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British pilot Captain Albert Ball from an insert to the French magazine Guerre Aerienne No. 23, April 19, 1917. He died weeks later, on May 7, with 44 victories, fourth highest of British pilots in the war.
Map showing the territorial gains (darker shades) of Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece, primarily at the expense of Turkey, agreed in the Treaty of Bucharest following the Second Balkan War. Despite its gains, Bulgaria also lost territory to both Romania and Turkey.
Y Ravine Cemetery, Beaumont-Hamel, France. © 2013 John M. Shea
Greetings from Austro-Hungarian Landsturm Battalion 171. A pencil sketch of the sun rising between mountains and over a forested hill, dated October 14, 1916, postmarked two days later. In the center an oak-leaf crown of victory above the Hapsburg flag encircles the battalion identifier. The year before the drawing, the battalion had been in the Sugana Valley (Valsugana), Trentino, in the Alps.
'December snow.' Hand-painted watercolor calendar for December 1917 by Schima Martos. Particulates from a smoking kerosene lamp overspread the days of December, and are labeled 'December höra,' 'December snow.' The first five days or nights of the month show a couple at, sitting down to, or rising from a lamp-lit table. The rest of the month the nights are dark, other than four in which the quarter of the moon shows through a window, or Christmas, when the couple stands in the light of a Christmas tree.
"Several of our aeroplanes came over, making for hangars, many miles behind, and tales were told of gallant deeds and especially of the prowess of a young fellow, named Albert Ball, who has just brought down his thirtieth Boche aeroplane, is aged nineteen, and lives to tell the tale. We stood for a long while riveted by the strange Satanic scene — but, at last, it was a relief to turn away. The ground which we were treading, the shell-holes we avoided, are broken patches of the battlefield of only a short month ago. It was here and then that Raymond Asquith's brilliant promise was extinguished and my dear nephew, Charles Feversham, was killed, and on the grey horizon beyond Albert there are, at this moment, thousands of fellow-countrymen, their trenches the playground for shells . . ." ((1), more)
"The Romanian army ought not to count on Russian troops in defending its extended frontier, chief of staff Mikhail Alekseev had warned General Berthelot on 12 October when the latter stopped at STAVKA en route to Romania. On a map of Romania Alekseev drew 'a large blue line' along the Siret river from Galaţi to the Carpathians. This he termed 'the only line of defense.' Alekseev repeated the same theme directly to the Romanians, urging them to prepare the evacuation of Wallachia and to build fortifications on the Siret. It became clear that additional Russian troops would be sent only to defend Moldavia at the left wing of the Russian Front. Elsewhere the Romanians would be essentially on their own." ((2), more)
"Recollection paints these autumn weeks in the Beaumont Hamel sector as a tranquil time. Naturally, there at the edge of the Thiepval inferno, there were ungentle interludes. One night in particular the front line was stubbornly pounded with minenwerfers (it was a 'minnywafer' sector, and one often turned cold in the firetrench as one heard the approaching swish of these monsters). As we had little or no wire in front, and as the line now lay exposed and helpless, Harrison anticipated a German raid, and Cassells and I lay most of the night waiting for it in the new shell-holes, with a set of the trustiest soldiers, fingering bombs in a contemplative fashion. . . ." ((3), more)
". . . on Saturday of the following week (October 14) the Allies attacked again. It was a ghastly shambles. Meeting uncut wire, the French and Russians came to a halt and, as they tried to hack their way through, the Bulgarian machine guns opened up on them. In one afternoon the French lost nearly 1,500 men and the Russians 600. And still the Bulgarian lines remained inviolate. On the extreme right of the valley, the burning village of Brod showed that the Serbs, at any rate, had fulfilled their mission." ((4), more)
"Theodor Wolff, editor of the Berliner Tageblatt, also noted the mounting misery. In October 1916, 371 smugglers and profiteers including 126 fruit and vegetable sellers were arrested in Berlin. Special 'profiteering courts' (Wuchergerichte) handled up to 4000 cases per month." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from the diary of Viscountess D'Abernon, quoted in Martin Gilbert's The First World War, who had visited the Somme battlefront from Pozières to Thiepval. British pilot Captain Albert Ball eventually had 44 victories, fourth highest of British pilots in the war. He died on May 7, 1917 during a dogfight, but possibly of engine failure.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 293, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(2) Romania entered the war on the side of the Entente Allies hoping for significant Russian support and an offensive on the Salonica Front that would prevent Bulgaria from attacking. Russian chief of staff Alekseev was prepared to support a Romanian army on the Russian left, but not to advance towards the Romanian capital of Bucharest in Walachia, a region that covered half of Romania's territory and a salient that was proving indefensible. French General Berthelot stopped at Stavka, Russian military command, on his way to Romania as a military advisor.
The Romanian Battlefront in World War I by Glenn E. Torrey, page 110, copyright © 2011 by the University Press of Kansas, publisher: University Press of Kansas, publication date: 2011
(3) Excerpt from Edmund Blunden, English writer, recipient of the Military Cross, second lieutenant and adjutant in the Royal Sussex Regiment, writing of autumn, 1916, while in the Battle of the Somme. Hamel had seen the ruin of the Newfoundland Regiment on July 1, the first day of the Battle. Thiepval Ridge is the site of the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, engraved with 60,000 names, and was taken by the British in September and October, 1916. The Minenwerfer was an accurate, high-trajectory mortar with a range of about 1,000 yards.
Undertones of War by Edmund Blunden, pp. 107–108, copyright © the Estate of Edmund Blunden, 1928, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: November 1928
(4) The Allies attacked on the Salonica Front in September and October, 1916 in attempts to aid Romania which was falling back before Central Power armies. The Allied army, commanded by French General Maurice Sarrail, included French, British, Russian, and Serbian troops. The offensive would not save Romania.
The Gardeners of Salonika by Alan Palmer, page 86, copyright © 1965 by A. W. Palmer, publisher: Simon and Schuster, publication date: 1965
(5) Food shortages were an increasing problem in Germany and Austria-Hungary as 1916 went on, and ration cards were required. Holger Herwig, author of today's quotation, notes that cheese had disappeared in November, 1915. In the summer of 1916 a weekly ration included two eggs, two pounds of bread, and 1/16th of a pound of butter.
The First World War: Germany and Austria Hungary 1914-1918 by Holger H. Herwig, page 291, copyright © 1997 Holger H. Herwig, publisher: Arnold, publication date: 1997
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