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Map of the Trentino, part of "Italia Irredenta," unredeemed Italy: Venezia Tridentina (Trentino and Alto Adige)
A German Fokker Eindecker flying over the front in the Meuse/Verdun sector.
Headstones from Martinpuich Cemetery, Martinpuich, France: for J. Reid of the Royal Field Artillery, died October 6, 1916, and R.E. Bullows of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, died November 11, 1916. Martinpuich was in the Somme sector. © 2013 John M. Shea
French trench clearers in the Battle of Verdun. French Corporal Louis Barthas recorded a commander's expectations of his men before a May 18, 1916 attack to take no prisoners, neither captured nor wounded, an order 'unworthy of a Frenchman.' The soldier kneeling on the left has likely just killed the German soldier on the ground, either combat or murder. Illustration by Léon Taa. . . ., 1916
Monument to the 40th Infantry Division at Mort-Homme, Verdun. © 2015 John M. Shea
"No less than 400,000 Austrians were thrown into the narrow sector of 25 miles between the Adige and the Val Sugana. More than 2,000 guns suddenly rained projectiles of all calibers upon the Italian position. A bombardment of incredible violence ensued. Aeroplanes regulated the fire of a 15-inch naval gun [that] showered projectiles on the town of Asiago.Following the hurricane of artillery fire, the Austrian troops attacked in mass formation. Four onslaughts were made on Zugna Torta. The Italian machine guns cut down the grey-blue masses of men; the wire entanglements were heaped with dead. The Austrians then hurled themselves against the advance posts of the Val Terragnolo, but the Alpini defended every foot of the ground, fighting always in the snow." ((1), more)
". . . on the morning of May 16 a cool breeze swept the sky clean of clouds, and a bright sun rose.It didn't take long for several enemy airplanes to make their bothersome droning heard, and they circled over Cote 304 and the Mort Homme all day long, like birds of ill fortune foretelling a great storm. . . .In the afternoon, the German batteries—well briefed, no doubt, by their aviators—opened a rolling fire on Cote 304, lasting at least two hours.How many tons of projectiles fell on this hill?Our brains were shaken by the nearby explosions. Stunned, we expected to be pulverised at any minute. It was just a matter of being caught in a salvo." ((2), more)
"Whatever the reason, all of a sudden a volley of small-caliber shellfire fell all around us with a crackling like fireworks. What kind of devilish device was this, which we hadn't encountered before—and never did afterward? Doubtless it was some new kind of rapid-firing cannon which the Germans never use again (too bad for them). The firing lasted about thirty seconds, which seemed interminable, then started up again. These packets of shells tore up the earth all around us, whistled, farted, shot off showers of sparks and flames, and stirred up a storm of iron fragments, chunks of dirt, and stones.Flat on our bellies with our noses in the dirt, we were terrified, disconcerted by this new way of scaring and killing people." ((3), more)
"It seems that the commander of the Moroccan Zouaves, leading the attack, gave his men an odious order: 'My friends, I have no orders to give, but you already know what I expect you to do in an attack . . .' He meant taking no prisoners. This was reported to me by eyewitnesses. The language was unworthy of a Frenchman. And the Germans, when they would advance and see the fate reserved for those who fell into our hands, would resist to the last when they saw themselves surrounded. Or they would massacre those of us who fell into their hands. That's the way they killed those who were at one of our first-aid stations: the medical officer, the orderlies, the wounded, some of them finished off with blows from rifle butts." ((4), more)
"What a miserable picture! Seven days of insomnia, fatigue, thirst, anguish had transformed these sturdy men, these superbly disciplined companies, into ragged troops of laggards, of sickly, moribund figures, who nevertheless displayed an air of calm contentment for the joy of simply being alive.At the summit of a hill, we paused at the foot of a spring which bubbled clear, fresh water beside the road, where each passerby paused to quench the feverish thirst which consumed him.We took one final look back at Cote 304 and the Mort Homme, which stood out in the rosy horizon of dawn.As if from two erupting volcanoes, clouds of smoke rose up from each of the two hilltops, and the flames of explosions burst forth like jets of incandescent lava." ((5), more)
(1) After a year of war in which Italy had launched five Battles of the Isonzo River in the country's northeast, Austro-Hungarian Chief of Staff Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf struck back with his Asiago Offensive on May 15, 1916, attacking in Trentino and Alto Adige on Italy's northern border. Conrad hoped to drive across Italy's north to reach the Adriatic Sea, enveloping the Italian Army. Although he had ample warning of the impending offensive, Italian Commander in Chief Luigi Cadorna made few preparations, but quickly created a new Italian Fifth Army of 180,000 men drawn from the Isonzo Front to halt the Austro-Hungarian advance.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 231, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
(2) Excerpt from the Notebooks of French Infantry Corporal Louis Barthas who had rotated into the Verdun sector on May 6, 1916, and moved to the front line on May 11. Cloud cover on the 15th prevented German planes from observing the French positions. Barthas and commanding officer wait in vain for French planes to come and drive the Germans from the sky.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, pp. 197, 198, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
(3) On May 17, 1916, French Infantry Corporal Louis Barthas was on Hill 304, facing the hill of Mort-Homme during the Battle of Verdun when this new type of German shell fell upon his unit. The men retreat only to debate advancing to their old position when they are subjected to what Barthas calls 'one of the terrible bombardments that I heard and saw throughout the whole war' advancing, retreating, and advancing again. Barthas marvels that the same immense 'salvoes of iron and fire' he suffered in his 'small link in Verdun's chain of defense' are falling to his left and right across the Verdun sector.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, page 198, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
(4) French Infantry Corporal (then Private) Louis Barthas on preparations for an attack on May 18, 1916 during the Battle of Verdun. The Zouaves attacked at 2:00 a.m. to seize a fortified outcropping. At first successful, the French were forced to pull back suffering heavy losses.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, page 202, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
(5) French Infantry Corporal Louis Barthas had rotated into the Verdun sector on May 6, 1916, and moved to the front line on the 11th. Through the night of May 18-19, receiving word the relief unit had arrived, his regiment moved out during an intense bombardment, an 'avalanche of metal.' Following the policy of French commander Henri Philippe Pétain, some 80% of the French army rotated through Verdun during the Battle. On the morning of May 19 Barthas looked back at the two deadly hills northwest of the city of Verdun, the Mort Homme and Cote 304.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, pp. 209, 210, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
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