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Copy of 'Vieux Charles,' the 1916 Spad VII of French ace Georges Guynemer, landing at Olde Rhinebeck Aereodrome, Rhinebeck, New York, September 15, 2013. © 2013 John M. Shea
Headstone of an unknown soldier of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, Delville Wood Cemetery. Union of South Africa troops began the assault at Delville Wood on July 15, 1916. It was finally taken in September. On the headstone is superimposed the poem 'To My Daughter Betty, the Gift of God' by Lieutenant Tom Kettle of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, killed in action on September 9, 1916 at Guillemont, France, in the Battle of the Somme. He has no known grave. © 2013 John M. Shea
The Windmill site, near Mouquet Farm and Thiepval. After the village of Pozières fell in August, 1916, three Australian divisions sought to capture the Windmill site and Mouquet Farm. In seven weeks, the Australians lost suffered 23,000 casualties of whom almost 7,000 died. © 2013 John M. Shea
Looking like a model or a piece by Yves Tanguy, a photograph of part of the destroyed city of Lens, France dated September 18, 1918.
Gun turrets of Fort Douaumont in the rain, September 22, 2015. © 2015 John M. Shea
"During the days between October 20th and October 23rd, our artillery and our aviation established superiority on the battle field, against enemy batteries which were still present in great numbers but which were doubtless forced to exercise severe economy of munitions." ((1), more)
"I went to see them on the morning of the attack, and I remember chiefly the voice of G. Salter, as he emerged from a rough shelter, stretching his stiff arms and trying to move his eyebrows like a man awake, cursing the frost; I remember the familiar song of my old companion Doogan, now for the last time. 'Everybody's doing the Charlie Chaplin walk.' He broke off, and without self-pity and almost casually he said, 'It's the third time, they've sent me over. This is the third time. They'll get me this time.' Nor would it have availed to use in reply one's familiar trench tags, or to speak out the admiring friendship which never fully found words; Doogan seemed to know, and he was tired." ((2), more)
"Another day arrived, and the men in Stuff Trench had to eat their 'iron rations,' for we could not supply them. We had also lost touch with our battalion doctor, who was somewhere towards Thiepval, that slight protuberance on rising ground westward; the bearers of the wounded had to find another way out; yet we were in possession of Stuff Trench, and the Australians southward held its continuation, Regina." ((3), more)
"Time was unnoticed. Night shaded into day. There was no dawn, no quickening, no radiance. A sullen sky, a flattened vault of ashen grey, . . . a wide and bare winter landscape of grey-green stubble stippled here and there with chrome-grey shell-holes, and scarred with trenches. Desolation reigns undisputed now, whatever revolution Spring may bring." ((4), more)
"The sight is horrendous, an ablaze cyclone fell on this land, excavated its soil, ripped it open, turned it upside down on every inch, nothing could resist our artillery and its terrible pounding. Lakes of mud and shell-holes are all that can be seen for miles around. Here and there, German corpses emerge, most of them horridly mangled up by pieces of shrapnel. Many comrades from preceding regiments also died on this battlefield. I run into a band of six Poilus from the regiment, lying on the ground, their eyes wide-open toward the sky, their faces darkened by the blast of shells." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from French General Henri Philippe Pétain's account of the preparations for the retaking of Fort Douaumont, which had fallen to the Germans on February 25, 1916, in the first days of the Battle of Verdun. Its garrison had been unaware the fort was at risk, and lost it with virtually no struggle. On October 20, 1916, it was about to be retaken by the French. The French Spad and German Albatros fighter planes had recently reached the front, both formidable improvements on the air arms of the two armies.
Verdun by Henri Philippe Pétain, page 201, copyright © 1930, publisher: The Dial Press, publication date: 1930
(2) Edmund Blunden, English writer, recipient of the Military Cross, second lieutenant and adjutant in the Royal Sussex Regiment, writing of the attack on Stuff Trench on October 21 and 22, 1916. The engagement between Thiepval and Pozières in the Battle of the Somme devastated Blunden's batallion. Of the location, Blunden wrote, 'Thiepval was vaguely gestured at on our left. Pozières had once been a village on our right.' On the 20th a German reconnaissance plane had flown 'thirty yards' over Blunden and his men while they prepared supplies for the attack. The 1915 song 'That Charlie Chaplin Walk' was written and composed by Wm. A. Downs.
Undertones of War by Edmund Blunden, page 122, copyright © the Estate of Edmund Blunden, 1928, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: November 1928
(3) Edmund Blunden, English writer, recipient of the Military Cross, second lieutenant and adjutant in the Royal Sussex Regiment, writing of the attack on Stuff Trench on October 21 and 22, 1916. The engagement between Thiepval and Pozières in the Battle of the Somme devastated Blunden's batallion. Of the location, Blunden wrote, 'Thiepval was vaguely gestured at on our left. Pozières had once been a village on our right.' Of Stuff Trench itself, he wrote this: 'Stuff Trench—this was Stuff Trench; three feet deep, corpses under foot, corpses on the parapet.'
Undertones of War by Edmund Blunden, page 124, copyright © the Estate of Edmund Blunden, 1928, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: November 1928
(4) Extract from the entry for October 23, 1916 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. The Battalion was then serving in the Somme sector, and moved into 'Serpentine Trench, a part of the captured Flers Line, in a fold between Ginchy and Morval.' Dunn's battalion attacked at 2:30 on the afternoon of the 23rd. After early reports of progress, 'the attack, like earlier attacks on the same ground, had failed.'
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 266, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
(5) Soldier Roche of the 8th Battalion of the Colonial Infantry Regiment from Morocco quoted in Yves Buffetaut's The Battle of Verdun writing of the French advance on October 24, 1916 and recapture of Fort Douaumont, one of the main forts defending Verdun. The Fort had fallen to the Germans on February 25, 1916, in the first days of the Battle of Verdun, lightly defended by a garrison unaware the fort was at risk. Under intense bombardment since October 20, the German defenders had evacuated on the night of the 23rd after a French shell had ignited a fire inside the Fort. A small group of German soldiers re-occupied the Fort the morning of the 24th, but were easily overwhelmed by the French.
The Battle of Verdun by Yves Buffetaut, page 73, copyright © Ysec Éditions 2013, publisher: Ysec Editions, publication date: 2013
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