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A German soldier by the side of a water-filled crater, June 15, 1916. The handwritten note says it is 'The crater of St. Elleu', possibly St. Eloi, near Ypres.
Headstone of Sapper E.M. Des Brisay, 2nd Canadian Signal Company, Attd. Royal Flying Corps, died August 3, 1916, age 23, at Cabaret Rouge British Cemetery, Souchez, France. © 2013 John M. Shea
Italian troops marching into the mountains where Italy fought much of its war against Austria-Hungary. A poster postcard encouraging the purchase of war bonds yielding 5.55%.
Photograph of four First World War Italian soldiers. The one on the far right wears a monocle.
Postcard from a painting by W. Partke of a village in the Pripet Marshes in Russia dated February 14, 1916. An Hungarian officer wrote of the Marshes, 'almost half of the territory is covered by wet, impassable, and uncultivated forest, wooded territory, most of it useless, bushy, and impenetrable. The ground itself is divided into different kinds of marshy lands, impassable muddy districts, immense weedy and grassy territories, also regions covered by some kind of more solid grassy substance, and other thousands and thousands of acres of land perpetually under water.' The card is field postmarked on April 9, 1917 by Minenwerfer (trench mortar) Company 282.
"On August 4, at 8 in the evening, the 15th Company went up to the front line. It was almost with pleasure that we returned to the outposts; this delivered us from work in the mines, and from the company of the cadaver-eating rats." ((1), more)
"A remark by one of our artillery subalterns explains some erratic shooting: 'If we fire over you, God help you; we've only one trained gunner per gun left.' Of one group in Caterpillar Wood 75 per cent. became casualties. In our recent operations the 9th Brigade had heavier losses than the 98th or 100th. (The 51st Division came out of High Wood with only two-fifths of the 33rd Division's losses.)" ((2), more)
"The bombardment began early on 6 August, pounding the Austrian lines all the way from Tolmein to the sea, before drawing in to San Michele and Gorizia. Cadorna's gunners had never been so effective. The Austrian lines were shrouded in smoke, their command centres disabled, many observation posts destroyed, and communications wrecked. Boroević telegraphed the Army High Command for urgent reserves and heavy artillery. He had underestimated the enemy build-up, partly because it was well concealed (with Cadorna making highly visible visits to Trentino. The Austrians had assumed that the new government in Rome would want more time before launching its first offensive." ((3), more)
"The end of July and the first fortnight of August [1916] were a quiet and comparatively pleasant time for us. There were no attacks, and without attacks life in the trenches, however hard it may be, is nothing really to complain of. The whole drama of war lies in the moment of attack. In itself death is a normal happening and soldiers die without fear. But the thought of death, the certainty of its imminence, make the hours that precede it tragic. Why was it that two men of the 10th battalion had killed themselves? In ordinary trench life no one expects death or thinks it inevitable; and when it comes, it comes in kindly fashion, unheralded and unexpectedly." ((4), more)
"Offensives against Kowel were mounted on 8th August and at more or less fortnightly intervals for the next three months. The Russian superiority, overall, was two-to-one at least: north of the Pripyat, 852,000 to 371,000 and south of it, 863,000 to 480,000. On the Kowel front, a great local superiority was built up: III Army, the Guard Army and VIII Army had, together, twenty-nine infantry and twelve cavalry divisions to twelve Austro-German infantry divisions. This, rather than the Romanian front, constituted Stavka's main effort. It was a complete failure." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from the notebooks of French Infantry Corporal Louis Barthas, August 4, 1916. After suffering heavy losses at Verdun in May, Barthas's reserve regiment was made the 296th, an active regiment, serving in Champagne. In the previous days, Barthas's unit had supported miners, bringing supplies for the mines — including timber to support the tunnels — and hauling away dirt and stones, oftentimes underground and immediately behind the miners. After being especially plagued by rats, the men discovered their nests were in a nearby cemetery for German soldiers. They scavenged among the French at night.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, page 241, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
(2) Extract from the entry for August 5, 1916 from the writings — diaries, letters, and memoirs — of Captain J.C. Dunn, Medical Officer of the Second Battalion His Majesty's Twenty-Third Foot, the Royal Welch Fusiliers. On the same day, Dunn recorded that 'Corps has been strafed for the High Wood mess. . . . The Division is returning to the line with every Brigadier and O.C. on tenterhooks lest he be made the scapegoat for the man above him.' Part of the Battle of the Somme, the English attack on High Wood began July 14, but the Wood was not entirely taken until mid-September.
The Big Push, A Portrait of the Battle of the Somme by Brian Gardner, page 248, copyright © 1961 by Brian Gardner, publisher: William Morrow and Company, publication date: 1963
(3) After facing five Italian offensives in one year along the Isonzo River in northeastern Italy, Austro-Hungarian Commander in Chief Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf launched the Asiago Offensive on May 14, 1916 in Trentino, striking behind the Italian armies, hoping to cut them off with a successful drive to the Adriatic Sea. Surprised by the successful attack, General Luigi Cadorna shifted troops from the Isonzo to Trentino, while the government pleaded with the Russians for a relief offensive against Austria-Hungary. Russian General Alexsie Brusilov responded with one of the greatest and most successful offensives of the war, one that threatened to destroy the Austro-Hungarian Army. Cadorna opened the Sixth Battle of the Isonzo, his most successful, on August 6, 1916.
The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919 by Mark Thompson, page 170, copyright © 2008 Mark Thompson, publisher: Basic Books, publication date: 2009
(4) Emilio Lussu's Sardinia Brigade had been deployed from the Isonzo Front to the Trentino to stem the mid-May, 1916 Austro-Hungarian Asiago Offensive. Austro-Hungarian Chief of Staff Conrad von Hötzendorf stopped that attack on June 16 to turn east to deal with Russia's Brusilov Offensive. Italian Chief of Staff Luigi Cadorna took advantage of Conrad's focus on his Russian Front to strike again on the Isonzo on August 6, the sixth battle on that river, and Cadorna's greatest success. For Lussu in Trentino the weeks were quiet.
Sardinian Brigade by Emilio Lussu, pp. 132–133, copyright © 1939 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., publisher: Knopf, publication date: 1939
(5) One of the most successful campaigns of the war, Russia's Brusilov Offensive was launched on June 4, 1916 and overwhelmed the Austro-Hungarian front, but ground to a standstill by August with the addition of German troops and German commanders. The attacks against Kowel showed none of the innovation and surprise Alexsei Brusilov had demonstrated. Romania, long flirting with joining the Entente Allies, finally did so on August 27, too late to support Brusilov's advance. Stavka was the Russian High Command.
The Eastern Front, 1914-1917 by Norman Stone, page 271, copyright © 1975 Norman Stone, publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons, publication date: 1975
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