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The rulers of the Central Powers stumped by Verdun. Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary, Mohammed V of Turkey, Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, and Czar Ferdinand of Bulgaria puzzle over a map labeled "Verdun." The ink and watercolor drawing is dated March 4, 1916. By R. DLC?
The German assault on Verdun began on February 21, 1916 and continued through August.
Reverse:
Postmarked Bern, Switzerland, March 7, 1916 7.III.16.)

The rulers of the Central Powers stumped by Verdun. Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary, Mohammed V of Turkey, Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, and Czar Ferdinand of Bulgaria puzzle over a map labeled "Verdun." The ink and watercolor drawing is dated March 4, 1916. By R. DLC?
The German assault on Verdun began on February 21, 1916 and continued through August.

Image text

Illustrated map labeled "Verdun." Drawing dated March 4, 1916. By R. DLC?

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Sunday, May 14, 1916

"With nothing more than a rifle, a bayonet, and two packs of cartridges in our pockets, the two of us headed out. A sliver of moonlight shone the way for us, across a terrain as pockmarked as a kitchen strainer. In some places the ground was worked over, slashed and overturned as if by a recent earthquake. Any living thing had been snuffed out.

After covering a few hundred meters of this chaotic terrain, our senses were able to discern the limits of this immeasurable horizon of nothingness. We thought we were lost in the middle of an immense desert. It was impossible for us to tell from where we had come and where we were going. Crouched in a shell crater, we sought in vain to orient ourselves by flares, or by the sound of artillery batteries firing."

Quotation Context

Excerpt from the Notebooks of French Infantry Corporal Louis Barthas who had rotated into the Verdun sector on May 6, 1916, and moved to the front line on May 11. He is describing events the night of May 14 when Barthas and his sergeant go on patrol to find out whether French or German soldiers are ahead of them on Hill 304, facing the hill of Mort-Homme. The French had lost and then regained round on Hill 304 in the preceding days. They come upon a ration detail from Barthas' former company, and he learns of the death of several old comrades. As they continue stumbling in the night through shell holes and sections of unconnected trenches, a soldier is killed by a machine gun bullet fired from Mort-Homme.

Source

Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, page 196, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014

Tags

1916-05-14, 1916, May, Verdun, Battle of Verdun, Mort-Homme, Mort Homme, Cote 304