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Food supplies in the French trenches. A Susini tobacco / cigarette card.
Photograph of a French heavy mortar in action.
Postcard celebrating the ceasefire on the Eastern Front. The troops are Russian, Austro-Hungarian, and German. The flags are Austrian and Russian; the coat of arms and bunting German. Russia declared a ceasefire on December 15, 1917. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, ending Russia's involvement in the war, was signed on March 3, 1918 between Russia and the Central Powers.
Russo-German fraternization in a photograph January 21, 1918 on the Berezina River, a tributary of the Dnieper and east of Minsk. Part of the message on the reverse side reads: '1/21/18 . . . sending a view from a meeting on the Berezina.' (Translation courtesy of Thomas Faust, eBay's Urfaust.)
Sleepless Nights, by Kriwub. France standing by her bed, arm raised against a giant German soldier watching her through the window. A Zeppelin passes in the distance. Someone has written the years of sleepless nights in blue: 19-14-15-16-17 and perhaps -18.
"Our main job was to bring rations up to the men on the front lines. The field kitchens were nearby, at the bottom of a ravine, or you could call it a precipice, next to which we were posted.You reached the bottom by a staircase which counted 500 steps, not one less. And they were 'poilu steps'—50 to 80 centimeters, each one. You couldn't be asthmatic and climb this gigantic staircase. It wasn't too hard in dry weather, but when the snow and ice and slick mud covered the steps, watch out for slippery spots! You had to grab onto roots and rocky outcroppings so as not to tumble all the way to the bottom.And the Boche lines weren't even a hundred meters from the last step of this staircase. Our outposts were only a few steps away from them." ((1), more)
"Discouraged by international developments and by the 'questionable friendship' of their Italian allies, French troops found their first months in Italy demoralizing. As one postal censor concluded in mid-December 1917, many were battling depression 'caused perhaps by homesickness, by a desire to see the end of the war, by a certain disgust with the need to support allies who weren't able to defend themselves.' More than anything else though, 'the desire for leave and the irregularity of the mails also [gave] rise to discouragement.'" ((2), more)
"Thus when the armistice agreement was finally signed on December 15, the duration was to be until January 14, 1918, with automatic prolongation unless seven days' notice of rupture was given by either party. Article 2 provided that, until January 14, no removal of troops should take place between the Black Sea and the Baltic, . . . For the 'organization' of fraternizing it was agreed that there should be two or three intercourse centres in every sector of a Russian division, but that 'there must not be present at any one time more than 25 unarmed persons from each side.' The exchange of views and newspapers was permitted.. . . As one historian has commented somewhat grimly, 'twenty-five men was enough for the Russian anti-war propaganda purposes.'" ((3), more)
"Between the representatives of the higher command of Russia on the one hand and of Bulgaria, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey on the other hand, for the purpose of achieving a lasting and honorable peace between both parties, the following armistice is concluded:The armistice shall begin on December 17th at 2 o'clock in the afternoon and continue until January 14th. . . .The armistice embraces the land and aërial forces on the front from the Baltic to the Black Sea and also the Russo-Turkish front in Asia Minor. . . . With the purpose of facilitating the conduct of peace negotiations and the speedy healing of the wounds caused by the war, the contracting parties take measures for re-establishment of cultural and economic relations among the signatories. Within such limits as the armistice permits, postal commercial relations, the mailing of books and papers, will be permitted, the details to be worked out by a mixed commission, representing all the interested parties, at Petrograd." ((4), more)
"— A dark cloud of heavy fear lies brooding over our city. Perhaps people imagine that the German troops set free by the Russian armistice will immediately be rushed across Germany and flung into the fray?It was on the evening of the 16th that news came of the signing of that armistice, one of the most important events of the present war. But people avoid any reference to it, as they would avoid referring to a bereavement." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from the notebooks of French Infantry Corporal Louis Barthas, formerly of the 296th Regiment. Barthas was writing in mid-December, 1917, after his regiment had been dissolved and its men assigned to other units, Barthas going to a regiment from Breton.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, pp. 346–347, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
(2) Martha Hanna's Your Death Would Be Mine is based on the correspondence between Paul Pireaud and his wife Marie. In the summer of 1917, Paul served with the 112th Heavy Artillery Regiment in the Moronvilliers sector northeast of Reims in Champagne. French and British units were sent to support the Italians after the disaster of Caporetto. The Italian retreat finally stopped on the Piave River. Paul's unit was ordered to Italy on November 12, and left on the 17th. He reached Italy on December 1.
Your Death Would Be Mine; Paul and Marie Pireaud in the Great War by Martha Hanna, page 236, copyright © 2006 by Martha Hanna, publisher: Harvard University Press, publication date: 2006
(3) Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks came to power in the October Revolution in part because of public support for an immediate end to the war. They perhaps genuinely expected their revolution would spread across the warring nations. The armistice between Russia, Germany, and Austria-Hungary signed on December 15, 1917 allowed for fraternization between the armies and the spreading of propaganda, something at which the Bolsheviks had experience and demonstrable success. The Black Sea was the southern boundary of the Russian Front, the Baltic Sea the northern.
Brest-Litovsk: The Forgotten Peace; March 1918 by John W. Wheeler-Bennett by John W. Wheeler-Bennett, page 93, publisher: The Norton Library, publication date: 1971, first published 193
(4) Excerpts from the armistice between the warring parties on the Russian Front signed on December 16, 1917, following agreements suspending hostilities in the preceding days. The armistice provided for intercourse between the two sides from sunrise to sunset, in groups of not more than twenty-five people, during which they could exchange papers, magazines, and unsealed mail, as well as trade in 'articles of prime necessity.' Both sides used this opportunity to spread propaganda, the Bolsheviks finding many German soldiers who were tired of the war and open to their message. Petrograd was the capital of Russia.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. V, 1917, pp. 391–392, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
(5) Entries for December 17, 1917 from the diary of Michel Corday, a senior civil servant in the French government writing in Paris. Russia had signed an armistice with the Central Powers on the 16th that sought to limit the movement of troops that Paris feared, but it excluded those deployments 'begun before the agreement was signed.' The Russian Front had been quiet for some months before the armistice was signed, and Germany could easily avoid the restriction.
The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, page 302, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934
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