and at Verdun, and had no delusions of what honor, glory, or laurels meant.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, page 258, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
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