Search by or
Search: Quotation Context Tags
View across No Man's Land between Ypres and Messines in 1917 by Lance Corporal Hugh F. Ward, 97th Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps. Ward painted this while he was in the sector before, during, and after the June, 1917 Battle of Messines Ridge. Initialed 'H.W.'.
Map of the 1918 German offensives on the Western Front from The Memoirs of Marshall Foch by Marshall Ferdinand Foch. © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc.
Folding postcard relief map looking north from the River Aisne to the Oise Canal, from Compiègne to Soissons, and from Noyon to St. Gobain, France. A hand drawn arrow indicates Pimprez, marked with an 'X'.
Three Australian dead, 'known to be buried in this cemetery,': A. L. Day, W. T. Hart, and J. Mc Auley, died June, 1918, and buried in Dive Copse Cemetery, Sailly-le-Sec, France. © 2013 by John M. Shea
Map of the Trentino, part of "Italia Irredenta," unredeemed Italy: Venezia Tridentina (Trentino and Alto Adige)
"The landscape here is of the deadly-conventional Armageddon type—low green-grey ridges fringed with the usual decorations of a few isolated trees, half-smashed, with a broken wall or two, straggling trench-grey silhouettes that once were villages. Then there are open spaces broken only by ruined wire-tangles, old trenches, and the dismal remains of an occasional rest-camp of huts. The June grass waves, poppies flame, shrapnel bursts with black puffs, an aeroplane drones, larks sing; someone comes along the trench, clinking a petrol-tin. And this is about all one sees, as one stumps along the communication-trenches, dry and crumbling, with a dead mole lying about here and there." ((1), more)
"Between Noyon and Montdidier on June 9 [1918], artillery preparation for the fourth drive in the Germans' spring offensive began at midnight, but the French, amply warned, began their counterpreparation ten minutes earlier. Though opportune, this fire did not disrupt the enemy's infantry assault, which occurred between 0300 and 0430 hours. Striking the left-center of Third Army, which occupied a forty-five-kilometer front, the Germans advanced seven kilometers on the first day and five on the second across a front of twenty-five kilometers." ((2), more)
"On the 10th the enemy's attack was continued, but without his obtaining anything like the same success as on the previous day. Although he brought a new division into action, he gained only a small amount of ground west of the Matz. His only important success was to the east of this place, where the retreat of a French division (the 53d) opened up the road to Ribécourt and enabled the Germans to establish themselves on the right bank of the Oise between Montmacq and Sempigny. . . .In spite of this unfortunate occurrence, the results of the 10th, taken as a whole, remained satisfactory." ((3), more)
"If the counter attack should be launched on the 12th, it would find [the Germans] better prepared than on the 11th.This insistence of General Mangin and the clearness of his views finally convinced General Fayolle, and he drew up his orders, dated 4 P. M. the 10th, for the attack to be carried out as soon as possible on the 1th. These orders, which were communicated to the troops, concluded with these words:'To-morrow's operation should be the end of the defensive battle which we have been fighting for more than two months. It should mark the definite check of the Germans and the renewal of the offensive on our part. It must succeed. Let everyone understand this.'The attack did, in fact, begin the following day, the 11th, at 11 A. M. The effect was astonishing. The villages of Méry and Belloy were taken, the valley of the Aronde was cleared, and more than a thousand prisoners with several guns were captured." ((4), more)
". . . on the following day, June 12th, two or three German divisions delivered a vigorous assault north of the Villers-Cotterets Forest. Cutry and Dommiers were captured, and the French troops driven back on Cœuvres and Saint-Pierre-Aigle; but this turned out to be a purely local operation and was not followed up.On June 13th quiet once more reigned on the whole of the French front." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from the diary of Siegfried Sassoon, British poet, author, Second Lieutenant in the Royal Welch Fusiliers (R.W.F.), and recipient of the Military Cross for gallantry in action. Sassoon was deployed to Palestine in early 1918, then returned to France after the successful Germany's spring offensives Michael and Georgette, when British losses required every available soldier on the Western Front. As he wrote he was near Mercatel, 7 or 8 km south of Arras.
Siegfried Sassoon Diaries 1915-1918 by Siegfried Sassoon, page 264, copyright © George Sassoon, 1983; Introduction and Notes Rupert Hart-Davis, 1983, publisher: Faber and Faber, publication date: 1983
(2) The fourth of German's five 1918 offensives, the Noyon-Montdidier Offensive, began on June 9, in an attempt to build on the success of the Aisne (Blücher) Offensive begun on May 27. But the French were not surprised as they had been in May, and had reserves ready.
Pyrrhic Victory; French Strategy and Operations in the Great War by Robert A. Doughty, pp. 457–458, copyright © 2005 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College, publisher: Harvard University Press, publication date: 2005
(3) The fourth of Germany's five 1918 offensives, the Noyon-Montdidier Offensive, began on June 9 on a twenty-five-kilometer front, in an attempt to build on the success of the Aisne (Blücher) Offensive begun on May 27. But the French were not surprised as they had been in May, and had reserves ready. The Germans advanced seven kilometers on June 9th and five on the 10th.
The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, translated by Col. T. Bentley Mott by Ferdinand Foch, page 328, copyright © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., publisher: Doubleday, Doran & Co., publication date: 1931
(4) The fourth of Germany's five 1918 offensives, the Noyon-Montdidier Offensive, began on June 9 on a twenty-five-kilometer front in an attempt to build on the success of the Aisne (Blücher) Offensive begun May 27. But the French were not surprised as they had been in May, and Allied Commander-in-Chief Ferdinand Foch, from whose Memoirs our quotation is taken, had reserves ready for the first opportunity that appeared. General Émile Fayolle commanded the reserves with General Charles Mangin reporting to him. In the spring of 1917, Mangin was under the command of Robert Nivelle during his disastrous Second Battle of the Aisne. Both men had been sacked. A year later, French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau insisted on reinstating Mangin, who was referred to as 'the Butcher'.
The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, translated by Col. T. Bentley Mott by Ferdinand Foch, pp. 329–330, copyright © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., publisher: Doubleday, Doran & Co., publication date: 1931
(5) The fourth of Germany's five 1918 offensives, the Noyon-Montdidier Offensive, began on June 9 on a twenty-five-kilometer front in an attempt to build on the success of the Aisne (Blücher) Offensive begun May 27. But the French were not surprised as they had been in May, and Allied Commander-in-Chief Ferdinand Foch, from whose Memoirs our quotation is taken, had reserves ready for the first opportunity that appeared. General Émile Fayolle commanded the reserves with General Charles Mangin reporting to him. Mangin attacked on June 11, and the Germans counterattacked on the 12th. Cœuvres and Saint-Pierre-Aigle are west-southwest of Soissons.
The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, translated by Col. T. Bentley Mott by Ferdinand Foch, page 330, copyright © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., publisher: Doubleday, Doran & Co., publication date: 1931
1 2 Next
