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'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red' — the Tower of London poppies — each of the 888,246 ceramic poppies representing one serviceman of the British Empire killed in World War I. The installation was a collaboration of artist Paul Cummins and stage designer Tom Piper. Since November, 2014 the poppies have been installed in other sites in the United Kingdom. Photographed October 3, 2014. © 2014 by John M. Shea
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.
A French soldier wearing the uniform of 1914/1915 stands by the side of a water-filled shell crater.
Map of Romania and the Allied and Central Power campaign plans for 1917. 'Romanian Territories under Foreign Rule' include Transylvania, Austria-Hungary, northwest of the Carpathian Mountains, and Bessarabia, Russia, to the east between the Prut and Nistru Rivers, regions with large ethnic Romanian populations. From Romania in World War I, a Synopsis of Military History by Colonel Dr. Vasile Alexandrescu.
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.
"'As to your defence of London by this infernal Barrage I do trust you will stop it, as it is a remedy worse than the disease. We have lived under showers of this odious shrapnel (purely home-made) and it is costly in life and property. A woman close to me was killed in bed thereby.'So had seven other people in the past week. Another sixty-seven had been injured. British fire during one raid alone had damaged nearly 300 houses, 'about half of them seriously.' Nineteen French 75-mm. guns, which fired only shrapnel, were moved from London to Birmingham and other places not as likely to be raided. Unlike explosive shells, the cases of shrapnel projectiles came down intact." ((1), more)
"The attack of 1 October, the sixth in eight nights, brought 'the raids of the Harvest Moon' to a close. Sixty-nine people were killed and 260 wounded, mostly in London. These totals included the barrage casualties. Although losses were far from excessive, the first blitz was a bewildering experience of profound psychological effect." ((2), more)
"October 2nd.—The Division, in tremendous repute is draining the fount of awards. But one becomes more impressed by the all-round economy of the German operations, the few men used to hold us up. Pill-box garrisons are betaking themselves to shell-holes at a little distance. That is an obviously good ruse, for it is the pill-box that magnetizes the attack, but thought and faith are needed to carry it out." ((3), more)
"Our Caucasian Sister has returned from holiday. She said that even there, among the fertile valleys of Caucasia, crops were bad and food was scarce. Tea and sugar were obtainable only by ticket. . . . A letter from a former Sister of our Letuchka says there is famine in Moscow and shops are being raided. Clothes were at excessively high prices; an ordinary fur coat, formerly sold at 80 roubles, would now fetch 500 roubles, or more. Shoes, too, cost from 90 to over 100 roubles per pair. There are no fashionably-dressed people now; everyone wears old clothes. Fuel, too, is scarce. What will it be like when winter descends?" ((4), more)
"Ludendorff grumbled that 'we only came through [the Battle of Broodseinde] with enormous losses. It was evident that the idea of holding the front line more densely . . . was not the remedy.' The German official historian summarizes: 'The new battle scheme had not stood the test of the 4th October.' Prince Rupprecht's chief of staff wrote: 'Crown Prince Rupprecht found himself compelled to consider whether . . . he should not withdraw the front in Flanders so far back that the Allies would be forced to carry out an entirely new deployment of Artillery.' Another enemy monograph referred to the Battle of Broodseinde as 'The Black Day of October 4th.' Foot Guard Regiment No. 5 considered it 'the worst day yet experienced in the war.'" ((5), more)
(1) From Monday, September 24 to October 1, 1917, ninety-two German Gotha bombers took part in the Autumn Moon Offensive against England. Fifty-five of the two-engine planes reached England with twenty or fewer making it to London. A handful of Staaken Giant bombers also took part in the raids, with one reaching the capital. On six of the eight nights the bombers struck. A total of 69 people were killed and 260 wounded, some by shell casings from the British defensive barrage. Before the raids had ended, over 300,000 people had taken shelter in the London Underground.
The Sky on Fire by Raymond H. Fredette by Raymond H. Fredette, page 147, copyright © 1966, 1976, 1991 by Raymond H. Fredette, publisher: Smithsonian Institution Press, publication date: 1991
(2) From Monday, September 24 to October 1, 1917, ninety-two German Gotha bombers took part in the Autumn Moon Offensive against England. Fifty-five of the two-engine planes reached England with twenty or fewer making it to London. A handful of Staaken Giant bombers also took part in the raids, with one reaching the capital. On six of the eight nights the bombers struck. A total of 69 people were killed and 260 wounded, some by shell casings from the British defensive barrage. Before the raids had ended, over 300,000 people had taken shelter in the London Underground.
The Sky on Fire by Raymond H. Fredette by Raymond H. Fredette, pp. 147 and 148, copyright © 1966, 1976, 1991 by Raymond H. Fredette, publisher: Smithsonian Institution Press, publication date: 1991
(3) Entry for October 2, 1917 from the writings — diaries, letters, and memoirs — of Captain J. C. Dunn, Medical Officer of the Second Battalion His Majesty's Twenty-Third Foot, the Royal Welch Fusiliers, and fellow soldiers who served with him, then fighting in the Third Battle of Ypres, started on July 31. The Battle of Polygon Wood was fought on September 26, In his entry for the 28th (pp. 404–405), Dunn wrote, 'The Battalion casualties were one-third of the trench strength with which we went in : more than 60 were dead.' The Germans were then holding their front line lightly, in shell holes rather than trench lines. The pillboxes were more numerous and durable than the British had anticipated.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 405, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
(4) Excerpt from the entry for September 20, (October 3, New Style), 1917 from the diary of Florence Farmborough, an English nurse serving with the Russian Red Cross. Farmborough's unit was then in Romania where the Russians had joined in a Romanian offensive until being ordered on July 25 by Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky to stop any offensive action.
Nurse at the Russian Front, a Diary 1914-18 by Florence Farmborough, page 319, copyright © 1974 by Florence Farmborough, publisher: Constable and Company Limited, publication date: 1974
(5) The Battle of Broodseinde on October 4, 1917 was a British attack within the overall Third Battle of Ypres, begun on July 31. The Germans had initially used a thin defense in the front line, often with men holding shell holes rather than trenches, many of the positions supporting pillboxes and machine gun nests. After British advances, the Germans moved more men and machine guns to the front where they suffered the horrendous casualties to which our quotations testify. Rupprecht was Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Bavaria. With Paul von Hindenburg Erich Ludendorff commanded the German Army, with the latter increasingly responsible for operations.
In Flanders Fields, the 1917 Campaign by Leon Wolff, page 195, copyright © 1958 by Leon Wolff, publisher: The Viking Press, publication date: 1958
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