May 8, 1945. Victory In Europe. Seventy Five Years Ago Today.

The mission of this Allied force was fulfilled at 0241, local time, May 7th, 1945.

Dwight Eisenhower.

The official surrender, however, came today.

Today In Wyoming's History: May 8:

May 8

1945    The German surrender becomes official.  President Harry S. Truman announced in a radio address that World War II had ended in Europe.  End of the Prague uprising.  Hundreds of Algerian civilians are killed by French Army soldiers in the Sétif massacre, ushering in what would ultimately become the French Algerian War.  In day two of rioting, 10,000 servicemen in Halifax Nova Scotia loot and vandalize downtown Halifax during VE-Day celebrations.

April 8, 1920 More Strife

On this day in 1920, the British were confronting riots in Jerusalem.

British troops at the Jaffa Gate, April 8, 1920.

Things had been building up for awhile as competing interests struggled concerning the future of the city and who would be allowed to live there and who control things there, while the British struggled to keep a lid on it all.  The British ended up declaring martial law to calm the violence.

One place the British had determined not to struggle was in the Ruhr. They informed the French that they would not be entering into Germany. Only Belgium agreed to assist the French.  Germany appealed to the League of Nations but, as it was not yet a member, its appeal was rejected.  The German government in turn voted to withdraw from the region in accordance with the Treaty of Versailles, which it shortly accomplished, but its entry had already accomplished it goal of suppressing the Communist rebellion there.

In Central America, Tragic Week commenced which saw the country in revolutionary turmoil as rebels seized the capitol and the government in turn shelled it.  Ultimately, rebel forces would overturn the government, which was militarist in nature.

St. Hubert's Day.

Today is St. Hubert's Day.  That is, the day on the Catholic calendar honoring this Saint.

St. Hubert encounters the deer.

St. Hubert lived more recently, post Roman Empire, having been born in 656 and living until 727.  He was born in what is now southern France into a noble family, but was sent north to Paris at an early age.  Due to political turmoil, he was one of many who ended up it Metz as sort of a noble refugee and we need to keep in mind that France, as a solid political entity, didn't exist at the time. Anyhow, he married one Floribanne, daughter of Dagobert, Count of Leuven, and the couple had a son, Floribert, later the Bishop of Liege.  In this fluid political time, therefore, fate had taken Huber from Toulouse to Liège in an onward northern migration.

Hubert was not a religious man and that condition was amplified when his wife died giving birth to Floribert, a not uncommon fate for women at the time.  After that, Hubert took entirely to hunting in the Ardennes, living a solitary hunting life.  On a Good Friday, however when the faithful were gathering in Church in honor of that day (which is not a Holy Day of Obligation) he encountered a great stag and the it turned on him, cross between its horns, and spoke, saying:

Hubert, unless thou turn to the Lord, and lead a holy life, you shall quickly go down into hell.

It's hard to ignore a thing like that, to say the least, and Hubert dismounted from his horse and immediately, according to tradition, replied; "Lord, what would You have me do?", to which the reply came "Go and seek Lambert, and he will instruct you."  Hubert entered the priesthood and rose to the rank of Bishop of Liege, which he occupied until his death, at which point his priest son took over that position.  Both are saints.

According to the legend of his encounter, the deer also lectured St. Hubert on having higher regard for animals and engaging in human hunting practices, including taking old stags beyond their prime breeding years, and also to take sick or injured animals even if it meant passing up on a shot at atrophy.  There's more to it, but St. Hubert is accordingly still  held in high regard in Germany, Austria and France among hunters and ethical hunting principals taught in European hunting societies are attributed to him.

St. Hubert is the patron Saint of Hunters and is still celebrated in Northern Europe, where he is the patron of hunting associations.  In Germany, hunters celebrated this day as Hubertustag, pausing in the hunting season to honor St. Hubert.

As we had just referenced him in the post noted above, and we're further noting this day ourselves.

