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Edito Card of an Hanriot HD.1. Introduced in late summer, 1916, the French Hanriot HD.1 was primarily flown by the Belgian and Italian air services. This plane is in the colors of the Belgian Air Corps. The white thistle on the fuselage was the symbol of the squadron of Willy Coppens, Belgium's leading ace of the war. The sawtooth pattern on the tail identified an individual pilot. Each patrol of three planes had an identifying cowling color. Coppens, as the leading ace, insisted on an all-blue plane.
View across No Man's Land between Ypres and Messines in 1917 by Lance Corporal Hugh F. Ward, 97th Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps. Ward painted this while he was in the sector before, during, and after the June, 1917 Battle of Messines Ridge. Initialed 'H.W.'.
Map of the 1918 German offensives on the Western Front from The Memoirs of Marshall Foch by Marshall Ferdinand Foch. © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc.
Folding postcard relief map looking north from the River Aisne to the Oise Canal, from Compiègne to Soissons, and from Noyon to St. Gobain, France. A hand drawn arrow indicates Pimprez, marked with an 'X'.
Three Australian dead, 'known to be buried in this cemetery,': A. L. Day, W. T. Hart, and J. Mc Auley, died June, 1918, and buried in Dive Copse Cemetery, Sailly-le-Sec, France. © 2013 by John M. Shea
"On the 7th, another Mention, this time for having: 'shot down an aeroplane and four balloons in less than a month,' brought me the Order of Leopold. . . .On June 5, 9, and 10, I brought off my sixth, seventh, and eighth victories, over, respectively, Houthulst, Zonnebeke, and near Armentières, to the south of Ypres in the British zone. This zone, like that of the coast, was very strongly defended by the enemy, and I came back with three bullet-holes and three splinter-tears in my main planes." ((1), more)
"The landscape here is of the deadly-conventional Armageddon type—low green-grey ridges fringed with the usual decorations of a few isolated trees, half-smashed, with a broken wall or two, straggling trench-grey silhouettes that once were villages. Then there are open spaces broken only by ruined wire-tangles, old trenches, and the dismal remains of an occasional rest-camp of huts. The June grass waves, poppies flame, shrapnel bursts with black puffs, an aeroplane drones, larks sing; someone comes along the trench, clinking a petrol-tin. And this is about all one sees, as one stumps along the communication-trenches, dry and crumbling, with a dead mole lying about here and there." ((2), more)
"Between Noyon and Montdidier on June 9 [1918], artillery preparation for the fourth drive in the Germans' spring offensive began at midnight, but the French, amply warned, began their counterpreparation ten minutes earlier. Though opportune, this fire did not disrupt the enemy's infantry assault, which occurred between 0300 and 0430 hours. Striking the left-center of Third Army, which occupied a forty-five-kilometer front, the Germans advanced seven kilometers on the first day and five on the second across a front of twenty-five kilometers." ((3), more)
"On the 10th the enemy's attack was continued, but without his obtaining anything like the same success as on the previous day. Although he brought a new division into action, he gained only a small amount of ground west of the Matz. His only important success was to the east of this place, where the retreat of a French division (the 53d) opened up the road to Ribécourt and enabled the Germans to establish themselves on the right bank of the Oise between Montmacq and Sempigny. . . .In spite of this unfortunate occurrence, the results of the 10th, taken as a whole, remained satisfactory." ((4), more)
"If the counter attack should be launched on the 12th, it would find [the Germans] better prepared than on the 11th.This insistence of General Mangin and the clearness of his views finally convinced General Fayolle, and he drew up his orders, dated 4 P. M. the 10th, for the attack to be carried out as soon as possible on the 1th. These orders, which were communicated to the troops, concluded with these words:'To-morrow's operation should be the end of the defensive battle which we have been fighting for more than two months. It should mark the definite check of the Germans and the renewal of the offensive on our part. It must succeed. Let everyone understand this.'The attack did, in fact, begin the following day, the 11th, at 11 A. M. The effect was astonishing. The villages of Méry and Belloy were taken, the valley of the Aronde was cleared, and more than a thousand prisoners with several guns were captured." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpts from the memoir of Willy Coppens, Belgium's greatest ace in World War I with 37 victories, all but two of them observation balloons. After repeated attempts to bring down a balloon, Coppens was finally successful when he was provided with 20 French incendiary bullets, which he used sparingly. Balloons were heavily defended with anti-aircraft guns and fighter planes.
Flying in Flanders by Willy Coppens, pp. 177, 179, publisher: Ace Books, publication date: 1971
(2) Excerpt from the diary of Siegfried Sassoon, British poet, author, Second Lieutenant in the Royal Welch Fusiliers (R.W.F.), and recipient of the Military Cross for gallantry in action. Sassoon was deployed to Palestine in early 1918, then returned to France after the successful Germany's spring offensives Michael and Georgette, when British losses required every available soldier on the Western Front. As he wrote he was near Mercatel, 7 or 8 km south of Arras.
Siegfried Sassoon Diaries 1915-1918 by Siegfried Sassoon, page 264, copyright © George Sassoon, 1983; Introduction and Notes Rupert Hart-Davis, 1983, publisher: Faber and Faber, publication date: 1983
(3) The fourth of German's five 1918 offensives, the Noyon-Montdidier Offensive, began on June 9, in an attempt to build on the success of the Aisne (Blücher) Offensive begun on May 27. But the French were not surprised as they had been in May, and had reserves ready.
Pyrrhic Victory; French Strategy and Operations in the Great War by Robert A. Doughty, pp. 457–458, copyright © 2005 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College, publisher: Harvard University Press, publication date: 2005
(4) The fourth of Germany's five 1918 offensives, the Noyon-Montdidier Offensive, began on June 9 on a twenty-five-kilometer front, in an attempt to build on the success of the Aisne (Blücher) Offensive begun on May 27. But the French were not surprised as they had been in May, and had reserves ready. The Germans advanced seven kilometers on June 9th and five on the 10th.
The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, translated by Col. T. Bentley Mott by Ferdinand Foch, page 328, copyright © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., publisher: Doubleday, Doran & Co., publication date: 1931
(5) The fourth of Germany's five 1918 offensives, the Noyon-Montdidier Offensive, began on June 9 on a twenty-five-kilometer front in an attempt to build on the success of the Aisne (Blücher) Offensive begun May 27. But the French were not surprised as they had been in May, and Allied Commander-in-Chief Ferdinand Foch, from whose Memoirs our quotation is taken, had reserves ready for the first opportunity that appeared. General Émile Fayolle commanded the reserves with General Charles Mangin reporting to him. In the spring of 1917, Mangin was under the command of Robert Nivelle during his disastrous Second Battle of the Aisne. Both men had been sacked. A year later, French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau insisted on reinstating Mangin, who was referred to as 'the Butcher'.
The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, translated by Col. T. Bentley Mott by Ferdinand Foch, pp. 329–330, copyright © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., publisher: Doubleday, Doran & Co., publication date: 1931
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