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Map showing the territorial gains (darker shades) of Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece, primarily at the expense of Turkey, agreed in the Treaty of Bucharest following the Second Balkan War. Despite its gains, Bulgaria also lost territory to both Romania and Turkey.
The Royal Palace in Bucharest, Romania. A postcard altered to show the German flag flying over the palace.
German postcard map of the Western Front in Flanders, looking south and including Lille, Arras, Calais, and Ostend. In the Battle of the Yser in October, 1914, the Belgian Army held the territory south of the Yser Canal, visible between Nieuport, Dixmude, and Ypres (Ypern). Further north is Passchendaele, which British forces took at great cost in 1917.
Russian soldiers resting in the field. Card postmarked November 28, 1916.
Copy of 'Vieux Charles,' the 1916 Spad VII of French ace Georges Guynemer, landing at Olde Rhinebeck Aereodrome, Rhinebeck, New York, September 15, 2013. © 2013 John M. Shea
"On July 24, 1917, at dawn, after a strong artillery preparation which scattered the enemy positions, the divisions within the first echelon of the Romanian Second Army embarked upon the attack. The fighting was grim. In some places, the Romanian soldiers, piercing the enemy positions, attacked the enemy with the bayonet, thus compelling it to a hasty retreat. However, in other places the resistance put up by the German and Austro-Hungarian troops was extremely stubborn. The Romanians mounted the strongest attack for the liberation of the village of Mărăşti. . . . By the evening the Romanian troops had taken hold of the first position. The same day the Russian VIII Corps which attacked on the left of the Romanian Second Army scored a similar victory." ((1), more)
". . . some entertained the fantasy that 'Averescu had set out for Bucharest . . . and that Mackensen would be enveloped.' The rejoicing was short-lived. As Shcherbachev lunched with Prezan at the American Legation on 25 July, he received the famous Kerensky telegram ordering all Russian armies to cease offensive action. Half seriously, Berthelot told Shcherbachev that if he had received such an order, 'I would have simply put it in my pocket.' 'Impossible,' the Russian replied. The telegram had arrived en clair, and the soldiers' councils knew its contents before he did. He could do nothing but order his armies to hold their positions." ((2), more)
"In the evening, the shelling waxed to a demented fury. Ahead of us, coloured flares went up in a continual stream. Dust-covered runners reported that the enemy was attacking. After weeks of drumming, the infantry battle was about to begin; we had come at the right time." ((3), more)
"The night was very dark and the confusion great. Wheels creaked and scrunched; frightened horses slid forwards by leaps and bounds; cart grated against cart; whips twanged and swished; and agitated voices shouted and cursed in one and the same breath.. . . All around us were fires; even in front of us buildings were blazing. My driver said that some of the soldiers thought that they were already surrounded by the enemy. We reached the village of Gorodenka and orders were given to halt. On one side of the village the mansion of a large estate was in flames. Camp-beds and straw were brought and, by the side of a large lake, we wrapped ourselves in our plaids and tried to sleep. . . . In the half-light of dawn, we heard heavy gun carriages thunder by, followed by the tramping of foot soldiers. Behind them came bronirovanny [armoured motors]. . . . It was very cold and damp on the lake bank." ((4), more)
"Spad XII S382 arrived at N.3, then based at St. Pol-sur-Mer to support the British Passchendaele offensive, in July 1917. Guynemer used it to attack a DFW C.V on the 5th, but it was damaged by the enemy observer and was sent back for repairs until the 20th. On July 27, Guynemer used S382 to shoot down an Albatros scout with eight machine gun rounds and one cannon shell, killing Leutnant der Reserve Fritz Vossen of Jasta 33. He downed a DFW over Westroosebeke the next day using two shells and 30 bullets, but damage from its return fire forced him to send S382 back to the shop until August 15." ((5), more)
(1) The battle of Mărăşti began on July 24, 1917 with an attack by the recovered and newly re-armed Romanian army. Romania entered the war on August 27, 1916, and was overrun by Central Power forces by the end of the year, driven out of Wallachia and Dobruja and back to Moldavia where the Russians held the Allied line. After rebuilding with support, training, and weapons from France, the Romanian army launched its offensive to retake the country's lost territory.
Romania in World War I, a Synopsis of Military History by Vasile Alexandrescu, pp. 48–49, copyright © 1985, publisher: Military Publishing House, publication date: 1985
(2) The Battle of Mărăşti began on July 24, 1917 with an attack by the recovered and newly re-armed Romanian army advancing with Russian support, support that was questionable before it actually occurred. Russian Prime Minister and Minister of War Alexander Kerensky had launched his offensive on July 1, Russia's first following that country's February Revolution that overthrew the Tsar, but brought a pro-war government to power. By late July Russian troops were refusing to fight, retreating, and deserting in large numbers. German General August von Mackensen had commanded the Central Power Danube Army in the Romanian invasion. General Alexandru Averescu commanded the Romanian Second Army; General Dmitri Shcherbachev was Russian commander on the Romanian front; General Constantin Prezan, Chief of the Romanian General Staff; and Henri Berthelot head of the French Military Mission to Romania. Bucharest was, and remains, the capital of Romania.
The Romanian Battlefront in World War I by Glenn E. Torrey, page 204, copyright © 2011 by the University Press of Kansas, publisher: University Press of Kansas, publication date: 2011
(3) German Lieutenant Ernst Jünger left Cambrai, France on June 25, 1917, ordered to Flanders, where the British had already begun their artillery bombardment in preparation for the Third Battle of Ypres, also known as the Battle of Passchendaele.
Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger, page 161, copyright © 1920, 1961, Translation © Michael Hoffman, 2003, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 2003
(4) Florence Farmborough, an English nurse serving with the Russian Red Cross, describing some of the events of the night of July 26–27, 1917 in the aftermath of the collapse of the Kerensky Offensive and the piercing of the Russian line by German and Austro-Hungarian forces. Farmborough had served since March, 1915, and it was only in the last few days that she felt threatened as she and the other sisters were verbally attacked by the soldiers. She recognized, 'for the first time. . . that our soldiers might become our enemies and were capable of doing us harm.'
Nurse at the Russian Front, a Diary 1914-18 by Florence Farmborough, page 289, copyright © 1974 by Florence Farmborough, publisher: Constable and Company Limited, publication date: 1974
(5) On July 28 and 28, 1917, French ace Georges Guynemer flew the new Spad XII modified to implement an armament he had proposed: a cannon that fired a 37 mm shell through a hollow propeller shaft. The breech of the gun extended back between his legs, and he would have had to reload it for the second shell he fired on the 28th. The Albatros scouts were some of Germany's leading fighter planes. DFW manufactured over 2,000 of the two-seater reconnaissance C.V, with another 1,250 produced under license by other firms. British General Douglas Haig would launch the battle of Passchendaele on July 31.
SPAD XIII vs. Fokker D VII: Western Front 1916-18 by Gutman, page 169, publisher: Osprey
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