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Soldiers of the Great War Known Unto God, Cabaret Rouge Cemetery, Souchez, France. © 2013 by John M. Shea
Squadron of French Blériot two-seater planes including BL217, 221, and 222. Blériots continued to be used as training planes into at least 1916.
Photograph of a village on Lake Van, an area of Turkey populated largely by ethnic Armenians. The area was one of the first targeted on a large scale when Turkey turned on its Armenian citizens. Photo from Ambassador Morgenthau's Story by Henry Morgenthau, American Ambassador to Turkey from 1913 to 1916.
Map of Syria, Palestine, Turkey, and Mesopotamia from the Baedeker 1912 travel guide Palestine and Syria with Routes through Mesopotamia and Babylonia and with the Island of Cyprus.
Australians at Anzac Cove, December 17, 1915, from 'Gallipoli' by John Masefield. The Allied completed evacuating their positions at Suvla Bay and Anzac Cove on December 19.
"August 24th.—The Battalion went into the line at Cuinchy at 3 p.m. in relief of the 1st Berks. Life in the trenches on the La Bassée front was quite different from what it had been at Bois Grenier and Laventie. The sense of war was always present. The visible difference was the slightly elevated site on a ridge. Deep trenches could be dug because there was natural drainage in its medium loam or clay, sand, and chalk. In the absence of rock it was easy to mine and counter-mine. Mining was the primary activity, and the only novelty in trench warfare the Battalion found in its new area." ((1), more)
". . . After lunch we went to the aerodrome of Matzeville, by-passing the town of Nancy. It dominates the latter, as well as the valley of the Meurthe. Here a magnificent display had been arranged for us: a simultaneous take-off of sixty planes. The whole sky was full of them. It was an intense and general buzzing which reminded me of a swarm of bees. Major Roisin showed us the ground installations and the machines themselves, with their bombs and rockets. He is a bold pilot and a fine leader." ((2), more)
"This is a night for feast and triumph, Pour oil into the lamp, O Bride,My boy returns a victor from war — Trim well, trim well the wick, O Bride.A waggon stops before the door, beside the well, Light up, light up the lamp, O Bride,My boy returns, bay leaves on his brow — Bring up, bring up the lamp, O Bride.Lo — with grief and blood the waggon's laden — Hold up, hold up the lamp, O Bride.Here lies my valiant son shot through the heart — O . . . snuff out, snuff out the lamp, O Bride." ((3), more)
"During those black days of August 1915, when the Armenians of Asia Minor—the toddlers, the elderly, the virgins, the brides, and the grandmothers—were being massacred under the guise of 'deportation' or 'exile,' and when the fate of those exiled to Chankiri and Ayash had already been settled, the eighteen to twenty of us who remained in Chankiri were awaiting ours. The Ottoman Parliament members Krikor Zohrab and Vartkes Serengulian had been arrested in Constantinople during this time, and after being held in prison briefly, they had been put on a train to Diyarbekir on the pretext of being tried before the court-martial there." ((4), more)
"A dull, implacable ennui began to settle on the Allied Army. It was not exactly hopelessness, not cynicism, it was an absence of purpose in their lives, a mechanical focusing down of their minds on to the simplest and the nearest things, the next meal, the last mail from home. The 'awful, horrible, lethargic flies' persisted, and the high dry winds of the early autumn sent the dust billowing through the air. Once more the soldiers began to report sick. Many of them were so weak with dysentery they moved at no faster pace than a crawl, and on the Anzac sector in particular, it was noticed that the former panache had gone . . ." ((5), more)
(1) Entry for August 24, 1915 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. Cuinchy, France, was in mining country, near towns such as Auchy-les-Mines and Noeux-les-Mines. Dunn writes further of the 'tactical advantages of a mine successfully blown', which could deal a staggering blow to even a well-entrenched enemy, leaving many dead, and survivors stunned.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 145, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
(2) On August 25, 1915, King Albert of Belgium finished a four-day journey to the French front. From the aerodrome, the King went to Mont. St. Jean, the Grand Couronné of Nancy surmounted with artillery batteries. Throughout his journey, King Albert was struck by 'the good order of everything; the fine behavior of the troops and their discipline, their manner of saluting and their excellent morale.'
The War Diaries of Albert I King of the Belgians by Albert I, pp. 59, 60, copyright © 1954, publisher: William Kimber
(3) 'The Flickering Lamp' by the Armenian Turkish poet Daniel Varoužan or Varujan, translation by Aram Tolegian. Varoužan was tortured, mutilated, and killed on August 26, 1915, victim of the Armenian Genocide.
The Lost Voices of World War I, An International Anthology of Writers, Poets and Playwrights by Tim Cross, page 376, copyright © 1989 by The University of Iowa, publisher: University of Iowa Press, publication date: 1989
(4) Excerpt from the memoir of Grigoris Balakian, a priest of the Armenian Church, and one of the Armenian intellectuals of Constantinople imprisoned on the night of April 24, 1915 and moved to Chankiri and Ayash. Most of the others were already dead. The two Parliament members Krikor Zohrab and Vartkes Serengulian found supporters who offered to help them escape, but they believed the court-martial would exonerate them. In Aleppo, the two came briefly under the protection of governor Jelal, who petitioned Turkish Interior Minister Talaat Pasha to keep them in the city. Talaat, one of the architects of the Armenian Genocide, instead replaced the governor. Under the guard of mounted police, the two Armenian members of the Ottoman Parliament were seized by or delivered to bandits who tortured and killed them.
Armenian Golgotha: A Memoir of the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1918 by Grigoris Balakian, page 103, copyright © Introduction and Translation 2009 by Peter Balakian, publisher: Vintage Books, publication date: 2009-00-00
(5) The Allied Campaigns in the Dardanelles and Gallipoli had failed. The naval campaign to force the Dardanelles, the April landings at Helles and Anzac Cove, the August 6 landing at Suvla Bay in an attempt to end the stalemate had all failed. The Allies could not advance; the Turks could not drive them into the sea. Bodies lay unburied between trench lines that were in some places only yards apart. Heat, flies, disease, and failure oppressed those men who were still alive. The last major Allied offensive took place on August 29, 1915. It failed.
Gallipoli by Alan Moorehead, page 289, copyright © 1956 by Alan Moorehead, publisher: Perennial Classics 2002 (HarperCollins Publications 1956), publication date: 2002 (1956)
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