Search by or
Search: Quotation Context Tags
Detail from Cram's 1903 Railway Map of the Austro-Hungarian Empire showing Galicia and Bukovina.
Russian troops fleeing a solitary German soldier. The Russian First Army invaded Germany in August 1914, and defeated the Germans in the Battle of Gumbinnen on the 20th. In September the Germans drove them out of Russia in the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes. In September and October, a joint German, Austro-Hungarian offensive drove the Russians back almost to Warsaw. Illustration by E. H. Nunes.
A Russian artillery crew at work. More than its adversaries, Russia suffered from munitions shortages. A card from Der Weltkrieg 1914-1918, a 1930s German history of the war illustrated (or not) with pasted-in cigarette cards.
French infantry charge near Fort Vaux, one of the bastions of Verdun. In March 1916, the village of Vaux changed hands 13 times. The fort fell to German forces the morning of June 7.Illustration by Léon Taa. . . ., 1916.
Two Venetian fishing ships meet, brilliant sails spread. On one, beneath Venice's Lion of St. Mark, the words "Adriaticus mare nostrum — the Adriatic, our sea." On the further blue sail, the cross and words "Pax tibi Marce [Evangelista meus] — Peace to you, Mark, my Evangelist."Postcard promoting Italy's VI National Loan for the war, with a quotation from Gabriele D'Annunzio's "La canzone di Mario Bianco":"E' questo, Italia,é questo il tuo fermento e il tuo cemento"And this, Italy,This is your ferment and your foundation.G. d'Annunzio
"At dawn on 4 June [1916] Brusilov launched his four field armies against the enemy units opposite him around Lutsk in the Bukovina. Artillery fire and infantry assaults were coordinated, a rare phenomenon in the Russian Army. Reserves were concentrated (and hidden) at each of the major points of attack, ready to exploit any breakthroughs. Outnumbered by almost 132 000 men at the critical centre of the front, Conrad's position at Ocna crumbled like a pastry shell. By the evening of 4 June, the Russians had overrun the first three lines of trenches and punched a gaping hole 20 miles wide and 5 miles deep into the front of Archduke Joseph Ferdinand's Fourth Army. In 3 days Brusilov took 200 000 prisoners, enough to man two armies." ((1), more)
"The Russian bombardment continued for most of 4th June [1916]. The next day, infantry attack followed—preceded by 'testing' patrols. In practice, the Austro-Hungarian defence had already been ruined. Two-thirds of the available troops were put in the front position—the three foremost trenches, in a belt perhaps a kilometre in depth. There were huge dug-outs in this belt that could sustain the heaviest artillery. But two great errors had been made: the Russian lines had been allowed to within seventy-five paces of the Austrian trenches, and the reserves did not emerge from their dug-outs until the last moment. Not surprisingly, the defenders of the second trench and the reserves in their dug-outs, and the Russians—pumping reserves in fast from their own dug-outs only a few hundred yards away—came up to the dug-out mouths only shortly after the bombardment had ended. The Austrian dug-outs were therefore traps, not strong-points: each a miniature Przemyśl." ((2), more)
"On the 5th and 6th of June [1916], Brusiloff's offensive really began to develop in the most remarkable manner. On his extreme left flank his troops forced the Austrians to retire for three miles from their first lines of trenches near Okna on the former day, and gave General Lechitsky his opportunity in Bukovina. Also on that day and on the next, the Russian's, on Brusiloff's right wing, having crumpled up the enemy's strongly fortified positions around Olyka, marched on rapidly towards Lutsk (Luck), and energetically beating down all opposition threw the Austro-Germans into such a panic that, abandoning their guns, they surrendered in thousands, whole regiments laying down their arms." ((3), more)
"'We do not hear your artillery. We are being attacked with gas and liquid fire. We are in desperate straits.'Then this one, at nightfall on June 5th:'I must be set free this evening, and must have supplies of water immediately. I am coming to the end of my strength. The troops, enlisted men and officers, have done their duty to the last, in every case.'On the 6th came only these few words"'. . . you will intervene before we are completely exhausted. Vive la France!'And finally, on June 7th, at half past three in the morning, these last words, whose meaning we could not make out:'. . . must go on.'" ((4), more)
