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Hand-painted ink and watercolor card of a soldier walking to the A.F.A Canteen sends wishes for a Happy Pentecost from Austro-Hungarian lance-corporal Ernst Gundermann, May, 1917. Pentecost (a moveable feast commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit on the the disciples of Jesus after his death) fell on May 27, 1917.
La Domenica del Corriere of August 22–29, 1915, an illustrated weekly supplement to Corriere della Sera, published in Milan, Italy. The front and back covers are full-page illustrations by the great Italian illustrator Achille Beltrame. This back cover is an illustration of Italian author, pilot, soldier, and self-promoter Gabriele d'Annunzio dropping streamers in the colors of the Italian flag and bearing patriotic massages over Trieste, Austria-Hungary, a city with a large ethnic Italian population.
An advertising card of the Romanian Army from the series Armées des États Balcaniques, published in 1910.Shown, from left to right, a non-commissioned officer and artillery gunners, a staff officer, a rosiori (a red hussar), a mounted policeman (dismounted), a kalarachi (territorial reserve cavalry), a chasseur (venatori or rifleman), and an infantryman.
General Pétain's Order Number 9 reporting the success of the French soldiers on April 9, 1916, in holding the line against the attacking Germans. © 2015 John M. Shea
A French officer charging into battle in a watercolor by Fernand Rigouts. The original watercolor on deckle-edged watercolor paper is signed F. R. 1917, and addressed to Mademoiselle Henriette Dangon.
"Occasionally there were rampages against stores or rowdy scenes at rest camps, on troop trains, and at railway stations, where trains were derailed and carriages smashed. Such actions might last a few hours only, or extend to a week. Some regiments mounted protests two or three times. Only on a few occasions were officers molested, as at Tardenois on the Aisne on 22 and 27 May. Soldiers were evidently very clear in their minds about officers, formation or unit commanders, whom they respected and whom they did not." ((1), more)
"This ridiculous plan [to cross the Timavo River on plank walkways, capture Hill 28, advance across two kilometres of open ground to seize the castle in Duino, and raise a huge Italian flag] was partly conceived by a 54-year-old captain in the Novara Lancers — none other than Gabriele D'Annunzio. This was Gabriele D'Annunzio, Italy's celebrity bard and all-round decadent. Sharing the Futurists' fascination with aeroplanes, he had made daring flights over Austrian territory. He also milked events for personal publicity, lobbying far and wide for medals. He admired Cadorna, composing odes in his honour. Unofficially, many in the army found him comical and even hateful." ((2), more)
"By May, according to reports of French officers, products of all the training programs were beginning to fill the needs of [Romanian] field units. Major Legros with the 2nd Army described recruits arriving at the front as having 'very good instruction with an attitude of youth and enthusiasm.' 'The cadet officers arriving here,' he continued, have made an excellent impression.' Colonel Letellier (1st Army) agreed. On 29 May [1917], Berthelot proudly reported to Paris: 'The cadres have been filled out by ardent young officers instructed in our schools by our officers.'" ((3), more)
"On May 30 [1917], just before the period of the most extreme incidents, Pétain's staff offered an explanation of the causes of the mutinies. After acknowledging that 'indiscipline in the army comes from a variety of sources of which the relative importance cannot be ascertained,' the report broke the causes down into two categories: 'those which come from the conditions on the front, [and] those which are the result of external influences on this life.' Among the causes associated with life on the front were weakness of the military justice system, inadequate number of leaves, lack of rest between battles, and drunkenness. Among the external causes were pacifist propaganda, unfavorable orientation of the press, and ideas about peace stemming from the Russian revolution." ((4), more)
"They judged it prudent to separate the three battalions of the 296th Regiment from one another, and they billeted us fairly far apart. Our battalion was quartered in barracks four kilometers from Sainte-Menehould. It was only when we got there that we learned that the other battalions were elsewhere.The next day [May 31], at 7 p.m., they assembled us for departure to the trenches. Noisy demonstrations resulted: cries, songs, shouts, whistling; of course, the 'Internationale' was heard. I truly believe that, if the officers had made one provocative gesture, said one word against the uproar, they would have been massacred without pity, so great was the agitation." ((5), more)
(1) After the failure of French commander in chief Robert Nivelle's 1917 spring offensive — the Second Battle of the Aisne, begun on April 16 — an offensive that Nivelle had asserted would provide the breakthrough of the German line that would lead to victory, mutinous incidents broke out in the French army, particularly among the troops that had suffered the highest rates of casualties in the offensive. The mutinies were of greater or lesser severity, beginning in April, with the most serious incidents in May and June.
Paths of Glory: The French Army 1914-18 by Anthony Clayton, page 144, copyright © Anthony Clayton 2003, publisher: Cassell, publication date: 2005
(2) The Tenth Battle of the Isonzo, which Italian commander in chief Luigi Cadorna had begun with the heaviest bombardment yet on the Italian front, had already failed when the plan of the Italian writer Gabriele D'Annunzio on the Timavo River, one of the last actions of the campaign, was executed. A powerful speaker and self-promoter, D'Annunzio's performances included dropping leaflets over Vienna that proclaimed the imminent triumph of Italy over Austria-Hungary and Germany. In his Letters, Anglo-American writer Henry James refers to D'Annunzio as 'that particular rotten little skunk' while admiring one of his recent poems. Futurism was an Italian art movement that celebrated the modern world, its technology, speed, and disruption.
The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919 by Mark Thompson, page 255, copyright © 2008 Mark Thompson, publisher: Basic Books, publication date: 2009
(3) 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. Typhus, typhoid, dysentery, jaundice, and influenza sickened and killed a large part of the Romanian army, peaking in February and March, 1917. General Henri Berthelot led a French military mission to support and then rebuild the Romanian army. In spring of 1917, the Romanians had 112 machine guns per division, more than the Germans they faced, as well as automatic rifles and heavy artillery, neither of which they had in 1916.
The Romanian Battlefront in World War I by Glenn E. Torrey, pp. 181–182, copyright © 2011 by the University Press of Kansas, publisher: University Press of Kansas, publication date: 2011
(4) After the failure of French commander in chief Robert Nivelle's 1917 spring offensive — the Second Battle of the Aisne, begun on April 16 — an offensive that Nivelle had asserted would provide the breakthrough of the German line that would lead to victory, mutinous incidents broke out in the French army, particularly among the troops that had suffered the highest rates of casualties in the offensive. The mutinies were of greater or lesser severity, beginning in April, with the most serious incidents in May and June. Nivelle, whom soldiers and politicians had both lost faith in, was replaced by General Henri Phillippe Pétain. The Russian Revolution of March provided a model for some soldiers.
Pyrrhic Victory; French Strategy and Operations in the Great War by Robert A. Doughty, page 362, copyright © 2005 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College, publisher: Harvard University Press, publication date: 2005
(5) Excerpt from the notebooks of French Infantry Corporal Louis Barthas of the 296th Regiment. After the failure of French commander in chief Robert Nivelle's 1917 spring offensive — the Second Battle of the Aisne, begun on April 16 — an offensive that Nivelle had asserted would provide the breakthrough of the German line that would lead to victory, mutinous incidents broke out in the French army, particularly among the troops that had suffered the highest rates of casualties in the offensive. The mutinies were of greater or lesser severity, beginning in April, with the most serious incidents in May and June. Some soldiers took the Russian Revolution as their model. Barthas was asked on May 30 to take the lead role in a soviet that would assume command of his company. He declined, but wrote a manifesto on behalf of the company protesting the delay in leaves after Nivelle's disaster. The 'Internationale' is a Socialist anthem from the late nineteenth century.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, page 328, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
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