October 26, 1919. A pagent

Marie Downey Werner rehearses the role of Victory in act to be preformed for the King and Queen of Belgium. Washington Times, October 26, 1919.

On this day in 1919, the Washington Times ran photos of a pageant being practiced for the visit of the King and Queen of Belgium.

Allegorical plays, particularly featuring women, were quite popular at the time.

On monarchy, on this day in 1919, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his twin sister Ashraf were born in Persia.  He'd become the final Shah of Iran.

His story is fairly complicated, and of course his downfall lead to epic consequences.

His father was Reza Khan Pahlavi and his mother was his second wife, Tad ol-Molouk.  Khan became the first Shah of the Pahlavi Dynasty, if you can consider it that, given its short duration.  His father had been a general in the Persian Cossack Brigade that served Imperial Russia up until 1920, and the British for a time thereafter.  He was of mixed Iranian and Georgian ancestry, and his mother was from a Muslim immigrant to Persia from Georgia.  They were not royals, but that changed when his father, a military strong man who was scene as the potential savior of Persia from Bolshevism, was elevated to that role following a 1925 coup. 

The son grew up in the shadow of a domineering father who was an admirer of Hitler and who believed that showing affection to male sons encouraged homosexuality.  His mother doted on him but was highly superstitious.  He rose to power himself when his father fell after a joint Soviet British invasion in 1941 which allowed a route to be opened up through the country for supplies.  The Iranian military offered no effective resistance and the embarrassment lead to the change in governments.

The new Shaw would rule until 1979 when he'd be put to flight due to the Islamist revolution which converted the country into an "Islamic Republic", which it remains today.  His monarchy was quixotic, and was in the unenviable role of attempting to be a liberalizing reformer while ruling as a monarch.  This lead to animosity with conservative Shiia clerics which ultimately lead to his downfall.

August 29, 1919. Eastgate to Fallon with the Motor Transport Convoy, dark beers in Belgium.

Motor Transport Co. 554 en route to Santa Cruz, August 29, 1919 to escort the Pacific fleet to San Francisco.  Motor Transport Co. 554 was making this trip in California at the same time that the transcontinental Motor Transport Convoy was struggling to get to California.

The Motor Transport Convoy trucked from Eastgate to Fallon, Nevada, in desert conditions, making 66 miles in 9.25 hours.

In Belgium, a Socialist effort at banning the public consumption of alcoholic spirits was passed which ironically spurred the development of heavy Belgium beers and ales by religious communities, giving us Belgian beers as we know them today.

April 9, 1919. Refugees return.

School children of Wervick Belgium.  April 9, 1919.  Note the wooden shoes.

British hut now occupied by returned Belgian refugees in Gheluvelt, Belgium.

March 20, 1919. Pershing has visitors, Villa let's his unwilling guests go, the 148th FA set to return home, Red Army seeking to be unwelcome guests.

King Albert and Queen Victoria of Belgium visited Gen. Pershing on this day in 1919.

In Mexico, Poncho Villa, who had taken a part of Mormon figures prisoner a few days prior, let them go.  The released prisoners were residents of Colnia Dublan and still had a ways to go to get home, as he didn't return them to their town.

And news arrived that the 148th Field Artillery was soon to sail home.

The same news was printed in Cheyenne, along with a photo that appeared here sometime ago of a teenage plowgirl.

Both papers printed distressing news that the Soviets appeared set to invade Germany. That news was not merely a rumor.  As the fronts swung wildly in the Russian Civil War it seems that those who saw the Russian Revolution as a global revolution to occur immediately were indeed planning just that.

From the vantage point of a century later, that goal seems insane, and there were those with in the Soviet power circles who disagreed with it then, such as one Josef Stalin.  Those who backed it, such as Trotsky, were not without their own logic however.

