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View from the Observation Tower on Californie Plateau, Chemin des Dames, France.
German postcard map of the Western Front in Flanders, looking south and including Lille, Arras, Calais, and Ostend. In the Battle of the Yser in October, 1914, the Belgian Army held the territory south of the Yser Canal, visible between Nieuport, Dixmude, and Ypres (Ypern). Further north is Passchendaele, which British forces took at great cost in 1917.
A Russian Maxim machine gun squad on the front in a 1917 photograph. In the middle of the line one soldier wears a French Adrian helmet.
French Farman two-seater planes on the Romanian front.
Map showing the territorial gains (darker shades) of Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece, primarily at the expense of Turkey, agreed in the Treaty of Bucharest following the Second Balkan War. Despite its gains, Bulgaria also lost territory to both Romania and Turkey.
"The entire French front, from Verdun to St. Quentin, was violently bombarded during the night of July 19th in preparation for the German attack on the Craonne and 'Winterburg' Plateaux. Since Verdun, there had been no artillery attack comparable to this in intensity.Early on the morning of the 20th, the German troops moved out from the Ailette Valley in the direction of the eastern slopes of Craonne, expecting easily to reach the Chemin-des-Dames objective on the crest. At a fearful cost—so appalling in fact that the Germans have never cared to reveal the actual figures—they made a slight advance along a front of half a mile on the lower slopes of Craonne. But never a German soldier could attain the French lines on the summit." ((1), more)
"Haig and his staff devised a three-stage offensive; the first attack would strike south of Ypres near Wytschaete; the second would advance between Dixmuiden and Ypres; and the third would crash against Passchendaele. Haig, who sought nothing less than to 'smash up the whole of the Bosche [sic] Army', blithely ignored Foch's warning not to undertake a 'duck's march through the inundations to Ostend and Zeebrugge', which Foch considered to be 'futile, fantastic, and dangerous'. . . .On 21 July more than 2300 British guns subjected General Friedrich Sixt von Arnim's Fourth Army, part of Army Group Crown Prince Rupprecht, to a 10-day artillery bombardment that claimed 30 000 casualties, including 9000 missing." ((2), more)
"The most violent of the attacks against troops of the Commander in Chief on the East front took place at Krevo, south of Smorgon, on July 9 and the days following. Here the Russians broke through a division of the Landwehr occupying a very long front, though it defended itself with extraordinary courage.For a few days, things looked extremely serious, until our reserves and artillery fire restored the situation. The Russians evacuated our trenches. They were no longer what they had been." ((3), more)
"Soldiers! . . . The moment so much expected by the entire Romanian nation, by you especially more than anybody else has come; it is the time to resume the fightings in order to remove the barrier beyond which the groans of our parents, brothers and children under the oppression of the grabbing enemy can be heard. Do not forget that we resume the fight for the righteous and most sacred cause, namely for chasing away the invaders from our home." ((4), more)
"On July 24, 1917, at dawn, after a strong artillery preparation which scattered the enemy positions, the divisions within the first echelon of the Romanian Second Army embarked upon the attack. The fighting was grim. In some places, the Romanian soldiers, piercing the enemy positions, attacked the enemy with the bayonet, thus compelling it to a hasty retreat. However, in other places the resistance put up by the German and Austro-Hungarian troops was extremely stubborn. The Romanians mounted the strongest attack for the liberation of the village of Mărăşti. . . . By the evening the Romanian troops had taken hold of the first position. The same day the Russian VIII Corps which attacked on the left of the Romanian Second Army scored a similar victory." ((5), more)
(1) The Californie Plateau — called the 'Winterburg' by the German forces — is at the eastern end of the Chemin des Dames in Craonne, France. It was retaken by the French between May 4 to 6, 1917 in one of the last actions of the Second Battle of the Aisne, the Battle of Chemin des Dames.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 332, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
(2) The French army mutinies of May, June, and July, 1917, that followed the failure of French Commander Robert Nivelle's spring offensive, the Second Battle of the Aisne, left Douglas Haig, commander of British forces in France, free to pursue his own offensive independent of the French. As our author makes clear, Haig's primary aim was victory and an end to the war. A secondary aim was ending that part of the threat of Germany's submarine warfare based in the occupied Belgian ports. The inundations that French general Ferdinand Foch referred to were the floods unleashed on their own land by the Belgians at the end of the Battles of the Yser in 1914. Haig's bombardment began the Third Battle of Ypres, also known as the Battle of Passchendaele. Rupprecht was Crown Prince of Bavaria. Foch was correct in his assessment of Haig's plan.
The First World War: Germany and Austria Hungary 1914-1918 by Holger H. Herwig, pp. 330–331, copyright © 1997 Holger H. Herwig, publisher: Arnold, publication date: 1997
(3) German General Erich Ludendorff's assessment of a Russian attack on July 22, 1917 (July 9, Old Style), an action in the Kerensky Offensive begun July 1, quoted in Alexander Kerensky's Russia and History's Turning Point. The German Landwehr were the territorial guard, generally older soldiers, although many older soldiers had been lost by 1917.
Russia and History's Turning Point by Alexander Kerensky, page 293, copyright © 1965 by Alexander Kerensky, publisher: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, publication date: 1965
(4) The Order of the Day given by the Romanian Second Army's Commander on the eve of the battle of Mărăşti quoted in Vasile Alexandrescu's Romania in World War I. Romania entered the war on August 27, 1916, and was overrun by Central Power forces by the end of the year, driven out of Wallachia and Dobruja and back to Moldavia where the Russians held the Allied line. After rebuilding with support, training, and weapons from France, the Romanian army launched its offensive to retake the country's lost territory.
Romania in World War I, a Synopsis of Military History by Vasile Alexandrescu, page 48, copyright © 1985, publisher: Military Publishing House, publication date: 1985
(5) The battle of Mărăşti began on July 24, 1917 with an attack by the recovered and newly re-armed Romanian army. Romania entered the war on August 27, 1916, and was overrun by Central Power forces by the end of the year, driven out of Wallachia and Dobruja and back to Moldavia where the Russians held the Allied line. After rebuilding with support, training, and weapons from France, the Romanian army launched its offensive to retake the country's lost territory.
Romania in World War I, a Synopsis of Military History by Vasile Alexandrescu, pp. 48–49, copyright © 1985, publisher: Military Publishing House, publication date: 1985
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