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'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.
Italy's armed forces at the ready in a 1915 postcard. In the foreground the artillery, infantry, an Alpine soldier (in feathered hat), and a Bersaglieri (in plumed headgear). Behind them are a bugler and lancer; in the distance marines and colonial troops. The Italian navy is off shore, an airship and planes overhead. On the reverse are the lyrics of a patriotic Italian March by Angelo Balladori, lyrics by Enrico Mercatali. It ends with a call to the brothers of Trento and Trieste, Austro-Hungarian territory with large ethnic Italian populations.
A large German bomber, capable of bombing England. The plane is powered by two engines, and holds a crew of three with a pilot and front and rear gunners. The plane is likely a Gotha bomber, originally built by Gothaer Waggonfabrik, then built under license by Siemens-Schukert Werke and Luft-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft (LVG). Note the ground crew pushing on the lower wing and the men holding the tail up as the plane is moved backwards. Sanke postcard number 1040.
Austrian Mountain Rangers 'resting in the shade of southern flora' on the Italian front. The card was postmarked from Berlin on January 5, 1916.
Russian Bolshevik soldiers demonstrating in Petrograd.
"— the ground was impassable and so powerless were the troops to manoeuvre that they were shot down whilst stuck in the mud.— the Barrage was ineffective and the troops were unable to keep up with it.— oblique hostile M.G. fire was very effective.— the only Lewis Gun which succeeded in getting into action was useless in three minutes [because of the mud].— all uncovered rifles were useless, all covered rifles ditto within ten minutes.— power of manoeuvre was nil.— to sum up the situation, neither FIRE NOR MOVEMENT was possible, and any prospects of success under these conditions was nil." ((1), more)
"Two carabinieri took the lieutenant-colonel to the river bank. He walked in the rain, an old man with his hat off, a carabinieri on either side. I did not watch them shoot him but I heard the shots. They were questioning some one else. This officer too was separated from his troops. He was not allowed to make an explanation. He cried when they read his sentence from the pad of paper, and they were questioning another when they shot him. They made a point of questioning the next man while the man who had been questioned before was being shot. In this way there was obviously nothing they could do about it. I did not know whether I should wait to be questioned or make a break now. I was obviously a German in Italian uniform. I saw how their minds worked; if they had minds and if they worked. They were all young men and they were saving their country." ((2), more)
"[Hauptman Rudolph] Kleine launched his first incendiary raid on the evening of 31 October [1917] with twenty-two Gothas. They were loaded with over six tons of bombs, nearly half of them incendiaries. A departure schedule was worked out to stagger the take-off over a period of almost three hours. The attack plan called for a stream of bombers to reach the south-east coast at Deal. From there, they were to fly across Kent and approach London from the south, thereby avoiding the heavy defences to the east. Because of rising winds over the Channel and low clouds over Kent, this route proved to be a mistake." ((3), more)
"— The 2nd. The Germans have fallen back to a depth of one thousand yards on a front twelve miles in length, surrendering the line of the Ailette. But the outburst of enthusiasm in the Press has been cooled down by a recent Italian retreat (there is mention of 200,000 prisoners, and it is not known whether the Italians will stand firm on the Tagliamento)." ((4), more)
"Saluting the creation of the Military Revolutionary Committee, the Petrograd garrison promises it complete support in all its actions, to unite more closely the front and the rear in the interests of the Revolution.The garrison moreover declares that with the revolutionary proletariat it assures the maintenance of revolutionary order in Petrograd. Every attempt at provocation on the part of the Kornilovtsi or the bourgeoisie will be met with merciless resistance." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from the report of the commanding officer of the British 58 (London) Division on the October 30, 1917 attack on the village of Passchendaele in the Third Battle of Ypres. 'M.G.' is 'machine gun.' The Lewis gun was a British M.G. The officer also reported on the utter failure of communications with runners shot after being stuck in mud, pigeons too mud-encrusted to fly, and aircraft not flying. Brackets in source.
Passchendaele The Untold Story by Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson, page 177, copyright © 1996 Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2002
(2) A lieutenant in the Italian Army Ambulance Corps and narrator of Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, Frederic Henry is caught up in the collapse of the Italian Second Army and the Italian retreat in the Battle of Caporetto. Having managed to evade German and Austro-Hungarian troops, he is seized at a bridge crossing the Tagliamento River. As Mark Thompson writes in his history of the Italian Front, The White War, 'an order on October 31 authorized any officer to shoot any soldier who was separated from his unit or offered the least resistance' (page 319). Henry is a junior officer speaking Italian with a foreign accent, and was, in the chaos of the retreat, separated from his unit.
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, page 224, copyright © 1957 Ernest Hemingway, publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons, publication date: 1929
(3) The Gotha bomber attack the night of October 31-November 1, 1917 was intended to strike London, but many of the planes never reached the city, dropping their bombs on Kent on England's coast south of the Thames. Many of the incendiary bombs failed to ignite, but 11 were killed, including one from British shrapnel.
The Sky on Fire by Raymond H. Fredette by Raymond H. Fredette, page 162, copyright © 1966, 1976, 1991 by Raymond H. Fredette, publisher: Smithsonian Institution Press, publication date: 1991
(4) Entry for November 2, 1917 from the diary of Michel Corday, French senior civil servant. The French October 23, 1917 Malmaison Offensive, named for an old fort retaken by the French in the attack, ended with a German retreat and the capture of the heights of Chemin des Dames, between Soissons and Reims. The next day, joint German and Austro-Hungarian forces struck the unprepared Italian Second Army, collapsing the Italian Front in northeast Italy, and driving the Italians back across the Isonzo River, the border between the two belligerents, and the Tagliamento River.
The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, page 288, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934
(5) Resolution adopted on October 21 (November 3, New Style), 1917 in a meeting of soldiers of the Petrograd garrison. The Military Revolutionary Committee had been formed in the last days of October by the Petrograd Soviet. General Lavr Kornilov had attempted a coup in September.
Ten Days that Shook the World by John Reed, page 71, publisher: Signet Books, publication date: 1967
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