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Imperial Russian field artillery in combat training in the snow at Camp B.K.
The Allied advance in the Anglo-French Somme Offensive of 1916. As French forces were transferred to the defense of Verdun, British forces took on more of the burden.
Western Ottoman Empire showing the travels of Rafael De Nogales, Inspector-General of the Turkish Forces in Armenia and Military Governor of Egyptian Sinai during the World War, from his book Four Years Beneath the Crescent.
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.
A mass of German troops bear an enormous egg striped in the black, white, and red of the german flag. Atop the egg, a cannon is fired by troops with a Hungarian flag. The target, diminutive in the distance, is Paris, Eiffel Tower gray against the brown city.The watercolor is labeled,Husvét . Páris piros tojása . 1918Easter . Red eggs for Paris . 1918The front of the card is postmarked 1918-04-05 from Melököveso.The card is a Feldpostkarte, a field postcard, from Asbach Uralt, old German cognac. Above the brand name, two German soldiers wheel a field stove past a crate containing a bottle of the brandy under the title Gute Verpflegung, Good Food. Above the addressee is written Einschreiben, enroll, and Nach Ungarn, to Hungary. The card is addressed to Franz Moritos, and is postmarked Hamburg, 1918-03-30. A Hamburg stamp also decorates the card.A hand-painted postcard by Schima Martos. , Germany on registered fieldpost card, 1918, message: Red Egg for Paris, Easter, 1918.The German advance in Operation Michael in the March, 1918 nearly broke the Allied line, and threatened Paris, putting it once again in range of a new German supergun capable of hitting the city from 70 miles away.
"This Oath of Allegiance has been sent to the armies along the Galician Front. We were told that the soldiers were assembled into groups and, after hearing the text, the men repeated it word for word, holding up their arm the while. Russians, Jews, Moslems, all pledged their loyalty to the Provisional Government; then they cried a loud 'Ura'. A new era has begun for them. In the background, there is still a WAR to be waged, and a formidable foe is still lurking in the vanquished territory of their own land." ((1), more)
"The great event is the German withdrawal to the new front line, Arras—St. Quentin—Laon. The Allies see in this the consummation of the Battle of the Somme. I myself prefer to regard it as a very bold large-scale manœuvre, intended to draw the French forces far from Paris in order later, south of Verdun, to attempt a powerful offensive movement westwards to turn their flank or encircle the French troops in actions further to the north.The Chief of the French Mission tells me that General Nivelle is determined to press on with his offensive in the region originally fixed, Rheims—Soissons, while the British will operate to the north of Arras.It is very dangerous to move in the north and expose their flank and rear to an enemy offensive!" ((2), more)
"Colonel von Kress called me to one side and asked me if I was disposed to dynamite the chief pumping station of the English pipe line, supposed to be situated in the vicinity of the enemy trenches and headquarters at Sheik-Zowaiid. Naturally, in spite of a complete ignorance as to the whereabouts of Sheik-Zowaiid, I expressed myself as being in complete accord with his wishes. Insofar as the date of the sally was concerned, however, instead of starting out in five or six days accompanied by a squadron, as the Colonel had suggested, I left the next morning with a half-dozen picked lancers and my orderlies, Mustapha and Tasim Chavush.The first stage of our journey was across some thirty kilometers of desert to Beer-Shenek, the last well in the desert. The remaining forty-five kilometers, across a waterless waste with which we were totally unacquainted, we were to cross by night with no other guide than the pole-star." ((3), more)
". . . the Central Committee of the Soviet adopted the following motions:1. Negotiations with the working-men of the enemy countries to be opened at once;2. 'Systematic fraternization' between Russian and enemy soldiers at the front;3. Democratization of the army;4. All schemes of conquest to be abandoned." ((4), more)
"— The 24th. Boulevard Raspail. Two queues opposite one another on the two pavements. Both had the same dingy and humble appearance. One was waiting to buy potatoes. The other was waiting to take up shares in a new issue of bonds by the Crédit Foncier.— I blushed when I saw the following incident: two gendarmes of the Garde Républicaine—tall, burly, comfortable fellows, fat as sausages—stopping a diminutive soldier, exhausted by three years of war, and asking him to show his papers. . . ." ((5), more)
(1) Florence Farmborough, an English nurse serving with the Russian Red Cross, writing about the Oath of Allegiance to the Provisional Government of Russia, ratified by its Council of Ministers on March 20 (March 7 Old Style), 1917. What Farmborough refers to as 'another interesting document [that] has been sent to me' was entitled, 'Text of Oath for Orthodox and Catholics.' The oath was signed by Prince Lvov, head of the Provisional Government formed in the first days of the Russian Revolution. Galicia was the northeastern region of Austria-Hungary, and a major battleground between Russia and Austria-Hungary.
Nurse at the Russian Front, a Diary 1914-18 by Florence Farmborough, page 261, copyright © 1974 by Florence Farmborough, publisher: Constable and Company Limited, publication date: 1974
(2) Diary entry by Albert, King of the Belgians, for March 21, 1917. The 'German withdrawal' was Operation Alberich, a retreat to a shorter line and stronger defensive position, the Siegfried Zone. The British and French preferred to think of the retreat as a successful result of their offensive on the Somme. At the end of 1916 in the last stages of the Battle of Verdun, French General Robert Nivelle had retaken some of the territory lost in the course of the Battle. His success was rewarded with command of the French armies in France, replacing Joseph Joffre. He immediately began preparing what would become the disastrous Nivelle Offensive, and changed little in his plan despite the German retreat.
The War Diaries of Albert I King of the Belgians by Albert I, page 160, copyright © 1954, publisher: William Kimber
(3) Rafael de Nogales was a Venezuelan mercenary and officer in the Ottoman Army who had been Inspector-General of the Turkish Forces in Armenia. In 1916 he served under German General von der Goltz in Mesopotamia. In January, 1917 he was in Palestine where he heard the news that the British had advanced 'beyond El-Arrisch and were at the gates of the city of Gaza.' While helping to prepare for the defense of Gaza, de Nogales a Catholic, found time to visit the ruins of Herod's Palace, the Convent of the Prophet Elias, and other sites. The author's timeline of his mission is off by several days, as he returns in time for the beginning of the Battle of Gaza on March 26 having, by his own account, set out the previous morning.
Four Years Beneath the Crescent by Rafael De Nogales, page 318, copyright © 1926, by Charles Scribner's Sons, publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons, publication date: 1926
(4) Excerpt from the entry for Saturday, March 24, 1917, from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia. The February revolution established two centers of power in Petrograd: the Russian Duma and the Petrograd Soviet, the former strongly supportive of continuing the war, the latter not. The Soviets were much more representative of workers and soldiers.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. III by Maurice Paléologue, page 268, publisher: George H. Doran Company
(5) Entries from March 24, ff., 1917 from the diary of Michel Corday, French senior civil servant. In the first months of 1917, queues were increasingly common in Paris due to the bitter weather and coal and food shortages. The Crédit Foncier de France was traditionally a mortgage bank, but the new issue was likely for war bonds. An honor guard, the Garde Républicaine was responsible for the security of Paris.
The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, page 239, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934
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