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War memorial, Arras, France.
French General Robert Nivelle, from a pharmaceutical advertising card
Detail from the Basque Memorial, Chemin des Dames, Craonnelle, France.
Greetings from the aviator city of Gotha! Postcard with a view of the city of Gotha, Germany, of a pilot in a bi-plane, and an Albatros bi-plane (evidently the same plane and pilot) at the Gotha airfield. Field postmarked December 12, 1916 by the Ersatz Flieger Abteilung, the Reserve Flying Section, Gotha.
A branch and flowers on the grounds of the South African Memorial and Museum in Longueval, France, May 2, 2013. © 2013 by John M. Shea
"Our orders didn't get through until the last minute and then they were all garbled. No one, including our officers, seemed to know what we were supposed to be doing, or where we were going. Officers were supposed to have synchronized their watches in so far as it was possible at that time of day. At a certain time, our barrage was supposed to lift and we were to climb out of the trenches and go forward. Well, we did — but it wasn't all at the same time! We were given false information and told the artillery had smashed the enemy defences and we would get through the wire — did we hell!" ((1), more)
"The first signs of a serious morale crisis appeared in the Laffaux sector on 4 May: one company refused to fight. In some quarters tracts were found with the words: 'Down with the war! Death to those in charge!' In his thesis on the 1917 mutinies, Guy Pédroncini observes that most cases of rebellion were found in the 6e armée (formerly Mangin's) and among the divisions engaged in the May 1917 operations, which, as was shown, were the most useless." ((2), more)
"At 9 a.m. on 5 May, the 18e corps of the 10e armée launched its main assault against Craonne and Hurtebise farm, with two divisions (35e and 36e) abreast. In spite of the fierce resistance of the Garde corps, the Californie plateau was taken, but the French troops engaged on the Vauclerc plateau were attacked from behind by strong German contingents pouring out of the Dragon's and Saxons' caves. Testimonies quoted by Nobécourt are revealing: 'We advanced in the morning, but when we got through, the huns were coming out of holes and shooting us in the back. Many were killed or wounded'. 'The 65e attacked yesterday morning. At first it went very well. But (...) we went past our objectives and found ourselves caught between fires: huns in front and huns behind. We incurred heavy losses and we have no officers left. In the company there were 180 of us; hardly 40 are left today.'" ((3), more)
". . . before Brandenburg could launch his first raid, another daring attack by a single aircraft, an Albatross C VII of Feldflieger Abteilung Nr. 19, on the night of 6/7 May [1917] did reach London. The crew dropped five 10kg bombs between Hackney and Holloway, killing one man and causing two injuries, before returning unmolested to Belgium." ((4), more)
"The first evening [May 7, 1917] was stormy; heavy rain clattered down on the already flooded terrain. Soon, though, a succession of fine warm days reconciled us to our new place. I enjoyed the splendid landscape, untroubled by the white balls of shrapnel and the jumping cones of shells; in fact, barely noticing them. Each spring marked the beginning of a new year's fighting; intimations of a big offensive were as much a part of the season as primroses and pussy-willows." ((5), more)
(1) Sergeant Jack Cousins of the 7th Bedfordshire regiment describing his experience in the May 3 and 4, 1917 final major attack of the Battle of Arras, the Third Battle of the Scarpe, fought on a sixteen-mile front from Vimy to Bullecourt. Nearly 6,000 British troops, including Canadians and Australians, were killed in the attack.
Cheerful Sacrifice: The Battle of Arras, 1917 by Jonathan Nicholls, page 197, copyright © Jonathan Nicholls [1990 repeatedly renewed through] 2011, publisher: Pen and Sword, publication date: 2010
(2) French commander in chief Robert Nivelle had convinced many politicians and his soldiers that he had discovered the secret to breaking through the German front and bringing the war to a rapid conclusion. The failure of his offensive, the Second Battle of the Aisne, to do more than pushing the front forward at great cost to his men, broke many of the units under his command. The battle began on April 16, 1917. Within hours it was clear it would achieve no more than its initial objectives, the crossing of the Aisne River and capture of the high ground of Chemin des Dames. The French mutinies had begun by the 21st with soldiers calling for peace. Other incidents occurred on April 24 and 29, but they spread widely in May. Lauffaux is northeast of Soissons on the western end of Chemin des Dames. French General Charles Mangin's nickname was 'the Butcher.'
The 1917 Spring Offensives: Arras, Vimy, Chemin des Dames by Yves Buffetaut, page 184, publisher: Histoire et Collections, publication date: 1997
(3) French commander in chief Robert Nivelle continued the offensive he had begun on April 16, 1917, the Second Battle of the Aisne, with the May 5 assault at the eastern end of the Chemin des Dames, northwest of Reims. The farms and villages of the plateau held a warren of caves in which German troops hid, letting the French advance before striking them from behind.
The 1917 Spring Offensives: Arras, Vimy, Chemin des Dames by Yves Buffetaut, page 180, publisher: Histoire et Collections, publication date: 1997
(4) Hauptmann Ernst Brandenburg formed the Englandgeschwader — the England Squadron — in early 1917, preparing to bomb the United Kingdom. The Zeppelin and Schüte-Lanz airships that had done so the previous two years had proven vulnerable to bad weather and newer fighter planes that could reach the altitudes at which the airships operated. Feldflieger Abteilung is a field aviator department, and an 'Albatross' is an Albatros, manufactured by Albatros Flugzeugwerke, the Albatros Aircraft Works. Hackney and Holloway are in north London.
The First Blitz: Bombing London in the First World War by Ian Castle, page 117, copyright © 2015 Osprey Publishing Ltd., publisher: Osprey Publishing, publication date: 2015
(5) German Lieutenant Ernst Jünger moved through Joncourt, France to the front on May 6, 1917, midway between the front lines of the battles of the Nivelle Offensive — the Battle of Arras and the Second Battle of the Aisne, both then grinding down. Jünger continues: 'Our sector was a semi-circular bulge in front of the St-Quentin Canal, at our rear we had the famous Siegfried Line. I confess I am at a loss to understand why we had to take our place in these tight, undeveloped limestone trenches, when we had that enormously strong bulwark just behind us.'
Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger, page 141, copyright © 1920, 1961, Translation © Michael Hoffman, 2003, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 2003
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