Memorial to the French Moroccan Division at Vimy Ridge. The face commemorates the Division's victory at the Second Battle of Artois, in which the Moroccan Division broke the German front for the first time and took Hill 140, their objective.Listed on the sides of the memorial are the sectors and battles where the Division fought:1914The ArdennesAugust 28 — La Fosse a l'EeauAugust 30 — BertoncourtSeptember 1 — AlincourtThe MarneSeptember 6 to 9 — Coizard, MondementDecember 30 — Ferme d'Alger1915BelgiumJanuary 28 — Nieuport, la Grande DuneArtoisMay 9 — la Cote 140June 16 — Ravin de SouchezChampagneSeptember 25 — Butte de Souain, Bois Sabot1916the SommeJuly 4 — Assevillers, Bellov en Santerre, Barleux1917ChampagneApril 17 — Moronvilliers, Mont sans Nom, AuberiveVerdunAugust 20 — Cumieres, Bois des Corbeaux, Forges Regnieville1918LorraineJanuary 8 — Flireythe SommeApril 26 — Villers-Bretonneux, Bois de Hangardthe AisneMay 30 — Vauxbuin, ChazelleJune 12 — AmblenyJuly 18 to 20 — Dommiers ChaudumSeptember 2 to 8 — Terny-Sorny, Moulin de Laffaux, AllemantNovember 11 — VictoryNovember 17 — Entered Chateau-Salins © 2013, John M. Shea
Image text: Aux Morts de la Division MarocaineSans Peur Sans PitiéA la mémoiredu Colonel Pein, Ct. de la 1re Brigade. du Colonel Cros, Ct. de la 2me Brigadedes Officiers, S/Officiers et Soldats de la Don MarocaineTombé ici glorieusement les 9, 10, & 11 Mai 1915Le 9 Mai 1915 les Régiments de la Don Morocaine s'elancant a 10 Hres des tranchées de Berthonval et brisant de haute lutte la résistance des Allemands atteignirent d'un bond la cote 140, leur objectif, rompant pour la premiere fois le front ennemiTo the Dead of the Moroccan DivisionFearless PitilessTo the Memoryof Colonel Pein, Commandant of the 1st Brigade, of Colonel Cros, Commandant of the 2nd Brigade,of the Officers, Non-commissioned Officers, and Soldiers of the Moroccan DivisionGloriously fell here May 9, 10, & 11 1915On May 9 1915 the Regiments of the Moroccan Division, darting at 10:00 hours from the Berthonval trenches, and breaking the resistance of the Germans in a hard-fought struggle, reached Hill 140, their object, breaking the enemy's front for the first time.
A Russian advance across a pontoon bridge is stopped by an artillery bombardment. A postcard from a painting by K. Flechine, a student of the State School of Applied Arts, Hamburg.
Image text: K. FlechineReverse:Deutsche Kriegsausstellung Hamburgzugunsten des Hamburgischen Landesvereins vom Roten Kreuz.Kriegsbilder, gezeichnet von Schulkindern in der Staatlichen Kunstgewerbeschule, Hamburg.Hamburger Opfertag 1916 für Heer und MarineHartung & Co., HamburgGerman war exhibition HamburgFor the benefit of the Hamburg National Association of the Red Cross.Images of war, drawn by school children in the State School of Applied Arts, Hamburg.Hamburger victims day, 1916, for the Army and NavyHartung & Co., Hamburg
Vote Yes pin for Australian conscription, October 28, 1916, with the flags of Australia and Great Britain. A tin badge or tie-back pin in support of the Australian referendum on conscription, October 28, 1916. Australia voted no on this occasion and again, by a wider margin, in December, 1917.
Image text: Oct 28, 1916Vote Yes
Map of United States troop sailings from Canada and the United States to Great Britain, France, and Italy. Over 2,000,000 Americans sailed, divided roughly equally between Britain and France.
