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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.
Easter greetings from the front, 1917. Original watercolor by Karl Schmit(?) postmarked March 31, 1917. Easter fell on April 8, 1917.
Sanke postcard of German ace and recipient of the Pour le Mérite Leutnant Wilhelm Frankl. With the death of Oswald Bölcke on October 28, 1917, Frankl became Germany's leading ace. On April 6, 1917 he downed three enemy planes. Two days later, on Easter Sunday April 8 he was killed in combat with a total of 20 victories. A German Jew who converted to Christianity when he married, Frankl was expunged from the records of recipients of the Pour le Mérite by the Nazis. The medal is beneath his collar. He had also been awarded the Iron Cross, on his left breast, and the House Order of Hohenzollern beneath it.
The Mourning Father on the back steps of the Canadian Memorial at Vimy Ridge, detail. © 2013, John Shea
Detail from the Canadian Memorial at Vimy Ridge: the figure of Canada Bereft, or Mother Canada, looking down at a casket below her, mourns her dead. In the distance are the slag heaps of Lens and the Douai Plain. © 2013, John Shea
"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." ((1), more)
"We are now at Saulty, a village just off the Doullens—Arras road (about twelve miles from Arras). Marched fifteen kilometeres to-day, reaching Saulty at 2.30. A sunny day with cold east wind. I am sitting on a tree-stump, in the peaceful park of a big white château which one sees among the trees. The sun is looking over the tree-tops now, and birds singing a way off, and a few little deer grazing; nothing to remind me of the battle, except the enormous thudding of guns from eastward. The brown of the trees and undergrowth grows purple, and the birds sing, thrushes and blackbirds, while a few rooks flap overhead. The bombardment must be terrific. Three Army Corps are reported to be attacking between Arras and Lens. We move to our final concentration to-morrow (Easter Sunday!) — about four miles from here. . . .Aeroplanes are humming in the clear sky, and the sun is a glint of crimson beyond the strip of woodland. And still that infernal banging continues away on the horizon." ((2), more)
"In February, 1917, [Wilhelm] Frankl became the acting commander of Jasta 4, which he led until his death. As leader of Jasta 4, he scored his 16th victory, but was once again transferred to the test command. Near the end of March, 1917, Frankl returned to action, and on the 6th of April, was at the peak of his flying career when he succeeded in downing three enemy aircraft during one day. Unfortunately, he met his demise two days later, over Vitry-Sailly. By a strange twist of fate, the date was on Easter Sunday, April, 1917." ((3), more)
"April 8 [1917] (Easter Sunday)Left Saulty 9 a.m., reached Basseux 11.30 (about eleven kilometres south-west of Arras). Until recently this place was only a mile or two from the line, but it doesn't appear to have been shelled. We are living in a dismantled château which must have been quite nice before the war. I am sitting with my feet out of the window of an attic under the roof, looking down on the courtyard where some officers are playing cricket with a stump and a wooden ball, and a brazier for a wicket. Glorious sunshine and pigeons flying about over the red and grey roofs. A little grey church with a pointed tower a hundred yards down the street. Three balloons visible, and the usual confused noise of guns from Arras." ((4), more)
"To-day, at dawn, our armies began a great battle, which, if Fate has any kindness for the world, may be the beginning of the last great battles of the war. Our troops attacked on a wide front between Lens and St. Quentin, including the Vimy Ridge, that great, grim hill which dominates the plain of Douai and the coalfields of Lens and the German positions around Arras. In spite of bad fortune in weather at the beginning of the day, so bad that there was no visibility for our airmen, and our men had to struggle forward in a heavy rainstorm, the first attacks have been successful, and the enemy has lost much ground, falling back in retreat to strong rearguard lines, where he is now fighting desperately." ((5), more)
(1) 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
(2) First and penultimate paragraphs from the April 7, 1917 diary entry of Siegfried Sassoon, British poet, author, Second Lieutenant in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, and recipient of the Military Cross for gallantry in action. Sassoon heard the preparatory bombardment for the Battle of Arras, his battalion held in reserve.
Siegfried Sassoon Diaries 1915-1918 by Siegfried Sassoon, pp. 151–152, copyright © George Sassoon, 1983; Introduction and Notes Rupert Hart-Davis, 1983, publisher: Faber and Faber, publication date: 1983
(3) With the death of Oswald Bölcke on October 28th, 1917, recipient of the Pour le Mérite (the Blue Max) Leutnant Wilhelm Frankl became Germany's leading ace. He led Jasta 4 from February, 1917 until his death two months later. On April 6, 1917 Frankl downed three enemy planes. Two days later, on Easter Sunday, as the British prepared to launch the Arras Offensive, he was killed in combat with a total of 20 victories. He was twenty-three. A German Jew who converted to Christianity when he married, Frankl was omitted from a 1938 German history of recipients of the Pour le Mérite. The Luftwaffe named a barracks after him in 1973. 'Vitry-Sailly' are the adjacent villages of Vitry-en-Artois and Sailly-en-Ostrevent, east of Arras, France.
The Jew with the Blue Max by Heinz Joachim Nowarra, page 7, copyright © John W. Caler 1967, publisher: Aeronautica John W. Caler, publication date: 1967
(4) Diary entry for April 8, 1917, of Siegfried Sassoon, British poet, author, Second Lieutenant in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, and recipient of the Military Cross for gallantry in action. Sassoon's battalion was held in reserve for the Arras Offensive. The preparatory bombardment was in progress as he wrote.
Siegfried Sassoon Diaries 1915-1918 by Siegfried Sassoon, page 152, copyright © George Sassoon, 1983; Introduction and Notes Rupert Hart-Davis, 1983, publisher: Faber and Faber, publication date: 1983
(5) Beginning of report by Philip Gibbs on the first day of the Battle of Arras. The British were successful that first day, after a preliminary bombardment that killed many defenders and destroyed many of their trenches and dugouts. They advanced as much as three and a half miles. In their greatest single triumph of the war, the Canadians took most of Vimy Ridge, high ground seized by German troops in 1914 that had cost many French lives since. A journalist, Gibbs was one of the five official British reporters who covered the war.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. V, 1917, p. 153, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
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