The Reds were in fact gaining in the far north and were about to push the Allied mission in Northern Russia out of the country.  At the same time, however, the White offensive in the east was meeting with huge success and observed from there, there were reasons to hope that the Whites would prevail.  In the west, however, the Soviets were now fighting the Poles, who were doing well, but who also formed a wall between Red Russia and a Germany which seemed to be on the brink of falling into the hands of German Communists any day.

The really amazing thing, in retrospect, is that the Allies were rushing home their forces in Europe in the face of all of this.  A Red victory in Germany, which was a possibility at the time, would have resulted in the spread of Communism throughout Europe fairly rapidly, with other countries teetering on the brink of Communist revolution.  Even seemingly stable countries, such as the UK, were having some problems at this point.

Of course, long term, the Reds would prevail in Russia but not in Poland, although they nearly did.  Their failure to win there meant that they were not able to proceed into Germany.  It also meant that Stalin's star rose while Trotsky's fell.

March 18, 1919. Pershing inspects. King Albert loans. Red Cross drives.

General Pershing adderessed the 4th Division at Kaiseresch, March 18, 1919.

 Red Cross garage at Rue Laugier, Paris.  March 18, 1919.

Red Cross garage at Buffalo Park, Paris.  March 18, 1919.

Red Cross dining room at St. Germaine en Laye, a chateau that was loaned to the Red  Cross by the King of Belgium.

And from that other Francophone land. . .

courtesy of the U.S. Library of Congress, where apparently some librarians are still at work.

For those not following this story, it's a remarkable social uprising that ostensibly started with a rise in the price of petroleum at the pump.  The French government doesn't seem to have been able to put a lid on it, even after addressing the tax concern that got this rolling, and the protests have spread to Belgium and the United Kingdom.  What exactly these are now about is not clear, but gasoline obviously isn't the full story.  It seems to really be centered on the economic plight of those who live beyond the borders of big cities, where people are not doing well at all.

France Adopts Emergency Economic Measures in Response to “Yellow Vest” Protests 

(Jan. 14, 2019) On December 24, 2018, the French government adopted a law of “emergency economic and social measures” in response to protests by the “Yellow Vest movement” (mouvement des gilets jaunes). (Loi No. 2018-1213 du 24 décembre 2018 portant mesures d’urgence économiques et sociales [Law No. 2018-1213 of 24 December 2018 Establishing Emergency Economic and Social Measures], Legifrance website.) 

This Law contains three principal measures. The first is to allow employers to pay a bonus of up to 1,000 euros (approximately US$1,146), free of taxes and mandatory social contributions, to employees whose earn less than three times the minimum wage. (Id. art. 1.) This bonus, referred to as a “special purchasing-power bonus,” must be paid by March 31, 2019. (Id.) The second measure is to exempt overtime pay from certain payroll contributions and from income tax up to a maximum of 5,000 euros (about US$5,730). (Id. art. 2.) Finally, the third measure concerns the contribution sociale généralisée (CSG, generalized social contribution) tax, which funds French social security and unemployment insurance. For retirement pensions that are under 22,580 euros (about US$25,878) a year for a single person, or 34,636 euros (about US$39,695) a year for a couple, the CSG is brought back to the rate of 6.6%, as it was prior to January 1, 2018. (Id. art. 3.) 

These measures were adopted to enact commitments made by President Emmanuel Macron on December 10, 2018, in response to protests by the Yellow Vest movement. (Loi du 24 décembre 2018 portant mesures d’urgence économiques et sociales [Law of 24 December 2018 Establishing Emergency Economic and Social Measures], VIE-PUBLIQUE (Dec. 26, 2018).)  The Yellow Vest movement began in November 2018 as a grassroots protest against a planned increase of taxes on hydrocarbons to curb emissions. (Gregory Viscusi, How Yellow Vest Protests Swelled into Risk for Macron, WASH. POST (Nov. 13, 2018).) The protesters’ demands quickly broadened to include such things as raising the minimum wage, increasing retirement pensions, and restoring the wealth tax that the Macron government had done away with during his first year in office. (Id.)

