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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
'Warmest regards from the Somme . . . ' from Robert Künger, September 21, 1916, presumably pictured with his machine gun crew. Translation couresy of Thomas Faust, ebay's Urfaust.
Intermission at a French theater, 1915. Women and a girl knit, socks perhaps, for soldiers at the front, as does a Red Cross nurse seated between two sleepy soldiers, one — from an Algerian regiment — visibly wounded. An older man reads the news. Illustrated by A. Guillaume, the postcard is captioned in the languages of the Entente Allies, French, English, and Russian.
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.
A folding postcard from a pencil sketch of an unsuccessful Allied gas attack in Flanders.
"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." ((1), more)
"High-explosive shells of quite exceptional ferocity were coming down all the time, one of which just missed killing me that evening.Towards morning, the machine-gun suddenly started rattling away, as some dark figures were approaching. It was a patrol from the 76th Regiment come to get in touch with us, and one of them was left dead. Mistakes like that happened quite frequently at that time, and one didn't spend too much time anguishing over them." ((2), more)
"Monday, July 30th [1917], midnight. Brandhoek.Cars came for us at 5 p.m. and here we are. By the time you get this it will be history for better or for worse. By 6 a.m. our part will have begun and everything is organized and ready up to the brim. That we have 15 Theatre Sisters tells its own tale. We have 33 Sisters altogether, and they are all tucked into their bell-tents with hankies tied on the ropes to be the first one to be called when the first case comes in.. . . Some Grandmothers (15-inch guns) on each side of us are splitting the air and rocking the huts, and everything except the Field Gun drumfire, which hasn't begun yet, is joining in. Fritz is sending his over too, with an ugly whang. The illumination is brighter than any lightning: dazzling and beautiful. Their new blinding gas is known as mustard-oil gas; it burns your eyes — sounds jolly, doesn't it? — and comes over in shells. I wonder how many hundreds or thousands have got only four more hours to live, and know it?" ((3), more)
"Everywhere the story was the same: the pillboxes were far more numerous than Fifth Army headquarters had anticipated, German artillery dominated the field from both flanks, the tanks were valueless except in a few isolated instances, British light guns were firing blindly at nothing that mattered, losses were high, the ground gained was far short of expectations. One brigade got lost altogether and reported it had captured Glencorse Wood (it was, in fact, occupying Chateau Wood), and such confusion developed along the Menin road that after a few hours eight separate battalions were milling around in the same splatter of shell holes just east of Sanctuary Wood." ((4), more)
"August 1st [1917].The great brutal force of the initial blow has been parried. We survived the gruesome tension occasioned by the uncanny artillery fire, and we are able again to hold our heads high as the battle of living men is resumed. The struggle has now reached the phase of human effort, after unseen mechanical death has been knocking at the door day and night for weeks. The German fighting spirit was fully awakened, and heroes flung themselves from the islands of defense in the conquered district against the advancing masses and seriously weakened the flanks of the oncoming troops. Millions of shells have been spent, and now comes the test of strength and nerves." ((5), more)
(1) 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
(2) German Lieutenant Ernst Jünger left Cambrai, France on June 25, 1917, ordered to Flanders, where the British artillery bombardment in preparation for the Third Battle of Ypres, also known as the Battle of Passchendaele, was in progress.
Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger, page 165, copyright © 1920, 1961, Translation © Michael Hoffman, 2003, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 2003
(3) K. E. Luard, Royal Red Cross nurse and sister-in-charge at the Advanced Abdominal Station at Brandhoek, Belgium, writing the night before the opening of the Battle of Passchendaele, the Third Battle of Ypres. Brandhoek is roughly midway between Poperinge and Ypres, seven kilometers west of the latter.
The Virago Book of Women and the Great War by Joyce Marlow, Editor, pp. 315–316, copyright © Joyce Marlow 1998, publisher: Virago Press, publication date: 1999
(4) The situation at late morning, July 31, 1917, the first day of the Third Battle of Ypres, or the Battle of Passchendaele. Despite a horrific artillery bombardment by the British, German defenses remained, and stopped the British advance. Elsewhere, the French gained their first-day objects. British commander Douglas Haig would keep grinding his men on until November.
In Flanders Fields, the 1917 Campaign by Leon Wolff, pp. 144–145, copyright © 1958 by Leon Wolff, publisher: The Viking Press, publication date: 1958
(5) Beginning of the report by Max Osborn, official German observer on the Flanders front, writing of the beginning of the Third Battle of Ypres, launched by the British and French on July 31, 1917. The preliminary bombardment had begun on July 15, and was more punishing than any yet laid down by British artillery. The infantry attack itself began before 4:00 a.m. on the 31st. Six hours later the creeping artillery, timed to keep ahead of the advancing British troops, had left the men well behind, the guns moving on to the second and third objectives as the infantry had largely failed to capture the first. By late afternoon a drizzle had turned to drenching rains that filled shell holes where men sheltered and turned the torn-up battlefield to muddy swamp.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. V, 1917, p. 271, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
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