Search by or
Search: Quotation Context Tags
Advertising postcard map of European Russia, with inset images of a mounted Cossack lancer, a troika, and St. Petersburg.
Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his wife Tsaritsa Alexandra, a detail from a portrait of the Russian imperial family in 'An Ambassador's Memoirs' by Maurice Paléologue, the last French Ambassador to the Russian Court.
A French artillery crew moving a 75mm. field gun into position in Bougainville, France, behind the lines, west of Amiens. Bougainville is a commune in the Somme Département in Picardie. The Adrian helmet the soldiers wear was introduced in mid-1915.
Montage of the destroyed village of Fleury, France, a village of several hundred destroyed during the Battle of Verdun and never rebuilt. Insets are the Chapel and a sculpture of a poilu. The door of the chapel states it is in memory of Fleury-devant-Douaumont, the village's full name. © 2015 John M. Shea
A mine explosion in Flanders. From The Nations at War, 1918 Edition, by Willis J. Abbot.
"'. . . there is one question which is more urgent and important than all the others: the question of heavy artillery. General Alexeïev is begging me for some every day, and I haven't another gun or round to send him.''But you've had seventy heavy guns just landed at Archangel!''I know; but we haven't got the railway wagons. You know what a terrible shortage we're suffering from in this respect. The whole result of the offensive which has begun so brilliantly is in danger of being paralysed by it.'" ((1), more)
"I told Alexeiev how interested you were in military affairs and of those details you asked for in your last letter,' Nicholas wrote on June 7, 1916 (O.S.). 'He [Alexeiev] smiled and listened silently.' Alexeiev's silence concealed his worry over the possible leakage of his plans. After the abdication he explained, 'When the Empress's papers were examined, she was found to be in possession of a map indicating in detail the disposition of the troops along the entire front. Only two copies were prepared of this map, one for the Emperor and one for myself. I was very painfully impressed. God knows who may have had use of this map.'" ((2), more)
"I've already told you that I'll remember 1 June 1916 for a long time to come. On that day there was a terrible bombardment one could not go out of the shelter shells were falling everywhere I ate my soup cold in the shelter a mate brought it to me, running all the way. I stepped back to make room for him at that very moment a shell fell in the corner of the shelter and shattered his jaw four splinters in the leg, three in the arm . . . If it were not for him I would have been the one to catch it and because he was a bit taller than I am and the splinter hit him in the jaw it would have hit me in the temple and you wouldn't have had your little guy any more . . . The guys of the Eleventh Battery who replaced us saw a shell explode in their very midst . . . Another one fell in the middle of them and killed four guys, one of whom was cut in two . . . and that happened pretty close to my head. I tell you this because I came out of it alive." ((3), more)
"The last major German attempt to capture Verdun took place on the evening of June 22, when a German artillery bombardment was launched, using a new phosgene gas: Green Cross. Men and horses were caught and killed by the terrible fumes. Doctors treating the wounded weere themselves struck down. For several hours the rain of death continued, then 30,000 Germans attacked. Near Fleury a whole French division, 5,000 men, was wiped out, and Fort Thiaumont, two miles north of Verdun, was captured. . . .. . . Fleury was taken, but the Germans were halted before they could enter Fort Souville, the last but one fort between them and Verdun itself. The Germans did not have enough Green Cross gas for a second gas attack." ((4), more)
". . . I had just stepped off the fire-step into the sap—Pattison was about 5 yards from me—when I felt my feet lifted up beneath me and the trench walls seemed to move upwards. There was a terrific blast of air which blew my steel helmet heaven knows where. I think that something must have struck me then on the head—it was said in hospital that my skull was fractured—anyhow, I remember nothing more until I woke to find myself buried up to the neck and quite unable to move hand or foot. I do not know how long I had been unconscious. I was told afterwards that there was a heavy bombardment of our trenches lasting nearly an hour after the explosion of the mine." ((5), more)
(1) Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia, in conversation with General Bielaïev, Chief of Staff of the Russian army, who was about to leave for France, discussing the Brusilov Offensive, begun June 4, 1916 against Austro-Hungarian armies. It had indeed begun brilliantly, although Bielaïev cautions that the Russians are not yet fighting the Germans. Paléologue's concern is that French ships have landed not only the heavy guns, but 50,000 rifles, 1.5 million rounds of ammunition, and 6 million grenades, all sitting in Archangel waiting for transport to the front. Much of still be there when the Russian Civil War began. General Mikhail Vasiliyevich Alekseyev was Chief of Staff of Stavka, the Russian High Command, from 1915 to 1917.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. II by Maurice Paléologue, page 277, publisher: George H. Doran Company
(2) Excerpt from Robert Massie's Nicholas and Alexandra that begins with part of a June 20, 1916 (June 7 Old Style) letter from Tsar Nicholas II to his wife Tsaritsa Alexandra. General Mikhail Vasiliyevich Alekseyev was Chief of Staff of Stavka, the Russian High Command, from 1915 to 1917, from the time when Nicholas designated himself Commander in Chief of the Russian armed forces. Nicholas requested that his wife not share military information with anyone, but she did so with the monk Rasputin so that he might give his advice and blessing to the Tsar's plans. Nicholas abdicated on March 15, 1917 after the February Revolution. His wife, the Empress, though raised for much of her life in England, was German-born, and was widely believed to be sympathetic to Germany if not actively working in its interest.
Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie by Robert K. Massie, page 357, copyright © 1967, renewed 1995 by Robert K. Massie, publisher: Random House, publication date: 2011
(3) Extracts from letters by French artilleryman Paul Pireaud to his wife Marie on on June 9 and 21, 1916. Pireaud's unit, the 112th Heavy Artillery Regiment, moved into the Verdun sector in early April. Although French commander Pétain rotated infantry units after seven to ten days, it was much more difficult to do so with the artillery, which stayed significantly longer. The last great German attack in the Battle of Verdun was launched the next day, June 22.
Your Death Would Be Mine; Paul and Marie Pireaud in the Great War by Martha Hanna, page 113, copyright © 2006 by Martha Hanna, publisher: Harvard University Press, publication date: 2006
(4) The Battle of Verdun began on February 21, 1916, with one of the greatest bombardments of the war, and the shelling was frightful in the weeks and months that followed. The German attack of June 22 threatened the city of Verdun itself, taking yet another of the forts defending fortified Verdun. Fleury itself was destroyed and never rebuilt, remaining, 100 years after the battle, a memorial to it and its horrors.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, pp. 255, 256, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(5) Excerpt from the account by Captain H. Blair of his being buried in the largest German mine exploded on the Western Front, one that created a crater 120 yards long by 75 yards wide, at 2:00 AM on June 22, 1916. It would be nearly 24 hours before Blair was freed. He woke to a German raiding party running nearby, and feared he would be kicked in the head. Another soldier was buried immediately behind him, both buried and suffering a broken leg. Blair freed an arm, and began digging, attracting the attention of a German sniper. Fear and thirst and desperation ruled their day. By 3:00 AM a rescue party, after nearly three hours of work, freed them. The narrative is 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 dozens of his comrades. The unit was west of La Bassée, France, in Artois.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 210, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
1 2 Next
