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Devastation of the zone German forces evacuated during Operation Alberich, the strategic retreat at the beginning of 1917. The retreating troops upended trees, destroying structures, poisoned wells, and left booby-traps behind.
German postcard map of the Romanian theater of war, with map labels in Bulgarian added in red. From north to south the labels are Russia, the Austro-Hungarian regions of Galicia and Bukovina, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and, along the Black Sea, the Romania region of Dobruja. Romania's primary war aim was the annexation of the Austro-Hungarian region of Transylvania, with its large ethnic Romanian population.
Russian soldier bearing the Imperial Russian flag, singing the Russia Hymn beginning 'God save the Tsar!'
A French officer charging into battle in a watercolor by Fernand Rigouts. The original watercolor on deckle-edged watercolor paper is signed F. R. 1917, and addressed to Mademoiselle Henriette Dangon.
The soldier's life in the Hindenburg Trenches, postcard from a drawing by Kurzweg
"As far back as the Siegfried Line, every village was reduced to rubble, every tree chopped down, every road undermined, every well poisoned, every basement blown up or booby-trapped, every rail unscrewed, every telephone wire rolled up, everything burnable burned; in a word, we were turning the country that our advancing opponents would occupy into a wasteland." ((1), more)
"Colonel Ştefan Holban, commander of the 2nd ID, lamented on 14 March [1917], 'A multitude of our brothers have died, while the lives of others hang in the balance. I cried when I read the report of deaths and my heart breaks when I see how the flower of Oltenia perishes day by day.' A few days later Holban himself fell ill. The epidemic was less severe in the units of the 2nd Army at the front, which were farther from the apex of the contagion in or near Iaşi. Nevertheless, the Austro-German command was worried enough to implement preventive measures on its side of the line." ((2), more)
"In these decisive days in the life of Russia, we have thought it a duty of conscience to facilitate for our people a close union and consolidation of all national forces for the speedy attainment of victory; and, in agreement with the Imperial Duma, we have thought it good to abdicate from the throne of the Russian State, and to lay down the supreme power.Not wishing to part with our dear son, we hand over our inheritance to our brother, the Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich, and give him our blessing to mount the throne of the Russian State. We bequeath it to our brother to direct the forces of the State in full and inviolable union with the representatives of the people in the legislative institutions, on those principles which will by them be established." ((3), more)
"We are tired; we all look forward to some leave after the huge amount of exertion since October [1916]. My men are waiting for relief, for the moment when they will leave the firing line, when they'll be able to sleep through the night without having to get up to do chores and wash and change their clothers, which they can only do every twenty-four days here. They no longer have the strength to resist an attack, they haven't even the muscles to throw grenades." ((4), more)
"At the appointed time, the patrols, some of them already involved in hand-grenade battles with the enemy, withdrew towards the Somme. We were the last to cross the River, before the bridges were blown up by a sapper detachment. Our position was still coming in for drumfire. It wasn't for another few hours that the first enemy outposts reached the Somme. We withdrew behind the Siegfried Line, then still in the process of construction; the battalion took up quarters in the village of Lehaucourt, on the St-Quentin Canal. With my batman, I moved into a cosy little house, whose cupboards and chests were still well supplied. My faithful Knigge would not be persuaded by anything to set up his bed in the warm living room, insisting, as ever, on the chilly kitchen — typical of the restraint of our Lower Saxons." ((5), more)
(1) German Lieutenant Ernst Jünger describing the destruction German troops visited on the countryside they withdrew from as part of Operation Alberich, the German strategic retreat of 1917 to a shorter, well-entrenched defensive system. Covering the retreat, Jünger and his men passed through the results of weeks of devastation on March 13, 1917. The Siegfried, or Hindenburg, Line was actually a Siegfried Zone of four trench lines. Jünger thought the destruction was bad for the men's morale, and continues: 'Here, for the first time, I witnessed wanton destruction that I was later in life to see to excess; this is something that is unhealthily bound up with the economic thinking of our age, but it does more harm than good to the destroyer, and dishonours the soldier.'
Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger, page 128, copyright © 1920, 1961, Translation © Michael Hoffman, 2003, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 2003
(2) Romania entered the war on August 27, 1916, and was overrun by Central Power forces by the end of the year, driven out of Wallachia and Dobruja and back to Moldavia where the Russians held the Allied line. Typhus, typhoid, dysentery, jaundice, and influenza sickened and killed a large part of the Romanian army, peaking in February and March, 1917.
The Romanian Battlefront in World War I by Glenn E. Torrey, page 175, copyright © 2011 by the University Press of Kansas, publisher: University Press of Kansas, publication date: 2011
(3) Excerpt from the abdication signed by Russia's Tsar Nicholas II, Nicholas Romanov, on March 15 (March 2, Old Style), 1917. Had Nicholas abdicated in favor of his twelve-year-old, hemophiliac son Alexis as called for by the abdication papers agreed by the Duma and Soviet of Workers Deputies, the transfer of the throne and continuity of the House of Romanov would have been clear. In changing the document to bypass his son, Nicholas handed the decision to his brother Michael who abdicated, saying he would accept the crown only if asked to do so by a constituent assembly.
Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie by Robert K. Massie, page 417, copyright © 1967, renewed 1995 by Robert K. Massie, publisher: Random House, publication date: 2011
(4) French Captain Paul Tuffrau writing on March 16, 1917. Tuffrau had fought since the Battle of the Marne in 1914, and had been wounded twice. He was deployed to Verdun in September, 1916. He had two weeks leave in January, 1917.
Intimate Voices from the First World War by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, page 208, copyright © 2003 by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, publisher: Harper Collins Publishers, publication date: 2003
(5) German Lieutenant Ernst Jünger and his men had covered the withdrawal of German troops during Operation Alberich, the German strategic retreat of 1917 to a shorter, well-entrenched defensive system. The Allies advanced cautiously, into a mined and booby-trapped zone of destruction. Jünger could rest on March 17, 1917. The Siegfried, or Hindenburg, Line was actually a Siegfried Zone of four trench lines.
Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger, page 130, copyright © 1920, 1961, Translation © Michael Hoffman, 2003, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 2003
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