Postcard by Willi Scheuermann of the British coming to the continent, spreading rumors, and then being kicked back to England. After their defeats in the Battles of Mons and Le Cateau on August 23 and 26, 1914, the German First Army lost contact with the British Expeditionary Force and assumed they had withdrawn to the channel coast if not to England.
Er kam---Er sah---Er log---Er flog.[Signed] WSRussen vor BerlinFranzosen in MünchenHelgoland in die Luft geflogenHe cameHe sawHe liedHe flew[the lies:]Russians at BerlinFrench in MunichHelgoland blown upReverse:Logo: W S S B 577
"Anyhow, we're scrapping like dogs,like gamecockswith masters relentlesslyand furiously betting one anotherand themselves into frenzy:when it's over, one'll be ruined,and the other no better off.And their birds will have slashed each otherand bled to death . . ."
Stanza from 'Gamecocks' a poem by Edmond Adam, dated May 14, 1918. Wounded on August 21, 1918, the author died on the 24th after receiving the Légion d'honneur.
The Lost Voices of World War I, An International Anthology of Writers, Poets and Playwrights by Tim Cross, pp. 235–235, copyright © 1989 by The University of Iowa, publisher: University of Iowa Press, publication date: 1989
1918-08-24, 1918, August, gamecock
