Postcard of Kaiser Wilhelm II and Kaiser Franz Joseph, in the Secessionist style. Kaiser Wilhelm is wearing the uniform and shako of the Death's Head Hussars.
Völkerkrieg (people's war)1914; In Treue FestPeople's WarFirm in Loyalty
"I urged the Quartermaster-General to do his utmost to provide more machine guns. At that time we had considerably less than one per company, and it was an arm in which the Germans were particularly well found. They must at that time have had at least six or seven to our one.In the operations now under discussion, this disability was felt very severely. . . .From all parts of the line the same complaint came of the preponderance of the enemy's machine-gun fire.The operations opened on the morning of the 14th by a combined attack on the line Hollebeke-Wytschaete Ridge. It began when it was hardly daylight, at 7 A.M., by heavy artillery bombardment. At 7:45, the French right (five regiments of the Sixteenth Corps) moved forward and captured the enemy's advance trenches on our left flank."
Excerpt from 1914 by Sir John French, commander of British forces on the continent, on the shortage of machine guns that 'was felt very severely' in the Anglo-French offensive in the Ypres salient from December 14 to 16, 1914. The French held the line east of Ypres, and the British south of the city. The British were deficient not only in machine guns, but also in artillery, which was placed well behind the lines, and was inadequate to damage the German barbed wire. The British historian Edmonds writes that to cross the wire 'wire cutters and mattresses were provided or had to be improvised.'
1914 by John French, pp. 328, 329, copyright © 1919, by Houghton Mifflin Company, publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company, publication date: 1919
1914-12-14, 1914, December, Sir John French,
