An artillery crew dragging and pushing a field howitzer forward. From a painting by Anton Hoffmann. On the back is a message dated January 6, 1916. The card was postmarked the next day.
Hoffmann - MünchenReverse:Kriegsbilder PostkarteVorbringen einer schweren Feldhaubitze. Nach einem Gemälde von Prof. Anton Hoffmann. Aus der illustr. Wochenschrift Reclam Universum. Probehefte 20 Pf. Druck und Verlag Philipp Reclam jun. LeipzigWar Images PostcardBringing up a heavy field howitzer. After a painting by Prof. Anton Hoffmann. From the illustrated weekly Reclam's Universe. Sample copies 20 pfennig. Printing and Publishing Philipp Reclam jun. LeipzigMessage dated January 6, 1916. The card was postmarked the next day.
"On October 18 [1916], the bombardment reached a hitherto unseen degree of violence. The order came down, to be ready to leave camp at any moment. A cold shower fell, and we shuddered at the thought of leaving camp in such weather. But it wasn't until the next day that we went up to the front lines, to the place of sacrifice for those who would spill their blood and end their lives so miserably."
Excerpt from the notebooks of French Infantry Corporal Louis Barthas, writing on October 18, 1916, when his 296th Infantry Regiment was in the Battle of the Somme. Barthas describes the fate of the regiment in the immediately preceding days as three acts. In Act I, the men learn the regiment, which had been slotted for a role in the coming action, will not be going into battle after all. Act II: 'humiliated' young officers ask their commanding general for the honor of fighting alongside other divisional regiments. In Act III, the commanding general approves the officers' request, granting the regiment 'the favor of going to gather up the laurels of victory.' Barthas had fought in the battles in Artois in 1915 and at Verdun, and had no delusions of what honor, glory, or laurels meant.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, page 258, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
1916-10-18, 1916, October, Somme, Battle of the Somme