Image text:
"That day, June 5 [1915], was one of the bloodiest days of this futile battle of Artois.The French communiqué of the following day claimed that our artillery had fired 500,000 projectiles. I can speak for those who lived through that hell, when I say that the German artillery gave us back just as many. . . .Explosions filled the air, without ceasing. Strange, sharp, piercing sounds, first the whistling, sometimes like a cat meowing, then crashing down like a steady rain of steel." ((1), more)
"The Russian bombardment continued for most of 4th June [1916]. The next day, infantry attack followed—preceded by 'testing' patrols. In practice, the Austro-Hungarian defence had already been ruined. Two-thirds of the available troops were put in the front position—the three foremost trenches, in a belt perhaps a kilometre in depth. There were huge dug-outs in this belt that could sustain the heaviest artillery. But two great errors had been made: the Russian lines had been allowed to within seventy-five paces of the Austrian trenches, and the reserves did not emerge from their dug-outs until the last moment. Not surprisingly, the defenders of the second trench and the reserves in their dug-outs, and the Russians—pumping reserves in fast from their own dug-outs only a few hundred yards away—came up to the dug-out mouths only shortly after the bombardment had ended. The Austrian dug-outs were therefore traps, not strong-points: each a miniature Przemyśl." ((2), more)
"[Secretary of War Newton D.] Baker and other military and civilian authorities had initially feared widespread resistance to the draft. . . .The actual response of the American people on June 5, a Tuesday, exceeded the most optimistic hopes of Baker and his military advisers. Amid hastily organized local festivities, parades, pageants and processions, some ten million men between the ages of twenty-one and thirty came forward to register before more than 135,000 local board officials. From across the land, reports of enthusiastic and patriotic compliance flooded in. Ocala, Florida was typical. Civic officials organized a parade of almost one thousand citizens. To the strains of 'The Star Spangled Banner' and 'Dixie,' members of fraternal orders, women's clubs, and service organizations marched down Fort King Avenue, the black contingents following the whites." ((3), more)
"The following recommendations are made on the assumption that at least 250,000 men can be transported in each of the months of June and July by the employment of combined British and American tonnage. We recommend:(a) For the month of June: (1) Absolute priority shall be given to the transportation of 170,000 combatant troops (viz., six divisions without artillery, ammunition trains, or supply trains, amounting to 126,000 men and 44,000 replacements for combat troops); (2) 25,400 men for the service of the railways, of which 13,400 have been asked for by the French Minister of Transportation; (3) the balance to be troops of categories to be determined by the Commander-in-Chief, American Expeditionary Forces.(b) For the month of July: (1) Absolute priority for the shipment of 140,000 combatant troops of the nature defined above . . ." ((4), more)
(1) Excerpt from the entry for June 5, 1915 from the notebooks of French infantry Corporal Louis Barthas. Barthas was a combatant in the Second Battle of Artois, a struggle from May 9 to June 25 for the high ground of Loretto Heights and Vimy Ridge, and the nearby villages: Carency, Souchez, Neuville-St.-Vaast. Ordered to seize the woods of Bois-de-Carré, Barthas and his men immediately came under artillery fire, and spent a stifling day under constant bombardment, the men calling one to another for assurance each was alive. One shell that struck near Barthas exhumed a corpse, immediately drawing thousands of flies, the flies that plagued the sector and the men in it.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, page 75, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
(2) Russian General Alexsei Brusilov prepared for his great Offensive in ways other Russian generals had not. In 1916 Russian industry had risen to the production levels demanded by the war, and had adequate shells, cannons, rifles, and ammunition for its artillery and infantry. In the month before the attack, the Russians had extended saps (trenches) to within seventy-five paces of the Austro-Hungarian front trenches, and had dug shelters for reinforcements. Rather than a long bombardment preparing the way for troops concentrated on a short front to achieve a break-through at a single point, Brusilov began with a short bombardment, and followed with four points of attack on a broad, 20-mile front. Aware of the Russian preparations, the complacent Austro-Hungarians did little to counter them. By the end of June 5th, the Russians had broken through, the Austro-Hungarian troops fleeing before them. Przemyśl, on the San River, Austria-Hungary's greatest fortress in Galicia, had been taken by the Russians in March, 1915 and held for three months.
The Eastern Front, 1914-1917 by Norman Stone, page 249, copyright © 1975 Norman Stone, publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons, publication date: 1975
(3) The Selective Service Act was passed by both houses of the United States Congress on May 16, 1917 and signed into law by Woodrow Wilson on the 18th. Registration was required between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. on June 5th for all those then subject to registration. In his April 2, 1917 address to the joint session of Congress requesting a declaration of war on Germany, the President had stated that 500,000 men should be immediately added to the military with 'subsequent additional increments of equal force' depending on need and the resources to train the men. The United States army was segregated, and would remain so until 1948.
America's Great War: World War I and the American Experience by Robert H. Zieger, page 60, copyright © 2000 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., publication date: 2001
(4) Excerpt from a report by American Commander-in-Chief General John J. Pershing on the June 5, 1918 agreement between Allied Commander-in-Chief Ferdinand Foch, Lord Alfred Milner, member of the British War Cabinet, and Pershing. In urgent need of troops after three German offensives since March 21, the British cut their transport of food to the United Kingdom. Pershing, who had been building an American Army in preparation for 1919 offensives, cut his transport of materiel in order to delivery men. His troops would use tanks, planes, and other weapons provided by his allies.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. VI, 1918, pp. 188–189, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
