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A photo postcard of a German trench view of barbed wire and a dead patrol. Dated February 22, 1916, and field postmarked the next day, the message is from a soldier to his uncle, and reads in part, 'yesterday we heard that 4 fortresses of Verdun were taken. This have been a lot of shooting . . . Maybe this is the end of Verdun and peace will come soon . . . the barbed wire on the other side of the card is French. You can see dead patrols . . .' (Translation from the German courtesy Thomas Faust.) Evidently the author safely reached the French trench line.
British soldiers advancing on the Flanders front. From The Nations at War by Willis J. Abbot 1918 Edition
Examples of mining and countermining a fortress, from the 1915 'Scientific American War Book: The Mechanism and Technique of Warfare.
The aftermath of fighting at Saarburg, August 20, 1914. A roadside crucifix was shattered during the battle, the cross bearing Jesus Christ was destroyed, but the figure of Christ was unharmed. Bodies of French soldiers lie in the field.
Kubaiak Jönnek 1917 — 'The Cubans are coming in 1917'. Against a yellow sky, on a smooth blue sea, a cigar submarine floats, a curl of smoke drifting from its lighted tip. An upright matchbox forms a conning tower, and a Cuban flag flies above it. Palm trees grow on a tip of land in the distance. A watercolor postcard by Schima Martos.
"God! How I hate you, you young cheerful men,Whose pious poetry blossoms on your gravesAs soon as you are in them, nurtured upBy the salt of your corruption, and the tearsOf mothers, local vicars, college deans,And flanked by prefaces and photographsFrom all your minor poet friends — the fools —Who paint their sentimental elegiesWhere sure, no angel treads; and, living, shareThe dead's brief immortality." ((1), more)
"I thought we were going over the top tonight, but it has been postponed — a state of things which will inevitably lead to soul-outpourings. My state of mind is — fed up to the eyes; fear of not living to write music for England; no fear at all of death. Yesterday we had a little affair with a German patrol, which made me interested for 5 minutes; after which I lapsed into the usual horrid state of boredom. O that a nice Blighty may come soon! I do not bear pain and cold well, but do not grumble too much; so I reckon that cancels out. One cannot expect to have everything, or to make one's nature strong in a week." ((2), more)
"On 5 April [1917] Lieutenant-General A. Haldane of VI Corps wired the following message to Allenby:'I wish to bring to the Army Commanders' notice the excellent work done by the New Zealand Engineers Tunnelling Company . . . First under Major Durgan and now under Captain Vickerman, the work of the Company has been excellent. Now only have the men worked extremely hard and well, but the excellent relations that have been maintained with the various divisions shows a first-class organization.'The underground tunnels of Arras were complete. In total the network comprised 10,901 yards of subways. Designed as a protective system of tunnels, it clearly served its purpose: between 5 and 11 April, through one subway alone, it was later estimated that the traffic amounted to an amazing 9,700 men. It was a unique engineering achievement and, in the history of the British Army, never equaled before or since in the field of protective tunnelling on the scale accomplished at Arras and Vimy Ridge." ((3), more)
"In the corner of the village square we noticed a peasant with long hair and a graying beard, standing immobile as if at attention, holding his cap out to us in a broad gesture of salute.He had a look for each of us, a look of sad farewell. This sincere salute, full of sympathy for the men being led to sacrifice, moved us profoundly.In another village, there was a group of children marching in formation with a leader at their head, like soldiers, and they made quite a disharmonious racket with their rattles. That's how we learned it was Good Friday; the bell towers were silent, and the children were calling the faithful to church services." ((4), more)
"Article I. Resolved, That from to-day a state of war is formally declared between the Republic of Cuba and the Imperial Government of Germany, and the President of the Republic is authorized and directed by this resolution to employ all the forces of the nation and the resources of our Government to make war against the Imperial German Government with the object of maintaining our rights, guarding our territory and providing for our security, prevent any acts which may be attempted against us, and defend the navigation of the seas, the liberty of commerce, and the rights of neutrals and international justice." ((5), more)
(1) Beginning of the poem 'God! How I hate you, you young cheerful men!' by British officer Arthur Graeme West of the 6th Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry, killed by a sniper April 3, 1917 in Bapaume, France. West loathed the kind of poetry that glorified the war and its ugly death. In 'The Night Patrol,' for example, men mark their route to the German wire by committing to memory the bodies they encounter as they crawl along, and the stench off them, so these will bring them safely back to their own line and a ration of rum.
The Lost Voices of World War I, An International Anthology of Writers, Poets and Playwrights by Tim Cross, page 69, copyright © 1989 by The University of Iowa, publisher: University of Iowa Press, publication date: 1989
(2) Ivor Gurney, English poet and composer, writing to the composer Marion Margaret Scott, President of the Society of Women Musicians from 1915 to 1916, on 'April 4 or 5th', 1917 in the preparation for the British Arras Offensive. Gurney was a private in the Gloucestershire Regiment then in the Fauquissart-Laventie sector. A 'Blighty' was a wound that would send him back to Blighty, to England.
War Letters, Ivor Gurney, a selection edited by R.K.R. Thornton by Ivor Gurney, page 152, copyright © J. R. Haines, the Trustee of the Ivor Gurney Estate 1983, publisher: The Hogarth Press, publication date: 1984
(3) One element of the preparations for the Battle of Arras was the tunnels that would conceal British troops, and bring them safely to the front line. Miners had been engaged for tunneling, mining, and counter-mining, but not for advancing troops on the scale seen in Arras or at Vimy Ridge. General Edmund Allenby commanded the Third Army in the battle.
Cheerful Sacrifice: The Battle of Arras, 1917 by Jonathan Nicholls, pp. 31–32, copyright © Jonathan Nicholls [1990 repeatedly renewed through] 2011, publisher: Pen and Sword, publication date: 2010
(4) Excerpt from the notebooks of French Infantry Corporal Louis Barthas whose regiment was marching to the front to play a role in the Nivelle Offensive.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, page 308, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
(5) Article I of the Republic of Cuba's Declaration of War on the German Empire on July 7, 1917, the day after the Declaration of War by the United States was signed by President Woodrow Wilson. Panama declared war the same day. The President who would marshal Cuba's resources was Mario Garcia Menocal.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. V, 1917, p. 148, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
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