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The Canadian Battlefield Memorial Courcelette, commemorating the Canadians who fought in the Battle of the Somme from September 3 to November 18, 1916.Text:The Canadian Corps bore a valiant part in forcing back the Germans on these slopes during the Battles of the Somme Sept. 3rd–Nov. 18th 1916Base:Honor to Canadians who on the fields of Flanders and of France fought in the cause of the Allies © 2013 John M. Shea
Map showing the territorial gains (darker shades) of Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece, primarily at the expense of Turkey, agreed in the Treaty of Bucharest following the Second Balkan War. Despite its gains, Bulgaria also lost territory to both Romania and Turkey.
Etinehem Military Cemetery, France holds the remains of 1,004 soldiers, primarily French — including colonial troops — and some British, victims of the Battles of the Somme. © 2013 John M. Shea
Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph as a cathedral gargoyle gnawing one of his subjects in Bosnia, Herzegovina, Trentino, or Trieste, or a citizen of his neighbor Serbia.
Postwar postcard map of the Balkans including Albania, newly-created Yugoslavia, expanded Romania, and diminished former Central Powers Bulgaria and Turkey. The first acquisitions of Greece in its war against Turkey are seen in Europe where it advanced almost to Constantinople, in the Aegean Islands from Samos to Rhodes, and on the Turkish mainland from its base in Smyrna. The Greco-Turkish war was fought from May 1919 to 1922. The positions shown held from the war's beginning to the summer of 1920 when Greece advanced eastward. Newly independent Hungary and Ukraine appear in the northwest and northeast.
"On the night of November 17 the first snow fell on the Somme battlefield. On the following night the final assault of the campaign took place, an advance of a thousand yards on the Ancre. It was much hampered by mist and snow. . . .. . . The British dead on the Somme in the four months since July 1 amounted to 95,675. The French 'Somme' toll was 50,729. The total number of Allied dead on the Somme was 146,404. The German death toll was even larger: 164,055. . . ." ((1), more)
". . . the enveloping troops watched as the sky above Monastir turned orange; the enemy had set fire to the quarters they had occupied. Patrols approached the trenches which the Bulgars had tried to dig in the previous weeks; they were empty. A few hours later a young cavalry officer, leading his troop of mounted scouts cautiously forward, was just in time to see the last battery of German guns pulling out of town. His name was Murat; by a fortuitous piece of historical symbolism, a descendant of the captor of Moscow was about to lead a Franco-Russian division to its first conquest. By noon on November 19 the French and Russians and Serbs had all entered the silent and shuttered town. After nine weeks of hard campaigning, Monastir had fallen." ((2), more)
"Considering the small gains, losses on the Somme were surprisingly high. The French claimed 202,257 casualties on the Somme between July 1 and November 20, or about 54 percent of those suffered at Verdun. The heaviest casualties occurred in July (49,859) and September (76,147), when the French launched their largest attacks. The British, according to their official history, suffered 419,654 casualties in the fighting along the Somme." ((3), more)
"He was not one of those great men that lead humanity along new ways or 'fashion fate' according to their own desire . . . In such a conglomerate state as ours, monarchical power is a thing of great weight. A long reign has something cohesive about it, independent of the sovereign's personality and based on habit only. The long duration of the Emperor's reign created a feeling of stability in the State and his death is thus a wrench, a fall, a sudden awakening . . ." ((4), more)
"Alexeyev now began to recognize that he would have to do something. The Kowel offensives had failed, and attacks in eastern Galicia were also dying down in failure; now the Central Powers had almost reached the Danube delta, and seemed to threaten southern Russia. Stavka first sent VIII Army to the Dniester, and then agreed to send another army, under Sakharov, to constitute, 'Army of the Danube' with a view to the defence of the delta and Gălăti. Finally, IV Army was ear-marked for Romania. Throughout November, a great movement of Russian troops was underway—thirty-six infantry and eleven cavalry divisions." ((5), more)
(1) The last assault of the Battle of the Somme began on November 18, 1916. The Anglo-French offensive had begun on July 1.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 299, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(2) Along the Salonica Front extending across Greece, the Allied French, British, Serbian, Russian, and Italian army faced a Bulgarian army supported by German troops. The Bulgarians began withdrawing from Monastir on November 18, setting it alight. The liberation of Monastir was the first significant victory for Serbian forces since their country was occupied the year before.
The Gardeners of Salonika by Alan Palmer, page 91, copyright © 1965 by A. W. Palmer, publisher: Simon and Schuster, publication date: 1965
(3) The Anglo-French offensive on the Somme River began July 1, 1916. The last assault was on November 18. The Germans suffered 465,000 casualties during the Allied campaign.
Pyrrhic Victory; French Strategy and Operations in the Great War by Robert A. Doughty, page 309, copyright © 2005 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College, publisher: Harvard University Press, publication date: 2005
(4) Excerpt from the Socialist Arbeiter Zeitung of Vienna on the death of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary on November 21, 1916, quoted in May's Passing of the Hapsburg Monarchy. The crowns — Emperor of Austria and Apostolic King of Hungary — passed to Karl, son of the late brother of the assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
The Passing of the Hapsburg Monarchy, 1914-1918 2 Volumes by Arthur James May, page 431, copyright © 1966 by the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, publication date: 1966
(5) Romania entered the war on August 27, 1916 invading Transylvania, part of Austria-Hungary, expecting that Bulgaria, Austria-Hungary's ally and Romania's enemy from the Second Balkan War three years before, would not attack, and further expecting that Russian support would be quickly forthcoming. Neither hope came true. In September and October a German and Austro-Hungarian army drove the invaders back into Romania, while a combined German, Bulgarian, and Turkish army pushed the Romanians from southern Dobrudja, a region between the Danube River and the Black Sea. The Russians provided some support for Romania, but Russian chief of staff Alexeyev had no desire to commit his troops to the virtually indefensible Romanian region of Walachia. By late November, he had little choice, as the enemy advanced closer to Bessarabia, Russian territory on the Black Sea and Romanian border. Stavka was Russian military command.
The Eastern Front, 1914-1917 by Norman Stone, page 279, copyright © 1975 Norman Stone, publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons, publication date: 1975
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