Propaganda postcard of General Paul von Hindenburg as Colossus astride East Prussia and Russian Poland. Hindenburg commanded German forces in East Prussia.
Nur über meine Leiche geht Dein Weg 'Koloss'Your way goes only over my corpse — 'Colossus'Reverse:Künstler-Karte; logo: CAES DresdenCarl A. E. Schmidt, Künstverlags-Anstalt, DresdenUnser Hindenburg
"[General Falkenhayn's] star, moreover, was now setting, for too many heavy responsibilities lay on his shoulders: the check at Verdun, the unfortunate Austrian undertaking against the Italian front, the disastrous revival of Russian activity, the appearance in line of the British beside the French along the Somme, the using up of German effectives, the resulting moral depression in the Central Empires, and, to crown it all, during these last days in August, the declaration of war against Germany by Italy and that against Austria-Hungary by Rumania. On August 28th, Marshal Hindenburg was appointed Chief of the General Staff with General Ludendorff as his Quartermaster General."
For all the reasons French General Pétain catalogs, German Chief of the General Staff Erich von Falkenhayn was replaced by Paul von Hindenburg on August 28, 1916. Hindenburg and his second Erich Ludendorff commanded the German army and increasingly large sectors of the German economy. Falkenhayn was immediately responsible for the siege of Verdun and its failure. He opposed both the Austro-Hungarian Asiago Offensive, which broke through the Italian front in Trentino but exposed the Austro-Hungarians to Russia's Brusilov Offensive, and the Italian counter-attack in the Sixth Battle of the Isonzo, Italy's most successful offensive to date. The British, French, and German forces suffered heavy losses in the Battle of the Somme, with a German toll of roughly 250,000 casualties by August 29. Germany had tried but failed to woo Romania to enter as its fourth ally or to remain neutral. The Russian and Italian military successes, and Germany's and Austria-Hungary's failures, helped lead Romania into war against the latter.
Verdun by Henri Philippe Pétain, pp. 197–198, copyright © 1930, publisher: The Dial Press, publication date: 1930
Falkenhayn, von Falkenhayn, Erich von Falkenhayn, Hindenburg, von Hindenburg, Paul von Hindenburg, Ludendorff, Erich Ludendorff, 1916-08-28, 1916, August
