A pencil sketch of a barn from Eberhard, an Austrian soldier in Gleisdorf, July 20, 1915, to 'L. Frl. Olga!' — liebe Fräulein Olga, dear Miss Olga. In the left foreground is a field kitchen, labeled 'Küche'. It is addressed to 'Sehrgeehrtes Fräulein Olga Pichler' — Dear Miss Olga Pichler, in Graz, and was postmarked on the 21st. Gleisdorf is about 170 km south of Vienna, and 28 km east of Graz.
L. Frl. Olga!KücheDear Miss Olgakitchen
"You know all about the dearth of munitions. We are not producing more than 24,000 shells a day. It's a pittance for so vast a front! But our shortage of rifles alarms me even more. Just think! In several infantry regiments which have taken part in the recent battles at least one third of the men had no rifles. These poor devils had to wait patiently, under a shower of shrapnel, until their comrades fell before their eyes and they could pick up their arms."
Entry for July 20, 1915 from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia. He met with General Bielaïev, Chief of Staff of the Army, who reviewed with the Ambassador the position of the Russian Armies, and the strong positions they had retreated to. After this optimistic summary, the General turns to the shortage of weapons of all kinds that the Russians suffered from, not only the shell shortage that all the combatants had faced, but a shortage of small arms as well.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. II by Maurice Paléologue, page 34, publisher: George H. Doran Company
1915-07-20, 1915, July, Shell Shortage, Gleisdorf
