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German and Austro-Hungarian forces under the command of generals von Hindenburg and Archduke Friedrich besieged Warsaw, and took it during the Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive. Austrians von Hötzendorf, Friedrich, and Pflanzer-Baltin form the bottom of the ring; the others are German. The flag and shield of Germany are on the bottom left; those of Austria and Hungary the bottom right.
I've killed many Germans, but never women or children. Original French watercolor by John on blank field postcard. In the background are indolent Russian soldiers and Vladimir Lenin, in the foreground stands what may be a Romanian soldier who is telling the Russians, 'You call me savage. I killed a lot of Boches [Germans], but never women or children!'
A portrait of German General Paul von Hindenburg superimposed on a map of his victories in East Prussia and conquests in Russia. In Prussia (in pink) the Russians took Gumbinnen and Insterburg before being defeated at Allenstein (in the Battle of Tannenburg), and in the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes in the first two months of war in 1914. Before the year had ended, German troops advanced well into Polish Russia before being driven back. In 1915 von Hindenburg was victorious, taking the fortresses and cities of Ivangarod, Grodno, and Warsaw, in his Gorlice-Tarnow offensive. Tarnow in Galicia is at the bottom of the map, Austria-Hungary being show in yellow.
Gravestone of an unknown soldier of the Seaforth Highlanders, a Scottish regiment, in Cabaret Rouge British Cemetery. © 2013 by John M. Shea
An illustration of the French 75 mm. field artillery cannon in action with portraits of its developers, Deport and Sainte Claire Deville. The sender of the card credits it with the victory of the Marne. Illustration by A. Chrimona [?] Ehrmann [?]. Thanks to kgwbreadcrumbs.blogspot.com/2015/07/briefly-along-western-front.html for clarifying some of the text.
"Exertions, privations, very heavy knapsack, neck and shoulder pain from the rifle and long, difficult marches; extremely tired feet and body. Bad roads — either uneven asphalt or deep sand — and always the uneven fields, marching up and down deep furrows. Often in double time, and usually no water or at best stinking water, no bread for days on end. When we do get food, it is little or bad, hardly any meat at all. Nothing but freezing and freezing, and back pains." ((1), more)
"Friday, September 17, 1915.The strikes have extended to-day to almost all the factories in Petrograd. But no disorder is reported. The leaders say they simply wish to protest against the prorogation of the Duma, and that work will be resumed in two days.One of my informers, who knows working-class circles well, said to me to-day:"There's nothing to fear this time either. It's only a general rehearsal."He added that the ideas of Lenin and his "defeatist" propaganda are making great headway among the educated elements of the working class." ((2), more)
". . . by September 18[, 1915] the failure of the encircling movement was sealed.Vilna, of course, was lost to the Russians, and the railway line which went with it, but yet again the salient had been straightened out, and there was little prospect another could be formed. The failure had cost the Germans more than the attempt was worth. The Russians had struck hard at the cavalry at Vilecka on the 23rd, capturing men and eight guns; they inflicted other checks on them at Smorgon and along the line of the Vilia while they made their own retreat good." ((3), more)
"Many arms of the Service are grouped round the little marble-topped tables, for the district is stiff with British troops, and promises to grow stiffer. In fact, so persistently are the eagles gathering together upon this, the edge of the fighting line, that rumour is busier than ever. The Big Push holds redoubled sway in our thoughts. The First Hundred Thousand are well represented, for the whole Scottish Division is in the neighbourhood. Beside the glengarries there are countless flat caps — line regiments, territorials, gunners, and sappers. The Army Service Corps is there in force, recruiting exhausted nature from the strain of dashing about the country-side in motor-cars. The R.A.M.C. is strongly represented, doubtless to test the purity of the refreshment provided. Even the Staff has torn itself away from its arduous duties for the moment, as sundry red tabs testify. In one corner sit four stout French civilians, playing a mysterious card-game." ((4), more)
"September 18th[, 1915].—Yesterday hot, to-day sweltering; the evenings September 19th—are cool to cold. Our 9.2s are registering; it sounds as if the shell left the muzzle wobbling and steadied itself September 20th—in flight. Heavy and continuous gun-fire in the south is in its second day. The Battle of Loos in the British Army Calendar is the northern extension of a French attack eastwards from the northern end of Vimy Ridge, made in conjunction with an attack northwards in Champagne. In the dressing-station we are told to cotton-wool our ears to-morrow. The Battalion relieved the 57th in Cambrin Right, which is to be its battle-front." ((5), more)
(1) Private Wilhelm Schulin of the German 26th Infantry Division, just north of Brest-Litovsk, Russia, on the German advance in the Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive. German Commander Erich von Falkenhayn had instructed his generals to stop in August and again on September 2. Claiming he misunderstood Falkenhayn's directions, General Erich Ludendorff continued his offensive, at increasing cost. The Germans would capture Vilna on September 18, the last major prize in their advance.
The First World War: Germany and Austria Hungary 1914-1918 by Holger H. Herwig, page 145, copyright © 1997 Holger H. Herwig, publisher: Arnold, publication date: 1997
(2) With Tsar Nicholas taking command of the Russian Army, the Tsar and his government prorogued the Duma, Russia's national representative assembly. Two days before, the Ambassador dined with leaders of the Liberal Party who had just heard of the decision. Lenin and the Bolshevik Party argued that the war was an imperialist one, and that Russia should conclude a separate peace with Germany.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. II by Maurice Paléologue, page 77, publisher: George H. Doran Company
(3) Excerpt from an account by Edwin Grewe of Germany's last great prize of the Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive. The Germans attempted to encircle the defenders of Vilna, but the Russians were able to fight their way out. German forces lost 50,000 men in two weeks in taking the city. Generals Paul von Hindenburg and his chief-of-staff Erich Ludendorff, commanding Germany's armies on the Eastern Front, wanted to continue their offensive, but Commander-in-Chief Erich von Falkenhayn was preparing for an invasion of Serbia and anticipating a French offensive in Champagne.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. III, 1915, p. 322, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
(4) Excerpt from the chapter "The Gathering of the Eagles" in The First Hundred Thousand, by Ian Hay, a soldier in K1, the first 100,000 men of Kitchener's Army, those who responded to Lord Kitchener's call for volunteers when the United Kingdom went to war in 1914. The soldiers are anticipating and preparing for the Big Push, the Franco-British autumn offensive of 1915. Ian Hay Beith was a Scot,and wore the glengarry, a traditional Scottish bonnet with a toorie or pompom on top and two ribbons trailing behind. The Territorial Force, some units of which wore tam o' shanters, was established as part of the Army reforms of 1906 and '07. Derided here, the Army Service Corps supplied front line troops with food, fuel, weapons, and other supplies. R.A.M.C. is the Royal Army Medical Corps. General Staff officers could be identified by the red tabs on their lapels.
The First Hundred Thousand; Being the Unofficial Chronicle of a Unit of "K (1)" by Ian Hay, pp. 303, 304, publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company, publication date: 1916
(5) Entry for the period September 18 to 20, 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. The French had begun their preliminary bombardment for the great allied autumn offensive of 1915. The British would fight the Battle of Loos; the French immediately to their right the Third Battle of Artois. Vimy Ridge had already cost many French lives, and would remain in German hands until Canadian troops took it in April, 1917.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 149, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
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