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
German fighter pilot Max Immelmann at the site of his fourth victory on October 10, 1915. With 15 victories to his credit, Immelmann died on June 18, 1916, after brushing wingtips with a fellow pilot.
Image text: Reverse:Das vierte von Leutnant Immelmann am 10.10.1915 bei Lille heruntergeschossene englische Kampfflugzeug, wobei ein englischer Offizier den Tod fand, ein anderer leicht verwundet in unsere Gefangenschaft geriet.The fourth of Lieutenant Immelmann on 10/10/1915 at Lille down shot British fighter aircraft, an English officer was killed and another slightly wounded fell into our captivity.Das vierte von Leutnant Immelmann am 10.10.1915 bei Lille heruntergeschossene englische Kampfflugzeug, wobei ein englischer Offizier den Tod fand, ein anderer leicht verwundet in unsere Gefangenschaft geriet.HANDWRITTEN:Anstehend seht Ihr ein Englisches Flugzeug, das ich am 10. Oktober vorigen Jahres wo ich in Frankreich, bei Lille, war, fotografiert habe.Onkel MaxThe fourth warplane downed by Lieutenant Immelmann. On October 10th, 1915 he shot down this warplane. Thereby an English officer died, another came slightly wounded to our captivity.HANDWRITTEN:At the front of the postcard you see an English airplane, which I took a photo of last year on October 10th near Lille in France.Uncle MaxTranscript and translation by www.old-german-script.com/index.html
From a series on the Great War, a 1916 map on the the Sixth Battle of the Isonzo, Italian commander Luigi Cadorna's offensive in August of the same year. The Italians crossed much of the Isonzo, and took Gorizia. The Austro-Hungarians continued to hold high ground to the east. © The Great War
Image text: Map labels include:River Isonzo, Gorizia, Doberdo Plateau, Carso Plateau, Gradisca, Monfalcone, Gulf of PanzanoText:Area of General Cadorna's successful operations against Gorizia, August 1916. The Isonzo Valley forms the eastern line for the defense of Italy, and its possession was essential to the realization of Italian ideals. Gorizia, its main strategic position, was captured on August 9th, 1916, by the Italians, who thus secured possession of the key to Trieste.
Prosperity and victory in 1915: an official New Year's postcard of the Bavarian Red Cross, with a message dated December 31, 1914, postmarked January 1, 1915.
Image text: Heil und Sieg unsern Waffen im Jahre 1915.MINNIWIRTHReverse:Offizielle Neujahrs-Postkarte des Bayerischen Roten KreuzesOfficial New Year's Card of the Bavarian Red Crossmessage dated December 31, 1914, postmarked January 1, 1915
The battlefield near Verdun, the Meuse River (Maas), and the Argonne Forest, viewed from the German line looking southwest. During the 1916 Seige of Verdun, the road and a light rail line from Bar-le-Duc were the sole source of supply for the besieged city.
