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Headstones at La Nécropole Nationale de Pontavert. The cemetery contains the remains of 6,815 soldiers, 67 of them British, 54 Russian, and the remainder French. Of the total, 1,364 are entombed in the ossuary. © 2014 by John M. Shea
Having stopped unrestricted submarine warfare after sinking the Lusitania in 1915, Germany resumed the policy on January 31, 1917. The campaign peaked in April 1917, and helped bring the United States into the war.
Looking like a model or a piece by Yves Tanguy, a photograph of part of the destroyed city of Lens, France dated September 18, 1918.
Verdun Ossuary and Cemetery, France. © 2015 John M. Shea
A Sanke postcard of a captured British Sopwith Triplane being wheeled along.
"Except for bureaucratic scuffling, most of the fighting associated with the Nivelle offensive had ended by April 25, and a sense of failure swept over the army and the government. Between April 16 and 25 the French suffered—according to estimates by French historical services—134,000 casualties on the Aisne, including 30,000 killed, 100,000 wounded, and 4,000 captured. Though more soldiers had died in Joffre's offensives in 1915, the casualties in Nivelle's offensive occurred over a relatively brief period and exceeded those of any month since November 1914." ((1), more)
"I am getting impatient. The Mediterranean beckons with her transport steamers, so much the more inviting since now there are no more restrictions. And I want to arrive in good time for the final effort.Then I am asked 'affectionately' if my boat will be ready soon, especially by those who have been moored for years.But the work is actually delayed It is quite similar to Penelope's tapestry: mysterious forces impede the construction. The crew is suspicious.There are many Czechs in the arsenal known to be capable of sabotage. In the mess they sit together and speak Czech and every time a setback occurs on the front, their faces beam. At the American declaration of war, they supposedly really celebrated, but you can't pin anything on them." ((2), more)
"With each day, the bombardment became more intensive, and it soon seemed all but certain that an attack must follow. On the 27th [April], at midnight, I had the following telegraph message: '67 beginning 5 a.m.', which in our code meant that from five o'clock tomorrow we were to be on a heightened state of alert.I promptly lay down right away, so as to be up to the anticipated exertions, but as I was on the point of sleep, a shell struck the house, smashed the wall against the basement steps, and filled our room with rubble. We leaped up and hurried into the shelter." ((3), more)
"— The 28th. The thousandth day of the war. We see a certain number of marriages between elderly, but wealthy, hospital nurses and blind soldiers. At first sight that seems shocking. But after all, the ladies will enjoy what they would not otherwise enjoy. And their husbands will never see the marks of age. . . .— One ought to say: One and a half million dead young men." ((4), more)
"[Royal Naval Air Service Sub-Lieutenant Robert A.] Little fought his way out of this melee right above Jasta 11's base, to share his victory with Minifie—who also returned. Interviewed later in life, Minifie explained, 'Yes, they nearly had me down on Douai aerodrome, about 200–300 fee off it. But luckily my Triplane was just that little shade faster than they were. I was going low for home, and they let me go and get a lead of about 500 yards on them. So that was that—they just couldn't catch me.' Minifie, Naval 1's youngest ace at age 19, went on to be the squadron's top Triplane pilot, scoring 17 of his 21-victory total in that type." ((5), more)
(1) French commander-in-chief Robert Nivelle rose to prominence at the end of 1916 when he retook much of the ground that had been lost to the Germans in the Battle of Verdun. He replaced Joseph Joffre as commander on December 27. Nivelle conveyed nothing but confidence in his plans to break the German line in his spring offensive, confidence his generals did not share, confidence that was unmoved by the German strategic retreat in March to a shortened, heavily fortified line. The British began his offensive on April 9, east of Arras. Canadian troops captured Vimy Ridge — high ground that had been a German stronghold since 1914 — but the British suffered some of their heaviest casualties of the war in gaining little else after the first day. The French attack on April 16 — the Second Battle of the Aisne — came to grief in its first hours. In days of fighting Nivelle's troops crossed the Aisne River and eventually captured the heights of Chemin des Dames. From there they could look across at the next German stronghold: the Ailette River and the plateau of Laon to which the Germans had retreated.
Pyrrhic Victory; French Strategy and Operations in the Great War by Robert A. Doughty, pp. 353–354, copyright © 2005 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College, publisher: Harvard University Press, publication date: 2005
(2) Excerpt from the memoir of Austro-Hungarian Captain Georg von Trapp, whose U-boat was being repaired in Pola, one of Austria-Hungary's ports on the Adriatic Sea. In April, 1917, he had been awaiting a refurbished ship since late 1915. His boat, U-14, had been the French submarine Curie, captured in December, 1914 and already refurbished once. Earlier in his book, von Trapp had complained of a Czech crewman not following protocol: responding 'yes' to an order rather than repeating the order. On at least one occasion the result may have been the firing of an unarmed torpedo. The 'restrictions' he references had been lifted on February 1, 1917 when Germany (and Austria-Hungary) began its expansion of unrestricted submarine warfare which led to the United States' declaring war on Germany, but not on Austria-Hungary, on April 6, 1917. Von Trapp was Austria-Hungary's most successful submariner, later famous as the father of the Von Trapp Family Singers, portrayed on stage and screen in The Sound of Music. Penelope was the loyal and ingenious wife of Ulysses.
To the Last Salute: Memories of an Austrian U-Boat Commander by Georg von Trapp, pp. 92–93, copyright © 2007, publisher: University of Nebraska Press, publication date: 2007
(3) German Lieutenant Ernst Jünger was in Fresnoy-en-Gohelle, France, in April, 1917, during the Battle of Arras. In his memoir he comments on the dogfights overhead, imagining they include Manfred von Richthofen who was then enjoying deadly success in the Arras sector. Much of the chapter on his time in Fresnoy is about the terrific bombardments he survives, one of them by a naval gun, some he finds 'pedantic preliminary bombardments' by the British that leave 'ample time to vacate the target area,' and another which reaches 'an extraordinary pitch.' He leaves Fresnoy 'a maelstrom of devastation.'
Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger, page 135, copyright © 1920, 1961, Translation © Michael Hoffman, 2003, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 2003
(4) Entries from April 28, 1917 from the diary of Michel Corday, French senior civil servant, living and writing in Paris. The French offensive in the Second Battle of the Aisne, was already a failure when Corday wrote. Earlier in the month he wrote against jingoists who wanted the war to continue 'to victory' at all costs, against the censorship the government imposed on the French press, and in favor of those who could speak truth about the war, both as it was in progress and after it ended. Germany declared war on France on August 3, 1914.
The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, page 248, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934
(5) On April 29, 1917 Manfred von Richthofen's squadron, Jasta 11, and Royal Naval Air Service Squadrons 1 and 8 were flying over the Arras battlefield when they began a dogfight sometime after 7:25 PM. Von Richthofen had already downed three planes, killing five men that day, his victories 49, 50, and 51. The Jasta included Manfred's brother Lothar, also an ace. Its planes were painted red. Von Richthofen was flying an Albatros DIII when he had his first encounter with the Sopwith Triplane, a fast and maneuverable British plane that would become the model for the Fokker Dr.I triplane von Richthofen later flew. Von Richthofen downed one of the Sopwith Triplanes for his 52nd victory. According to his biography, von Richthofen's father, a German cavalry officer, was visiting his sons on April 29. Australian pilot Robert Minifie flew with RNAS Squadron 1.
The Origin of the Fighter Aircraft by Jon Gutman, page 142, copyright © 2009 Jon Gutman, publisher: Westholme Publishing, publication date: 2009
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