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German pencil sketch of a devastated Church in Fresnoy, likely Fresnoy-le-Grand, dated, February 6, 1915 by K. Marx (?), addressed to Paul Marx.
Winter on the Masurian Lakes of East Prussia. German forces launched the Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes in a blinding snowstorm.
City street scene with German and Austro-Hungarian Hapsburg flags — the Dual Alliance — and a group clustered around a kiosk, likely reading war news and casualty lists. By RS (BS?) 1915. Postmarked October 9, 1916.
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
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!'
"February 6th. — Yesterday quiet, lovely this morning. The enemy used his minenwerfer against the Scottish H.Q. At night the German searchlight caused a lot of annoyance. It had been seen first from the Houplines front when experiments with it were being made, and it seemed to be behind Wez Macquart. It was most disturbing to parties working on the wire, or on the new breastwork, or to reliefs going in over the top. If it was turned on to a patrol in Nomansland it did not really show up anyone who lay flat and still, but it made one feel rather naked and exposed, like the common dream of walking down Bond Street without any trousers. The men called it Willy's Eye." ((1), more)
"Despite intense blizzards and subzero temperatures that covered the area with over five feet of snow, Ludendorff refused to delay the main attacks. Roads and railroads lay hidden under giant snowbanks. Guns and munition and ration wagons required double and even treble the usual number of horses. The opening attacks nevertheless succeeded remarkably well considering the conditions, and they achieved almost total surprise." ((2), more)
"You must imagine a building like the Post Office in New York, for instance, or the Auditorium Hotel in Chicago, with a band of white paper, like newspapers, spread out and pasted end to end, running along one side, round the corner, and down the other. Not inches, but yards, rods, two city blocks almost, of microscopic type; columns of names, arranged in the systematic German way — lightly wounded, badly wounded — schwer verwundet — gefallen. Some have died of wounds — tot — some dead in the enemy's country — in Feindesland gefallen. Rank on rank, blurring off into nothingness, endless files of type, pale as if the souls of the dead were crowding here." ((3), more)
"It was, moreover, very clear that the Germans had early realized that the war was to be one calling for colossal supplies of munitions; supplies, indeed, upon such a stupendous scale as the world had never before dreamed of, and they also realized the vital necessity of heavy artillery. They began with an inferior field gun, and they never stopped to remedy this defect, but directed all their energies, from the first, to developing their heavy artillery." ((4), more)
"The scene of battle now shifts to the frozen North, where the Russians are courting fresh disaster in the treacherous region of the Mazurian Lakes in East Prussia. Early in February, a small Russian Army in command of Gen. Sievers had rashly invaded East Prussia from the North. As usual, the Germans proceeded to envelop and trap this army.. . . On February 10th, the snow still falling heavily, the Russians made a stand at Eydtkuhnen. At midnight the Germans launched a surprise attack and drove the Russians from village to village, until on February 15th, this wing was forced back across the Russian frontier." ((5), more)
(1) Entry for February 6, 1915 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. The minenwerfer was a German short-range mortar. Houplines, France lies on the River Lys and the Franco-Belgian border immediately east of Armentières. Wez Macquart is about six miles to the south.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 115, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
(2) After a defeat and retreat back to Russia in the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes, the Russians had again advanced into East Prussia with their Tenth Army. The Second, or Winter, Battle of the Masurian Lakes was an attempt by Generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff, German commanders on the Russian front, to sever the lines of communications between Vilna and Warsaw, and envelop the Russian Tenth Army using the German Eighth Army attacking from the west on February 7, and the new Tenth Army from the north the next day. The Russians did not know the German Tenth Army existed.
The German High Command at War: Hindenburg and Ludendorff and the First World War by Robert B. Asprey, page 163, copyright © 1991 by Robert B. Asprey, publisher: Warner Books, publication date: 1991
(3) Excerpt from 'The Great Days' in Antwerp to Gallipoli by Arthur Ruhl, a journalist from the neutral United States. In February, 1915 Ruhl wrote from Berlin of the Great Days — die große Zeit — 'days of achievement, of utter sacrifice, and flinging all into the common cause.' The German capital is 'an all day's express journey from either front', and, despite the casualty lists, Ruhl finds Berliners strong in their conviction they are fighting a defensive fight, and will prevail. He also points out that the German papers, unlike the British or American, publish little 'news', but are 'working all the time to create a definite public opinion.'
Antwerp to Gallipoli by Arthur Ruhl, pp. 95, 96, copyright © 1916 by Charles Scribner's Sons, publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons, publication date: 1916
(4) Excerpt from the chapter 'Ammunition', in the memoir 1914 by Sir John French, Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), the British forces on the continent, from August 1914 to December 1915. Britain was not only short of ammunition, but also of field and heavy artillery. Both France and Germany responded much more quickly than Great Britain to the need of the war for guns, machine guns, and munitions. Sir John documents some of his exchanges with the War Office, dating them back to September 28, 1914, in which the War Office suggested he be more economical in his use of ammunition. The British shell shortage would lead to a coalition government in the spring of 1915.
1914 by John French, pp. 359, 360, copyright © 1919, by Houghton Mifflin Company, publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company, publication date: 1919
(5) The German Eighth Army attacked the Russian invaders of East Prussia from the west on February 7, 1915 in a blinding snowstorm. The new German Tenth Army attacked from the north the next day. Unaware of the second German army, the Russians were threatened with encirclement in the Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 147, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
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