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Postcard map of the Chemin des Dames between Soissons and Rheims. The view is facing north towards the heights of the 'Ladies Road,' the Aisne River to its south. The Germans held the high ground after the retreat from the Marne in 1914. The French suffered heavy casualties taking the Chemin des Dames in the Second Battle of the Aisne in 1917, an offensive that led to widespread mutinies in the French Army. The Third German Drive of 1918, the Third Battle of the Aisne, drove the French, and supporting British troops, from the heights, and again threatened Paris.
National Chicle Chewing Gum card of Major Raoul Lufbery, an American Ace who flew with the Lafayette Escadrille. Credited with 18 victories, he was killed on May 19, 1918.
Metal grave markers at the Laventie German Military Cemetery, Laventie, France. A plowed field is in the background. © 2013 by John M. Shea
Headstone of Corporal Harry L. Curtis of Massachusetts and the 6th Engineers, 3rd Division, at the Somme American Cemetery, Bony, France. Curtis died on May 6, 1918. © 2013 by John M. Shea
The disparity in the number of nations arrayed against the Central Powers was a common motif, and was updated as the numbers on each side increased. Italy's entry into the war on May 23, 1915 changed the numbers again.Central Powers (top) Sultan Mohammed V of Turkey, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, Kaiser Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary. Allies (center and bottom rows) Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, King George V of the United Kingdom, President Raymond Poincaré of France, King Nikola of Montenegro, King Peter of Serbia, King Victor Emmanuel of Italy, King Albert I of Belgium, Emperor Taishō of Japan.In the center, a poem: Drei gegen Acht, Three against Eight.
"On May 5, 1918, the battle-weary units of the 8th Division detrained at Fère-en-Tardenois, and, for the second time during the war, British troops founds themselves in the country between the Aisne and the Marne.The Division had been terribly shattered in both German offensives on the Somme in March, and at Villers Bretonneux in April, and sorely needed rest and respite. But rest behind the line was impossible owing to the shortage of men, and on the British front there were no longer quiet sectors where tired divisions could, while holding the line, regain their energy and assimilate their heavy reinforcements. Such homes of rest were only to be found on the front held by the French armies, and so it came about that at the beginning of May the IXth Corps was formed of the 8th, 21st, 25th, and 50th Divisions and, under the recently effected unity in the Allied High Command, was transferred to the 6th French Army taking over a section about 15 miles in length between Rheims and the Chemin des Dames." ((1), more)
"The sole consolation of those antagonistic weeks was the young American airman, to whom I shall always be grateful for the sunny imperturbability which never seemed in the least shaken by my irritable impatience, my moods of black depression. Almost every day for a month or so he 'blew in' to the flat like a rush of wind from the wings of his own 'plane, and extravagantly insisted upon taking me to the Savoy Grill and numerous theatres—which were at least a pleasant contrast to the back of the Western Front—in the intervals of escorting Gaiety girls to less obvious but doubtless more enthralling entertainments. He also, with characteristic generosity, presented me with innumerable meat coupons, which by that time had become far more precious than all the winking diamonds in the empty luxury shops of deserted Bond Street." ((2), more)
"5.7. Splendid weather these days cheers me up, as much as this is possible. Under my very eyes, people are plowing all day long, and from my desk I can see the most beautiful scenes of nature. Moreover, all the apple trees are beginning to bloom. Spring again, the second out here! And another? . . . one day it will all have to end, after all, whether they want it or not. The phonograph is plaguing the barracks again. Poisoned sausages are of no avail: it won't eat them." ((3), more)
"A Yankee captain, and a sergeant, arrived for three days instruction. 'This is my birthday in hell,' he began. He seemed a good fellow, said that Yankee divisions are rolling over.Company officers are getting fed up with the daily alarms—'an attack is expected'—which come from behind. Reports says one day that cavalry have come to support us, another day that a division is being sent up in buses; so it goes on; and always that the French are behind. The latest alarm, 'sure this time,' is of a May 8th—big attack to-day. Pending its onset I sat, if the midges allowed, or strolled in the cottage gardens." ((4), more)
