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Postcard of the Russian Army from a series on the Armies of the European War of 1914.
'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.
An advertising card of the Greek Army from the series Armées des États Balcaniques, published in 1910.The card shows, from left to right: an artillery detachment, a soldier in battle dress and another in parade dress, a cavalry man, an infantry officer, two hunters of a battalion of evzones, and a mountain artillery officer.
Verdun Ossuary and Cemetery, France. © 2015 John M. Shea
Postcard from a series on the Armies of the European War of 1914. The French Army included units from its African colonies including Morocco and Senegal, and the Départment of Algeria.
"For the last two days all the factories in Petrograd have been on strike. The workmen left the shops without giving any reason, and simply on an order issued by some mysterious committee.'. . . a party of strikers from the Baranovsky works besieged our establishment, shouting: "Down with the French! No more war!" Our engineers and foremen wanted to parley with them. They were received with stones and revolver shots. One French engineer and three French foremen were seriously wounded. The police had already arrived and soon realized that they could not cope with the situation. A squad of gendarmes then succeeded in forcing a way through the crowd, and went to fetch two infantry regiments which are in barracks quite near. The two regiments appeared a few minutes later, but instead of raising the siege of our factory, they fired on the police.'" ((1), more)
"At nine in the morning on November 1, the order was given to go forth from the trenches. There was a moment of hesitation, but on our left the 125th Regiment went out with élan and swept right over the first German line.Seeing that they were being outflanked by the 125th Regiment, the Germans came out of their holes with arms raised, calling out 'Comrades! Comrades!' This word is now known in all languages.Their obliging machine gunners carried their murderous machines across their shoulders." ((2), more)
"The first clash between the Greek Revolutionists and the Royalists occurred on November 2, 1916, when a body of Revolutionists marched overland to Katerina, some 25 miles northeast of Larissa, where a garrison of Royalist troops were stationed. In a brief encounter, the Revolutionists ousted the Royalists and occupied the city. King Constantine thereupon decreed that any Royalists who chose to do so might join the forces of the Revolutionists." ((3), more)
"The Germans held [Fort Vaux] until November 2d, then suddenly evacuating the position and retiring to the Woevre Plain. With the restauration of Vaux, the circle of Verdun defences was once more complete.Eight months before the French had said: 'They shall not pass.' And the Germans did not pass Verdun. Instead they had retired a defeated army, leaving half a million of their dead on the slopes round about Verdun." ((4), more)
"What the French do with their weaklings is a mystery. Their gunners may be picked, but here are infantry and supply all as big as our average; they have no such little men in this part of their line as a great many of ours. Their A.S.C. and ours differ also in age; their men are in early middle age, ours are lusty youths." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpts from the entry for October 31, 1916 from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia in the Russian capital Petrograd. That evening he attended a dinner in honor of the Japanese Ambassador, Viscount Motono, departing Russia after being appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs. The speaker in the second paragraph is one of two representatives from the Louis Renault motor works in Petrograd. The two infantry regiments that turned on the police were in turn driven back to their barracks by four regiments of Cossack cavalry.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. III by Maurice Paléologue, pp. 73, 74, publisher: George H. Doran Company
(2) Excerpt from the notebooks of French Infantry Corporal Louis Barthas, writing of a November 1, 1916 attack by his 296th Infantry Regiment in conjunction with the 125th IR in the Battle of the Somme. The attack was near Combles. The English were on the left of the 125th Infantry Regiment.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, pp. 273–274, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
(3) Constantine became king of Greece on the assassination of his father in 1913. He had been educated in Germany, was married to a sister of Kaiser Wilhelm II, and was pro-German. Eleftherios Venizelos had been Prime Minister of Greece until March 1915 when he resigned over the King's refusal to support the Allied invasion of Gallipoli. He was re-elected and returned to office in August. As Bulgaria prepared for war against Serbia, Venizelos had invited the Allied landing at Salonica. Constantine dismissed his Prime Minister when the Allies landed 13,000 troops on October 5, 1915. Greece had significantly expanded its territory north and northeast in the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913, against the Ottoman Empire (First Balkan War) and Bulgaria (Second).
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 224, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
(4) German forces launched the Battle of Verdun with a massive bombardment the night of February 21–22, 1916, and continued assaults and bombardment of the Verdun salient through the spring and summer. The July 1 beginning of the Anglo-French assault on the Somme forced the Germans to wind down the Verdun offensive. One of the principal forts defending Verdun was Fort Douaumont, which had fallen to the Germans on February 25, in the first days of the battle. Fort Vaux fell on June 7. The reconquest of the forts was a major French objective in the autumn. Under intense bombardment since October 20, the German defenders of Fort Douaumont had evacuated on the night of the 23rd after a French shell had ignited a fire inside the Fort. A small group of German soldiers re-occupied the Fort the morning of the 24th, but were easily overwhelmed by the French. Fort Vaux was evacuated by the German defenders on November 2, and French troops reoccupied it that night.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, pp. 217–218, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
(5) Extract from the entry for November 3, 1916 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. The Battalion was then serving in the Somme sector, on the British right, on the French left. Dunn and French Corporal Louis Barthas, author of the memoir Poilu, seem to have been in close proximity in late 1916. A.S.C.: Assistant (or Adjutant?) Staff Captain
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 272, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
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