A German Fokker Eindecker flying over the front in the Meuse/Verdun sector.

No. 104. Westlichen Kriegschauplatz: Schwere Niederlage der Franzosen auif den Maashöhen bei Combres.



Western theater of war: Heavy French defeat on the heights of the Meuse at Combres.

Serie 63/4



Towns include: Les Éparges, St. Remy, and Combres.



Reverse:

Kriegshilfe München N.-W. 11.

Zum Gloria-Viktoria Album

Sammel. u. Nachschlagewerk des Völkerkrieges



War Fund Munich 11, N. W. 11

For Gloria Viktoria Album

Collection. and reference work of international war

Other views: Larger, Larger

Tuesday, May 16, 1916

". . . on the morning of May 16 a cool breeze swept the sky clean of clouds, and a bright sun rose.

It didn't take long for several enemy airplanes to make their bothersome droning heard, and they circled over Cote 304 and the Mort Homme all day long, like birds of ill fortune foretelling a great storm. . . .

In the afternoon, the German batteries—well briefed, no doubt, by their aviators—opened a rolling fire on Cote 304, lasting at least two hours.

How many tons of projectiles fell on this hill?

Our brains were shaken by the nearby explosions. Stunned, we expected to be pulverised at any minute. It was just a matter of being caught in a salvo."

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. Cloud cover on the 15th prevented German planes from observing the French positions. Barthas and commanding officer wait in vain for French planes to come and drive the Germans from the sky.

Source

Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, pp. 197, 198, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014

Tags

1916-05-16, 1916, May, Verdun, Battle of Verdun, Mort-Homme, Mort Homme, Cote 304