We've seen the British and French fight together or different parts of the British Empire collaborate with each other.
We've seen combined Austro-German forces. But something happens this week we have not yet seen in the war.
This week, the Allies build a true Five Nation Army.
I'm Indy Neidell. Welcome to the Great War.
Last week, the British and French advanced at the Somme, and at Verdun the French retook the whole of Fleury,
causing German morale to plummet.
Though in the East, German defenses had ended the Russian threat in Bukovina.
The Sixth Battle of the Isonzo River came to an end on the Italian Front,
and though the Italians had taken Gorizia, they had also taken huge casualties.
And after months of silence, the Balkans flared into life as Bulgaria attacked the Allied lines.
Here's what came next.
I started that recap at the Somme so I may as well look there first this week.
Guillemont was attacked by the British the 21st and there was another joint operation there with the French the 24th.
Now, these were pretty unsuccessful. Artillery support was inadequate and Guillemont remained in German hands.
But even though this wasn't a big deal in terms of the whole battle,
it was a major problem for British commander-in-chief Sir Douglas Haig.
He had a new weapon he was going to premiere in mid-September: the tank,
and was going to use it for a large scale breakthrough of the German lines.
But in order to give that a good chance of happening, he had to have a secure starting line.
And there was this big old right angle that needed to be eliminated by capturing High Wood,
Ginchy and Guillemont.
Haig's subordinate, General Sir Henry Rawlinson, had been making these little badly-planned nibbles of attacks,
and didn't seem to be any closer to creating that starting line.
On the 24th, Haig wrote to him in no uncertain terms:
"The only conclusion that can be drawn from the repeated attacks on Guillemont
is that something is wanting in the methods employed."
That something, Haig felt, was that the attacks were on fronts that were too narrow,
did not attack in strong enough force, and above all, lacked oversight.
Haig wrote:
"The attack must be a general one, engaging the enemy simultaneously along the whole front to be captured,
and a sufficient force must be employed, in proper proportion to the extent of front,
to beat down all opposition."
He suggested attacking with two and half divisions.
He also went on at Rawlinson that, while during the actual execution of the battle,
men on the spot must use their own initiative when control by higher command is impossible.
During the preparations, Rawlinson better damn well supervise things as closely as possible,
which Haig says it is a:
"legitimate and necessary exercise of the functions of a commander on whom ultimate responsibility
for success or failure lies.
It appears to the Commander-in-Chief that some misconception exists in the army
as to the limitations of the principle of the initiative of subordinates."
This all made good sense, but in typical Haig fashion, he sort of turns it on its head by saying
Rawlinson should attack immediately, which kind of gives no time for any preparations.
But the attack couldn't happen anyhow. It began to rain on the 25th, and did for days.
And that, and the constant difficulty of arranging a coordinated attack with the French, delayed it all.
And anyhow, the divisions at Guillemont were in no state for another attack.
It was going to take some time to get going after all.
Still the French did, for their part, complete the capture of Maurepas this week on the 24th,
which they had been fighting for for two weeks, after first seizing the trenches south of the village.
This was a pretty important thing because, together with Guillemont, Maurepas formed advance works
of the stronghold of Combles.
The French attack came around 5:00 PM on a two-kilometer front, from north of Hardecourt to southeast of Maurepas.
The French were successful with the first charge, and then took the strong German entrenchments
on the Maurepas-Combles road.
This feat was even more impressive since it came at the expense of some of Germany's best troops:
the 5th Bavarian Reserve and the 1st Division of the Prussian Guard under Prince Eitel Friedrich.
But German troops were faring better this week over on the Eastern Front,
where Russia's Brusilov Offensive that had raged all summer and taken 15,000 square miles of land
from Austria-Hungary, and produced over a million Austro-German casualties was slowly coming to an end.
This had nearly shattered the Austro-Hungarian Empire and severely damaged its military strength.
But Austria certainly had other problems with its army.
General Hoffman in Galicia wrote:
"There are all these different races mixed up together, no less than 23 distinct languages.
No one understands anyone else."
But things were not going for the Russians by now in their Carpathian mountain campaign.
General Platon Lechitsky's troops were largely cavalry and had nearly no howitzers.
And so they were totally unsuited for the mountain combat they now found themselves fighting.
Germany had complete control of the air, so the German artillery was positioned on the reverse slopes
of the hills and mountains, where the Russians couldn't locate it.
And then they liberally shelled the Russians as they climbed.
Sometimes, it would take the Russian infantry many hours to climb a hundred meters.
So they were soon forced to use the roads winding through the valleys, and the offensive grounded to a halt.
And one offensive that seems on the verge of breaking out is growing in the Balkans.
There had been a bit of fighting at the end of last week on the Macedonian Front,
which was the first time the Balkans had been active in a while.
And I wanna look there for a minute.
French general Maurice Sarrail and his colleagues had by this time a force of some 750,000 men
and an enormous supply of ordnance.
This coming from what had originally been a little expedition to keep a backdoor open for the Serbs.
It was obviously going to be a campaign against the rear of the Central Powers.
Well, that was what the world's media supposed.
But that larger force served other purposes as well.
The Story of the Great War says Greece would have by now joined the Central Powers,
had it not be for fear of Sarrail's forces.
Anyhow, by now Sarrail was inclined to be less passive.
And by this time, something interesting had happened.
The remnants of the Serbian Army held the left part of the front.
Now 80,000 Russians had been sent to the west of them.
A large force of Italians had joined the British near Doirani.
And Sarrail's frenchmen were obviously there.
This meant that all of the long-term allies, except Japan, were now represented on a single front
as a Five Nation Army. And it was the first time they all camped together.
This had a visible boost to morale. That front was going to get cooking soon.
It was, to be fair, cooking a little bit as it was.
Last week, the Bulgarians had taken Lerin and Banitsa and the Battle of Florina still continued.
However, the Serbian defenders were strong and, importantly, could constantly
be reinforced with troops and artillery thanks to the railway.
While the Bulgarians began to deplete their stocks.
As the week came to an end, it would only be another two days before the Bulgarians called off the offensive.
And further east, yet another offensive was rolling along.
On the 23rd and 24th on the Caucasus Front, the Russians retook Bitlis and Mus.
Now, these had exchanged hands before. Most recently, two weeks ago when Ottoman forces
under Mustafa Kemal had taken them back from the Russians.
They were important points, especially Bitlis.
If Russia could hold them and get sufficient numbers of men down there,
they could split the Ottoman Empire in two and cut off the Mesopotamian and Persian fronts.
And that was the week. Haig frustrated at the Somme even as the French advanced.
The Russians stalling in the Carpathians but winning in Anatolia,
and the Bulgarians running out of steam against the Serbs.
I'm going to end today with something I haven't mentioned so far this episode.
This week at sea, U-35, the most successful U-boat of the entire war, ended its latest voyage August 18th.
Now, between July 28th and August 18th, it sank 54 merchant ships in the Mediterranean, mostly by shellfire.
Yup. The most successful submarine of the war finishing its most successful mission.
In all, it sank 224 ships during the war with a total tonnage of over half a million tons.
That's a lot of supplies, a lot of food, and a lot of medicine going to the bottom of the sea.
But you know what? Not a lot of people.
Really. Captain Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière, the most successful submarine ace in history,
strictly followed prize rules.
He allowed crews of enemy merchant ships to man their lifeboats, and even gave them directions
to the nearest port before sinking their ships.
I wanted to mention him here because I usually end with something that highlights the horror
and devastation of the war. But today, I'll end with him because he was at least one shining spot of humanity
among all the madness.