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Skulls, bones, helmets, rifle parts in a trench at Verdun, a ravine of death.
A Swiss postcard of 'The European War' in 1914. The Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary face enemies to the east, west, and south. Germany is fighting the war it tried to avoid, battling Russia to the east and France to the west. Germany had also hoped to avoid fighting England which came to the aid of neutral (and prostrate) Belgium, and straddles the Channel. Austria-Hungary also fights on two fronts, against Russia to the east and Serbia and Montenegro to the south. Italy, the third member of the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary, declared neutrality, and looks on. Other neutral nations include Spain, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania. Japan enters from the east to battle Germany. The German Fleet stays close to port in the North and Baltic Seas while a German Zeppelin targets England. The Austro-Hungarian Fleet keeps watch in the Adriatic. Turkey is not represented, and entered the war at the end of October, 1914; Italy in late May, 1915.
Map of Beirut and its old city and bazaar from the Baedeker guide to 'Palestine and Syria with Routes through Mesopotamia and Babylonia and with the Island of Cyprus'.
Map of the North and Baltic Seas (labeledNord-See and Ostsee) from a folding postcard of five battlefronts: the Western and Eastern Fronts; North and Baltic Seas, Mediterranean and Black Seas; and the Serbian-Montenegro Front.
French sappers (mining engineers) discover and invade a German mine tunnel. A grim illustration of the battle underground. The sappers tunneling to lay mines beneath enemy positions could sometimes hear each other or come upon opposing tunnels.
"Early on the morning of 3 April [French Captain Jean Tocaben] watched in amazement and horror as a unit from Mangin's 9th Brigade advanced, not just without artillery preparation but without any clear idea of where the enemy was—unsupported, headed in the wrong direction, exposed to the light of the rising sun. It went, he said, 'blindly to the slaughter':And on its polished helmets the morning sun broke in splashes of light and, clothing in splendour the men, the young men going to their deaths, covered them with a nimbus of glory and crowned them with a crest of fire. What a sublime, what a poignant sight"" ((1), more)
"The VultureDescribing circle after circlea wheeling vulture scans a fieldlying desolate. In her hovela mother's wailing to her child :'Come, take my breast, boy, feed on this,grow, know your place, shoulder the cross.'Centuries pass, villages flame,are stunned by war and civil war.My country, you are still the same,tragic, beautiful as before.How long must the mother wail?How long must the vulture wheel?" ((2), more)
"Inside the Ottoman Empire there were also those who regarded opposition to the regime as patriotic. Not only Armenians, but also Arabs, were suffering from Turkish fears of the national aspirations of their subject peoples. In Beirut, a Maronite Christian, Yusuf al-Hani, had sought French support for an independent Lebanon even before the war. He, and sixty others who thought as he did, decided to invite the French to enter the Levant as Lebanon's protector. Before they could do much more than discuss their idea, they were arrested. When a British agent contacted them in Aley prison, one of them asked him: 'Where are the English? Where are the French? Why are we left like this?' On April 5, Yusuf al-Hani was hanged in Beirut." ((3), more)
"When the 1916 spring thaw began somewhat earlier than usual at the beginning of April, the Russians set to work renewing their minefields in the 'Central Position' and extending the minefields started in the 'Forward Position.' They also worked to secure their situation in the Gulf of Riga, renewing the fields in the Irben Strait and improving their Moon Sound position. The Russians began construction of the powerful 30.5-cm batteries at Zerel on the Sworbe Peninsula, dominating the Irben minefields, and at Cape Tachkona, on the northern tip of Dagö Island, commanding the southern flank of the advanced position." ((4), more)
"The real struggle began on April 7th. Listeners in a tunnel known as C4 announced that the Germans were mining towards them at speed. Mulqueen ordered a camouflet to be blown at once. It was the start of a frenzied contest that lasted for six weeks almost without a break and left indelible memories. Looking back on it in later life, Mulqueen described the period as one full of 'rude shocks. . . . Our men were buried and our nights made sleepless. We were striving to rectify a situation that threatened to overwhelm us.'" ((5), more)
(1) French Generals Robert Nivelle and his subordinate Charles Mangin were posted to Verdun at the beginning of April, 1916, the former to replace General Pétain. Mangin, who was criticized for getting too many of his men killed, went immediately on the offensive, both on April 3 and 4. Captain Tocaben considered the attack from the German viewpoint: 'It's certainly a rare piece of luck to see troops coming at you deployed as if they were on maneuvers, and to shoot them at your leisure, without running the slightest risk.'
The Road to Verdun by Ian Ousby, page 271, copyright © 2002 by The Estate of Ian Ousby, publisher: Anchor Books, publication date: 2003
(2) 'The Vulture' by Russian poet Alexander Blok, dated April 4, 1916 (March 22 Old Style). The translator points out that the vulture, in the original Russian, is a kite, a bird of prey as well as a scavenger.
The Twelve and Other Poems by Alexander Blok, page 140, copyright © 1970 by Jon Stallworthy & Peter France, publisher: Oxford University Press, publication date: 1970
(3) Nationalism was building within the Ottoman Empire. The Armenians of Turkey and the Empire had already been slaughtered in great number by Turkey's genocidal policies. Some Arab groups were beginning to seek independence. A month after al-Hani's execution, 21 Arabs were publicly hanged in Beirut and Damascus for their association with nationalist groups. Further south, Husein ibn Ali and Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud would rebel against the Turks, allying with the British.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 237, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(4) All of the geographic references are to the Baltic Sea where Russia held its own against Germany. The Irben Strait is the primary channel to the Gulf of Riga; the Sworbe Peninsula is the southern tip of Saaremaa Island. These are (2016) parts of Latvia and Estonia. The 'Central' and 'Forward' Positions were defending the ports of Riga and Petrograd.
A Naval History of World War I by Paul G. Halpern, pp. 206, 207, copyright © 1994 by the United States Naval Institute, publisher: UCL Press, publication date: 1994
(5) A camouflet is an underground chamber created by an explosion. Unlike a mining operation designed to affect the surface — creating a crater or collapsing part of a fortress — a camouflet charge was intended to disrupt enemy mining operations. Frederick Mulqueen was commander of 182 Tunnelling Company which had recently moved into the Vimy Ridge sector when the British extended their line to free French forces for the Battle of Verdun. The English and Germans were both building on an existing network of mines in the area.
War Underground by Alexander Barrie by Alexander Barrie, pp. 162, 163, copyright © 1961 by Alexander Barrie, publisher: Ballantine Books, publication date: 1961
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