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Tinted postcard of Marshal Ferdinand Foch. Made Commander-in-Chief of all Allied forces on the Western Front April 3, 1918, he led the Allies to victory in November.
Map of Syria, Palestine, Turkey, and Mesopotamia from the Baedeker 1912 travel guide Palestine and Syria with Routes through Mesopotamia and Babylonia and with the Island of Cyprus.
German soldiers in a Russian village. The message is dated, and the card field postmarked May 3, 1918. The men's packs and rifles are laid out in the right background; horses can be seen in the left background.
1917 original pen and ink drawing of a sentry in the dunes of the Belgian coast viewing a ship on the horizon. Possibly by W Wenber, Leading Seaman.
German soldiers on the San River in Russia on July 17, 1916. The river flows beyond the trees in the distance.
"At the meeting on the 15th [March, 1918], since this solution on the part of the two governments was still causing me much anxiety, I asked to be heard, and I pointed out the defects existing in the organization of the Allied command at the very moment the coalition was about to engage in a defensive battle of the utmost importance and which all were agreed could not be far off. . . .Under this circumstances now existing, this [centralizing] organ would have been the commander of the Allied General Reserve, had it been formed. In the absence, however, of this Allied instrument, it was much to be feared that the French and the British armies, on which the enemy's blows were about to fall, would each be governed by considerations of its own particular interests and dangers and would lose sight of the common weal, although that was more important than anything else. In a word, the Allied battle might be seriously compromised, under existing conditions, because unity of view and of action would be lacking." ((1), more)
"This place is not soul-less, not soul-deadening, like France (in the war-zone). . . . I should be very contented with life if it would stop raining. I have a strong feeling of escape. I have slipped away 'from fields where glory does not stay.' Here I can start afresh. And if death happens to meet me on these hills—the ragged old Syrian rascal—who cares? I'll go along with him to the Prophet's Paradise, or any dusty old tomb where he's got my number up. But it'll be a wooden cross in France after all, I fear." ((2), more)
"On 17 March [ 1918], after sundown, we left the quarters we had come to love, and marched to Brunemont. The roads were choked with columns of marching men, innumerable guns and an endless supply column. Even so, it was all orderly, following a carefully worked-out plan by the general staff. Woe to the outfit that failed to keep to its allotted time and route; it would find itself elbowed into the gutter and having to wait for hours till another slot fell vacant. On one occasion we did get in a little jam, in the course of which Captain van Brixen's horse impaled itself on a metalled axle and had to be put down." ((3), more)
"Might is on the side of the Germans. Opposite our front, in contrast to the situation we have been faced with since 1914, Germany has grouped several excellent divisions. Moreover, she has given us proof of this. For a month we have suffered important losses. On the 18th March [1918] alone we lost 1,100 men. We must not deceive ourselves; the enemy is in a position to teach us a lesson whenever he likes. It is a mistake to count too much on military aid from the Allies, for in fact what aid they could bring us would be weak and tardy. Our politicians adopt a haughty and provocative attitude towards Germany, and the Army bears the brunt." ((4), more)
"There was another whistle high up in the air. Everyone had the choking feeling: this one's headed our way! Then there was a huge, stunning explosion — the shell had hit in our midst.Half stunned I stood up. From the big crater, burning machine-gun belts spilled a coarse pinkish light. It lit the smouldering smoke of the explosion, where a pile of charred bodies were writhing, and the shadows of those still living were fleeing in all directions. Simultaneously, a grisly chorus of pain and cries for help went up. The rolling motion of the dark mass in the bottom of the smoking and glowing cauldron, like a hellish vision, for an instant tore open the extreme abysm of terror." ((5), more)
(1) The offensives of 1917 — the British at Arras and Passchendaele, the French Nivelle Offensive and subsequent army mutinies, the Italian Battles of the Isonzo and the destruction of their Second Army in the Austro-German Battle of Caporetto — and the Bolshevik Revolution and Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that led to Russia leaving the war — left Allied commanders anticipating a German offensive with troops released from the Eastern Front. As he had at a January 30—February 2, 1918 meeting of Allied prime ministers at Versailles, French General Ferdinand Foch, our author, at a March 13 through 15 conference in London again made his case for a general reserve under a unified command that could take advantage of opportunities to seize the offensive.
The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, translated by Col. T. Bentley Mott by Ferdinand Foch, page 252, copyright © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., publisher: Doubleday, Doran & Co., publication date: 1931
(2) Excerpt from the diary of Siegfried Sassoon, a British poet, author, Second Lieutenant in the Royal Welch Fusiliers (R.W.F.), and recipient of the Military Cross for gallantry in action. Sassoon had been wounded in April, 1917, and by mid-June had concluded that the war begun 'as a war of defence and liberation, [had] become a war of aggression and conquest.' In October he was at Craiglockhart, a psychiatric facility in Scotland, and under the care of W. H. R. Rivers. There he met the poet Wilfred Owen and edited some of his poems, a relationship at the heart of Regeneration, the first book of Pat Barker's WWI trilogy of the same name. In February, 1918, Sassoon was transferred to the Palestine Front where the British under the command of General Edmund Allenby had entered Jerusalem on December 11, 1917, and were continuing their advance along the Mediterranean coast. Their next objective was Nablus. The quotation, 'from fields where glory does not stay.' is from the poem 'To an Athlete Dying Young' by A. E. Housman.
Siegfried Sassoon Diaries 1915-1918 by Siegfried Sassoon, page 224, copyright © George Sassoon, 1983; Introduction and Notes Rupert Hart-Davis, 1983, publisher: Faber and Faber, publication date: 1983
(3) German Lieutenant Ernst Jünger on preparations days before for what he elsewhere refers to as German commander Erich Ludendorff's, and Germany's, 'mighty do-or-die offensive'. It would be Operation Michael, launched on March 21, 1918. Brunémont, France, is about 30 km east of Arras, and half that distance north of Cambrai.
Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger, pp. 222–223, copyright © 1920, 1961, Translation © Michael Hoffman, 2003, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 2003
(4) Excerpt from the entry for March 20, 1918 from the diary of Albert, King of the Belgians. Much of the unusually long entry concerns the introduction of the Flemish (Dutch) language into the Belgian Army. Albert continues with our quotation, responding to what he considers unrealistic arrogance towards the Germans on the part of his ministers and to the question he asks himself, 'What, in fact, is the situation?'
The War Diaries of Albert I King of the Belgians by Albert I, pp. 196–197, copyright © 1954, publisher: William Kimber
(5) German Lieutenant Ernst Jünger was leading his company forward to a reserve position on the night of March 19, 1918 when they were hit by a shell. Like the other survivors, Jünger fled before falling into a shell-hole and recollecting his men, whom he returned to organize. He gathered his company to continue deploying for what he elsewhere refers to as German commander Erich Ludendorff's, and Germany's, 'mighty do-or-die offensive', Operation Michael, launched on March 21, 1918. Before the shell struck, Jünger had 150 men. The next day he was able to collect 63.
Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger, page 225, copyright © 1920, 1961, Translation © Michael Hoffman, 2003, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 2003
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