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French soldier standing next to an unexploded 420mm shell that fell on Verdun. March, 1916. It weighed 2,100 pounds empty.
An unexploded American-made shell in the Ypres sector. The caption refers to it as American rubbish, making two points: American companies were selling weapons to the Entente Allies, but, even if Germany could buy them, they could not get through the British blockade. The unexploded shell is also a statement that American shells were duds, poorly made, and did not explode.
A Swiss postcard of 'The European War' in 1914. The Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary face enemies to the east, west, and south. Germany is fighting the war it tried to avoid, battling Russia to the east and France to the west. Germany had also hoped to avoid fighting England which came to the aid of neutral (and prostrate) Belgium, and straddles the Channel. Austria-Hungary also fights on two fronts, against Russia to the east and Serbia and Montenegro to the south. Italy, the third member of the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary, declared neutrality, and looks on. Other neutral nations include Spain, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania. Japan enters from the east to battle Germany. The German Fleet stays close to port in the North and Baltic Seas while a German Zeppelin targets England. The Austro-Hungarian Fleet keeps watch in the Adriatic. Turkey is not represented, and entered the war at the end of October, 1914; Italy in late May, 1915.
Postcard of early German aviators including Wintgens, Boelcke, Immelmann, Mulzer, Buddecke, von. Althaus, Höhndorf, Berthold, Parschau, Frankl, von Cossel, and Windisch. Sanke card #408. The men are Kurt Wintgens — KIA, September 25, 1916, 19 victories; Oswald Bölcke (Boelcke) — killed in collision, October 26, 1916, 40 victories; Max Immelmann — KIA (accident collision), June 18, 1916, 15 victories; Max Ritter von Mulzer — accidentally killed, September 26, 1916, 10 victories; Hans-Joachim Buddecke — KIA, March 10, 1918, 13 victories; Ernst Freiherr von Althaus — died November 29, 1946, 9 victories; Walter Höhndorf — killed in flying accident, September 5, 1917, 12 victories; Rudolf Berthold — killed in political street fighting in Hamburg, March 15, 1920, 44 victories; Otto Parschau — died of wounds, July 21, 1916, 8 victories; Wilhelm Frankl — KIA April 8, 1917, 20 victories; Maximilian von Cossel — POW, August 1917; and Rudolf Windisch — MIA, May 27, 1918, 22 victories. Sanke card #408.
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.
"July 8th.—There was a harmless shelling of the billets in the afternoon.July 9th.—Back in the line. Tampering with the fuse of an July 11th—unexploded shell caused the death of 3 men and the wounding of 2. A salient in the German line opposite was July 12th—apparently a tender spot, because shelling it was generally followed by a cessation of German activity." ((1), more)
"June 4: Allied attack in the centre. Gain 250—500 yards on a one-mile front. Allies' casualties 6,500, Turkish 9,000.June 21 and following days: French attack on the right. Gain of about 200 yards. French casualties 2,500, Turkish 6,000.June 28: British attack on the left. Gain of half of mile. British casualties 3,800, Turkish unknown.July 5: Turkish attack along the whole line. Nothing gained. Casualties, Turks 16,0000, Allies negligible.July 12/13: Allied attack on a one-mile front. Gain of 400 yards. Casualties, Allies 4,000, Turks 10,000." ((2), more)
"The Russians had lost 412 000 in May 1915 alone. Still, General Ivanov vowed to hold every square foot of ground. But the Russian 'Great Retreat' continued unabated. The Germans crossed the Dniester River on 27 June. On 13 July OberOst mounted another major offensive: Hindenburg attacked in Russian Poland from the northwest, Mackensen from the south, and Woyrsch from the west." ((3), more)
"The bombardments had noticeably diminished. It was almost a sector for rest. But on July 14 [1915], all that was spoiled. To remind the Germans that this was our national holiday, at three in the afternoon our artillery unleashed a violent cannonade upon the opposing trenches. We would have done better to leave the Germans alone, because they replied in kind, not on our artillerymen, which would have been logical, but on us infantrymen, who had nothing to do with it." ((4), more)
". . . the fifth [production Fokker E.I], 5/15, went to Leutnant Kurt Wintgens.. . . Wintgens had previously earned the Iron Cross 2nd Class as an observer over the Eastern Front. He had then trained to be a pilot and demonstrated sufficient skill to be assigned Fokker E.I 5/15, which he flew while with Flieger Abteilungen 67 and 6b. It was with the latter Bavarian unit that Wintgens claimed a Morane-Saulnier L east of Lunéville on July 1, 1915, which went down too far in French lines for witnesses to confirm. . . .Finally, on the 15th [July], Wintgens was credited with a Morane-Saulnier over Schucht—although it is is curiously ironic that the French recorded no casualties between July 14 and 18." ((5), more)
(1) Entry covering July 8 through 12, 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 Dunn was back in the frontline trenches on July 9. Approximately 70% of soldiers killed in World War I were killed by artillery fire, including shrapnel shells, high-explosive shells, and gas shells.
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) A footnote from Alan Moorehead's classic account of the Dardanelles and Gallipoli campaign summarizing the engagements of June and July, 1915 at Cape Helles at the tip of the Gallipoli Peninsula. Totals of his casualty numbers for the two months are 16,800 Allied, 41,000 Turkish, and a net Allied gain of possibly one mile on a one mile front. The Turkish defenders continued to hold the high ground.
Gallipoli by Alan Moorehead, page 208, copyright © 1956 by Alan Moorehead, publisher: Perennial Classics 2002 (HarperCollins Publications 1956), publication date: 2002 (1956)
(3) The German offensive that began on July 13, 1915 put over ten divisions and 1,000 guns with 400,000 shells on a front of 40 kilometres. The Russian defenders were unprepared. OberOst was 'Oberbefehlshaber der gesamten Deutschen Streitkräfte im Osten'—'Commander in Chief of all German Armed Forces in the East, headed by Generals Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff. General August von Mackensen had commanded the Battle of Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive of which the July 13 offensive was an extension.
The First World War: Germany and Austria Hungary 1914-1918 by Holger H. Herwig, page 144, copyright © 1997 Holger H. Herwig, publisher: Arnold, publication date: 1997
(4) Entry for July 14, Bastille Day, 1915 by French infantry Corporal Louis Barthas who documented his war experiences in a series of notebooks. He had fought in the Second Battle of Artois, which extended from May 9 to June 25, and in which the French suffered over 100,000 casualties.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, page 98, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
(5) The German Fokker E.I was a monoplane similar to the French Morane-Saulnier, and the first aircraft with an interrupter mechanism to allow a machine gun to fire through a rotating propeller, allowing the pilot to point his plane and shoot. The plane and its armament was superior to any of the Allied planes. With stalemate on the Western Front, fighter pilots with five or more victories, aces, were celebrated.
The Origin of the Fighter Aircraft by Jon Gutman, pp. 28, 29, copyright © 2009 Jon Gutman, publisher: Westholme Publishing, publication date: 2009
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