"It has been another hard-working night. Some of the wounds have been dreadful to look at. Several men were dead on arrival; seven died during the night. . . .An adjutant from our divisional staff came in the evening. He affirmed that the Austrians were retreating fast before our advancing troops. . . .In the midst of our elation at the success of our fighting-men, there came a flash of bad news from England. Lord Kitchener, the great English General, had died: drowned off the northern coast of Scotland when the cruiser on which he was sailing was torpedoed." ((5), more)
(1) At the Chantilly Conference in December, 1915, the Allies had agreed coordinated offensives in the summer of 1916. The French and British were planning an offensive on the Somme River when German Commander Erich von Falkenhayn began the battle of Verdun on February 21, 1916, requiring continuous French reinforcements in the sector, an extension of the British line to relieve the French, and the delay of the Allied offensive. On May 15, Chief of the Austro-Hungarian General Staff Conrad von Hötzendorf launched his Asiago Offensive which threatened to break through Italian defenses to reach the country's northeastern plain and cut off the Italian Army. Preparing for a July attack, Russian General Aleksei Brusilov was willing and able to respond to urgent Italian requests for an offensive against Austria-Hungary by advancing the date of his Brusilov Offensive, one of the war's most successful. The Bukovina, in Austria-Hungary, was one of the primary battlegrounds for Russian and Austro-Hungarian forces.
The First World War: Germany and Austria Hungary 1914-1918 by Holger H. Herwig, page 209, copyright © 1997 Holger H. Herwig, publisher: Arnold, publication date: 1997
(2) Russian General Alexsei Brusilov prepared for his great Offensive in ways other Russian generals had not. In 1916 Russian industry had risen to the production levels demanded by the war, and had adequate shells, cannons, rifles, and ammunition for its artillery and infantry. In the month before the attack, the Russians had extended saps (trenches) to within seventy-five paces of the Austro-Hungarian front trenches, and had dug shelters for reinforcements. Rather than a long bombardment preparing the way for troops concentrated on a short front to achieve a break-through at a single point, Brusilov began with a short bombardment, and followed with four points of attack on a broad, 20-mile front. Aware of the Russian preparations, the complacent Austro-Hungarians did little to counter them. By the end of June 5th, the Russians had broken through, the Austro-Hungarian troops fleeing before them. Przemyśl, on the San River, Austria-Hungary's greatest fortress in Galicia, had been taken by the Russians in March, 1915 and held for three months.
The Eastern Front, 1914-1917 by Norman Stone, page 249, copyright © 1975 Norman Stone, publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons, publication date: 1975
(3) Excerpt from an account by Robert Machray of Russian General Alexsei Brusilov's great offensive of 1916. Brusilov had planned well. Although the Russians had only a slight numerical advantage over the Austro-Hungarians, they had dug jumping-off points close to the enemy trenches, had concealed reserves in new dugouts, had opened the offensive with a short bombardment, and attacked at four points along a broad, 20-mile front. Since 1914, German troops had reinforced their Austro-Hungarian ally, and would continue to do so for the remainder of the war. General Lechitsky commanded the Russian IX Army in Bukovina, Austria-Hungary, a region on the Russian border northeast of the Carpathian Mountains.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. IV, 1916, pp. 190-191, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
(4) Last messages from the Major Raynal and the garrison of Fort Vaux which fell on June 7, 1916 in the Battle of Verdun.
Verdun by Henri Philippe Pétain, page 168, copyright © 1930, publisher: The Dial Press, publication date: 1930
(5) Florence Farmborough, an English nurse serving with the Russian Red Cross, writing on June 8, 1916 (May 26 Old Style) as Russia's Brusilov Offensive continued to collapse the Austro-Hungarian front. Herbert Lord Kitchener, formerly the United Kingdom's Secretary of State for War, was on a mission to Russia when his ship struck a mine on June 5.
Nurse at the Russian Front, a Diary 1914-18 by Florence Farmborough, pp. 191-192, copyright © 1974 by Florence Farmborough, publisher: Constable and Company Limited, publication date: 1974
1 2 Next