The November 11, 1918 Armistice.

 Foch with fellow Allied officers after the execution of the armistice.

It occurred to me that we've been referencing the big November 11, 1918 even that brought an end to the Great War a lot, but we never published it. 

Here, before the century mark on that fateful year passes, is the entire text:

Between MARSHAL FOCH, Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Armies,
acting in the name of the Allied and Associated Powers, with ADMIRAL WEMYSS, First Sea Lord, on the one hand, and HERR ERZBERGER, Secretary of State, President of the German Delegation, COUNT VON OBERNDORFF, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary,  MAJOR GENERAL VON WINTERFELDT, CAPTAIN VANSELOW (German Navy),

duly empowered and acting with the concurrence of the German Chancellor on the other hand.
          An Armistice has been concluded on the following conditions:

CONDITIONS OF THE ARMISTICE CONCLUDED
WITH GERMANY.

A. - CLAUSES RELATING TO THE WESTERN FRONT.
          

I. - Cessation of hostilities by land and in the air 6 hours after the signing of the Armistice

II. - Immediate evacuation of the invaded countries - Belgium, France, Luxemburg, as well as Alsace-Lorraine - so ordered as to be completed within 15 days from the signature of the Armistice. German troops which have not left the above-mentioned territories within the period fixed shall be made prisoners of war.     

Occupation by the Allied and United States Forces jointly shall keep pace with the evacuation of these areas.

All movements of evacuation and occupation shall be regulated in accordance with a Note (Annexe1) determined at the time of the signing of the Armistice.
          

III. - Repatriation, beginning at once, to be completed within 15 days, of all inhabitants of the countries above enumerated (including hostages, persons under trial, or condemned).
          

IV. - Surrender in good condition by the German Armies of the following equipment:-
          5,000 guns (2,500 heavy, 2,500 field).
          25,000 machine guns.
          3,000 trench mortars.
        1,700 aeroplanes (fighters, bombers - firstly all D.7's and night-bombing machines).
          

The above to be delivered in situ to the Allied and United States troops in accordance with the detailed conditions laid down in the Note (Annexe 1) determined at the time of the signing of the Armistice.
          

V. - Evacuation by the German Armies of the districts on the left bank of the Rhine. These districts on the left bank of the Rhine shall be administered by the local authorities under the control of the Allied and United States Armies of Occupation.

The occupation of these territories by Allied and United States troops shall be assured by garrisons holding the principal crossings of the Rhine (Mainz, Coblenz, Cologne), together with bridgeheads at these points of a 30-kilometre (about 19 miles) radius on the right bank, and by garrisons similarly holding the strategic points of the area.
          

A neutral zone shall be reserved on the right bank of the Rhine, between the river and a line drawn parallel to the bridgeheads and to the river and 10 kilometres (6¼ miles) distant from them, between the Dutch frontier and the Swiss frontier.
          

The evacuation by the enemy of the Rhine districts (right and left banks) shall be so ordered as to be completed within a further period of 16 days, in all 31 days after the signing of the Armistice.
          

All movements of evacuation and occupation shall be regulated according to the Note (Annexe 1) determined at the time of the signing of the Armistice.
          

VI. - In all territories evacuated by the enemy, evacuation of the inhabitants shall be forbidden; no damage or harm shall be done to the persons or property of the inhabitants.
          

No person shall be prosecuted for having taken part in any military measures previous to the signing of the Armistice.
          

No destruction of any kind to be committed.
          

Military establishments of all kinds shall be delivered intact, as well as military stores, food, munitions and equipment, which shall not have been removed during the periods fixed for evacuation.
          

Stores of food of all kinds for the civil population, cattle, &c., shall be left in situ.
          

No measure of a general character shall be taken, and no official order shall be given which would have as a consequence the depreciation of industrial establishments or a reduction of their personnel.
          

