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Portrait card of the French Ace Georges Guynemer in French and Arabic. In his hand, and by his side, are machine guns, presumably from the plane he shot down, number 43.
A call to Italians to buy war bonds to help fund the powerful weapons needed for the last push to Trieste, a mere 25 kilometers from the Italian front lines. It pays 5%, after all, tax free, for an effective rate of 5.55%!
Alexander Kerensky, leader of Russia's Cadet party and a member of the Provisional government in 1917 as Minister of Justice, War, and Prime Minister. From 'The War of the Nations Portfolio in Rotogravure Etchings Compiled from the Mid-Week Pictorial Published by the New York Times Co. New York City N.Y.' © Copyrighted 1919 by the New York Times Company 1914 - 1919
A Russian Maxim machine gun squad on the front in a 1917 photograph. In the middle of the line one soldier wears a French Adrian helmet.
Imperial Russian soldiers on parade in France.Message and postmark Marseille, April 22, 1916.
"When his motor was in order and tested, Guynemer flew off, straight to St. Pol. None of us ever saw him again.Next morning, 11 September, 1917, at 8:25, he went again to fight, followed by one of his usual companions, Lieutenant Bozon-Verderuz. But he had, that day, a single ticket without return, and he did not come back." ((1), more)
"Cadorna had blown his last chance. The battle continued, with varying degrees of intensity and carnage but without any significant change of position, until 12 September [1917].. . . the deadly cost of attritional warfare, together with the Pope's condemnation of the war, had very seriously damaged the morale of the Italian soldiers. In terms of men killed, the Tenth Battle had cost the Italian army more than the previous nine battles put together, and the number of dead in the Eleventh Battle would exceed that for the Tenth Battle. The infantry had fought one battle too many." ((2), more)
"The events of the next few days can be related very quickly. On September 12 [1917] General Krymov, the commander of the Third Cavalry Corps, was arrested by his soldiers and handed over to the government in Petrograd. He committed suicide almost at once. Kerensky, meanwhile, elevated himself to the rank of Commander-in-Chief of the army, and ordered Alexeiev to arrest the rebel Kornilov. On the 12th Alexeiev reluctantly and politely carried out these instructions, and Kornilov, in a state of high fever, was taken off to imprisonment in a monastery near Bikhov. Kerensky now formed a five-man 'directory,' with himself at the head. . . . As a further sop to the socialists Russia was proclaimed a republic. By the 18th Alexeiev had resigned and many of the other Kornilovist generals had been dismissed or imprisoned, and with this, the Kornilov affair can be said to be finally ended." ((3), more)
"The army, which during these dark and troubled days has demonstrated its confidence in the Provisional Government and in me as its prime minister responsible for the destinies of the country, must in its great wisdom understand that the only salvation of the country lies in proper organization, maintenance of order, discipline, and unity. Enjoying the confidence of the army, I appeal to all to ensure this. Let each one of you be guided by your conscience and sense of duty to your country at this dark hour when her destiny is at stake.As the Supreme Commander, I herewith demand that all commanding officers, commissars, and army organizations rigorously carry out this order, and I warn that any failure to do so will be severely punished. Signed: Supreme Commander, A. Kerensky. Chief of Staff, General of the Infantry, M. Alekseyev." ((4), more)
"Matters had not been helped by a division of 17,000 Russian soldiers who had fought with Nivelle on the Aisne and then had been unwisely retained in France. Wherever they were stationed they preached revolution. An attempt had been made to ship them back to Russia, but Kerenski did not want them. In time they had become so Bolshevik in sentiment, so troublesome, that it was decided to ask them to surrender, as though they were enemy troops. Only 57 did so. The rest dug trenches and put up barricades. While the civilian population hurriedly departed, a final ultimatum was issued on September 14. It was refused. Next day their food was cut of and they were encircled. On the following day they were attacked." ((5), more)
(1) Georges Guynemer was killed on September 11, 1917, credited with 53 victories, second of French aces in the war after René Fonck (75 victories). Our author, Willy Coppens, was Belgium's leading ace with 37 victories, all but two of his victims being observation balloons Although these balloons were tethered, they were well protected by anti-aircraft guns and fighter planes, making 'balloon busting' a hazardous specialty. Floating over the flat landscape of Flanders they were particularly menacing to those under their watchful eye. The day before his death, Guynemer had set down at the field of Coppens' squadron with engine trouble. The Belgians recognized him immediately, and crowded about. Coppens felt their attention made the famous ace nervous.
Flying in Flanders by Willy Coppens, page 111, publisher: Ace Books, publication date: 1971
(2) Italian commander in chief Luigi Cadorna's Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo came at a time when Italian moral was low, and desertion rates climbing. Much of the battle took place along ridges two to three thousand feet high.
Caporetto and the Isonzo Campaign: The Italian Front 1915–1918 by John MacDonald with Željko Cimprić, page 148, copyright © John MacDonald, 2011, 2015, publisher: Pen and Sword Books, publication date: 2011
(3) Russian General Lavr Kornilov had been made Supreme Commander of the Russian Army on July 31, 1917. Although claiming to support the Russian Revolution, he opposed many of its reforms, and wanted to bring back the death penalty for deserters from the army, many of whom had simply left the front. He had begun planning a coup with conservative officers, financiers, and industrialists in the first days of the revolution. Russian Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky had already held the titles of Justice Minister and War Minister when he asked the government to hand him power to deal with Kornilov. Petrograd was the seat of the Russian government and center of revolutionary activity. In preparing to defend the city from an attack by Kornilov, the government freed and armed the Bolsheviks who would overthrow it in October.
The Russian Revolution by Alan Moorehead, pp. 224–225, copyright © 1958 by Time, Inc., publisher: Carroll and Graf, publication date: 1989
(4) Close of the order issued on September 1, 1917 (September 14 New Style) by Alexander Kerensky and General Mikhail Alekseyev. Alekseyev wrote seven numbered points that called for a restoration of control by officers and the end of political activity in the workings of the army. Kerensky wrote the close.
Russia and History's Turning Point by Alexander Kerensky, page 355, copyright © 1965 by Alexander Kerensky, publisher: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, publication date: 1965
(5) After the failure of French commander in chief Robert Nivelle's 1917 spring offensive — the Second Battle of the Aisne, begun on April 16 — an offensive that Nivelle had asserted would provide the breakthrough of the German line that would lead to victory, mutinous incidents broke out in the French army, particularly among the troops that had suffered the highest rates of casualties in the offensive. The mutinies were of greater or lesser severity, beginning in April, with increasingly disruptive incidents in May, and the most violent and serious in the first weeks of June. Four brigades of Russian soldiers were sent two France in the spring of 1916, two of them immediately being sent to the Salonika Front. The Russian Revolution of March provided a model for some soldiers. The Russian troops were sent to a hastily evacuated camp for German prisoners of war in La Courtine, 450 km south of Paris, on June 26, 1917, and it was there they made their stand.
In Flanders Fields, the 1917 Campaign by Leon Wolff, page 170, copyright © 1958 by Leon Wolff, publisher: The Viking Press, publication date: 1958
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