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The Assumption of the Virgin Mary, Rheims Cathedral. German artillery first shelled the magnificent Cathedral of Rheims on September 19, 1914 igniting scaffolding that covered the north tower, and beginning a fire that spread to other woodwork within the building. The building was intermittently shelled throughout the war, particularly in the spring of 1917 when it was struck with 70 high-caliber shells. © 2014 John M. Shea
Design for a memorial in memory of Harold Lionel Isidore Spielmann of Pembroke College, Cambridge, a Captain in the 10th Manchester Regiment, who 'led his men with skill & gallantry & reached his objective.' He was killed in action at Helles on Gallipoli on August 13, 1915, and is buried there in the Pink Farm Cemetery. The upper portion of the design is the coat of arms of Pembroke College at Cambridge University on a field of 'P's for Pembroke College. Signed Nelson Dawson, Inv. et Fecit.
Italy's armed forces at the ready in a 1915 postcard. In the foreground the artillery, infantry, an Alpine soldier (in feathered hat), and a Bersaglieri (in plumed headgear). Behind them are a bugler and lancer; in the distance marines and colonial troops. The Italian navy is off shore, an airship and planes overhead. On the reverse are the lyrics of a patriotic Italian March by Angelo Balladori, lyrics by Enrico Mercatali. It ends with a call to the brothers of Trento and Trieste, Austro-Hungarian territory with large ethnic Italian populations.
To the Dardanelles! The Entente Allies successfully capture their objective and plant their flags in this boy's 1915 war game, as they did not in life, neither in the naval campaign, nor in the invasion of the Gallipoli peninsula.
Amputees at a hospital in Budapest, Austria-Hungary in the summer of 1915. Some had lost their feet to freezing in the Carpathian Mountains in the winter. From 'Antwerp to Gallipoli' by Arthur Ruhl.
". . . Compared with the towns of the north, Rheims is relatively unharmed; but for that very reason the arrest of life seems the more futile and cruel. The Cathedral square is deserted, all the houses around it are closed. And there, before us, rose the Cathedral — a cathedral, rather, for it was not the one we had always known. It was, in fact, not like any cathedral on earth. When the German bombardment began, the west front of Rheims was covered with scaffolding: the shells set it on fire, and the whole church was wrapped in flames. Now the scaffolding is gone, and in the dull provincial square there stands a structure so strange and beautiful, that one must search the Inferno, or some tale of Eastern magic, for words to picture the luminous unearthly vision. The lower part of the front has been warmed to deep tints of umber and burnt siena. This rich burnishing passes, higher up, through yellowish-pink and carmine, to a sulphur whitening to ivory; and the recesses of the portals and the hollows behind the statues are lined with a black denser and more velvety than any effect of shadow to be obtained by sculptured relief. The interweaving of colour over the whole blunted bruised surface recalls the metallic tints, the peacock-and-pigeon iridescences, the incredible mingling of red, blue, umber and yellow of the rocks along the Gulf of Ægina. And the wonder of the impression is increased by the sense of its evanescence; the knowledge that this is the beauty of disease and death, that every one of the transfigured statues must crumble under the autumn rains, that every one of the pink or golden stones is already eaten away to the core, that the Cathedral of Rheims is glowing and dying before us like a sunset. . ." ((1), more)
"This Ark was presented in loving memory of Harold Lionel Isidore Spielmann of Pembroke College Camb Captain 10th Manchester Regiment T:F ... Born. Jan 12, 1895 killed in action Gallipoli Aug 13 1915 May his soul rest in peace."He led his men with skill & gallantry & reached his objective"Nelson Dawson Inv. et Fecit." ((2), more)
"At 03:00 on 14 August, the artillery opens up. Under cover of the darkness and thundering guns, the Bersaglieri crawl up the trackless hillside. More than once, Bonamore slithers back 20 or 30 metres. They stop some 200 metres below the enemy line and huddle for warmth. Bonamore sleeps 'for an hour or so leaning on the knees of Sergeant Meda who in turn was leaning against a tree trunk so as not to fall'. The climbing sun reveals them to the Austrians, who rake the mountainside with shrapnel. The Italians press themselves against the rocks, and wait. The wire-cutting detail is highest up the slope." ((3), more)
