Postcard for travel to Brno for the Slet, a Sokol gymnastics festival on June 27, 28, and 29, 1914. By E. Kouby.
Image text: Zájezd Č.O.S do Brna, Ve Dnech 27. 28. a 29. Cervna 1914Č.O.S trip to Brno on June 27, 28, and 29, 1914Reverse:Dopisnice ve prospĕch sletu sokolstva v BrnĕOchranná známkaDie original E. Kouby, BrnoVydává J. Procháska, Brno, Rudolfova ul. 9Postcard for Sokol slet [gymnastics festival] in BrnoTrademarkDie Original E. Kouba, Brno Published by J. Prochaska, 9 Rudolph Street, Brno
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?
A photo postcard of a German trench view of barbed wire and a dead patrol. Dated February 22, 1916, and field postmarked the next day, the message is from a soldier to his uncle, and reads in part, 'yesterday we heard that 4 fortresses of Verdun were taken. This have been a lot of shooting . . . Maybe this is the end of Verdun and peace will come soon . . . the barbed wire on the other side of the card is French. You can see dead patrols . . .' (Translation from the German courtesy Thomas Faust.) Evidently the author safely reached the French trench line.
Image text: Reverse:France Feb 22 1916 - Dear Uncle, yesterday we have heard that 4 fortresses of Verdun were taken. This have been a lot of shooting ... Maybe this is the end of Verdun and peace will come soon ... the barbed wire on the other side of the card is French. You can see dead patrols ... (Translation from the German courtesy Thomas Faust (Ebay's Urfaust).)
A mass of German troops bear an enormous egg striped in the black, white, and red of the german flag. Atop the egg, a cannon is fired by troops with a Hungarian flag. The target, diminutive in the distance, is Paris, Eiffel Tower gray against the brown city.The watercolor is labeled,Husvét . Páris piros tojása . 1918Easter . Red eggs for Paris . 1918The front of the card is postmarked 1918-04-05 from Melököveso.The card is a Feldpostkarte, a field postcard, from Asbach Uralt, old German cognac. Above the brand name, two German soldiers wheel a field stove past a crate containing a bottle of the brandy under the title Gute Verpflegung, Good Food. Above the addressee is written Einschreiben, enroll, and Nach Ungarn, to Hungary. The card is addressed to Franz Moritos, and is postmarked Hamburg, 1918-03-30. A Hamburg stamp also decorates the card.A hand-painted postcard by Schima Martos. , Germany on registered fieldpost card, 1918, message: Red Egg for Paris, Easter, 1918.The German advance in Operation Michael in the March, 1918 nearly broke the Allied line, and threatened Paris, putting it once again in range of a new German supergun capable of hitting the city from 70 miles away.
Image text: Husvét . Páris piros tojása . 1918Easter . Red eggs for Paris . 1918The front of the card is postmarked 1918-04-05 from Melököveso
"After that Švejk began to talk of the famous orders which had been read out to them before they got into the train. One was the army order, signed by Franz Joseph, and another came from Archduke Joseph Ferdinand, the Supreme Commander of the Eastern Army and Group. Both concerned the events on the Dukla Pass on 3 April 1915, when two battalions of the 28th regiment including their officers went over to the Russians to the strains of their regimental band." ((1), more)
"Early on the morning of 3 April [French Captain Jean Tocaben] watched in amazement and horror as a unit from Mangin's 9th Brigade advanced, not just without artillery preparation but without any clear idea of where the enemy was—unsupported, headed in the wrong direction, exposed to the light of the rising sun. It went, he said, 'blindly to the slaughter':And on its polished helmets the morning sun broke in splashes of light and, clothing in splendour the men, the young men going to their deaths, covered them with a nimbus of glory and crowned them with a crest of fire. What a sublime, what a poignant sight"" ((2), more)
"God! How I hate you, you young cheerful men,Whose pious poetry blossoms on your gravesAs soon as you are in them, nurtured upBy the salt of your corruption, and the tearsOf mothers, local vicars, college deans,And flanked by prefaces and photographsFrom all your minor poet friends — the fools —Who paint their sentimental elegiesWhere sure, no angel treads; and, living, shareThe dead's brief immortality." ((3), more)
"General Foch is charged by the British, French and American Governments with the co-ordination of the action of the Allied Armies on the Western Front. To this end all powers necessary to secure effective realization are conferred on him. The British, French and American Governments for this purpose entrust to General Foch the strategic direction of military operations. The Commanders-in-Chief of the British, French and American Armies have full control of the tactical employment of their forces. Each Commander-in-Chief will have the right of appeal to his Government if in his opinion the safety of his Army is compromised by any order received from General Foch." ((4), more)
(1) The Good Soldier Švejk (or Schweik) is the hero of Jaroslav Hašek's novel of the same name. Both Švejk and Hašek are Czech, as are the two battalions that deserted to the Russians in the battles of the Carpathian Mountain passes. Švejk and his Czech regiment were on a train in Galicia heading off to fight the Russians. The Army Order of April 17, 1915 from Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph that Švejk extemporizes upon read, 'With a heart overflowing with grief it is my command that the Imperial and Royal Infantry Regiment no. 28 be struck off the roll of my army for cowardice and treason. The regimental standard is to be withdrawn from the dishonoured regiment and handed over to the War Museum. This day marks the end of the existence of a regiment which was morally poisoned by the atmosphere at home and went into the field to commit treason.'
The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek, page 450, copyright © Cecil Parrott, 1973 (translation), publisher: Penguin
(2) French Generals Robert Nivelle and his subordinate Charles Mangin were posted to Verdun at the beginning of April, 1916, the former to replace General Pétain. Mangin, who was criticized for getting too many of his men killed, went immediately on the offensive, both on April 3 and 4. Captain Tocaben considered the attack from the German viewpoint: 'It's certainly a rare piece of luck to see troops coming at you deployed as if they were on maneuvers, and to shoot them at your leisure, without running the slightest risk.'
The Road to Verdun by Ian Ousby, page 271, copyright © 2002 by The Estate of Ian Ousby, publisher: Anchor Books, publication date: 2003
(3) Beginning of the poem 'God! How I hate you, you young cheerful men!' by British officer Arthur Graeme West of the 6th Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry, killed by a sniper April 3, 1917 in Bapaume, France. West loathed the kind of poetry that glorified the war and its ugly death. In 'The Night Patrol,' for example, men mark their route to the German wire by committing to memory the bodies they encounter as they crawl along, and the stench off them, so these will bring them safely back to their own line and a ration of rum.
The Lost Voices of World War I, An International Anthology of Writers, Poets and Playwrights by Tim Cross, page 69, copyright © 1989 by The University of Iowa, publisher: University of Iowa Press, publication date: 1989
(4) Statement of the Beauvais conference on April 3, 1918, superseding the previous agreement reached at Doullens. On March 26, in response to the success of Germany's Somme Offensive, Operation Michael, a Franco-British agreement charged Foch with 'coördinating the action of the Allied armies on the western front', subordinating their commanders, Henri Philippe Pétain and Douglas Haig, to the coordination of Ferdinand Foch. On March 28, American commander John Pershing had offered Foch, 'all that I have I put at your disposal.' Neither British Prime Minister Lloyd George nor Haig trusted the other, and the Prime Minister was happy to see Haig subordinate to Foch. Foch had for months pressed for a unified command and reserve force that could seize the offensive when the opportunity presented itself.
1918, the Last Act by Barrie Pitt, pp. 111–111, copyright © 1962 by Barrie Pitt, publisher: Ballantine Books, Inc., publication date: 1963
