Two Zouaves man an anti-aircraft gun, scanning the sky, in a 1915 advertising card for the aperitif Dubonnet. Title, Pigeon Shoot.
Tir au pigeonAdvertising sign:DubonnetVin Tonique au Quin[quina]Pigeon ShootTonic Wine with QuinineReverse:DubonnetVin Tonique au QuinquinaDubonnetTonic Wine with Quinine
"Our exit from Minsk was made to the deep, reverberating booming of our guns. An enemy plane was encircling Minsk and the anti-aircraft guns were giving it a warm reception. The aeroplanes had been troublesome of late, dropping incendiary bombs on many of the towns; Molodechno was said to have come off badly on more than one occasion. . . . When our guns started a vigorous attack on the winged intruder, [our neighbors] took leave of our party and retired in haste to their homes. The tiny speck in the sky still wheeled above the town, but the persistent challenge of the guns forced it to remain too high to gain any useful information about the town below. . . .We were all in rollicking mood; off to work and off to our beloved Division again and — most important of all — away from the irritating influence of Minsk. We felt like new beings! The Retreat was ended!"
Florence Farmborough, an English nurse serving with the Russian Red Cross, writing on October 3, 1915 (September 20 Old Style) at the end of the great Russian Retreat begun in May in the face of the Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive. The 'irritating influence of Minsk' included prostitutes dressed as Red Cross nurses, and the assumption that many of the nurses went to the front for that purpose.
Nurse at the Russian Front, a Diary 1914-18 by Florence Farmborough, pp. 152, 153, copyright © 1974 by Florence Farmborough, publisher: Constable and Company Limited, publication date: 1974
1915-10-03, 1915, October, anti-aircraft, Retreat, retreat, Russian Retreat, Russian retreat,