VII. - Roads and means of communications of every kind, railroads, waterways, roads, bridges, telegraphs, telephones, shall be in no manner impaired.
          

All civil and military personnel at present employed on them shall remain.
          

5,000 locomotives and 150,000 wagons, in good working order, with all necessary spare parts and fittings, shall be delivered to the Associated Powers within the period fixed in Annexe No. 2 (not exceeding 31 days in all).
          

5,000 motor lorries are also to be delivered in good condition within 36 days.
          

The railways of Alsace-Lorraine shall be handed over within 31 days, together with all personnel and material belonging to the organization of this system.
          

Further, the necessary working material in the territories on the left bank of the Rhine shall be left in situ.
          

All stores of coal and material for the upkeep of permanent way, signals and repair shops shall be left in situ and kept in an efficient state by Germany, so far as the working of the means of communication on the left bank of the Rhine is concerned.
          

All lighters taken from the Allies shall be restored to them.
 

A couple of comments.

If this seems surprisingly short, there were annexes that provided a great more detail.  These are referenced above, but I haven't included them.

Secondly, there's a certain sort of debate that occurs between historians, amateur and professional, about whether the armistace was as surrender or if we have to wait until the Versailles Treaty to get that.  Certainly that's how the Germans sot of came to view it, but looking at the text, while the armistice wasn't a treaty of peace in the diplomatic sense, it was a surrender.  

The territorial concessions alone would have made it that. But the laying down and surrendering of a designated number of arms effectively gutted the Imperial German Army as a field force capable of waging a resumed war against the Allies (and made it difficult for the same army to suppress the ongoing domestic insurrection, which played into something we'll be seeing shortly.  But the surrender of material items beyond that, which predated any such condition in the Versailles Treaty, made that all the more clear.

The end of wars can be messy, and certainly most are.  We're so used to the concept of total victory, even though we have achieved it only twice in our own history, that we tend to think of it in that fashion.  Most wars end with an armistice with a peace treaty to follow, or more rarely with a peace treaty followed by an armistice.  The November 11, 1918 armistice followed the historic norm.  It was a German surrender.

November 22, 1918. King Albert returns home, the Allies march towards Germany

Third day of armistice movement.  Supply Train of the 1st Bn, 59th Infantry, Moyeuvre La Grande, Lorraine

French troops entering Brussels for King Albert's review.

Crossing borders, November 20, 1918.

Advance guard of the 18th Infantry crossing the border line of France and Luxembourg near Aumetz Lux, Lorraine, November 20, 1918.  The 18th was part of the 1st Division and had been in action from the start of American combat participation until the end of the war.  Note that this group of soldiers is entirely equipped with garrison caps and that one of the soldiers is carrying a Chauchat automatic rifle.

Arrival of the first American troops in Belgium, Arlon, Belgium, November 20, 1918.  This street scene is interesting, among other reasons, in that a couple of the men are wearing the type of fedora you'll occasionally see claimed to have not existed until the 1920s. This type shows up in other photos earlier than this, but this photograph gives a good example of them.

Countdown on the Great War, October 22, 1918: The British reach the Schelt. The Atlantic is Quiet. A Hollywood Starlet becomes a victim of the Spanish Flu.

1. There were no shipping losses at all on this day, which is remarkable in and of itself.

2.  The British reached the Schelt River in Belgium.

3.  The British also reached Khan al-Sahbil, Syria. This was the first time in the Pursuit to Haritan in which the British made visual contact with the Otttoman's once again.

Myrtle Gonzalez.

4. Myrtle Gonzalez, the American movie industries first Hispanic movie star, died of the Spanish Influenza at age 27 at her parents home in Los Angeles.  She had acted in 78 films.  In spite of her young age, she was retired at the time having married actor and direct Allen Watt the year prior.  It was her second marriage Watt had been commissioned in the Army and the couple lived for a time at Ft. Lewis, Washington, but her frail health due to a heart ailment demanded her return to Los Angeles and Watt was released from the service to care for her.  She left a son, age seven, from her first marriage.