"On the afternoon of May 9th [1918]—which was the first possible day of the next period, Keyes and Lynes were both at La Panne as luncheon guests of the King of the Belgians. After a happy and informal meal they all went for a walk among the sand dunes. They had not gone very far when the King drew Keyes to one side and rather shyly offered him the Star of a Grand Officer of the Order of Leopold. It was while thanking His Majesty for this charming gesture that Keyes first became aware of the fact that the wind was shifting offshore.Within a quarter of an hour the wind was steady from the northeast. With brief apologies Keyes cut short the royal luncheon party, and he and Lynes tore back to Dunkirk—bearing with them the fervent good wishes of their hosts, to whom Keyes had permitted himself to drop a broad hint on the reason for their precipitate withdrawal." ((5), more)
(1) The first two paragraphs of Sidney Rogerson's account of the Third Battle of the Aisne which began three weeks later, on May 27. The first two engagements in which his Division 'had been terribly shattered' were part of Operation Michael, the German Somme offensive, after which the Germans attacked on the Lys River further north in Operation Georgette in April. They returned again to the Somme sector at Villers Bretonneux after three relatively quiet weeks. The Chemin des Dames formed part of the German defensive line after the Retreat from the Marne in 1914. It was taken ultimately taken by the French in the Second Battle of the Aisne and subsequent attacks in 1917, but with losses and squandering of lives that led directly to mutinies in the French Army. The French and British would soon be driven from this high ground gained as such cost.
The Last of the Ebb: the Battle of the Aisne, 1918 by Sidney Rogerson, page 3, copyright © Sidney Rogerson, 1937, publisher: Frontline Books, publication date: 2011
(2) Vera Brittain served in the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD), and left the French front to care for her mother. England she found difficult, writing of 'those miserable weeks' after her return to a country 'where no one discussed anything but the price of butter and the incompetence' of domestic help. The German offensives of March and April, Michael and Georgette, immediately followed her departure from France. The United Kingdom's food shortages, not of the severity of those of Russia, Austria-Hungary, and elsewhere, worsened as British shipping began transporting American soldiers to Europe rather than food. Gaiety Girls originated in musical comedies at the Gaiety Theatre in London in the 1890s, but here the term is used more loosely.
Testament of Youth: An Autobiographical Study of the Years 1900–1925 by Vera Brittain, page 432, copyright © Vera Brittain, 1933, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 1978, originally 1933
(3) Paul Klee's diary entry for May 7, 1918. The artist served with the air corps, varnishing the wings and fuselages of airplanes, transporting airplanes to the front, and, from the beginning of 1918, working as assistant paymaster, a position that meant he no longer needed to fear being transferred to the front, and that left him time to read and work. He would complain of the phonograph again on May 28: 'While I am thinking about this, the phonograph grinds tirelessly. Heads grin around it, devilish masks peer in through the window. The beasts are enjoying themselves. There must be some reason for the fact that there is always a piece of hell near me. This one is at least quite mild. Only a reflection of the real one.'
The Diaries of Paul Klee 1898-1918, Edited, with an Introduction by Felix Klee by Paul Klee, 392 (and 393), copyright © 1964 by the Regents of the University of California, publisher: University of California Press, publication date: 1968
(4) Ending of the entry for May 7 flowing into that for May 8, 1918 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, and fellow soldiers who served with him. Dunn's unit was northeast of Amiens where they gone at the beginning of April to reinforce the British line against the German Somme Offensive, Operation Michael, which was suspended on the 5th. It was quickly followed by Operation Georgette on April 9, the second of five German Offensives in 1918. The Allies were expecting the next attack any day.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 480, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
(5) Under the command of Roger Keyes, the Royal Navy attempted to block the canals leading to the German submarine base at Bruges, Belgium the night of April 22–23, 1918, raiding the North Sea ports of Ostend and Zeebrugge in hopes of sinking aging warships across the canals. The operation had some success at Zeebrugge, but at Ostend it was unsuccessful, in part because the Germans had moved a buoy on which the raiders were relying. As Keyes met with Albert King of the Belgians on May 9, he had a plan awaiting favorable weather conditions to try again at Ostend.
Zeebrugge by Barrie Pitt by Barrie Pitt, page 164, copyright © Barrie Pitt 1958, 1959, publisher: Ballantine Books, publication date: 1958
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