A French soldier wearing the uniform of 1914/1915 stands by the side of a water-filled shell crater.
Reverse:R. Guilleminot, Bœspnug et Cie. - Paris
"Toward eight o'clock on the morning of the 18th [October, 1914], the Germans began to shower us furiously with big grenades from their trench mortars. They fell with a thud and did not explode until a few seconds after impact. As a result, we had to develop skills to avoid them. Our observers were trained to distinguish the noise they made on landing and to shout, 'Bomb on the right!' or 'Bomb on the left!' We would throw ourselves down, shielding our heads with a knapsack or duffel on the side from which the threat came. But on that particular morning we were still inexperienced, and so, in spite of everything, it was one of those situations in which all precautions were without effect."
Excerpt from the memoir of French historian Marc Bloch, a sergeant in the 272nd infantry regiment in the line in Champagne. On October 18, a miner from Pas-de-Calais, 'a fine lad, intelligent and calm' who had observed, 'This is going to be another bad day for the 272nd,' was huddled next to Bloch and was killed by a shell fragment. Bloch helped carry the body from the trench, and, 'for the first time in this campaign, I mourned a true friend.'
Memoirs of War 1914-15 by Marc Bloch, pp. 128-130, copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988, publisher: Cambridge University Press, publication date: 1988
Marc Bloch, Bloch, 1914, October, 1914-10-18, , French soldier shell pool
