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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.
Colonel T.E. Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia, from With Lawrence in Arabia by Lowell Thomas
The Cripple Entente: Great Britain, Russia, and France. Their flags behind them, King George V, Tsar Nicholas II, and President Poincaré show the effects of the initial German victories in 1914.
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.
British soldiers pushing an ambulance through the mud. A mounted horseman is on the road ahead.
"Ludendorff grumbled that 'we only came through [the Battle of Broodseinde] with enormous losses. It was evident that the idea of holding the front line more densely . . . was not the remedy.' The German official historian summarizes: 'The new battle scheme had not stood the test of the 4th October.' Prince Rupprecht's chief of staff wrote: 'Crown Prince Rupprecht found himself compelled to consider whether . . . he should not withdraw the front in Flanders so far back that the Allies would be forced to carry out an entirely new deployment of Artillery.' Another enemy monograph referred to the Battle of Broodseinde as 'The Black Day of October 4th.' Foot Guard Regiment No. 5 considered it 'the worst day yet experienced in the war.'" ((1), more)
"When, early on 5 October [1917], a water train arrived from the north and passed over the mine, there was no explosion. At midday, when he hoped the Turkish guards were taking a siesta, Lawrence crept forward again and laid an electric mine beside the pressure mine. . . .At eight o'clock the following morning a train arrived from the north. From off to one side, Lawrence signaled to the men with the detonator when the locomotive was over the bridge. The explosion was devastating. It 'shattered the fire-box of the locomotive (No. 153, Hijaz), burst many of the tubes, threw the l.c. [locomotive cylinder] into the air, cleaned out the cab, warped the frame, bent the two near driving wheels and broke their axles. I consider it past repair.'" ((2), more)
"We marched at 10.15 by Wisques to Wizerne, in a lime-stone district. There was more or less rain nearly all the way. To have some warmth and comfort to-night I carried a full pack and a bundle, and wondered all the time how the men carry what they must, let alone rations, dixies and what not as well. We waited about from noon until 4 to entrain. News came in of a lucky stroke at Passchendaele Ridge, plainly quite a good Show. The whole of the line attacked was thrown into confusion, the front overrun, the reserves staggered. The local civilians know all about the tactical idea of the Ypres moves; they are in high spirits, and talk about a German withdrawal from Belgium." ((3), more)
"A newspaper printed a report that the English and French armies, on account of the disorder in Russia, wished to sever the alliance. I refused to believe such a thing. In another newspaper I read that the report had been denied. I read also that the British Army had gained much territory in Mesopotamia." ((4), more)
"3. The Seventh Army pertaining to Jilderim will be transported to the Sinai front. The troops now on the Sinai Front will be under the Army Group Jilderim as long as the Seventh Army remains on the Sinai front.4. The Army Group Jilderim will conduct its operations independently on the Sinai front and in the separate Sanjak of Jerusalem, but Jilderim will keep the commander in chief in Syria and West Arabia informed." ((5), more)
(1) The Battle of Broodseinde on October 4, 1917 was a British attack within the overall Third Battle of Ypres, begun on July 31. The Germans had initially used a thin defense in the front line, often with men holding shell holes rather than trenches, many of the positions supporting pillboxes and machine gun nests. After British advances, the Germans moved more men and machine guns to the front where they suffered the horrendous casualties to which our quotations testify. Rupprecht was Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Bavaria. With Paul von Hindenburg Erich Ludendorff commanded the German Army, with the latter increasingly responsible for operations.
In Flanders Fields, the 1917 Campaign by Leon Wolff, page 195, copyright © 1958 by Leon Wolff, publisher: The Viking Press, publication date: 1958
(2) T. E. Lawrence — Lawrence of Arabia — and his Arab forces, raided Turkish infrastructure and outposts in Syria, in particular the rail system in the Hijaz, along the west coast of the Arabian peninsula. Rail lines could be easily repaired, but not the engines that were the targets of the sabotage. British General Edmond Allenby, who had recently been transferred to Egypt after what was seen as his failure in the Battle of Arras, was preparing for an assault on Gaza. Both the First Battle of Gaza (March 26 to 28, 1917) and the Second (April 20) were British defeats. The quotation in the second paragraph of our quotation is from Lawrence's report on the action.
Setting the Desert on Fire by James Barr, page 186, copyright © 2008, 2006 by James Barr, publisher: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., publication date: 2009
(3) Entry for October 6, 1917 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, then fighting in the Third Battle of Ypres, started on July 31. The Battle of Broodseinde was fought on October 4. Dunn's unit had fought in the Battle of Polygon Wood
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, pp. 406–407, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
(4) Excerpt from the entry for September 24, (October 7, New Style), 1917 from the diary of Florence Farmborough, an English nurse serving with the Russian Red Cross. Farmborough's unit was then in Romania where the Russians had participated in a Romanian offensive until being ordered on July 25 by Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky to stop all offensive action. Kerensky supported the war and the Triple Entente, and urged the July 1 Russian offensive that proved to be the last gasp of the Provisional Government's army, and undercut support for the war. British forces in Mesopotamia had captured Baghdad on March 11, 1917, and advanced west to Ramadie, taking it on September 29 to forestall any attempt by the Turks to advance on Baghdad from Aleppo.
Nurse at the Russian Front, a Diary 1914-18 by Florence Farmborough, page 320, copyright © 1974 by Florence Farmborough, publisher: Constable and Company Limited, publication date: 1974
(5) Excerpt from the order of Turkish War Minister Ismail Enver to his commanders in October, 1917, quoted by German General and commander of the Germany military mission to Turkey Liman von Sanders. Sanders notes that the Group Jilderim — Turkish for 'lightning' — was organized not with military assistance from German officers as was common during the war, but as a German army group with German officers and a German commander. The army was being collected at Aleppo, whence it could be directed to Mesopotamia and the reconquest of Baghdad or to Palestine for the defense of Gaza and Jerusalem, or for an offensive against Egypt. Enver chose the latter.
Five Years in Turkey by Liman von Sanders, page 180, publisher: The Battery Press with War and Peace Books, publication date: 1928 (originally)
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