Australians at Anzac Cove, December 17, 1915, from 'Gallipoli' by John Masefield. The Allied completed evacuating their positions at Suvla Bay and Anzac Cove on December 19.
Image text: Australians at Anzac two days before the evacuation took place.
Gun turrets of Fort Douaumont in the rain, September 22, 2015. © 2015 John M. Shea
Image text:
German pencil sketch of Lake Doiran, on the Greco-Serbian border, site of a battle in which the Bulgarians defeated the French, English, and Serbians in December, 1915, and of the Battle of Doiran in September 1918. Tents can be made out in the foreground. It looks to be dated March 30, 1916 (30 III 1916).
Image text: The lake is labeled Doiran-See — Lake DoiranGrenze SerbienGriechenlandStras[s]eFlussWeg zu Stellung30 III 1916Serbian BorderGreeceRoadRiverTowards positionMarch 30, 1916
Headstone of Corporal Harry L. Curtis of Massachusetts and the 6th Engineers, 3rd Division, at the Somme American Cemetery, Bony, France. Curtis died on May 6, 1918. © 2013 by John M. Shea
Image text: Harry L. CurtisCoprl. 6 Engrs. 3 Div.Massachusetts May 6, 1918
"The British thought they had killed everyone but they hadn't. The shells fell too far behind the Turkish lines. The Turks were intact and ready for us. As soon as the bombardment finished we were ordered over the top. When we ran across the Daisy Patch toward the Turk line there was thousands of rifles and machine-guns trained on us. They were across open country 400 yards away. We were getting shot from all directions. It was just a mass of bullets. The ground was hopping with bullets like it was hailing. The Turks was all in trenches. All you could see was their heads. They weren't in the open at all. . . . There was a machine-gun trained across where I was. There were five chaps killed in front of me. One, two, three, four, five, as quick as that." ((1), more)
"On 8 May a series of explosions wracked the depths of the fort, spreading from a box of hand grenades to the petrol canisters used in flamethrowers and, finally, to a magazine of artillery shells. Some 650 German soldiers died—underground, in darkness, blown to pieces, seared by fire or choked by smoke—in the worst disaster of its type that either army suffered at Verdun." ((2), more)
"At dusk on May 8 [1917] the British artillery thundered out once again over Doiran Town. The Bulgarian batteries replied, and all the southern end of the lake was lit by a cascade of fire and flame . . . At ten minutes to ten, two companies of the Scottish Rifles moved forward on the right flank across the Patty Ravine, but soon they were enveloped by the fog and for four hours even the battalion commander had no news of them. As other companies crept toward the Bulgarian trenches, seeking for a gap where the wire had been cut, from each of the brigade headquarters senior officers peered out, trying to discover what was happening in the smoke." ((3), more)
"A Yankee captain, and a sergeant, arrived for three days instruction. 'This is my birthday in hell,' he began. He seemed a good fellow, said that Yankee divisions are rolling over.Company officers are getting fed up with the daily alarms—'an attack is expected'—which come from behind. Reports says one day that cavalry have come to support us, another day that a division is being sent up in buses; so it goes on; and always that the French are behind. The latest alarm, 'sure this time,' is of a May 8th—big attack to-day. Pending its onset I sat, if the midges allowed, or strolled in the cottage gardens." ((4), more)
(1) New Zealander Hartly Palmer on his attempt to cross the 'Daisy Patch' against entrenched Turkish Infantry on May 8, 1915. Within days of the Allied invasion of Gallipoli on April 25, 1915, neither the Turks nor the Allies could advance, and struggled to reinforce their troops. Allied commander General Sir Ian Hamilton brought troops from Egypt and redeployed men of the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps who had landed at Gaba Tepe — Anzac Cove — south to the Anglo-French position at Cape Helles on the end of the Gallipoli Peninsula. Achi Baba, the objective, was a 709-foot high hill from which the Turks dominated the Allied position. The attempt to cross the open 'Daisy Patch' was a disaster for the men who tried. Joe Gasparich, another New Zealand survivor, referred to the Turkish troops as 'Jacko,', and observed that he was 'safe as houses' in his entrenchments.
Voices of Gallipoli by Maurice Shadbolt, page 31, copyright © 1988 Maurice Shadbolt, publisher: Hodder and Stoughton, publication date: 1988
(2) German troops captured Fort Douaumont, one of the principle forts protecting the fortress city of Verdun, on February 25, 1916, surprising a garrison that had no idea it was at risk. The Battle of Verdun at that date was only in its fourth day. The explosion on May 8 convinced General Mangin the time was ripe for the French to retake the fort. A plaque at Fout Douaumont puts the number of Germans killed in the explosion at 679. In a footnote our author Ian Ousby elaborates on 'the worst disaster of its type that either army suffered at Verdun': Between 400 and 500 French 'using the Tavannes railway tunnel as command post, emergency hospital, garrison and place of refuge' died in an explosion and fire on September 4, 1916.
The Road to Verdun by Ian Ousby, page 275, copyright © 2002 by The Estate of Ian Ousby, publisher: Anchor Books, publication date: 2003
(3) Along the Salonica Front extending across northern Greece and into Serbia, an Allied French, British, Serbian, Russian, and Italian army under the command of French General Maurice Sarrail faced a Bulgarian army supported by German troops. The British attack at Lake Doiran on the eastern end of the Allied line was the opening of Sarrail's 1917 spring offensive, which would continue with the other nationalities attacking the next day.
The Gardeners of Salonika by Alan Palmer, pp. 124–125, copyright © 1965 by A. W. Palmer, publisher: Simon and Schuster, publication date: 1965
(4) Ending of the entry for May 7 flowing into that for May 8, 1918 from the writings — diaries, letters, and memoirs — of Captain J. C. Dunn, Medical Officer of the Second Battalion His Majesty's Twenty-Third Foot, the Royal Welch Fusiliers, and fellow soldiers who served with him. Dunn's unit was northeast of Amiens where they gone at the beginning of April to reinforce the British line against the German Somme Offensive, Operation Michael, which was suspended on the 5th. It was quickly followed by Operation Georgette on April 9, the second of five German Offensives in 1918. The Allies were expecting the next attack any day.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 480, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
