Search by or
Search: Quotation Context Tags
Chosen Boy, a 1918 watercolor by Paul Klee. From Paul Klee: Early and Late Years: 1894-1940. © 2013 Moeller Fine Art
Embossed postcard of the flag and coins of Russia, with fixed exchange rates for major currencies including Germany, Austria-Hungary, England, the Latin Monetary Union, Netherlands, and the United States of America. The Russian Ruble equaled 100 Kopeks. Tsar Nicholas II is on the obverse of most of the gold and silver coins; Tsar Alexander III is on the 7 1/2 ruble gold piece.
Russian troops fleeing a solitary German soldier. The Russian First Army invaded Germany in August 1914, and defeated the Germans in the Battle of Gumbinnen on the 20th. In September the Germans drove them out of Russia in the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes. In September and October, a joint German, Austro-Hungarian offensive drove the Russians back almost to Warsaw. Illustration by E. H. Nunes.
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.
German postcard of some of the battlefield of Artois, site of the First, Second, and Third Battles of Artois (1914 and 1915), the Battle of Loos (1915), and the Battle of Vimy Ridge (1917). Loos is in the upper right, the road to Vimy on the center right. The world's largest French military cemetery is on the heights of Notre-Dame-de-Lorette.
"On June 7, 1915, at the end of my convalescent leave, I rejoined the depot of the 72nd and 272nd infantry regiments at Morlaix. I stayed only a few days. I was not at all comfortable there. At the time I wrote a friend, 'I am leaving the depot for fear of losing my morale, which I value above all.' In these depots, one meets a group of soldiers and even officers who cling desperately to the dreary but safe existence characteristic of a small garrison town in the rear. In order to remain there as long as possible, they are capable, if not of evil actions, at least of a host of mean little maneuvers." ((1), more)
"Friday, June 11, 1915There has been unrest in Moscow for several days. Rumours of treason were circulating among the crowd and accusations have been made openly against the Emperor and Empress, Rasputin and all the influential persons at Court.Yesterday grave disorder broke out and it is continuing today. A large number of shops belonging to Germans, or with signs with German terminations, have been looted." ((2), more)
"Our artillery has begun such a bombardment of the Russian positions on Hill 137 that it feels as if we are in hell. After a short time the Russians respond with fire so heavy that fragments are as big as a child's head. Every moment is filled with an extraordinary amount of dust and noise. Suddenly our infantry breaks out of their positions and storms the hill with incredible speed, taking one position at a time. I see it all in shades of grey, not because it is dusk but because of the sand and dust. Above many of the trenches bayonets appear with white handkerchiefs waving to and fro. The infantry jump straight in and bring the Russians out. Now there's a long train of Russians coming back with their hands held high and their weapons discarded. They are taken in to our old trenches. The infantry cleans up thoroughly. One of the Russian divisional leaders tells me that our artillery had two platoons under heavy fire. When the third came under fire he surrendered." ((3), more)
"Sunday June 13th [1915] 10 p.m. Our orders are definite now and we know what we are in for, though not in detail. I think we are all very glad now the suspense is over. It had to come sooner or later, and very much better that it has come as an honour, namely, to be among the chosen few to do a special job, than to be among a crush. Strange to think, will I see next Wednesday, at 10 p.m.?" ((4), more)
"'I am a buffoon.''I will be the death of my parents.''I am as vapid as a thrice-peeled turnip.''I do not deserve the air I breathe.''I am as intelligent as the back end of a goods train.'" ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from the memoirs of French historian Marc Bloch, a sergeant, later adjutant, with the 272nd and 72nd infantry regiment in the Argonne. He was on convalescent leave from January 5 to July 13, 1915, during which he wrote the first, and most substantial part, of his Great War memoir. He began writing again while in Algeria after having fought on the Somme.
Memoirs of War 1914-15 by Marc Bloch, pp. 167, 168, copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988, publisher: Cambridge University Press, publication date: 1988
(2) Entry from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia, for Friday, June 11, 1915. The Tsaritsa, Empress Alexandra, wife of Tsar Nicholas, was German by birth. On October 14, 1914, Paléologue had recorded that, 'the Empress and those about her are suspected of carrying on a secret correspondence with Germany . . . The Emperor's weakness with the Empress, Vyrubova, and Rasputin comes in for severe criticism.' Nicholas and his family were isolated from the public and from the court. Among the few people they saw regularly were the monk Rasputin and the Tsaritsa's companion Madame Vyrubova.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. I by Maurice Paléologue, page 12, publisher: George H. Doran Company, publication date: 1925
(3) Excerpt from the writings of German officer Ernst Nopper describing a German attack on June 12, 1915, a day on which German commander August von Mackensen resumed his Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive, a joint German-Austro-Hungarian campaign. Nopper was at the southern end of the German line, along the border of Galicia, Austria-Hungary and Russian Poland. The previous day Nopper had noted that the Russian artillery 'is much weaker than ours.'
Intimate Voices from the First World War by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, page 104, copyright © 2003 by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, publisher: Harper Collins Publishers, publication date: 2003
(4) Captain Bryden McKinnell writing on June 13, 1915. He was on the line in the Ypres sector, where a diversionary attack was planned for June 16, the main attack to take place further south at Givenchy. McKinnell did not survive the attack.
1915, The Death of Innocence by Lyn Macdonald, page 388, copyright © 1993 by Lyn Macdonald, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1993 (Great Britain); 199
(5) Some of the lines students are made to repeat multiple times by their rigid and abusive teacher in the novel Léon Chatry, Instituteur (Léon Chatry, Schoolteacher) by French novelist, poet, and soldier Jules Leroux. Leroux volunteered at the beginning of the war, and was lost in action at Neuville-Saint-Vaast on June 14, 1915 in the Second Battle of Artois.
The Lost Voices of World War I, An International Anthology of Writers, Poets and Playwrights by Tim Cross, page 294, copyright © 1989 by The University of Iowa, publisher: University of Iowa Press, publication date: 1989
1 2 Next
