British and Belgian soldiers retreating from the defense of Antwerp. The Belgian Army and the British forces that had come to defend the city evacuated on October 7 and 8, 1914.
Image text: Cliché Chasseau-Flaviens1914.. Blessés Anglais à la défense d'Anvers1914.. English wounded from Attwerp's defense16me Série16th SeriesLogo: ELD
Map of the plan for the Allied Offensive in France showing the situation on September 24, the eve of the infantry assault. An Anglo-French would attack eastward in Artois (with the British at Loos) as the French attacked northwards in Champagne. From 'Military Operations France and Belgium, 1915, Vol. II, Battles of Aubers Ridge, Festubert, and Loos' by Brigadier-General J.E. Edmonds.
Image text: Situation, 24th September 1915Showing direction of the Allied offensive
Grave and marker for an unknown French soldier at Le Trou Aid Post Cemetery, Fleurbaix, France, a primarily British cemetery. © 2014 John M. Shea
Image text: Français InconnuMort pour la FranceUnknown FrenchmanDied for France
The Cripple Entente: Great Britain, Russia, and France. Their flags behind them, King George V, Tsar Nicholas II, and President Poincaré show the effects of the initial German victories in 1914.
Image text: Kriegs-Karte der 'Lustigen Blätter' Nr. 12.So muß es kommen:Die "Krüppel-Entente'.War Card of the 'Lustigen Blätter' (Funny Pages) No. 12It must come to this:The 'Cripple Entente'.Reverse:Kriegs-PostkarteVerlag der Lustigen Blätter (Dr. Eysler & Co.) G.m.b.H. Berlin SW. 68Druck von H.S. Hermann, BerlinWar PostcardPublisher of the Lustigen Blätter (Dr. Eysler & Co.) LLC Berlin SW. 68Printed by H.S. Hermann, Berlin
Postcard map of East Prussia and Polish Russia with a message and postmark, Vienna, August 20, 1915. From a series that asks, 'Do you know the high times?'
Image text: Kennen Sie schon 'Die grosse Zeit'die neue vom Verlag Ullstein & Co. herausgegebene illustrierte Kriegsgeschichte? Wenn nicht, lassen Sie sich die bereits erschienenen Hefte von Ihren Buchhändler vorlegen. Das Werk gibt in zeitlicher Reihenfolge eine packende reich illustrierte Darstellung der Kriegsereignisse; jedes Heft ist erzeln erhältlich und kostet 30 Pfennig.Do you know 'The big time' new from publisher Ullstein & Co., a published illustrated history of the war? If not, you can acquire the already published issues from your bookseller. In chronological order, the book gives a gripping and richly illustrated presentation of the war; each issue is available and costs 30 cents.Reverse:B.Z. KriegskarteVerlag der B.Z. am Mittag, BerlinB.Z. War Card Publisher of B.Z. at Noon, BerlinMessage and postmark, Vienna, August 20, 1915
"You must imagine old people struggling along over miles and miles of country roads; young girls, under burdens a man might not care to bear, tramping until they had to carry their shoes in their hands and go barefoot to rest their unaccustomed feet. You must imagine the pathetic efforts of hundreds of people to keep clean by washing in wayside streams or ditches; imagine babies going without milk because there is no milk to be had; families shivering in damp hedgerows or against haystacks where darkness overtook them; and you must imagine this not on one road, but on every road, for mile after mile over a whole countryside." ((1), more)
"At 1600 hours [on October 6] Castelnau ordered de Langle and Pétain to continue the attack the following day with the same objectives, but Pétain, concerned that his troops were 'very tired,' requested that only the two corps in his center continue the attack. Castelnau relented and ordered his army commanders to secure the terrain they had seized and to conduct only those local actions necessary to consolidate their positions. He then informed Joffre of his actions and said: 'the operation . . . has not succeeded. It can be resumed only after a new preparation, more complete than that which was accomplished on October 4 and 5.' Joffre had no choice. He approved Castelnau's actions and late on October 7 terminated the offensive." ((2), more)
"With diminished expectations, Joffre insisted that the offensive on the Western Front should continue as long as weather permitted, and Robertson and Haig agreed. During the remainder of September and October [1916] the French attacked frequently but in the same fragmented fashion as the British. Sixth Army, after being increased to five corps, drove forward on September 25–27 and October 7, 12–13, 15, and 18. Tenth Army, still with three corps, attacked on October 10–11, 14, and 21–22. Despite several attempts, the French made only small gains, and the fighting gradually diminished." ((3), more)
"A newspaper printed a report that the English and French armies, on account of the disorder in Russia, wished to sever the alliance. I refused to believe such a thing. In another newspaper I read that the report had been denied. I read also that the British Army had gained much territory in Mesopotamia." ((4), more)
"Early in October, 1918, Polish deputies in the Vienna parliament joined their counterparts in Berlin in demanding a united and fully independent Poland, and on October 7, the Regency in Warsaw called for a Polish national ministry and a representative assembly, chosen on broad democratic principles, to write a constitution. Polish politicians in Galicia journeyed to Warsaw to participate in setting up a provisional government and Polish soldiers disarmed loyalist Hapsburg troops in the province. Bit by bit, Poles acquired control of former Russian Poland expelling the administrators and soldiers of the Austrian and German occupation." ((5), more)
(1) An excerpt from Arthur Ruhl's book Antwerp to Gallipoli, Chapter IV, 'The Fall of Antwerp.' Much of the rest of the country had already been occupied by German troops, and refugees had fled to Antwerp, the nation' last fortified city.
