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View of the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme 1914–1918 from Mouquet Farm, commemorating the 72,246 British and Empire missing of that sector. It is a monument both to the British Empire and French missing from the Battle of the Somme and other battles in Picardy. © 2013 John M. Shea
Battle on the Somme, by Oskar Martin Amorbach, showing the blue Hessen (Infantry Regiment Lieb, 'Grand Duchess') in combat against British troops.
The Polish children are coming for lunch. German soldiers with Polish children in Lomza, Polish Russia, June, 1915. The photo postcard from Adolf Herzell was sent July 7, 1915. Herzell wrote that 'the Polish children are coming for lunch.' Translation courtesy of Thomas Faust, ebay's Urfaust.
Section of a 1906 map of German East Africa from Belgian Congo and Lake Tangayika to the west to the capital of Dar-es-Salaam on the Indian Ocean coast. The German colony faced the British colonies of British East Africa and Rhodesia to the north and southwest, Belgian Congo to the west, and Portuguese Mozambique to the south. From Andree's Allgemeiner Handatlas, published in Leipzig, Germany by Velhagen & Klasing.
Map of the Danube River from the guidebook The Danube from Passau to the Black Sea, by The First Imperial Royal Priv. Danube Shipping Co., 1913 edition. It was translated from the German by May O'Callaghan and published in Vienna. Inside the back cover is a booklet General Remarks-Fares; Time-tables, 1914, that includes information about 'ships, cabins, combined tickets, luggage and attendance in general on the Company's steamers, etc.'
"The French did not co-operate in the battle [of Flers-Courcelette], and continued to delay entering the heavy fighting which followed. They took little part until the 25th, when another attack was launched. It was the anniversary of the British reverse at Loos, and Charteris, Haig's intelligence chief, wrote in his diary '. . . a great difference between this year and last'. He was not attempting irony. On 27 September the Thiepval spur was at last taken, having held out since 1 July. A battalion of the Bedfordshires were the ones who finally took possession. The land surrounding this stronghold was carpeted with British corpses from the numerous previous attacks which had failed." ((1), more)
"Prince Rupprecht's Statement of September 28thThis Somme offensive brings an attack of unusual violence every six days on average. I know this country well from the fighting of 1914. At that time we had moving warfare, while we are now in a position of siege.In his attacks, beginning in July, the enemy has gained some ground, but a decision of the situation is not to be thought of. One cannot prophesy how things will go here, but one thing is certain: Everything has now been so well provided for by us that one can quietly await coming events, be they what they may.The offensive will certainly not be at an end very soon. . . . I am of the opinion that the enemy is seeking a decision here and this years, and in this he has failed." ((2), more)
"Friday, September 29, 1916.The economic situation has become much worse in the last few weeks. The increased cost of living is causing hardship all round. The price of the most elementary necessaries is three times what it was at the beginning of the war; in the case of wood and eggs it is four times, and in that of butter and soap five times. The main causes of this situation are unfortunately as fundamental as obvious—the closing of foreign markets, congestion on the railways and confusion and dishonesty in the public services.What will it be in few weeks time when we have to cope with the rigours of winter and the tortures of the cold, which are even more cruel than those of hunger?" ((3), more)
"My dear General,I learn that after long and tough fighting, our brave African troops have captured Tabora, the citadel of the German East African defences.I would like to take advantage of this brilliant feat of arms to offer you, as well as the officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers under your command, my warmest congratulations on the constant successes won in this far-off campaign which has demanded so much effort to organise." ((4), more)
"Consequently, at 10:00 P.M. on 30 September [1916], the 10th [Romanian] Division, which initiated the assault, began marching toward the embarkation points. By 3:00 A.M. its first units began crossing in small boats. They wore summer uniforms and carried only limited ammunition and two days' food in their packs. By 11:30 A.M. the remainder of the 10th ID had been shuttled over, and by 3:00 P.M. most of a second division (the 21st Division) had arrived. The pontoon bridge, the construction of which began at 5:00 A.M., had reached only midstream by noon. This meant that except for the very lightest 53mm guns, all artillery had to await the completion of the bridge that evening. Meeting almost no enemy resistance, the Romanian infantry fanned out, enlarging the bridgehead four to six kilometers in all directions. The nearby Bulgarian villages of Babovo and Rahovo were occupied by 6:00 P.M." ((5), more)
(1) The Thiepval spur is the site of the Thiepval Memorial to the 72,246 British and Empire missing of the Somme. The Battle of Loos was Britain's 'Big Push' in the autumn of 1915, a time when the British had not had the resources — of men, artillery, and aircraft — that they mustered in 1916. British General Douglas Haig had been promoted commander in chief after the failures of 1915. The September 15, 1916 Battle of Flers-Courcelette, an engagement in the Battle of the Somme, saw the first use tanks.
The Big Push, A Portrait of the Battle of the Somme by Brian Gardner, page 130, copyright © 1961 by Brian Gardner, publisher: William Morrow and Company, publication date: 1963
(2) Beginning and end of a statement by Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, September 28, 1916 writing of the British offensive on the Somme. He notes that the attacks will be very violent with a 'colossal expenditure of ammuntion', but that the Germans are well-prepared, their artillery strengthened, and their flyers 'getting the upper hand.' At the beginning of the war Rupprecht commanded the German Sixth Army. In August, 1916 he took command of Army Group Rupprecht of Bavaria, combining the 1st, 2nd, 6th, and 7th German Armies.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. IV, 1916, pp. 252–353, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
(3) September 29, 1916 entry from the diary of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia. Imperial Russia's last great offensive had ground to an end, but casualties continued to climb. The hope that Romania's entry into the war would turn the tide was proving to be unfounded.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. III by Maurice Paléologue, page 44, publisher: George H. Doran Company
(4) Beginning of a September 30, 1916 letter from Albert I, King of the Belgians to General Charles Tombeur, senior Belgian officer in Belgian Congo, who had captured Tabora in German East Africa on September 19. Tabora lay on the rail line between Lake Tanganyika to the west and Dar-es-Salaam on the Indian Ocean to the east.
The War Diaries of Albert I King of the Belgians by Albert I, pp. 124–125, copyright © 1954, publisher: William Kimber
(5) Romania entered the war on August 27, 1916 by crossing the Transylvanian Alps and southern Carpathian Mountains into Transylvania, in Austria-Hungary. Within a month, a German and Austro-Hungarian army was driving the invaders back into Romania, while, across the small country to the east, a combined German, Bulgarian, and Turkish army under German General August von Mackensen had driven the Romanians back in Dobrudja, a region between the Danube River and the Black Sea. With the Flămânda Maneuver, the Romanians crossed the Danube River into Bulgaria to strike Mackensen's army from the rear as Romanian and Russian troops attacked in Dobrudja. Initially panicked, the Central Power forces quickly recovered. By the end of October 1st, German aircraft had bombed the bridge and bad weather and rising water threatened it. By the 2nd, Austro-Hungarian patrol boats released mines to float downriver into the bridge.
The Romanian Battlefront in World War I by Glenn E. Torrey, page 84, copyright © 2011 by the University Press of Kansas, publisher: University Press of Kansas, publication date: 2011
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