Cover and first page from 'British Advance on the Somme,' Série 18 (2nd Part), a stapled booklet with cover of nineteen detachable postcards, most separated by tissue paper, showing some of the destruction wrought by German troops in Operation Alberich, the strategic retreat of 1917, including in Péronne, Nesle, Ham, Biaches, Feuillères, Combles, Hébuterne, Estrées, Fay, Assevillers, Frise, and Flaucourt.

British Advance on the Somme, Série 18 (2nd Part) Detachable Postcards

Other views: Larger

Monday, February 26, 1917

"— The stale bread epoch began on the 25th [February, 1917]. Mild grumbles. People say they have to eat more of it than they used to eat of new.

— The 26th. Every day brings its unexpected incident. To-day we have the German retreat before the British as far as the out-skirts of Bapaume. It is a novel and puzzling feature."

Quotation Context

Entries from February 25 and 26, 1917 from the diary of Michel Corday, French senior civil servant. On January 10 the French government had decreed that bread could only be sold 12 hours after baking in an attempt to cut consumption. Operation Alberich, the German strategic retreat of 1917 to a shorter, well-entrenched defensive system, began on February 24, but was only slowly recognized by the Allies. The 'Hindenburg Line' was the German 'Siegfried Zone' of four trench lines.

Source

The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, page 233, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934

Tags

1917-02-26, 1917, February, British Advance on the Somme