"The English and Indian troops, operating from Suvla Bay, meanwhile, had advanced on the flank of Sari Bahr. The Irish troops stormed and captured Chocolate Hill on the night of August 8th, but failed to make connections with the Australians who were being pressed on the opposite slopes.Three days passed before the Suvla Bay forces succeeded in coming to the aid of the Australians. The delay was fatal, for the Turks had rallied in great force and driven back the Australians from all the positions they had gained on Sari Bahr. Had the Suvla Bay troops been moved more quickly, the Turkish stronghold might have been taken and the way opened to the forts on the Dardanelles.On August 15th, the same Irish troops that had taken Chocolate Hill succeeded in rushing Dublin Hill in a hand-to-hand fight with the Turks." ((4), more)
"If I had stayed in London and continued to read the lies of but one side, I should doubtless, by this time, be able to loathe and despise the enemy with an entire lack of doubt, discomfort, or intelligence. But having been in all the countries and read all the lies, the problem is less simple. . . . Be joyful if you can, when you know what war is, and, knowing it, know also that it is the only way to do your necessary work. The absurd and disgusting thing is the ignorance and cowardice of those who can slaughter an army corps every day for lunch, with words, and would not be able to make so trivial a start toward the 'crushing' they are forever talking about as to fire into another man's open eyes or jam a bayonet into a single man's stomach. Among the Utopian steps which one would most gladly support would be an attempt to send the editors and politicians of all belligerent countries to serve a week in the enemy's hospitals." ((5), more)
(1) Edith Wharton toured the Western Front in 1915, reporting from the Argonne, Lorraine, the Vosges, northern France, and Belgium. In August she toured Alsace, stopping in Reims, France on her way. German artillery first shelled the magnificent Cathedral on September 19, 1914 igniting scaffolding that covered the north tower, and beginning a fire that spread to other woodwork within the building. The building was intermittently shelled throughout the war, particularly in the spring of 1917 when it was struck with 70 high-caliber shells.
Fighting France by Edith Wharton, pp. 184-186, copyright © 1915, by Charles Scribner's Sons, publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons, publication date: 1915
(2) Design for a memorial in memory of Harold Lionel Isidore Spielmann of Pembroke College, Cambridge, a Captain in the 10th Manchester Regiment, who 'led his men with skill & gallantry & reached his objective.' He was killed in action at Helles on Gallipoli on August 13, 1915, and is buried there in the Pink Farm Cemetery. The upper portion of the design is the coat of arms of Pembroke College at Cambridge University on a field of 'P's for Pembroke College. Signed Nelson Dawson, Inv. et Fecit.
Revolutionary Russia 1891-1991: a History by Orlando Figes, front, copyright © 2014 by Orlando Figes, publisher: Picador, publication date: 2015
(3) The Italian attack began 20 minutes after the artillery barrage stopped at 12:15. The artillery had not cut the Austro-Hungarian wire, and the wire-cutters were killed before they could complete their mission. The infantry were slaughtered by the defenders. Those who tried to retreat were cut down. Those who survived were hidden from the Austro-Hungarian defenders, yet too close to the enemy line to call for artillery attacks on it. Some 50 men made it back to their lines after nightfall. The account, in Thompson's The White War, is based on that of Italian infantryman Virgilio Bonamore, who fought the Austro-Hungarians in the Julian Alps. The Bersaglieri were light infantry regiments identifiable by the cockerel feathers that adorned their hats.
The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919 by Mark Thompson, page 110, copyright © 2008 Mark Thompson, publisher: Basic Books, publication date: 2009
(4) The last major Allied offensive to bring the Gallipoli campaign to a victorious conclusion had failed. The opening of a new front at Suvla Bay, the bolstering of the force at Anzac Cove, all in an attempt to drive across the Gallipoli Peninsula to the Dardanelles, the gateway to Constantinople, had come to more death on both sides.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 184, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
(5) Excerpt from 'Cannon Fodder' in Antwerp to Gallipoli by Arthur Ruhl, a journalist from the neutral United States. Having written from Antwerp, Berlin, Gallipoli, and Romania, Ruhl was in Budapest in summer, 1915. Between the two paragraphs quoted, Ruhl has another about those who love the notion of 'flashing sabers.' He describes the grim wound he could fit four fingers in that a saber had made. He had read that the call to 'Sharpen sabers!' was 'joyful.' He demurs.
Antwerp to Gallipoli by Arthur Ruhl, pp. 262, 263, copyright © 1916 by Charles Scribner's Sons, publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons, publication date: 1916
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