In the Centennial Footsteps of the Great War

11/11/2025

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Doughboy Foundation, American Battle Monuments Foundation -ABMF, Pritzker Military Museum & Library - PMML, The Western Front Association, Le poilu de la Marne, National WWI Museum and Memorial, Tank Poelkapelle, Commonwealth War Graves Commission

27/09/2025

09/08/2025

IT IS THE 111TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BATTLE OF LIEGE AND MULHOUSE

The key to Belgium on the invasion corridor between Germany and France was the city of Liège, defended by 12 heavily armed forts. On 5 August, a specially trained 30,000-strong force of six brigades under the command of General Otto von Emmerich launched an assault against the Liège forts after General Gérard Leman, the commander of the Belgian garrison, refused to surrender. It took ten days and dozens of “Big Bertha” siege guns for the Germans to clear the way for the main advance. The last to fall was Fort de Loncin, which was heavily bombarded before one of its magazines, containing 12,000 kg of explosives, blew up on 15 August 1914, when a 420 mm bombshell went through the ceiling. The explosion killed 350 of General Gérard Leman’s 550-strong garrison. Liège played a crucial role in halting the Germans long enough to allow the French and British to fully mobilise and to rush to the French–Belgian border. Today, the ruins of Fort de Loncin are treated as a war grave and a place of remembrance. Each year, there is a commemorative ceremony with processions on 15 August at the Monument to the Defenders of the Fort de Loncin and at the Memorial in honour of the missing soldiers.

The Peace Treaty of Frankfurt, signed on 10 May 1871, concluded the Franco-Prussian War, and brought about the defeat of Napoleon III’s Second Empire of France. In accordance with its terms, the newly established German Empire annexed the rich provinces of Alsace and Lorraine from the French Third Republic. This act marked the beginning of a passionate enmity between the two nations, resulting in a massive arms race and the creation of two European military alliances. After 43 years of peace, these circumstances led to a full-scale war. The highly anticipated confrontation between the French and German armies began in the early morning of 7 August 1914, when General Louis Bonneau’s VII Corps of the French 1st Army crossed the German border into Alsace and clashed with enemy forces at Altkirch and Thann, before marching on to Mulhouse.

The photos are from the book"In the Centennial Footsteps of the Great War" that can be ordered here: www.greatwarbook.com


Attila Szalay-Berzeviczy

04/08/2025

IT IS THE 111TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE START OF WW1 ON THE WESTERN FRONT.

In the early morning on 4 August 1914, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th German Army crossed into Belgium in an attempt to advance rapidly through the neutral country to encircle and destroy the French armies around Paris and to achieve a quick, but decisive victory in the West, before Russia could conclude the mobilisation of its army in the East. But the Belgian Army resisted, and its first casualty of the Great War became the 21-year-old cavalryman of the 2nd Lancers Regiment, Antoine Fonck. His memorial is located halfway between Liège and the German–Belgian border, at Thimister-Clermont, on the spot where the lancer was killed by the advancing Germans on 4 August while conducting a reconnaissance operation.

The photos are from the book"In the Centennial Footsteps of the Great War" that can be ordered here: www.greatwarbook.com

10/06/2025

In this episode, Heather A. Warfield, Professor at Antioch University New England spoke with Attila Szalay-Berzeviczy, the author of 'In the Centennial Footsteps of the Great War.' They discussed the intersection of pilgrimage and World War I, exploring how historical events shape contemporary understanding and commemoration practices. Attila shared insights from his extensive travels documenting battlefields and memorials across 57 countries, emphasizing the importance of remembering the past to inform the present and future. The conversation also touched on the fragility of peace and the lessons learned from history, as well as Attila's future projects, including a focus on the Second World War.

The book discussed in the podcast can be ordered here: www.greatwarbook.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g04fjTvvUY4

In this episode, Heather A. Warfield speaks with Attila Szalay-Berzeviczy, a Hungarian economist and author of 'In the Centennial Footsteps of the Great War....

03/06/2025

IT IS THE 107TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BATTLE OF BELLEAU WOOD

After concluding Operation Georgette, General Erich Ludendorff still believed that the British could be defeated in Flanders, requiring that he draw French reserves away from the north. On 27 May 1918, he launched the Third Battle of the Aisne, an offensive code-named Operation Blücher-Yorck. The Germans broke through the French lines at the “Chemin des Dames,” and within three days they crossed the Aisne River and reached Belleau Wood and the Marne River at Château- Thierry, threatening Paris. Since the French were urging the immediate deployment of American troops to the front line, the commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, General John Pershing, sent two of his divisions into battle. The 3rd US Division arrived in Château-Thierry on 30 May to cover the withdrawing French 6th Army and to block the enemy advance on the north bank of the river. On 2 June, the 2nd US Division, which included the 10,000-strong 4th Marine Brigade, arrived at Belleau Wood 6 miles (10 km) northwest from Château-Thierry, tasked with the capture of the forested area occupied by the Germans. On 3 and 4 June, the Germans attacked the Americans from the wood, but after bitter resistance, they were forced to withdraw. On 6 June, just before the Marines launched a counterattack into Belleau Wood , Ludendorff called off Operation Blücher-Yorck.

On 6 June 1918, the 2nd US Division was ordered to take Belleau Wood. The 4th Marine Brigade was tasked with the attack of Hill 142 through Lucy-le-Bocage to Le Thiolet against German machine gunners, who took up defensive positions behind rocks and were protected by the dense undergrowth of the forest. On this day, the American Marines left behind a history of 130 years of small-scale skirmishes with insurgents and pirates and commenced an industrialised warfare of massive firepower and wholesale slaughter. By nightfall, 222 were dead and over 850 were wounded. The battle, often resulting in savage hand-to-hand fighting, continued for 10 days as both sides fought stubbornly. From 16 June, the 7th Infantry Regiment relieved the exhausted Marine Brigade, but the Marines returned a week later, on 23 June. Two days later, Belleau Wood was subjected to a 14-hour bombardment by French artillery before the Marines were finally able to clear out the last German unit and declare victory. Between 6 and 26 June 1918, the 2nd US Division sustained 9,777 casualties, including 1,811 dead.

