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Headstone of Private R. H. Stuckey, East Kent Regiment (the Buffs), died May 5, 1917 age 29 years. Buried at Cabaret Rouge British Cemetery. © 2013 by John M. Shea
Stereo card of French Generals, Henri Philippe Pétain, Paul Henrys, and Émile Fayolle and French Raymond President Poincaré in the Verdun sector. Pétain is on the left and Poincaré behind him. Henrys is in the foreground, back to the camera, and Fayolle on the right.
French dead and wounded soldiers on stretchers, and being carried by stretcher bearers. A German prisoner is in the center, hands in his pocket. The Adrian helmets date the photograph from mid-1915 or later.
Allied observation balloon with prominent striping over Joncherey, France, between Belfort and the Swiss border. Trenches are clearly visible below.
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!'
". . . Our peace-terms remain the same, 'the destruction of Kaiserism and Prussianism'. I don't know what aims this destruction represents.I only know, and declare from the depths of my agony, that these empty words (so often on the lips of the Jingos) mean the destruction of Youth. They mean the whole torment of waste and despair which people refuse to acknowledge or to face; from month to month they dupe themselves with hopes that 'the war will end this year'." ((1), more)
"The harsh realization that France was running out of men added to the urgency of Pétain's reforms. On June 20 [1917] the General Staff in Paris published a study analyzing the effects of France's looming shortage of soldiers. The study stated:'It is not necessary to deny that after three years of war and after having supported until now the greater part of the common effort, the French army has lost many of its offensive qualities. The crisis of personnel, which can only become more acute with each passing day, can only aggravate the situation. Consequently, the day is approaching when a large offensive by us must be curtailed because we cannot fill the vacancies in our units.'" ((2), more)
"Now, by mid-June, the mutinies had almost become common knowledge. True, the newspapers were muzzled by censorship, but in place of facts a flood of wild rumors sprung up. The Zone of the Armies was swept by provocative tales of entire divisions abandoning the trenches, of wholesale executions of mutineers on such a vast scale that machine guns had to be used, and of huge clashes between the cavalry and the mutinous infantry.Some of the rumors had, of course, a certain basis in fact. . . ." ((3), more)
"Thursday, 8th June [Old Style]Enemy aeroplanes had been over about 4 a.m. and awakened us; discontented murmurings came from most beds. We took turns in washing, with as little water as possible. Once or twice we had tried to persuade Rupertsov, our tent-boy, to scrounge another bucketful for us. He would screw his face up and shake his head. . . .Friday, 9th JuneEnemy aeroplanes came over again soon after dawn and a couple of shells were dropped near our bivouac; but no harm was done. But we lost two aerostats that bright June morning; and two valiant Russian aeronauts, who had not had enough time to escape, perished in the flames." ((4), more)
"Already in June the factories and the regiments were quietly returning more and more Bolsheviks as their delegates to the various socialist conferences. By the middle of the month Lenin felt strong enough to show his hand in the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets. Tseretelli, the leading Menshevik and the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, made a speech in which he rejected the idea that the Soviets should seize power from the government. 'There is,' he said, 'no political party in Russia which at the present time would say "Give us power."'Lenin interjected, 'There is.'" ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from the entry for June 19, 1917, from the diary of Siegfried Sassoon, British poet, author, Second Lieutenant in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, and recipient of the Military Cross for gallantry in action. Sassoon had been wounded, shot through the shoulder by a sniper, in an April 16 attack on the village of Fontaine-lès-Croisilles in the Battle of Arras, and was on convalescent leave in England in June.
Siegfried Sassoon Diaries 1915-1918 by Siegfried Sassoon, page 175, copyright © George Sassoon, 1983; Introduction and Notes Rupert Hart-Davis, 1983, publisher: Faber and Faber, publication date: 1983
(2) French general Henri Philippe Pétain was given command of the French Army on May 15, 1917 after the failure of Commander in Chief Robert Nivelle's spring offensive, and as mutinies spread in the army, ultimately affecting nearly half the army. Pétain assured the soldiers he would not squander their lives, and that France would build the materiel—tanks, heavy artillery, aircraft—that could bring victory. He also set about reforming the army, ensuring officers mingled with their men, and recognizing the danger presented by France's heavy losses since the beginning of the war.
Pyrrhic Victory; French Strategy and Operations in the Great War by Robert A. Doughty, page 368, copyright © 2005 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College, publisher: Harvard University Press, publication date: 2005
(3) General Henri Philippe Pétain took command of the French Army on May 15, 1917 after the failure of the Nivelle Offensive, and as mutinies spread, ultimately affecting nearly half the army. Pétain assured the soldiers he would not squander their lives in pointless attacks, and that France would build the materiel — tanks, heavy artillery, aircraft — that could bring victory. He also punished mutineers. In his Pyrrhic Victory, Robert Doughty, using French author Pédroncini as his primary source, reports 3,427 soldiers were convicted and 554 sentenced to death. Most of the death sentences were commuted, but not all. Doughty's references put the number of executions between 'about 40' and 62.
Dare Call it Treason by Richard M. Watt, pp. 210–211, copyright © 1963 by Richard M. Watt, publisher: Simon and Schuster, publication date: 1963
(4) Excerpts from entries for Thursday and Friday, June 21 and 22 (June 8 and 9, 1917 Old Style) from the diary of Florence Farmborough, an English nurse serving with the Russian Red Cross. The Russian Provisional Government formed after the Russian Revolution were preparing for an offensive, and Farmborough and her unit were south of Lemberg in Galicia, Austria-Hungary, now Lvov. An 'aerostat' is a lighter than air aircraft such as the observation balloons used by both sides in the war.
Nurse at the Russian Front, a Diary 1914-18 by Florence Farmborough, pp. 274–275, copyright © 1974 by Florence Farmborough, publisher: Constable and Company Limited, publication date: 1974
(5) The All-Russian Congress of Soviet and Front Line Organizations began on June 16, 1917 and ran for three weeks. Since the first day of the Russian Revolution, the government had been divided between two centers of power, the Duma and the Soviets, councils elected in factories, the army, and from cities and towns across the country. Vladimir Lenin was leader of the Bolsheviks. The Mensheviks were a competing socialist party.
The Russian Revolution by Alan Moorehead, page 194, copyright © 1958 by Time, Inc., publisher: Carroll and Graf, publication date: 1989
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