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A Russian artillery crew at work. More than its adversaries, Russia suffered from munitions shortages. A card from Der Weltkrieg 1914-1918, a 1930s German history of the war illustrated (or not) with pasted-in cigarette cards.
German postcard map of the Western Front in Flanders, looking south and including Lille, Arras, Calais, and Ostend. In the Battle of the Yser in October, 1914, the Belgian Army held the territory south of the Yser Canal, visible between Nieuport, Dixmude, and Ypres (Ypern). Further north is Passchendaele, which British forces took at great cost in 1917.
German postcard of some of the battlefield of Artois, site of the First, Second, and Third Battles of Artois (1914 and 1915), the Battle of Loos (1915), and the Battle of Vimy Ridge (1917). Loos is in the upper right, the road to Vimy on the center right. The world's largest French military cemetery is on the heights of Notre-Dame-de-Lorette.
Italian Alpini seize Monte Nero (Mount Krn) from the Austro-Hungarians, June 16, 1915. From the painting 'Avanti Savoia' by A.D. Campestrini.
A gleeful Russian Cossack skewers Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph in Galicia, the Empire's northeastern region isolated from the rest of the country by the Carpathian Mountains. The caption is a play on words echoing the name of the mountain range in telling Franz Joseph, 'it seems your soldiers took to their heels.' After twin defeats in the Battles of Gnila Lipa and Rava Russka, the Austro-Hungarian Army lost the great fortress at Lemberg, and was being driven out of Galicia and back through the Carpathians. Russia's attempts to break through the Carpathians continued through April 1915, with heavy losses on both sides. The Austro-Hungarians, with German support, held.
"Our artillery has begun such a bombardment of the Russian positions on Hill 137 that it feels as if we are in hell. After a short time the Russians respond with fire so heavy that fragments are as big as a child's head. Every moment is filled with an extraordinary amount of dust and noise. Suddenly our infantry breaks out of their positions and storms the hill with incredible speed, taking one position at a time. I see it all in shades of grey, not because it is dusk but because of the sand and dust. Above many of the trenches bayonets appear with white handkerchiefs waving to and fro. The infantry jump straight in and bring the Russians out. Now there's a long train of Russians coming back with their hands held high and their weapons discarded. They are taken in to our old trenches. The infantry cleans up thoroughly. One of the Russian divisional leaders tells me that our artillery had two platoons under heavy fire. When the third came under fire he surrendered." ((1), more)
"Sunday June 13th [1915] 10 p.m. Our orders are definite now and we know what we are in for, though not in detail. I think we are all very glad now the suspense is over. It had to come sooner or later, and very much better that it has come as an honour, namely, to be among the chosen few to do a special job, than to be among a crush. Strange to think, will I see next Wednesday, at 10 p.m.?" ((2), more)
"'I am a buffoon.''I will be the death of my parents.''I am as vapid as a thrice-peeled turnip.''I do not deserve the air I breathe.''I am as intelligent as the back end of a goods train.'" ((3), more)
"Tuesday June 15th [1915]. We have got all our instructions. We have a trench to take, in fact the enemy's second line, together with the help of the Lincolns. I'm afraid it's going to be a very difficult job. The men are all cheery and we all rag each other as to how we will look with wooden legs, or tied up in an oil sheet for burial. All the plans have been explained today, Tuesday 15th, to all ranks.All stores have been issued and we are waiting to march off. Hope we win! Unfortunately the Huns must know almost everything, as it has been so widely discussed. I am beginning to suspect it is done with an object. Sacrifice a brigade here and push hard somewhere else. However we are going to justify our existence as Terriers and men — we middle-class businessmen! God Save the King!" ((4), more)
"The Italians had done much better further north. Krn [Monte Nero] itself, which soars like a shark's fin 2,000 metres above Caporetto, was taken in a daring pre-dawn attack by the 3rd Regiment of Alpini on 16 June [1915], with their boots swaddled in sacks of straw to reduce noise. It was a glorious success, the first of the war, presaging others that never materialized." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from the writings of German officer Ernst Nopper describing a German attack on June 12, 1915, a day on which German commander August von Mackensen resumed his Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive, a joint German-Austro-Hungarian campaign. Nopper was at the southern end of the German line, along the border of Galicia, Austria-Hungary and Russian Poland. The previous day Nopper had noted that the Russian artillery 'is much weaker than ours.'
Intimate Voices from the First World War by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, page 104, copyright © 2003 by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, publisher: Harper Collins Publishers, publication date: 2003
(2) Captain Bryden McKinnell writing on June 13, 1915. He was on the line in the Ypres sector, where a diversionary attack was planned for June 16, the main attack to take place further south at Givenchy. McKinnell did not survive the attack.
1915, The Death of Innocence by Lyn Macdonald, page 388, copyright © 1993 by Lyn Macdonald, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1993 (Great Britain); 199
(3) Some of the lines students are made to repeat multiple times by their rigid and abusive teacher in the novel Léon Chatry, Instituteur (Léon Chatry, Schoolteacher) by French novelist, poet, and soldier Jules Leroux. Leroux volunteered at the beginning of the war, and was lost in action at Neuville-Saint-Vaast on June 14, 1915 in the Second Battle of Artois.
The Lost Voices of World War I, An International Anthology of Writers, Poets and Playwrights by Tim Cross, page 294, copyright © 1989 by The University of Iowa, publisher: University of Iowa Press, publication date: 1989
(4) Captain Bryden McKinnell writing on June 15, 1915. He was on the line in the Ypres sector, where a diversionary attack was planned for June 16, the main attack to take place further south at Givenchy. Captain McKinnell was in the Territorials or Terriers, the home guard that had been moved into battle on the continent, not professional soldiers. He and his men were joined in the attack by the Lincolnshire Regiment. McKinnell did not survive the attack.
1915, The Death of Innocence by Lyn Macdonald, pp. 388, 389, copyright © 1993 by Lyn Macdonald, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1993 (Great Britain); 199
(5) The Entente Allies hoped Italy's May 23, 1915 entry into the war against an Austria-Hungary which had been defeated by Serbia and badly wounded by Russia in 1914 would quickly drive Germany's ally from the war. But with the Serbian front quiet through June 1915, and Russia retreating before the German and Austro-Hungarian Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive, Italy was able to mount an effective defense against Italy. The capture of Krn on June 16, 1915, was a bright moment in Italy's initial war effort. The song Monte Nero — Black Mountain — commemorating the battle, beginsSpunta l'alba del quindici giugno comincia il fuoco l'artiglieria Terzo Alpini è sulla via Monte Nero a conquistar Terzo Alpini è sulla via Monte Nero a conquistarDay breaks on June 15;The artillery fire begins.The Third Alpini is on the wayTo conquer Monte Nero.Third Alpini is on the wayTo conquer Monte Nero.The song ends with a mountain red with blood, the loss of the narrator's 20-year-old friends, and a colonel weeping at the slaughter.
The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919 by Mark Thompson, pp. 72, 73, copyright © 2008 Mark Thompson, publisher: Basic Books, publication date: 2009
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