13/05/2025

rajongók

Szerdán zajlott könyvtárunkban a bemutatója Szalay-Berzeviczy Attila A nagy háború százéves nyomában című könyvének.
A közgazdász-sportvezető-fotóművész szerző ötvénhét országba utazott el és készített fotókat az első világháború eseményeit újszerűen bemutató kétkötetes művéhez.
A beszélgetőtársa az esten Hermann Róbert történész volt.

A fotót Ritz Gábor készítette.

07/05/2025

IT IS THE 110TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE SINKING OF LUSITANIA

On September 7, 1907, the pride of the Cunard Line made her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York, in a climate of fierce rivalry among European shipping lines. Weighing 30,396 tons, the 787-ft (240-m) luxury liner RMS Lusitania was the world’s largest until it was surpassed by White Star Line’s RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic in 1910 and 1911, respectively. She was able to carry up to 552 first class, 460 second class, and 1,186 third class passengers, in addition to her crew of 850. The Blue Riband holder British ocean vessel was also the fastest passenger liner of her age, capable of crossing the Atlantic Ocean in under five days, averaging nearly 24 knots.

On 7 May 1915 at around 2:00 pm, Lusitania was sighted some 13 miles (21 km) away by U-20, which was on the surface, low on fuel and with only three torpedoes remaining after sinking a number of vessels over the previous couple of days. Kapitänleutnant Walther Schwieger, commander of U-20, was summoned to the conning tower and, recognising the four-funnelled profile, realised that the fast-approaching ship was one of Cunard’s famous passenger liners, Mauretania or Lusitania. He could not believe his luck. The U-boat submerged and the ocean liner steamed directly into the target zone. Just before 2:10 pm, U-20 fired a single torpedo at Lusitania at a range of just less than half a mile. A lookout on the bow of the ship spotted the approaching trail of white foam in the water. The passengers felt a shudder as the torpedo struck Lusitania on the starboard side between No. 2 and 3 funnels, just behind the bridge. Moments later, a huge blast ripped through the wounded vessel, sending a plume of water, coal, smoke, and debris high into the sky. The cause of this second explosion remains a source of conjecture to this day. Within minutes, the mortally damaged Lusitania began listing heavily to starboard and the bow began to submerge. Although the first lifeboats were immediately swung out, even without engine power the massive liner was still moving too fast for a safe launch. Lifeboats launched on the port side snagged on the rivets protruding from the ship’s hull. A few of the lifeboats plopped safely into the sea, others spilled their passengers into the water, and others still were left dangling uselessly at the end of their ropes as the propellers and rudder rose steeply into the air. The passengers of Lusitania had only eighteen minutes to escape before the great vessel disappeared beneath the surface just 11 miles (18 km) south by west of the Old Head of Kinsale. Bodies, debris, swimmers, and lifeboats littered the sea. 785 passengers and 413 crew members went down with the superliner; 128 of the 159 American passengers lost their lives. Just 767 survivors were rescued despite being so close to the Irish coastline.

(photo taken by Attila Szalay-Berzeviczy for the book "In the Centennial Footsteps of the Great War" that you can order here: www.greatwarbook.com).

04/05/2025

IT IS THE 110TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE THE GORLICE-TARNÓW OFFENSIVE

1915 was a year of success for the Central Powers and one of failure for the Allies. In the West, the Germans repelled numerous major offensives by the French and the British. In the Dardanelles and on the Gallipoli peninsula, the Ottomans humiliated the naval and land forces of the Entente, and in Mesopotamia, they managed to stop the British advance. It was on the Eastern Front, however, where the Central Powers experienced their greatest triumphs. The Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive, a joint Austro-Hungarian-German operation, was the first to result in a successful breakthrough of the enemy defence lines since the onset of trench warfare. The subsequent summer campaign in Poland so weakened the Imperial Russian Army that this circumstance contributed significantly to Romania’s decision to stay out of the war for another year, and led Bulgaria to join the conflict on the side of the Central Powers.

By the end of the winter battles fought in the Carpathian Mountains at the end of 1914 and in the first 3 months of 1915, the Austro- Hungarian army came perilously close to collapse, and Hungary feared a Russian invasion. Chief of the German general staff Erich von Falkenhayn, deeply concerned about his reeling ally, sent eight divisions to Galicia on the Eastern Front to execute a major push against the Russians, with the aim of reducing pressure on the Dual Monarchy. The Gorlice-Tarnów campaign in May and June 1915, spearheaded by General August von Mackenen’s German 11th Army and Archduke Joseph Ferdinand’s Austro-Hungarian 4th Army, was the first instance in the Great War when German and Austro-Hungarian forces operated on a major scale under unified command.

On 2 May 1915, a 350,000-strong German-Austro-Hungarian force smashed through the Russian 3rd Army’s defence positions on a 30-mile (48-km) front line between the towns of Gorlice and Tarnów in Galicia, and advanced further eastwards. Within a week, the tsarist army was pushed back all the way to the River San. Exactly one hundred years later, on 2 May 2015, just 3 miles (5 km) south of Gorlice at the village of Sekowa, dozens of re-enactment groups from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Russia and Slovakia participated in the centenary reconstruction of the offensive that produced the Central Powers’ greatest victory of the war (depicted on the photo taken by Attila Szalay-Berzeviczy for www.greatwarbook.com).