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Map of the Marne front line on May 31, 1918 from Belleau Wood to Dormans, where the French and Americans stopped the German advance of 1918. From The History of The A.E.F. by Shipley Thomas.
Panorama of the Western theater of war 1914/15 from Compiègne to Arras, with the North Sea coast in the distance.
Edito Card of an Hanriot HD.1. Introduced in late summer, 1916, the French Hanriot HD.1 was primarily flown by the Belgian and Italian air services. This plane is in the colors of the Belgian Air Corps. The white thistle on the fuselage was the symbol of the squadron of Willy Coppens, Belgium's leading ace of the war. The sawtooth pattern on the tail identified an individual pilot. Each patrol of three planes had an identifying cowling color. Coppens, as the leading ace, insisted on an all-blue plane.
American troops parade in Paris, July 4, 1918.
The disparity in the number of nations arrayed against the Central Powers was a common motif, and was updated as the numbers on each side increased. Italy's entry into the war on May 23, 1915 changed the numbers again.Central Powers (top) Sultan Mohammed V of Turkey, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, Kaiser Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary. Allies (center and bottom rows) Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, King George V of the United Kingdom, President Raymond Poincaré of France, King Nikola of Montenegro, King Peter of Serbia, King Victor Emmanuel of Italy, King Albert I of Belgium, Emperor Taishō of Japan.In the center, a poem: Drei gegen Acht, Three against Eight.
"The 3rd Brigade (9th and 23rd Infantry Regiments) during these twenty days, held the sectors assigned to it, and co-operated in various attacks, until the morning of July 1, when a battalion from each regiment, supported by the 12th, 15th and 17th Artillery Regiments, in conjunction with the French who were attacking to their right, captured the village of Vaux and the Bois-de-la-Roche.This put the Allied lines on the dominant ground from Château-Thierry westward, including Hill 204, Vaux, Bouresches, and Belleau Wood." ((1), more)
"The Battalion returned to the Camp at Forceville. Acheux housed the Divisional baths and the Canteen. In and round it there was a concentration of heavy stuff, large-calibred naval guns, that made conditions in the area most unpleasant at all times. During the day an extra heavy shelling cost the Battalion two of its best N.C.Os., Sergeants Mills and Jones. In a fine endeavour to rescue some wounded officers of another unit from a shelled billet Mills was killed and Jones died of wounds. Mills had been the very capable manager of the Canteen from its start, and Jones was the Medical Officer's right-hand man." ((2), more)
"After a hurried lunch, I slipped away to Paris, my first visit being to the Hanriot works. Monsieur René Hanriot, who was one of the pioneers of aviation, was one of its staunchest supporters and had devoted his life to the new science. His little Hanriot H.D.1, graceful and manoeuvrable, designed by Dupont and first adopted by the Belgian Flying Corps, was his outstanding achievement, and he was always delighted to meet any of the Belgian pilots. He took me out to Villacoublay and showed me some of the new types of aeroplanes that were undergoing their tests. In addition, I saw a Fokker D.VII captured from the Germans, a curious-looking machine with its thick wings. Our eyes were so used to thin planes. I met Heurteaux, the great French 'ace' there, and generally enjoyed myself; a real bushman's [sic] holiday in fact!" ((3), more)
"On July 4, [1918,] American Independence Day, as the culmination of a nation-wide shipbuilding 'crusade' to build transport ships for the needs of the Western Front, ninety-five ships were launched in American shipyards, seventeen of them in San Francisco. That day, President Wilson declared in a speech at Mount Vernon that the Allies had four main aims: the 'destruction of arbitrary power', national self-determination, national morality to be like individual morality, and the establishment of a peace organisation to prevent war.American troops were in action [on] the Somme on July 4, alongside the Australians, when more than a mile of ground was gained, the village of Hamel was captured, and 1,472 German soldiers were taken prisoner. It was during this attack that the first airborne supply to troops in battle took place, when British aircraft dropped 100,000 rounds of ammunition to the Australian machine gunners." ((4), more)
"At the beginning of July [1918] a new assault was expected in Champagne. But the situation had lost its critical aspect. The British Army was able to fill its gaps, the American Army totalled more than twenty divisions and its effectives were increasing rapidly. The Franco-British disposed of an incontestable superiority in tanks and aviation. In fact, for the first time under the far-sighted impulse of General Pétain the French Army was to practise a reasonable defence tactic similar to that adopted by the Belgians on the day of Merckem.No serious danger seemed to threaten the Belgian sector, and the King and Queen could accept an invitation which both gladdened and flattered them: a visit to the British Fleet which was cruising in Scottish waters.On the 5th July Their Majesties flew over the Pas de Calais in a Belgian military seaplane." ((5), more)
(1) The American assault by U.S Marines and Army infantry to take Belleau Wood began on June 6, 1918 against well-entrenched German defenders. The battle continued for three weeks.
The History of The A.E.F. by Shipley Thomas, page 95, copyright © 1920, by George H. Doran Company, publisher: George H. Doran Company, publication date: 1920
(2) Excerpt from the entry for July 2, 1918 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. Forceville, France is between Arras and Amiens, north of the Somme River.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 496, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
(3) Excerpt from Flying in Flanders, a memoir by Willy Coppens, Belgium's greatest ace in World War I with 37 victories, all but two of the victims observation balloons. Coppens first flew a Hanriot HD.1 in June, 1918. The German Fokker DVII was one of the most successful fighter planes of the war. French ace Albert Heurteaux ended the war with 21 victories. His eighth victory was over the German ace Kurt Wintgens.
Flying in Flanders by Willy Coppens, page 188, publisher: Ace Books, publication date: 1971
(4) After four German offensives in 1918, the last ending on June 16, the Allies were anticipating a fifth. It would come on July 15. The Somme River sector had seen the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and Operation Michael, the first of the 1918 German offensives.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 437, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(5) The War Diaries of Albert, King of the Belgians were assembled by General R. Van Overstraeten from the monarch's diary and other sources. This selection is from what Van Overstraeten refers to as his 'general succinct framework' for Albert's entries. Germany had already mounted four offensives on the Western Front in 1918, the last ending on June 14. French General Henri Philippe Pétain had rebuilt the French Army after the mutinies of 1917, both men and materiel. In April 1917, the Belgians repulsed a German attack at Merckem.
The War Diaries of Albert I King of the Belgians by Albert I, page 216, copyright © 1954, publisher: William Kimber
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