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The American cruiser Brooklyn in Vladivostok harbor, Russia in a 1919 Czech Legion photograph. The Legion consisted of Austro-Hungarian Czechs taken prisoner by the Russians, then organized to fight for Czech independence. With peace on the Russian front, they went east to leave Russia from Vladivostok, sometimes fighting their way through the Red Guard defending the Revolution. The Americans, British, and Japanese had forces in the city.
A medal suspended on a green triangular ribbon with red stripes, bleeds. The medal reads 'Laeso Militibi' (or 'Militiri') MDCCCCXVIII (1918). Beneath the medal is written 'M?gegy', Another, or One More.The image is based on the Austro-Hungarian wound medal which was instituted under Kaiser Karl whose profile is on the obverse. The red stripes indicate the number of wounds, three in this case. The actual medal reads 'Laeso Militi', To the Wounded Soldier (Latin), and shows the year as MCMXVIII.The card was sent to Franz Moritos, and is postmarked Budapest, Hungary, November 16, 1918.
Map of the Marne front line on May 31, 1918 from Belleau Wood to Dormans, where the French and Americans stopped the German advance of 1918. From The History of The A.E.F. by Shipley Thomas.
Panorama of the Western theater of war 1914/15 from Compiègne to Arras, with the North Sea coast in the distance.
Edito Card of an Hanriot HD.1. Introduced in late summer, 1916, the French Hanriot HD.1 was primarily flown by the Belgian and Italian air services. This plane is in the colors of the Belgian Air Corps. The white thistle on the fuselage was the symbol of the squadron of Willy Coppens, Belgium's leading ace of the war. The sawtooth pattern on the tail identified an individual pilot. Each patrol of three planes had an identifying cowling color. Coppens, as the leading ace, insisted on an all-blue plane.
"The first victories gained by the Czecho-Slavs over the Bolsheviks were at Penza and Samara. Penza was captured by them after three days' fighting at the end of May. Later the Czecho-Slavs also took Sysran on the Volga, Kazan with its large arsenal, Simbirsk and Yekaterinburg, connecting Tcheliabinsk with Petrograd, and occupied practically the whole Volga region.In Siberia they defeated a considerable force of German-Magyar ex-prisoners in Krasnoyarsk and Omsk and established themselves firmly in Udinsk. On June 29, [1918] 15,000 Czecho-Slavs under General Diderichs, after handing an ultimatum to the Bolsheviks at Vladivostok, occupied the city without much resistance. Only at one spot fighting took place and some 160 Bolsheviks were killed. The Czecho-Slavs, assisted by Japanese and Allied troops, then proceeded to the north and northwest, while the Bolsheviks and German prisoners retreated to Chabarovsk." ((1), more)
"The greater part of the 100,000 men we have lost on the Piave was composed of Hungarians. We have no exact information as to the proportion of nationalities, but the descriptions of the battle show us that the Hungarians were in the center of the melée. The Hungarian regiments have been sacrificed. It matters little to us that the enemy losses have been superior to ours. Our grief is sore indeed when we think that we have suffered the loss of hundreds of thousands of men, at the end of the fourth year of the war." ((2), more)
"The 3rd Brigade (9th and 23rd Infantry Regiments) during these twenty days, held the sectors assigned to it, and co-operated in various attacks, until the morning of July 1, when a battalion from each regiment, supported by the 12th, 15th and 17th Artillery Regiments, in conjunction with the French who were attacking to their right, captured the village of Vaux and the Bois-de-la-Roche.This put the Allied lines on the dominant ground from Château-Thierry westward, including Hill 204, Vaux, Bouresches, and Belleau Wood." ((3), more)
"The Battalion returned to the Camp at Forceville. Acheux housed the Divisional baths and the Canteen. In and round it there was a concentration of heavy stuff, large-calibred naval guns, that made conditions in the area most unpleasant at all times. During the day an extra heavy shelling cost the Battalion two of its best N.C.Os., Sergeants Mills and Jones. In a fine endeavour to rescue some wounded officers of another unit from a shelled billet Mills was killed and Jones died of wounds. Mills had been the very capable manager of the Canteen from its start, and Jones was the Medical Officer's right-hand man." ((4), more)
"After a hurried lunch, I slipped away to Paris, my first visit being to the Hanriot works. Monsieur René Hanriot, who was one of the pioneers of aviation, was one of its staunchest supporters and had devoted his life to the new science. His little Hanriot H.D.1, graceful and manoeuvrable, designed by Dupont and first adopted by the Belgian Flying Corps, was his outstanding achievement, and he was always delighted to meet any of the Belgian pilots. He took me out to Villacoublay and showed me some of the new types of aeroplanes that were undergoing their tests. In addition, I saw a Fokker D.VII captured from the Germans, a curious-looking machine with its thick wings. Our eyes were so used to thin planes. I met Heurteaux, the great French 'ace' there, and generally enjoyed myself; a real bushman's [sic] holiday in fact!" ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt by Vladimir Nosek, author of Independent Bohemia: an Account of the Czechoslovakian Struggle for Independence, and diplomatic representative of Czecho-Slovakia in Great Britain. The fault lines in the Austro-Hungarian Empire deepened and widened at the war progressed, as casualties mounted, as shortages of food and fuel bit. Czech prisoners of war held in Russia formed a Czech Legion fighting alongside Imperial Russian troops against Austria-Hungary. After the Bolshevik Revolution and peace between Russia and the Central Powers, these Legionnaires would make their way eastward to the Pacific port of Vladivostok in the next stage of a journey to circle the globe to return them home to fight for an independent Czecho-Slovak state.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. VI, 1918, pp. 150–151, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
(2) Excerpt from the Budapest newspaper Az Est of June 30, 1918, quoted by Henri Kervarec, French official observer, in his account of the Second Battle of the Piave. The offensive was launched by the Austro-Hungarians on June 15, 1918 along a front from the Asiago Plateau to the Adriatic Sea. The Austro-Hungarians suffered approximately 120,000 casualties in the battle.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. VI, 1918, p. 220, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
(3) The American assault by U.S Marines and Army infantry to take Belleau Wood began on June 6, 1918 against well-entrenched German defenders. The battle continued for three weeks.
The History of The A.E.F. by Shipley Thomas, page 95, copyright © 1920, by George H. Doran Company, publisher: George H. Doran Company, publication date: 1920
(4) Excerpt from the entry for July 2, 1918 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. Forceville, France is between Arras and Amiens, north of the Somme River.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 496, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
(5) Excerpt from Flying in Flanders, a memoir by Willy Coppens, Belgium's greatest ace in World War I with 37 victories, all but two of the victims observation balloons. Coppens first flew a Hanriot HD.1 in June, 1918. The German Fokker DVII was one of the most successful fighter planes of the war. French ace Albert Heurteaux ended the war with 21 victories. His eighth victory was over the German ace Kurt Wintgens.
Flying in Flanders by Willy Coppens, page 188, publisher: Ace Books, publication date: 1971
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