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The Kasaba of Kut-el-Amara, Mesopotamia, where a British Indian army was surrounded and besieged by Turkish forces from the end of 1915 until the British surrender on April 29, 1915. Photograph from 'Four Years Beneath the Crescent' by Rafael De Nogales, Inspector-General of the Turkish Forces in Armenia and Military Governor of Egyptian Sinai during the World War.
Back of a postcard of German artillery bombarding the French city of Reims and its cathedral, September 20, 1914.
A French officer charging into battle in a watercolor by Fernand Rigouts. The original watercolor on deckle-edged watercolor paper is signed F. R. 1917, and addressed to Mademoiselle Henriette Dangon.
British troops drawing water. A Susini tobacco / cigarette card.
Austro-Hungarian soldiers marching through a city, their officers bawling orders. Women and a child watch and talk, possibly shouting to be heard over the marching feet. An original watercolor on blue paper, signed W. Rittermann or Pittermann, December 26, 1915.
"One hears a sudden crack just ahead like the sharp snapping of a stick, and in the early days of one's initiation a duck is inevitable. I don't say one ducks, but one finds one has ducked. For a time everyone ducks. It is no use telling people that if the bullet had been straight one would have been hit before hearing it strike the palm. Some people go on ducking for ages." ((1), more)
"23 December: 'Mud and filth are getting the better of us. This morning at three o'clock an enormous deposit came down at the entrance to my dugout. I had to employ three men, who were barely able to bale the water that poured like a freshet into my dugout. Our trench is drowning, the morass is now up to our navels, it's desperate. On the right edge of our frontage, another corpse has begun to appear, so far just the legs.'" ((2), more)
". . . it was rather difficult to improve the trench, especially as no work was possible by day owing to the fact that the Hun on Hill 70 would look down and shoot right along it. This fact was not fully appreciated by the Powers That Be who wear Red Hats, until one of them arrived about eleven o'clock in the morning on Christmas Eve and shouted down the steps of my dug-out for me. I went up and found an irate Staff Officer who wanted to know why the devil my men were not doing any work! I pointed out to him, respectfully but firmly, that unless he wanted half the men blotted out it was an impossibility. While arguing the point, he started along the trench and when he was about thirty yards away from the dug-out the Huns put over a covey of 'pip-squeaks'. I've never seen a staff officer hurry so fast in all my life! He bolted into my dug-out like a rabbit, head first. He then stayed so long talking about the impossibility of working by day, that I very nearly had to offer him lunch! Christmastime did not reduce the daily hate on both sides." ((3), more)
"Private Wilkerson was killed on Christmas Day. A shell fragment severed the femoral artery. Stretcher-bearers attempted to deal with this mortal wound by using a tourniquet but this caused the poor chap pain, and the MO told us on the field telephone to remove it and let him die in peace. Only immediate surgical intervention could have saved him and that was impossible. All the same, the MO was about to risk his own life by coming to us across the open — there were no communication trenches left — but the C.O. ordered him to stay where he was at battalion HQ. It was just as well. We couldn't afford to lose a Medical Officer in a fruitless effort to save life. He couldn't possibly have arrived in time." ((4), more)
"The butcher's bill for 1914-15 was staggering: more than 2 million Russian, 2.1 million Austro-Hungarian, 1.3 million French, 612 000 German, 279 000 British, and 180 000 Italian men. . . . Few soldiers looked forward to the new year with great expectations." ((5), more)
(1) New Zealander Edward Mousley, an artilleryman in the British army, writing on December 22, 1915 in Kut-el-Amara in Mesopotamia, besieged by the Turks. His artillery is dug in in a grove of date palms. This night, some horses are killed by Turkish machine gunners, and one man is hit. Stopped in their attempt to advance to Baghdad, the British retreated to Kut and await relief and reinforcements.
The Beauty and the Sorrow: An Intimate History of the First World War by Peter Englund, page 193, copyright © 2009 by Peter England, publisher: Vintage Books, publication date: 2012
(2) Sebastian Jünger quoting his diary for December 23, 1915. Western front troops and commanders had not anticipated a stationary front, and the dead were sometimes buried where they fell, sometimes with little earth upon them, sometimes incorporated into trenches and ramparts. Heavy rains and shelling could unearth the dead of the prior 16 months.
Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger, page 58, copyright © 1920, 1961, Translation © Michael Hoffman, 2003, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 2003
(3) Lieutenant. G. Barber, 1st Battalion, Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders, 1st Brigade, 1st Division on an incident the morning of December 24, 1915 and why his men could not repair the trench they occupied. The pip-squeak was a small German artillery shell, named by British soldiers for the sounds it made in being fired and in flight.
1915, The Death of Innocence by Lyn Macdonald, pp. 591, 592, copyright © 1993 by Lyn Macdonald, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1993 (Great Britain); 199
(4) 2nd Lieutenant W. Cushing, 9th (Service) Battalion, Norfolk Regiment writing about the death of Private Wilkerson, killed on Christmas Day, 1915.
1915, The Death of Innocence by Lyn Macdonald, page 593, copyright © 1993 by Lyn Macdonald, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1993 (Great Britain); 199
(5) Holger Herwig's summary of casualties for the war 1914-1915. Serbia suffered as
The First World War: Germany and Austria Hungary 1914-1918 by Holger H. Herwig, page 172, copyright © 1997 Holger H. Herwig, publisher: Arnold, publication date: 1997
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