THE WORLD FAMOUS HISTORY AND PAST EVENTS

Burial of three fallen French Chasseurs Alpin, ca. 1915. Today 108 years ago, on July 20, 1915, the Battle of Le Linge began in the Vosges mountains on the Western Front. Le Linge (Lignekopf in German) and its neighboring Collet du Linge, Shratzmännelé, Barrenkopf and Kleinkopf were all ridges in the Vosges mountains in Alsace on the French-German border, held by the French by the end of 1914. In February 1915 the Germans launched an offensive for the ridges and captured them, including Le Linge. Afterwards they consolidated and fortified their defenses. French Commander-in-Chief Joffre sought to launch an invasion of Germany in Alsace, and on June 15, 1915, the French attacked further south at Münster, advancing 5 km by June 19 before being halted at Le Linge. Joffre decided to call off this offensive and prepare for a major one targeting Le Linge instead. On July 20, 1915, the French Chasseurs Alpins (Mountain Hunters) attacked the German positions at Le Linge and the neighboring Shr...

Fallen Russian soldiers in a trench on the Eastern Front, ca. 1915. Photograph belonging to 'Wooway1' on Flickr.  Today 108 years ago, on July 13, 1915, the Germans launched the Narew Offensive against the Russians on the Eastern Front. In May 1915 the Central Powers had launched the Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive and forced the Russians some 310 km eastwards, ending on June 22 with the conquering of the city of Lemberg. The Central Powers realized an ambitious, renewed offensive might force the Russians to surrender, thus a three-pronged offensive along the front was planned. In the north the Germans would attack in the Courland region, in the middle across the Narew river towards Warsaw and in the south in Galicia between the Bug and Vistula rivers towards Brest-Litovsk. On June 30, 1915 the Bug Offensive was launched in Galicia and made significant progress, but had stalled by July 9. It was then decided for the other two offensives in the Courland and across the Narew to be launc...