Search by or
Search: Quotation Context Tags
A Sanke postcard of a captured British Sopwith Triplane being wheeled along.
Monument to the Third Australian Division on Route D1 in Sailly-le-Sec, France.
The Cobbers memorial, Fromelles, France. In the aftermath of the July 19-20, 1916 Battle of Fromelles, hundreds of wounded Australian soldiers lay in No Man's Land. For three days and nights these wounded were carried to their trenches. Among the soldiers bringing in the wounded was Sergeant Simon Fraser of the 57th Battalion, who heard a soldier call, 'Don't forget me, cobber.' With others, Fraser brought back this and another wounded man. © 2013 John M. Shea
The bunk of NCO Otto Riecke in Janovka, July 14, 1916. Riecke served with 2nd battalion, 5th company, reserve infantry regiment 227. There are two Janovkas in the current Czech Republic, one north of Prague, the other south. Both would have been well behind the front in July, 1916. Note the stick grenades under the fire step in the right foreground.
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.
"By the time the first [Sopwith] Pups arrived at No. 1 Wing RNAS at Dunkerque in July 1916, the prototype of another variant was joining them for front-line evaluation. Completed on May 30, 1916, Sopwith Triplane N500 combined the Pub's fuselage with a 130-hp Clerget engine and three sets of narrow-chord, high aspect ratio wings that gave the pilot a better view from the cockpit, a faster climb rate and superior maneuverability, even than the Pup's. Flying the new Triplane on July 1 was Flight Lieutenant Roderic Stanley Dallas of No. 1 Wing's 'A' Squadron, an Australian who already had three victories in Nieuports. To these he added a fourth in N500, when he drove down a German two-seater out of control southwest of St. Marie Capelle." ((1), more)
"The assault began on the late afternoon of July 19, preceded by a day-long artillery barrage. The first Australian casualties were caused by their own shells falling short, and by some heavy German artillery fire. When the attack began, the German machine guns in the salient opened fire: the artillery had failed to silence them.An hour after the first men had gone over the top, General Elliott reported: 'Every man who rises is being shot down. Reports from the wounded indicate that the attack is failing from want of support.' The wounded were streaming back. A British attack on the other side of the salient was also driven back with heavy British casualties." ((2), more)
"Amid the hundreds of cemeteries on the Western Front, one, a mile north of Fromelles, contains the graves of 410 Australians, and the names of 1,298 more 'missing' amid the mud and detritus of the battlefield. The battle at Fromelles was a brief interlude, far from the Somme, during that vaster battle. Yet its casualties were high: 1,708 Australian dead and nearly 4,000 wounded. The British dead were at least four hundred. The German dead and wounded were less than 1,500 in all." ((3), more)
"The kite-balloon, too, on the hill, began to sway huge and bulbous—upward—another was seen far off against the rosy east. All night the distant waves of gunfire had crashed and rumbled, soft and terrific with broad flashes, like waves of some immense tumult of waters, rolling along the horizon. As dawn broke, and I came down the hill again, I heard the clear skirl of the Second Gordons piping into their bivouac—a brave note, shrill as the lark, but the Jocks were a weary crowd as they hobbled in. Before dawn a horse neighed twice, high and shrill and scared. . . ." ((4), more)
"The past, gloomy year of 1915, with its hopeless defeats, culminating in the great Spring and Summer Retreat of the Russian Armies, was stamped with unspeakable tragedy, suffering and frustration. It was warfare at its cruellest and worst. Now the tables have been reversed. Instead of retreat, it is ADVANCE! We traversed the Austrian countryside — still showing signs of springtime's generous flowering — and we revelled in that knowledge that our Russian armies, and those of our brave Allies on the far-Western Front, were gaining success after success. But as we followed in the rear of our advancing troops, the trail of devastation left by war was painfully visible . . ." ((5), more)
(1) Thomas Sopwith was an aviator and founder of the Sopwith Aviation Company that produced some of the most successful aircraft of the war, including the Sopwith Snipe, Sopwith Pup, Sopwith Camel, and Sopwith Triplane. Germany's Fokker Eindekker (monoplane), designed by the Dutch Anton Fokker, had dominated the skies until the introduction of the French Nieuport planes. Many of the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) planes were seaplanes with pontoons rather than wheels.
The Origin of the Fighter Aircraft by Jon Gutman, pp. 86-87, copyright © 2009 Jon Gutman, publisher: Westholme Publishing, publication date: 2009
(2) Fought on July 19 and 20, 1916, the Battle of Fromelles, French, was a relatively small engagement fought 30 miles north of the ongoing Battle of the Somme, but one in which the Australians suffered heavily.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, pp. 267-268, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(3) Fought on July 19 and 20, 1916, the Battle of Fromelles, France, was a relatively small engagement fought 30 miles north of the ongoing Battle of the Somme, but one in which the Australians suffered heavily. The Australians attacked on the left flank, the British on the right, with the plan calling for the two to meet at the Sugar Loaf salient in the center. The British failed to make it to Sugar Loaf, leaving the Australians with no support on their right. A later, second advance, was cancelled, but orders only made it to the British, again leaving the Australians to their fate.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 268, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(4) Excerpt from the diary of Siegfried Sassoon, author and infantryman in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, writing on the morning of July 21, 1916, as soldiers returned from the front line of the Battle of the Somme.
Siegfried Sassoon Diaries 1915-1918 by Siegfried Sassoon, pp. 97–98, copyright © George Sassoon, 1983; Introduction and Notes Rupert Hart-Davis, 1983, publisher: Faber and Faber, publication date: 1983
(5) Florence Farmborough, an English nurse serving with the Russian Red Cross, writing on July 22 (July 9 Old Style), 1916, as the Russian advance of the Brusilov Offensive continued to drive back the Austro-Hungarians and again, as in 1914, threatened an advance through the Carpathian Mountains to Budapest. In 1915 the Russians had retreated as much as 300 miles before the German-Austro-Hungarian Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive. In 1916, the French had held against the German siege of Verdun, French and British Empire forces we pushing back the Germans in the Battle of the Somme, and the Italians had lost ground but ultimately held in the face of the Austro-Hungarian Asiago Offensive.
Nurse at the Russian Front, a Diary 1914-18 by Florence Farmborough, page 209, copyright © 1974 by Florence Farmborough, publisher: Constable and Company Limited, publication date: 1974
1 2 Next