Countdown on the Great War. October 18, 1918. Lille taken, Czechoslovakia declares its independence, more lives lost at sea and more lives lost in Russia.

British troops entering Lille, Belgium.   A photo strongly recalling similar photographs from World War Two.

1.  The British entered Lille, Belgium and  the Allies otherwise took Thourout, Ostend and Douai.

2. Czechoslovakia declared independence.

3.  The Reds executed approximately 100 Imperial Russian officers in Pyatigorsk.

4.  The British cargo ships Hunsdon and RFA Industry were sunk in the Irish sea by German submarines.  The Icelandic trawler Njordur was sunk by a submarine in the Atlantic.  The French battleship Voltaire was hit by a torpedo fired by a German submarine but was only damaged.  The Austro Hungarian passenger ship Linz hit a mine and sunk with large loss of life.  

The British submarine HMS E3 was sunk in the North Sea by a German submarine.  The submarine, which had been attempting to maneuver against German surface ships when spotted by the German submarine, put off survivors but the U-boat did not pick them up at first fearing a second British submarine.  When it returned, they had all been lost.

Countdown on the Great War. October 14, 1918. Saying no to the Boche, Sinkings in the Atlantic, Americans resume the offensive in the Meuse Argonne and the British in Flanders.

Camp Funston, Kansas, which some believe if the locus of the origin of the Spanish Flu.

1.  The Battle of Courtrai commences in which the Groupe d'Armees des Flanders, made up of twelve Belgian, ten British and six French divisions under the command of King Albert I of Belgian attacked German forces in the hopes of continuing the Allied advance as far as possible before the oncoming winter made further advances impossible.  It was still anticiapted at the time that the war would drag into 1919.

British forces found, to their expectation, that the Germans offered much reduced resistance and they had achived all of their objectives, reaching the Scheldt, by the 22nd.

The Germans were basically collapsing while still offering resistance.  The nearness to a complete German disaster was not apparent, but it was coming.

2. The U.S. resumes the offensive in the Meuse Argonne with assaults near Montfaucon.

Senencourt (Muese) France. "Kamerad," a figure by the soldiers in the yard of the American Red Cross Canteen at Senencourt. The Red Cross girls are, from left to right: Miss Louise Adams of 10 Arlington Place, Brooklyn, N.Y.; Miss Alice Birdall, of 310 Third Ave. Reselle Ave., N.J.; and Miss Gertrude Nichols, #849 West Galen Street, Butte, Montana; Capt. Beverly Rautoul of #17 Winter Street, Salem, Mass., and Private Geo. St. Clair Preston, both of the American Red Cross Evacuation Hospital #8, are on the extreme left

3.  The air wing of the United States Marine Corps engaged in its first all Marine air action by bombing Pitthem, Belgium.  Marines Ralph Talbot and gunner Robert Guy Robinson won the Medal of Honor for heroism associated with holding off German air attacks on their Airco bomber when they became separated and had to return to attempt to return to their base alone.

Airco DH4, which was used in the tactical role.

4.  The provisional government for Czechoslovakia formed.


5.  The U-139 attacked the Portoguese steamer Sao Miguel and its escort the Portuguese Navy trawler NRP Augusto de Castilho on the Action of 14 October 1918.  The trawler was lightly armed and while it fought for several hours, it was actually outgunned by the submarine and surrendered to it, and was thereafter scuttled by the German submariners.  The engagement is regarded as the only high seas naval battle of the Great War to take place in the North Atlantic.

On the same day, German submarines sank the Bayard, a French fishing vessel, the Stifinder, a Norwegian barque, which was scuttled due an engagement with the U-152 and the British passenger ship Dundalk, with the loss of 21 lives.  The German minsweeper SMS M22 was sunk by mines.

6.

