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French officers observing a German Taube flying overhead as their men fire at it. The Taube two-seater monoplane (Dove) saw extensive service during 1914, but was a poor fighter plane. Postcard from a painting by Themistokles von Eckenbrecher, 1914.
Russian troops fleeing a solitary German soldier. The Russian First Army invaded Germany in August 1914, and defeated the Germans in the Battle of Gumbinnen on the 20th. In September the Germans drove them out of Russia in the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes. In September and October, a joint German, Austro-Hungarian offensive drove the Russians back almost to Warsaw. Illustration by E. H. Nunes.
A French trench grenade launcher with a team of four — an observer, one to man the catapult, and two managing the grenades. Photograph from 'Ambulance No. 10; Personal Letters from the Front,' by Leslie Buswell. Most of Buswell's book consists of his letters in June, July, and August, 1915. A volunteer corps, the American Ambulance Field Service had over 200 ambulances in the field in 1916.
Postcard map of East Prussia and Polish Russia with a message and postmark, Vienna, August 20, 1915. From a series that asks, 'Do you know the high times?'
The rescue of the crew of the Italian battleship Amalfi, July 7, 1915, sunk by Austrian submarine U-26. The submarine was German submarine UB-14, but, because Italy and Germany were not at war, sailed under as an Austro-Hungarian vessel. From a painting by Harry Heusser, 1915. The message on the reverse was written March 22, 1916, and the card postmarked from Vienna the same day.
"June 29th. [1915] — In the Bois Grenier trenches, in relief of The Cameronians, the Battalion side-stepped slightly to the right in front of Touquet. The tour began with two days of rain, and a lot of explosive flying about, which did remarkably little damage. July 2nd — When we fired on an aeroplane the German retaliation with shells and rifle-grenades wounded only one man. The next July 3rd — two days were quiet. At night, on the right, the Germans introduced us to coloured signal rockets." ((1), more)
"Saturday, July 3, 1915.The imperial rescript which was published three days ago is causing great excitement. Everyone demands the immediate summoning of the Duma and some go so far as to claim that henceforward ministers shall be responsible to Parliament — a change which would mean nothing less than the end of autocracy.There is considerable unrest among the workmen. One of my informers, B———, has notified me of a recrudescence of socialist propaganda in the barracks, particularly in the Guards' barracks. The Pavlovsky and Volhynian regiments are said to be more or less contaminated." ((2), more)
"The feast was to start at seven o'clock, and nearly every soldier in all the regiments round here knew it was the American Fête Day. Suddenly at two o'clock commenced a tremendous artillery duel — the whole earth seemed to tremble and the noise of rifle fire almost drowned the explosions of shells — the Germans had attacked!. . . We all rushed to our cars to be ready for the call, and about six o'clock every car was ordered to X— — poor little village already badly enough damaged by the bombardment of a few hours before! We worked late and I got to bed at three-thirty, having carried some fifty wounded a distance of about ten kilometres — ten trips — two hundred kilometres! In all we carried away over three hundred and fifty crippled wrecks who three hours before were the pride of their nation and families!" ((3), more)
"Monday, July 5, 1915.Between the Bug and the Vistula the Austro-Germans are continuing their march on Lublin.The Russian army is retiring, by swift and successive stages, on positions it has to abandon practically at once, owing to lack of arms and ammunition." ((4), more)
"Ever since Sunday, July 4th, there has been an attack and counter-attack, and life has been real hell for those poor fellows in the first line of trenches. Every imaginable kind of instrument of destruction has been hurled on them, mines (the narrow part fits into the gun which is a sort of mortar — radius about four hundred metres), torpedoes (radius about four hundred metres), '320's,' '250's,' '220's,' down to '77's,' burning petrol, chlorine — all this not in dozens, but in thousands and tons. No one can believe what it is like there; it is indescribable, and the Germans are getting the same thing too. I suppose the French have lost over twenty-five hundred this week in wounded and killed and many prisoners — and this over a line of seven kilometres! And the Germans? Many more!" ((5), more)
(1) Entry covering June 29 to July 3, 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. Troops rotated in and out of the front-line trenches, and the British moved to their right to take over more of the line previously held by the French. Touquet, Belgium is about five kilometers northeast of Armentières, France.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 136, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
(2) Entry for July 3, 1915 from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia. On June 27, 1915, the Russian press published an Imperial declaration that closed with the announcement that the Russian Council of the Empire (upper house) and the Duma (lower house) would meet in the immediate future. Russia's seemingly endless retreat before the combined forces of Germany and Austria-Hungary and their Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive, its enormous losses, and the government's continued failure to resolve the shortages of artillery, shells, rifles, and ammunition, increasingly undermined what faith nobles, workers, soldiers, and peasants had in their autocratic Emperor, Nicholas II. The Duma had been founded after the Russian Revolution of 1905. With the onset of the war, the Fourth Duma had dissolved itself, but was reconstituted in August, 1915.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. II by Maurice Paléologue, pp. 24, 25, publisher: George H. Doran Company
(3) Excerpt from a letter written July 6, 1915, by Leslie Buswell recounting the previous days. A driver with the American Ambulance Field Service, a volunteer organization attached to the French Armies, Buswell was stationed at Pont-à-Mousson, France, north of Nancy. His small book is a lively account of his experiences and grim work between June 17, and October 1915. Each unit of the Service consisted of 20 to 30 ambulances. In 1916 over 200 cars were in service.
Ambulance No. 10; Personal Letters from the Front by Leslie Buswell, pp. 44, 45, copyright © 1915, and 1915, by Houghton Mifflin Company, publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company, publication date: 1916
(4) Entry for July 5, 1915 from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia. The great retreat of the Russian army in the face of the combined German and Austro-Hungarian Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive continued on a broadening front. The retreat was not a rout, as the Russians regularly halted, entrenched (if poorly), and briefly held their ground before continuing the retreat. Lublin, Poland is southeast of Warsaw, which the Russians continued to hold.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. II by Maurice Paléologue, page 25, publisher: George H. Doran Company
(5) Excerpt from a letter written July 11, 1915, by Leslie Buswell recounting events of the previous week. The Germans had attacked on Sunday, July 4, taking ground the French had retaken from the invaders in the previous six months. The French retook the lost ground on July 5, 6, and 7. A driver with the American Ambulance Field Service, a volunteer organization attached to the French Armies, Buswell was stationed at Pont-à-Mousson, France, north of Nancy. Each unit of the Service consisted of 20 to 30 ambulances, each of which could carry three wounded lying down, and three seated. The Ford trucks could deliver men to a doctor in under an hour, greatly increasing their chances of survival. In 1916 over 200 cars were in service.
Ambulance No. 10; Personal Letters from the Front by Leslie Buswell, pp. 53, 54, copyright © 1915, and 1915, by Houghton Mifflin Company, publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company, publication date: 1916
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