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I've killed many Germans, but never women or children. Original French watercolor by John on blank field postcard. In the background are indolent Russian soldiers and Vladimir Lenin, in the foreground stands what may be a Romanian soldier who is telling the Russians, 'You call me savage. I killed a lot of Boches [Germans], but never women or children!'
Allied soldiers fortifying shell craters after an advance. From The Nations at War by Willis J. Abbot, 1918 Edition.
British soldiers advancing on the Flanders front. From The Nations at War by Willis J. Abbot 1918 Edition
Photograph of a French heavy mortar in action.
Photograph of Russian troops on the front line taken May 15, 1917, after the Russian Revolution, from the German or Austro-Hungarian line. A barbed wire emplacement separates the photographer from the Russians. The Russian front was mostly quiet between the revolution in March and a Russian offensive begun July 1.
"Already in June the factories and the regiments were quietly returning more and more Bolsheviks as their delegates to the various socialist conferences. By the middle of the month Lenin felt strong enough to show his hand in the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets. Tseretelli, the leading Menshevik and the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, made a speech in which he rejected the idea that the Soviets should seize power from the government. 'There is,' he said, 'no political party in Russia which at the present time would say "Give us power."'Lenin interjected, 'There is.'" ((1), more)
"June 23rd, a quiet day, and fresh after rain. The Battle of Arras has fizzled out, but the Division has a programme of mild counter-irritants and blood-lettings. Another bombing of Tunnel Trench is on the bill. First the G.O.C. said that The Cams. would crack the shell and we would get the yolk, then that they were to make June 24th—one bite of it. They didn't. At midnight they bumped on to manned shell-holes in front of uncut wire. Fritz has become an artist in shell-hole defence. An enterprising platoon could walk out and pull up a lot of his wire, but——" ((2), more)
"An unpublished incident at Blackpool is being told. A Yankee said to a wounded Tommy on the pier that they had 'come over to finish the War.' T.A. threw him into the water, and was given a year for manslaughter. The Yankees are fussed over officially, but few among them endear themselves." ((3), more)
"It was frightful there wasn't a shelter that could have withstood them they made holes that were 29 paces across and 4 to 5 meters deep it was beyond anything one could imagine. I left at the regular time and had to throw myself down flat on my stomach several times when I arrived [at the battery] I saw them falling all around . . . With every falling shell I threw my bike to the ground and threw myself flat on the ground finally I made it to my destination but what a spectacle with all these shell holes everywhere there is an enormous one two meters from our canteen at the very spot where I usually put my bike." ((4), more)
"There remained one other factor in the situation: the great amorphous mass of the Russian people themselves. Up to this point the revolution had not improved their living conditions in the least, at any rate in the cities. The food shortage in the cities had grown worse, and prices had now risen to seven times above the prewar level. The bread ration had gone down to 1½ pounds for manual workers and one pound for others. In Petrograd many factories had closed down, and the unemployed men, mingling with the idle military garrison, formed a solid pacifist block. They believed that their leaders in the Ex Com and the Soviet had betrayed them by joining a belligerent coalition government. They wanted peace." ((5), more)
(1) The All-Russian Congress of Soviet and Front Line Organizations began on June 16, 1917 and ran for three weeks. Since the first day of the Russian Revolution, the government had been divided between two centers of power, the Duma and the Soviets, councils elected in factories, the army, and from cities and towns across the country. Vladimir Lenin was leader of the Bolsheviks. The Mensheviks were a competing socialist party.
The Russian Revolution by Alan Moorehead, page 194, copyright © 1958 by Time, Inc., publisher: Carroll and Graf, publication date: 1989
(2) Extract from the entry for June 24, 1917 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 Battle of Arras was launched on April 9, 1917, and was suspended May 5. The capture of Vimy Ridge was its greatest success; otherwise, like the Nivelle Offensive, of which it was the British component, the attack was a failure. The G.O.C. is the General Officer Commanding; The Cams, the Cameronians, the Scottish Rifles.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 359, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
(3) Extract from the entry for June 25, 1917 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 United States had declared war on Germany on April 6. The soldier thrown into the water by 'T.A.' or Tommy Atkins, slang for a British soldier, may have been part of the contingent that landed in France the next day.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 360, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
(4) Excerpt from a letter from Paul Pireaud to his wife Marie from Martha Hanna's Your Death Would Be Mine, based on the couple's correspondence during World War I. On June 26, 1917, Paul was serving with the 112th Heavy Artillery Regiment when his battery came under fire. In April, the unit had fought in the Battle of the Hills, or the Third Battle of Champagne, attacking east of Reims in an action of the Second Battle of the Aisne, itself part of Robert Nivelle's great — and failed — spring offensive of 1917. No one in Paul's unit was harmed, but two men in an adjacent battery were killed. Paul hoped the Germans would follow their usual practice of waiting two or three weeks before launching another heavy bombardment.
Your Death Would Be Mine; Paul and Marie Pireaud in the Great War by Martha Hanna, page 211, copyright © 2006 by Martha Hanna, publisher: Harvard University Press, publication date: 2006
(5) The All-Russian Congress of Soviet and Front Line Organizations began June 16, 1917 and voted to support a new offensive against Germany and Austria-Hungary on its first day with only the Bolsheviks opposing. The Ex Com (the Executive Committee of the Soviet) had approved the inclusion of six socialists in the revolutionary government formed in mid-May. Along the the majority of Socialist delegates, the center and right-wing members of the government supported an offensive. The Allies, including representatives of the United States who offered loans on condition of continuing the war, urged the Russians to attack.
The Russian Revolution by Alan Moorehead, page 201, copyright © 1958 by Time, Inc., publisher: Carroll and Graf, publication date: 1989
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