Antwerp to Gallipoli by Arthur Ruhl, pp. 65, 66, copyright © 1916 by Charles Scribner's Sons, publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons, publication date: 1916
(2) French Commander-in-Chief Joseph Joffre brought the Second Battle of Champagne to an end on October 7, 1915, part of the Champagne-Loos-Artois Offensive, the Franco-British autumn offensive in Champagne and Artois. The preparations Castelnau referred to were primarily an extended artillery bombardment that had, even over two days, cut the first line of wire in places, but not the second. By October 7, the French had only limited supplies of shells. The Champagne Offensive was manned by French and French colonial troops. The offensive in Artois would continue for another week, the French fighting the Third Battle of Artois, the British the Battle of Loos.
Pyrrhic Victory; French Strategy and Operations in the Great War by Robert A. Doughty, page 195, copyright © 2005 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College, publisher: Harvard University Press, publication date: 2005
(3) The Anglo-French Somme Offensive began on July 1, 1916, and the attacks continued through the summer and autumn. French Commander in Chief Joseph Joffre coordinated plans and attacks with his British counterpart and commander of British forces on the continent Douglas Haig, but imperfectly. General William Robertson was Chief of the Imperial General Staff.
Pyrrhic Victory; French Strategy and Operations in the Great War by Robert A. Doughty, page 304, copyright © 2005 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College, publisher: Harvard University Press, publication date: 2005
(4) Excerpt from the entry for September 24, (October 7, New Style), 1917 from the diary of Florence Farmborough, an English nurse serving with the Russian Red Cross. Farmborough's unit was then in Romania where the Russians had participated in a Romanian offensive until being ordered on July 25 by Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky to stop all offensive action. Kerensky supported the war and the Triple Entente, and urged the July 1 Russian offensive that proved to be the last gasp of the Provisional Government's army, and undercut support for the war. British forces in Mesopotamia had captured Baghdad on March 11, 1917, and advanced west to Ramadie, taking it on September 29 to forestall any attempt by the Turks to advance on Baghdad from Aleppo.
Nurse at the Russian Front, a Diary 1914-18 by Florence Farmborough, page 320, copyright © 1974 by Florence Farmborough, publisher: Constable and Company Limited, publication date: 1974
(5) What would become Poland at the end of the war was, in 1914, parts of three empires: Polish western Russia, part of northern Austria-Hungary, and part of East Prussia in Germany. In October, 1918, Poles demanded an independent nation unifying ethnic Poles, based on Russian Poland, but incorporating Poles in the lands of the swiftly-disintegrating Austro-Hungarian Empire. Warsaw, Russia's third largest city, would be the capital. Ignoring the struggling and seemingly failing Bolshevik regime in Russia, the Poles would need to contend with Ukraine for its boundaries. Galicia was northeastern Austria-Hungary. On the Russian side of the Carpathian Mountains, it had been the site of much of the fighting between Russia and the Central Powers. In the beginning of October, the governments in Vienna and Berlin were making peace overtures as they realized the war could no longer be won.
The Passing of the Hapsburg Monarchy, 1914-1918 2 Volumes by Arthur James May, page 782, copyright © 1966 by the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, publication date: 1966