Image text: Labels: Argonnen (Argonne Forest), Verdun, Maas (Meuse River), Bar-le-Duc.Reverse:Panorama des westlichen Kreigschauplatzes 1914/15Die Argonnen. Von Verdun bis Reims.Die Panorama-Postkartenreihe umfaßt mit ihren 9 Abschnitten Nr. 400 bis 408 den gesamten westlichen Kriegschauplatz von der Schweizer Grenze bis zur Nordseeküste.Panorama of the Western theater of war 1914/15 from Compiègne to Arras.The panoramic postcard series includes with their 9 sections No. 400 to 408 the entire western front from the Swiss border to the North Sea coast.Nr. 407Wenau-Postkarte Patentamtl. gesch.Logo: W&N AGL
"Strong French and English forces had already reached the Yser during the first ten days of October — the English had been withdrawn altogether from the old front near Rheims — and were trying to get into touch on the eastern bank with the Belgian divisions which were retreating from Antwerp. Our forces had not been sufficient to prevent the withdrawal of these troops before the fall of the fortress. Although the Belgians were in extremely miserable condition they would soon be able to attack again if supported by English or French formations. There was no doubt about the resolute offensive intentions of the English and the French. Not only had that danger that the Germans would be finally cut off from the Belgian coast again become acute, but also the danger of an effective encirclement of the right wing." ((1), more)
"In 'carping at our victory' in a letter of a week ago, for which you scold me, I share and expressed a general feeling out here. An angrier lot of men never was than the infantry I had been speaking to for a week before writing. They cursed our 'Cavalry Generals' from their hearts. Still, if the Censor at the Base had opened my letter . . . Since then there have been questions in Parliament about Hill 70. It is only an item in what has been lost; in fact, most of the gain has been undone. A good thing too, in a way, for the 'great advance' that set London mafficking, and sundry bigwigs wiring congratulations to each other, would have left us with just such another running sore as our sentimental Salient.'" ((2), more)
"On October 10th a surprise attack was successfully driven into the Austrian positions north and south of the Vipacco River, and conformably with this success the Italian line on the Carso pushed forward by about a mile. In the two days' fighting, 7,0000 Austrian prisoners were taken." ((3), more)
"A railway strike has dislocated rail-transport throughout Russia. Finland has proclaimed herself a republic. Strikes and riots are still rampant, while famine is augmenting the general hardship. At supper there was a pessimistic feeling among us that our Red Cross Otryad was slowly but surely closing down. Alas for our hopes and ambitions! Alas! for poor, suffering Russia." ((4), more)
"The second phase of the Argonne battle was begun on October 4th, when the First American Army, reinforced by its reserved divisions, advanced to attack the Kriemhilde line. The First Corps, on the 7th, took Chatel-Chehery, pressing forward toward Cornay. At the same time, the Third Corps, tilting to the left and fighting against great odds, marked its way through Brieulles and Cunel. The Fifth Corps, meantime, in quick succession, had taken Gesnes and Fleville. On the 10th, the great Argonne Forest was completely cleared of the Germans." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from the memoirs of German Commander in Chief Erich von Falkenhayn on the situation immediately after the fall of Antwerp on October 9, 1914 and final surrender on October 10. As the German and the Allied forces tried to outflank each other in the Race to the Sea, the Belgian Army, bolstered by British and French forces, retreated along the coast to connect with the Allied armies.
General Headquarters and its Critical Decisions, 1914-1916 by Erich von Falkenhayn, page 31, copyright © 1920 by Dodd, Mead and Company, Inc., publisher: Dodd, Mead and Company, Inc., publication date: 1920
(2) London was mafficking, celebrating with extravagant public displays, a victory in the Battle of Loos, when many of the hopes of September 25 had already been lost, in costly renewals of the attack on September 26, 27, and 28, and in German counter attacks on October 3 and 8. An entry from October 10, 1915 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. The 'sentimental Salient' is likely Ypres, where the British had suffered, and continued to suffer, heavy casualties. Dunn was no less bitter in the coming days. On May 17, 1900, British troops relieved the 217-day siege of Mafeking during the Boer War.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 162, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
(3) Excerpt from an account of the Italian conquest of Gorizia and subsequent, less successful, actions, by British historian Edwin Grewe. The Eighth of Twelve Battles of the Isonzo began on October 9, 1916. The Vipacco River flows westerly and into the Isonzo River. North of the Carso plateau, the Vipacco is south of the city of Gorizia which the Italians took on August 10, 1916. The Austro-Hungarians held the high ground. With any advance, the Italians faced the next range.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. IV, 1916, p. 296, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
(4) Excerpt from the entry for October 10, (September 27, Old 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. The failure of Russia's July 1 offensive was a further step in the collapse of Russian society, the war effort, and the Provisional Government. Some of Farmborough's colleagues in her Otryad (Отряд), her squad, had already left when she was writing. The province of Finland was following Kerensky's proclamation of a Russian republic.
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) The first phase of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive had begun on September 26, 1918, and had fallen well short of its unrealistic goals for a rapid advance in the densely forested, well-fortified Argonne. The Kriemhilde line was, to quote our author, 'a system of concrete trenches nearly three miles deep, occupying the heights and protected with several zones of thick barbed wire hundreds of feet wide.'
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 470, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
