Russian troops fleeing a solitary German soldier. The Russian First Army invaded Germany in August 1914, and defeated the Germans in the Battle of Gumbinnen on the 20th. In September the Germans drove them out of Russia in the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes. In September and October, a joint German, Austro-Hungarian offensive drove the Russians back almost to Warsaw. Illustration by E. H. Nunes.
Image text: Die Russen haben große Hoffnungen auf den Krieg gesetzt, - es ist aber auch eine Kehrseite dabei.The Russians have set high hopes for the war - but there is also a downside to that.Reverse:Kriegs-Postkarte der Meggendorfer-Blätter, München. Nr. 25War postcard of the Meggendorfer Blätter, Munich. # 25
Imperial Russian field artillery in combat training in the snow at Camp B.K.
Image text: Reverse:Russian artillery on combat training at camp B.K. (Translation courtesy Thomas Faust, eBay's Urfaust.
Russian troops arriving in Marseilles, on France's Mediterranean coast, in April 1916. With the Dardanelles closed to them, they would have had a journey along the Atlantic coast of France, Spain, and Portugal before entering the Mediterranean at Gibraltar. Russian troops fought with the Allied forces on the Salonica and Western Fronts.
Image text: Les Troupes Russes a Marseille20 Avril 1916 — Défilé des Russes se rendant au Camp de MirabeauPhoto LlorcaRussians troops in Marseille April 20, 1916 — Column of Russians on their way to Camp Mirabeau
An advertising card of the Romanian Army from the series Armées des États Balcaniques, published in 1910.Shown, from left to right, a non-commissioned officer and artillery gunners, a staff officer, a rosiori (a red hussar), a mounted policeman (dismounted), a kalarachi (territorial reserve cavalry), a chasseur (venatori or rifleman), and an infantryman.
Image text: Véritable Extrait de Viande Liebig.Voir L’Explication au verso.Reverse:RoumanieLe service militaire general est obligatoire pour les Roumains. Il commence avec la 21me année et dure 25 ans. Le service actif est théoriquement de 7 ans, mais se décompose en réalité en une période de service effectif de 3 à 5 ans et en une seconde période de 2 à 4 ans de congé. L’armée roumaine se divise en quatre corps comprenant 3000 officiers, 48,000 hommes et 360 pièces d’artillerie. Sur pied de guerre, l’effectif pourrait être porté à 3500 officiers et 150,000 hommes auxquels il convient d’ajouter 50,000 miliciens et territoriaux. – Au recto de cette carte figurent, en commençant par la gauche : un sous-officier d’artillerie et des artilleurs, un officier d’état major, un hussard rouge (rosiori), un homme de la gendarmerie montée, un hussard kalarachi, un chasseur (venatori), et un fantassin.RomaniaGeneral military service is compulsory for Romanians. It starts at age 21, and lasts 25 years. Active duty is theoretically seven years, but in reality is divided into a period of active service of 3 to 5 years and a second period of 2 to 4 years of leave. The Romanian army is divided into four army corps consisting of 3,000 officers, 48,000 men and 360 artillery pieces. On a war footing, the number could be increased to 3,500 officers and 150,000 men to which should be added 50.000 militia and territorials [home guard]. - The front of this card shows, starting from the left: a non-commissioned officer and artillery gunners, a staff officer, a rosiori [red hussar], a mounted policeman [dismounted], a kalarachi [territorial reserve cavalry], a chasseur (venatori) [rifleman], and an infantryman.Armées des États Balcaniques. Roumanie.Armies of the Balkan states. Romania.Véritable Extrait de Viande Liebig.Ne concourt plus dan les Expositions depuis 1885.L’Extrait de Viande Liebig sert à preparer ou à améliorer toutes
Headstone of an unknown Australian soldier buried in High Wood Cemetery. © 2013 by John M. Shea
Image text: A Soldier of the Great WarAn Australian RegimentKnown Unto GodImperial Australian Forces
"In the early morning of 1st September, while on my way to the offices of our General Staff, I noticed an unusual animation along the Nevski Prospekt [in St. Petersburg]. I kept passing groups of people engrossed in very lively discussions. An especially large group was gathered before the bulletin boards of the Novoye Vremya [New Times], Russia's leading newspaper, at the corner of Sadovia Street. I was somewhat surprised, for I had never seen so many people there. Certainly an event of exceptional importance must have occurred at the Front. People looked upset, and a voice choked with emotion said: 'What a disaster! Even generals have been killed! Why is the government deceiving us with news of victories?' To which another voice added: 'It's exactly the same mess that happened during the war with Japan!'" ((1), more)
"HeidekampfSonne Halde stampfen keuche BangeSonne Halde glimmet stumpfe WutSonne Halde sprenkeln irre StahleSonne Halde flirret faches BlutBlutUndBlutenBlutUndBluten BlutenDumpfen tropftUndDumpfenSiegt und krustetSonne Halde flackt und fleckt und flackertSonne Halde blumet knosper Tod.— August StrammHeath CombatSunshine hillside stamping panting fearSunshine hillside glimmers stumping rageSunshine hillside sprinkling crazy steelSunshine hillside flitting fanning bloodBloodAndBleedingBloodAndBleeding bleedingDudding dropsAndDuddingWins and CrustersSunshine hillside flares and flakes and flickersSunshine hillside budding bloomy death.— Translated by Jeremy Adler" ((2), more)
"There is great humiliation at General Headquarters and the War Ministry.The 2nd Russian brigade, which recently arrived in France and was about to embark for Salonica, has mutinied at Marseilles ; the colonel has been murdered and several officers were wounded. To restore order the vigourous intervention of French troops was required. Severe measures of repression have been taken and about twenty men shot.I cannot help remembering what Sazonov said to me last December when justifying his opposition to Doumer's request : 'When the Russian soldier is off his own soil he's worthless ; he goes to pieces at once.'" ((3), more)
