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Postcard celebrating the fall of Belgrade, Serbia, to German and Austro-Hungarian forces under the command of Generals von Gallwitz & General Kövess v. Kövesshaza on October 9, 1915. Images of the city include the King's Palace, Terazié Square, the University, the National Theater, King Milan Street, and the city from the Save River.
Map of the plan for the Allied Offensive in France showing the situation on September 24, the eve of the infantry assault. An Anglo-French would attack eastward in Artois (with the British at Loos) as the French attacked northwards in Champagne. From 'Military Operations France and Belgium, 1915, Vol. II, Battles of Aubers Ridge, Festubert, and Loos' by Brigadier-General J.E. Edmonds.
German Ace Max Immelmann In Memoriam! Postcard from a drawing by Gehrig, 1916. Immelmann was shot down on June 18, 1916.
Memorial statue to Edith Cavell, executed for helping British soldiers in Belgium reach neutral Netherlands. She was executed by firing squad in Brussels, Belgium on October 12, 1915.Sited in St. Martin's Place, London, the pedestal on which her statue stands is placed before a column, square at the base and rounded above her head. On the four sides of the lower column are the words 'Humanity,' 'Sacrifice,' 'Devotion,' 'Fortitude.' The inscription on the front of the pedestal reads:'Edith CavellBrussels Dawn October 12th 1915Patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness for anyone.'The quotation is from her conversation with the English chaplain, Mr. Gahan, who was with her before her execution.At the top of the column a mother and child replace the top of a cross. Below them is a shield reading 'For King and Country.'The memorial was designed by Sir George Frampton. © 2014 John M. Shea
'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red' — the Tower of London poppies — each of the 888,246 ceramic poppies representing one serviceman of the British Empire killed in World War I. The installation was a collaboration of artist Paul Cummins and stage designer Tom Piper. Since November, 2014 the poppies have been installed in other sites in the United Kingdom. Photographed October 3, 2014. © 2014 by John M. Shea
"[Serbian] General Živković's report of the morning of 8 October read: 'Battle is still under way; there has been no respite at all. Our troops are still attacking the enemy.' The report also states that the enemy had 'silenced our heavy armaments' in the first phase of combat, using 'over 15,000 shells of various calibre, even 30.5cm.' and then the enemy had introduced 'artillery from monitors into the battle'." ((1), more)
"Saturday, 9th October Heard that G attack was a complete failure — attacked in mass in 3 lines with only about 500 men. Reached within 50 yards being mown down by our machine guns — Douglas saw it. In the morning G. shelled the wall again and killed 3 men one a Scottish Corporal Matthew of B. also a 1st Gloucester and an RFA man — many wounded." ((2), 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.'" ((3), more)
"Despite poor visibility, artillery firing began on October 11 [1915] at 1400 hours, and the infantry assault occurred at 1615. The daily log in Foch's headquarters recorded the result: 'progress was almost nil, and the attack did not yield the expected results. Preparation by heavy artillery insufficient. Attack conducted by exhausted or already sorely tried troops. Enemy forewarned and strongly reinforced with artillery, unleashing at the slightest indication of attack terrible [artillery] barrages.' . . . In a letter to Joffre, Foch blamed the failure on 'insufficient' preparatory fire. He explained that Tenth Army had fired 73,000 rounds of heavy artillery for the attack on September 24-25 but only 21,600 rounds on October 10-11." ((4), more)
". . . soldiers had come to her and asked to be helped to the frontier; that knowing the risks she had helped them. She said she had nothing to regret, no complaint to make, and that is she had to do it all over again, she would change nothing. And most pathetic of all was her statement that she thanked God for the six weeks she had passed in prison—the nearest approach to rest she had known for years.They partook together of the Holy Communion, and she who had so little need for preparation was prepared for death. She was free from resentment and said: 'I realise that patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness toward any one.'She was taken out and shot before daybreak.She was denied the support of her own clergyman at the end, but a German military chaplain stayed with her and gave her burial within the precincts of the prison. He did not conceal his admiration and said: 'She was courageous to the end. She professed her Christian faith and said that she was glad to die for her country. She died like a heroine.'" ((5), more)
(1) The joint German and Austro-Hungarian invasion of Serbia began on October 6, 1915, with a heavy bombardment of the Serb capital of Belgrade and other positions along the Danube, Drina, and Save Rivers that shaped Serbia's northern border. Austria-Hungary had struck the first blow of the war on July 29, 1914 by bombarding Belgrade the day after it had declared war on Serbia. The monitors were ships on the rivers taking part in the destruction.
Serbia's Great War 1914-1918 by Andrej Mitrovic, page 145, copyright © Andrej Mitrovic, 2007, publisher: Purdue University Press, publication date: 2007
(2) Entry for October 9, 1915 from the diary of W. Boddington of the London Scottish Regiment. The October 8 German counter-attack to attempt to recapture the town of Loos, taken by the British in beginning of the Battle of Loos. The German attack was much more extensive than the 500 men of whom Boddington writes.
The Battle of Loos by Philip Warner, page 138, copyright © Philip Warner 1976, publisher: Wordsworth Editions Limited, publication date: 2000 (originally 1976)
(3) 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
(4) French Commander Joffre's great offensive of autumn 1915, while having some success, had failed to achieve the breakthrough he had hoped for in the French offensive in Champagne and the Anglo-French attacks in Artois. French General Foch wrote of the failure in the Third Battle of Artois. It had already become clear that extensive preliminary artillery bombardments were required for attacks. But in the autumn battles, even if adequate shells were available on the first day, they were lacking in followup attacks.
Pyrrhic Victory; French Strategy and Operations in the Great War by Robert A. Doughty, pp. 200, 201, copyright © 2005 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College, publisher: Harvard University Press, publication date: 2005
(5) Final paragraphs from 'The Case of Miss Edith Cavell' from A Journal from our Legation in Belgium by Hugh Gibson, Secretary to the American Legation in Brussels, Belgium. Englishwoman Edith Cavell was director of a large nursing home in Brussels, Belgium who helped French and British soldiers and Belgian men from occupied Belgium to neutral Netherlands. Cavell was arrested on August 5, 1915, and Gibson had been trying to assist her since learning of the case in late August or early September. During her October 7 and 8 trial, she admitted that some of the men had written her from England to thank her, evidence used to make the claim she had conducted soldiers to the enemy. Cavell was found guilty, and executed by firing squad on October 12, 1915. Gibson's published journal ends with the December 31, 1914 entry, with the case of Ms. Cavell, previously published in 'World's Work' as a final chapter.
A Journal from our Legation in Belgium by Hugh Gibson, page 362, copyright © Copyright, 1917, by Doubleday, Page & Company, publisher: Doubleday, Page & Company, publication date: 1917
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