Wounded British soldiers of the 9th Division being following action at the Outtersteene Ridge, Meteren, West Flanders, Belgium, August 18, 1918

"Wounded British soldiers of the 9th Division being attended by Royal Army Medical Corps personnel after being brought in by German prisoners during action at the Outtersteene Ridge, Meteren, West Flanders, Belgium, August 18, 1918"

 Wounded British soldiers of the 27th Brigade, 9th Division, in a trench at a regimental aid post near Outtersteene Ridge following the formation's successful attack on Outtersteene Ridge, Flanders, Belgium, August 18, 1918

Today In Wyoming's History: May 22, 1918

Today In Wyoming's History: May 22:  1918  Four hundred Belgian soldiers passed through Wyoming over the Union Pacific Railroad on their way to the war in Europe.  The men had been assigned to fight with the Russians and were evacuated from Russia to the United States across the Pacific. Their train trip across the United States was to send them to an Atlantic port so they could return to service in Europe.

They received warm welcomes in Wyoming as they passed through the state.  Their compliment included several wives of soldiers, likely Russian brides, and one infant.

The Kaiserschlacht Continues. April 9, 1918. Operation Georgette

Operation Georgette

 

 Looking at the map again, now we are looking at the Second German Drive, listed here as the Lys Offensive.  Much further to the north than the first drive on the Somme, the twenty day operation in Flanders was a German drive to the sea.  It presented a desperate situation for the British and it destroyed the Portuguese Army on the Western Front.

By April 5 the Germans were aware that Operation Michael had failed, or at least would be a failure if it wasn't resumed in some other fashion.  That became Operation Georgette.  On April 9, Operation Michael was joined by Operation Georgette, somewhat of a resumption of Michael but aimed at a new location in the British sector where the front was manned by the Portuguese.

Georgette pitted the Germans, at first, against the Portuguese as they were being replaced by troops of the BEF.  Fighting was hard and desperate. The Portuguese forces were destroyed.  Field Marshall Haig issued his famous "backs to the wall" order, stating "With our backs to the wall and believing in the justice of our cause, each one of us must fight on to the end."

Here too, logistics defeated the Germans. They advanced, but not as expected, and their renewed offensive came to a halt on April 29.  The offensive had cost the Allies about 82,000 men, and the Germans about the same number.

Here too, the Germans could not stop or the entire effort resulting in over 300,000 casualties and the destruction of many elite units was all for naught.  After a brief lull, the Germans turned their attention to the French.

An accurate prediction? The Wyoming Tribune, March 13, 1918.

The Belgian minister of war was predicting a big German offensive. . . followed by Germany's defeat.

A big German offensive was widely predicated at the time.  A defeat behind it?  That's the first I've read of such a prediction.  We'll be seeing how accurate it was.

In other news, the American Army was starting to see some action.  And T.R.'s son Archie had been wounded in action.

Second Passchendaele, October 26, 1917

Today is the anniversary of the commencement of the Second Battle of Passchendaele.

Canadian stretcher bearers at Passchendaele.

The battle of was the final stage of the Third Battle of Ypres.  The first Passchendale, discussed here on its recent anniversary, had resulted in limited British Empire gains, but had also resulted in the bloodiest day in the history of the New Zealand army, for which it is still remembered.  

Like the first battle, the second one was plagued by mud, but it did result in British advances (as had the first).  And like the first battle, this one relied heavily on Dominion troops, although in this case the primary burden fell to the Canadian Army (although Australian, British, French and Belgian troops all had a role in the battle).  

Canadian machine gun company holding defensive positions after advancing.

The battle resulted in a British Empire victory, but a limited one, and partially for an odd reason.  The British forces were already stretched to maximum capacity in the war but were forced, due to the Italian defeat at Corporetto on October 24 to transfer men to the Italian front.  Gains had been made, but the transfer of troops brought the battle to a halt short of its original goals.  The gains, as well as the resistance by the Germans, resulted in large casualty figures for all sides.