"Grigorescu's counteroffensive began on 1 September [1917]. The VIII Corps did hold its positions, but things did not go well for the Romanian attack group commanded by General Popescu. Artillery preparation was insufficient, and coordination with the infantry during the battle was poor. The Alpine Corps was entrenched in rough, wooded terrain, well supported by artillery, machine guns, and mortars. Its infantry resisted the Romanian assault step by step. From the perspective of the Alpine Corps, it was a repetition of the slaughter of the Russians two day before, only now it was Romanian soldiers who were being mowed down. The attack was suspended at noon but resumed in the evening. Only a quarter of the lost ground was reconquered. Continuation of the Romanian advance was postponed until 3 September in order to rest and reorganize the troops." ((4), more)
". . . as dawn broke violent attacks were launched up the slopes of Mont St. Quentin — and owing to the ferocity with which the battle was fought, the enemy's attention became gradually concentrated there. Australians of the 54th Battalion thus found their way into Péronne practically unimpeded, and by 8.40 a.m. they were established in the centre of the town, having cleared all points of resistance in the southern and western quarters. . . .For the remainder of that day (September 1st [1918]) the German troops counterattacked both positions fiercely, but were unable to beat the Australians out of the positions they had already won . . ." ((5), more)
(1) Part of General A.A. Noikov's description of learning of the disastrous Russian defeat in the Battle of Tannenberg. Noikov then quotes from a telegram from Commander in Chief Grand Duke Nicholas which reported heavy casualties due to massive German artillery bombardments and the loss of Generals Martos, Pestich, and Samsonov, the last the commander of the Russian Second Army. The Grand Duke did not report the capture of over 90,000 Russian prisoners from Samsonov's ruined army. The 'war with Japan' was the Russo-Japanese War of 1905 in which Japan defeated Russia. The Revolution of 1905 followed.
Suicide of the Empires by Alan Clark, page 46, copyright © 1971 by Alan Clark, publisher: American Heritage Press, publication date: 1971
(2) 'Heidekampf' ('Heath Combat') by the German poet and playwright August Stramm, killed in action on the Dnepr-Bug Canal on the Russian front on September 1, 1915. A captain in the reserve, Stramm was called up in 1914, and served in the Vosges Mountains on the Western Front. In January 1915 he was made Commander of 9 Company II Battalion, 272dn Infantry Reserve Regiment, 41st Reserve Corps. The Corps was moved to the Eastern Front in April prior to the German-Austro-Hungarian Gorlice Tarnow Offensive. Although the offensive broke the Russian line, and the Russian Army retreated, ultimately along the entire front, it was not routed, but regularly entrenched and fought before resuming the retreat. Before the war, Stamm held a high position in the postal service, but began writing in earnest in 1912, and was first published in the avant-garde periodical Der Sturm in 1914. 'Heidekampf' is from his his collection of poems, Tropfblut: Gedichte aus dem Krieg — Blood Drop: Poems from the War.
The Lost Voices of World War I, An International Anthology of Writers, Poets and Playwrights by Tim Cross, page 142, copyright © 1989 by The University of Iowa, publisher: University of Iowa Press, publication date: 1989
(3) Entry from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia, for Friday, September 1, 1916. Russian troops were already in the Allied line on the Salonica Front, having been transported from Archangel, Russia to Marseilles. The French wanted Russian troops serving with the French both because of the need for more men and for reasons of morale. In his memoir Poilu, Louis Barthas writes of seeing Russian troops, and of French speakers of Russian rapidly promoted and assigned as interpreters. Sergei Sazonov was Russian Foreign Minister from 1910 until his replacement by Boris Sturmer in July, 1916. Doumer was likely Paul Doumer, French Senator in the Chamber of Deputies, a former Minister and Governor-General of French Indo-China, and later President of France, assassinated by a Russian emigré in 1931. Paléologue met with him on December 4, 1915 and told the Ambassador he would ask Russia for 400,000 men.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. III by Maurice Paléologue, pp. 16–17, publisher: George H. Doran Company
(4) On August 28, 1917, the German Alpine Corps attacked two Russian divisions holding the Romanian-Russian front at the village of Muncelu, driving the Russians back as much as four kilometers. Allied troops counterattacked on August 29 with the Russians suffering heavily in repeated and determined attacks. On September 1, the Romanians took the lead, with similar results.
The Romanian Battlefront in World War I by Glenn E. Torrey, page 233, copyright © 2011 by the University Press of Kansas, publisher: University Press of Kansas, publication date: 2011
(5) The Germans successfully defending Mont St. Quentin, and having lost much of Péronne, shifted some of the forces from the former to the latter, allowing the Australians to overrun the trenches and village of Mont St. Quentin. The last of the Germans defending Péronne retreated on September 2 after having been outflanked by the Australian 15th Brigade.
1918, the Last Act by Barrie Pitt, page 217, copyright © 1962 by Barrie Pitt, publisher: Ballantine Books, Inc., publication date: 1963
