Anzac Cove, Ari Burnu, from John Masefield's 'Gallipoli.'
Image text: View of Anzac, looking towards Suvla.
Monument to the 40th Infantry Division at Mort-Homme, Verdun. © 2015 John M. Shea
Image text: Mort-HommeAux Morts de la 40e D.I.To the Dead of the 40th Infantry DivisionThe inscription below the sword reads:Qui que tu sois Français qui passe arrete toi et salue donne un peu de ton coeur a ceux qui sont morts ici pour toiYou French who pass, stop; salute; and give a bit of your heart to those who died, died here, for you.
A French officer charging into battle in a watercolor by Fernand Rigouts. The original watercolor on deckle-edged watercolor paper is signed F. R. 1917, and addressed to Mademoiselle Henriette Dangon.
Image text: Signed F. R. 1917Reverse:Addressed to Mademoiselle Henriette Dangon
National Chicle Chewing Gum card of Major Raoul Lufbery, an American Ace who flew with the Lafayette Escadrille. Credited with 18 victories, he was killed on May 19, 1918.
Image text: Maj. Raoul LufberyReverse:No. 22Maj. Raoul LufberyEarly in the Great War, Raoul Lufbery, the great American Ace, enlisted as a mechanic in the French Foreign Legion. Later he transferred to the Escadrille Lafayette. Flying and fighting to avenge the death of a friend, he was a model of coolness and courage. He was officially credited with 18 victories. On May 19, 1918, his machine fell to the ground a mass of flames. Raoul Lufbery was dead.This is a series of 48 cardsSky BirdsNational Chicle CompanyCambridge, Mass., U.S.A.Makers of Quality Chewing GumCopr. 1933
"'Poor Simpson of 3rd F.A. was killed early in morning while still doing good work with the donkey.' The imperturbable manner in which this man, born in South Shields, County Durham, but enlisting in a West Australian unit, had brought wounded men down to the beach with the aid of his donkey was already growing into a legend which in due honour to Simpson was to symbolize the brave work done by men of all the field ambulance units." ((1), more)
"What a miserable picture! Seven days of insomnia, fatigue, thirst, anguish had transformed these sturdy men, these superbly disciplined companies, into ragged troops of laggards, of sickly, moribund figures, who nevertheless displayed an air of calm contentment for the joy of simply being alive.At the summit of a hill, we paused at the foot of a spring which bubbled clear, fresh water beside the road, where each passerby paused to quench the feverish thirst which consumed him.We took one final look back at Cote 304 and the Mort Homme, which stood out in the rosy horizon of dawn.As if from two erupting volcanoes, clouds of smoke rose up from each of the two hilltops, and the flames of explosions burst forth like jets of incandescent lava." ((2), more)
"On May 19 Pétain published Directive No. 1 and provided the entire army a clear explanation of his operational concept. The directive repeated the idea of an 'equilibrium of opposing forces' that would prevent an attacker from rupturing an opponent's defenses and conducting a strategic exploitation. To function within this equilibrium, the French could not remain passive and yield the initiative completely to the enemy; they had to attack. Instead of seeking a breakthrough however, Pétain intended to launch limited offensives that would incur 'minimum losses' but attrit the enemy. To lessen casualties he planned on massing artillery on the enemy's forward positions and then sending infantry into the destroyed trenches. Rather than fire into the huge area between the enemy's front and rear lines and thereby dilute the artillery's effect, he preferred concentrating all French rounds on the enemy's forward positions and having the infantry advance only a short distance." ((3), more)
"On Whit-Sunday evening, 19 May [1918], an aircraft was heard circling off the North Foreland on the Kent coast. British observers were puzzled as it hovered in the moonlit sky without flying inland. The mysterious machine left a flare burning brightly over the sea, and its drone faded away. The lull was brief, for German bombers were already winging their way towards England. The flickering light was a signal telling them that the weather to the west was clear.The first warning reached London at 10.42 P.M. From that hour, German aircraft kept coming in at five-minute intervals until long past midnight. Hundreds of observer reports jammed the telephone lines to the defence sub-commands and the Horse Guards. An ominous roar filled the warm night air throughout Kent and Essex. The bomber's courses crossed and recrossed as some passed out to sea, and still more came in." ((4), more)
(1) Australian John Simpson Kirkpatrick, a stretcher bearer with the ANZAC Third Field Ambulance unit, landed on Gallipoli on April 25, 1915, the first day of the Allied invasion. In the three and a half weeks before his death on May 19, he used four donkeys to help him transport the wounded to the relative safety of the shore and transfer to a hospital ship. Legend credits him and his donkeys with bearing 300 wounded from the battle lines. The first sentence of the quotation is by Edney Moore of the Australian Medical Corps.
Men of Gallipoli: The Dardanelles and Gallipoli Experience August 1914 to January 1916 by Peter Liddle, pp. 155, 156, copyright © Peter Liddle, 1976, publisher: David and Charles, publication date: 1976
(2) French Infantry Corporal Louis Barthas had rotated into the Verdun sector on May 6, 1916, and moved to the front line on the 11th. Through the night of May 18-19, receiving word the relief unit had arrived, his regiment moved out during an intense bombardment, an 'avalanche of metal.' Following the policy of French commander Henri Philippe Pétain, some 80% of the French army rotated through Verdun during the Battle. On the morning of May 19 Barthas looked back at the two deadly hills northwest of the city of Verdun, the Mort Homme and Cote 304.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, pp. 209, 210, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
(3) With the failure of French commander in chief Robert Nivelle's 1917 spring offensive, the Second Battle of the Aisne, and as mutinies broke out in the French army, the government replaced Nivelle with General Henri Phillippe Pétain who aimed to end the mutinies and the failed military tactics that drove soldiers to their actions. His policy is sometimes summarized as 'Wait for the Americans and the tanks,' but his production plan initiatives called not only for tanks, but also for an increase in the production of aircraft to command the air, and of heavy artillery to reduce German defenses.
Pyrrhic Victory; French Strategy and Operations in the Great War by Robert A. Doughty, page 366, copyright © 2005 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College, publisher: Harvard University Press, publication date: 2005
(4) The Whit-Sunday Raid, on London the night of May 19–20, 1918, was the largest raid of the war on London and the last. Thirty-eight Gotha bombers; two small planes, and three Staaken Giants dropped an estimated eleven tons of bombs on London and the counties of Essex and Kent leaving 49 dead and 177 injured. Whit-Sunday is Pentecost, the seventh Sunday after Easter.
The Sky on Fire by Raymond H. Fredette by Raymond H. Fredette, page 208, copyright © 1966, 1976, 1991 by Raymond H. Fredette, publisher: Smithsonian Institution Press, publication date: 1991
