Search by or
Search: Quotation Context Tags
View of Moscow, the Kremlin and St. Basil's Cathedral along the Moskva River. The message on the reverse was dated from Moscow May 29, 1914 (new style); multiple postmarks May 17 (old style; May 30 new style) and May 21 (old style; June 3 new style).
Chosen Boy, a 1918 watercolor by Paul Klee. From Paul Klee: Early and Late Years: 1894-1940. © 2013 Moeller Fine Art
General Joffre, Commander in Chief of the French Army, visits the Verdun front. The card is from the summer of 1916 when the Battle of Verdun was in its fifth month. The caption on the reverse says Joffre then knew the Allies had victory in their hands, a victory that would not come for more than two years.
Battle on the Somme, by Oskar Martin Amorbach, showing the blue Hessen (Infantry Regiment Lieb, 'Grand Duchess') in combat against British troops.
Headstone of an unknown soldier of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, Delville Wood Cemetery. Union of South Africa troops began the assault at Delville Wood on July 15, 1916. It was finally taken in September. On the headstone is superimposed the poem 'To My Daughter Betty, the Gift of God' by Lieutenant Tom Kettle of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, killed in action on September 9, 1916 at Guillemont, France, in the Battle of the Somme. He has no known grave. © 2013 John M. Shea
"Newcomers have told us many stories of life in the heart of Russia. In some places there is such a shortage of foodstuffs that, unless the authorities build up sufficient stocks, there could be famine during the coming winter. Dissatisfaction is still rife in many cities. There have been rumours of strikes and even riots in Moscow, but nothing has been officially confirmed. In the city of Petrograd, there is such unrest; and there is severe criticism regarding the Imperial Family. The Empress comes in for a big share of it and in certain cliques is referred to openly as the Nemka [German woman]. The Tsar — God bless and preserve him,' they said — is doing his best to please his family, to whom he is devoted . . ." ((1), more)
"Farther north [of Lemberg], the Russian drive against Kovel had resulted in appalling losses to the Czar's troops during September. The Russians threw themselves recklessly against the Austro-German line, but wave upon wave they were annihilated. On September 6th [1916] the Russians attacked on a twelve-mile front west of Lutsk, but could not bend the Austrian line. Again on October 2d, they tried to batter their way through to Kovel, making no less than 17 attacks on one point of the line, but without material gains. The assaults gradually slowed down during November, the Austrians holding their positions firmly." ((2), more)
"The French were preparing to counter-attack at Verdun. The disaster in the Tavannes Tunnel could not deter them from that. On the Somme, the battle seemed to be coming to a close. 'It is nice to think that our heavy fighting is coming to an end,' Noel Chavasse wrote home on September 7. 'The Huns are beaten to a frazzle in front of us. We are feeling top dogs. There is nothing like the losses we had at first.'" ((3), more)
"The offensive on the Somme began again on the 3rd September. Henceforth that part of me which is 'sensitive to victory' will scarcely find any satisfaction in such progress. At every fresh capture of a village, what dominates me is the crushing consciousness of loss, death, and sorrow." ((4), more)
"To My Daughter Betty, the Gift of GodIn wiser days, my darling rosebud, blownTo beauty proud as was your mother's prime,In that desired, delayed, incredible time,You'll ask why I abandoned you, my own,And the dear heart that was your baby throne,To dice with death. And oh! they'll give you rhymeAnd reason: some will call the thing sublime,And some decry it in a knowing tone.So here, while the mad guns curse overhead,And tired men sigh with mud and couch and floor,Know that we fools, now with the foolish dead,Died not for flag, nor King, nor Emperor,But for a dream, born in a herdsman's shed,And for the secret Scripture of the poor.— Tom KettleIn the field, before Guillemont, Somme, 4 September 1916" ((5), more)
(1) Beginning of the entry for September 5 (August 23 Old Style), 1916, from the diary of Florence Farmborough, an English nurse serving with the Russian Red Cross. Tsaritsa Alexandra, the German-born wife of Tsar Nicholas II, although raised for much of her life in England, was widely believed to be sympathetic to Germany if not actively working in its interest. She was deeply under the influence of the monk Rasputin at whose direction she urged her husband to replace ministers, to wage or terminate military campaigns, and to be an autocrat in all. Nicholas was weak, and when he resisted her, did so briefly.
Nurse at the Russian Front, a Diary 1914-18 by Florence Farmborough, page 233, copyright © 1974 by Florence Farmborough, publisher: Constable and Company Limited, publication date: 1974
(2) Russian General Aleksei Brusilov continued the offensive he had mounted so successfully on June 4, 1916, but with diminishing gains and at increasing cost. He continued to slowly advance in Galicia, the location of Austria-Hungary's fortress city of Lemberg; both Kovel and Lutsk were in Polish Russia.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 230, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
(3) The Tavannes railway tunnel had been used to house French troops. Over 500 of them were killed on September 4, 1916 when an ammunition depot was accidentally ignited. The Germans had begun the Battle of Verdun on February 21, 1916, and suspended it on September 2 as the French prepared to retake the territory they had lost in the battle, particularly Forts Douaumont and Vaux. The British launched the Battle of the Somme on July 1, 1916, and did not end it until November 13. There were still nine weeks of fighting to go when Noel Chavasse, a medical officer and double recipient of the Victoria Cross, wrote.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 285, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(4) Entry from September 8, 9, or 10, 1916 from the diary of Michel Corday, a French senior civil servant who frequently wrote against those who pressed for peace only through victory. The Battle of the Somme was over two months old when he wrote. Eight British and four French divisions fought in the September 3 attack.
The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, page 196, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934
(5) Tom Kettle, Member of Parliament from 1906 to 1910 as a member of the Irish Parliamentary Party, joined the Irish Volunteers in 1913, and was in Belgium on a gun-running mission when the war began. Appalled at the actions of the occupying army, he volunteered, and was first a recruiting officer, but later, after the apparent government acceptance of Irish Home Rule, became a Lieutenant in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. He returned to Dublin on sick leave after the the Easter Rising (in which his brother-in-law the pacifist Frank Sheehy-Skeffington was murdered), and, although he disagreed with what the rebels had done, believed they would be remembered as heroes. He was killed on September 9, 1916 leading his men at Ginchy in the Battle of the Somme. He has no known grave. He wrote the sonnet to his daughter five days before his death.
The Lost Voices of World War I, An International Anthology of Writers, Poets and Playwrights by Tim Cross, page 43, copyright © 1989 by The University of Iowa, publisher: University of Iowa Press, publication date: 1989
1 2 Next
