FIRST WORLD WAR - COURBET (Georges). "Sooner or later, we wi - Lot 49

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  3. FIRST WORLD WAR - COURBET (Georges). "Sooner or later, we wi - Lot 49
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Lot n° 49
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FIRST WORLD WAR - COURBET (Georges). "Sooner or later, we wi - Lot 49
FIRST WORLD WAR - COURBET (Georges). "Sooner or later, we will all be forced to pass through it after having endured the worst suffering...". Set of around 530 letters, mainly to his father Jules Courbet. 1915-1919. Exceptionally dense private correspondence on the Great War Extremely rare for its continuity over more than four years, with a frequency of approximately one letter every three days. Because of Georges Courbet's constantly mobile functions, his correspondence offers a very broad view of the conflict zone, from the front to the headquarters. First a cyclist, then an orderly, then a dispatch rider in the 44th Infantry Regiment, Georges Courbet served for a time in the front-line trenches. He served at Verdun in 1916, the Chemin des Dames in 1917, the second Battle of the Marne in 1918, and was not demobilized until 1919. In his correspondence, he gives precise accounts of gas attacks, Zeppelin bombardments, the winter spent in caves, and striking passages describing the atmosphere of the trenches ("the smell of the dead"). Georges Courbet evokes the sanitary conditions of the poilus, poignantly describing the diphtheria and typhoid epidemics, lice and the Spanish flu. He also wrote about certain significant events, such as the death of the "Ace of Aces" (Guynemer), or the explosion of the Grenoble powder magazine, and wrote several letters about the armistice, including one showing that the soldiers in his sector had learned of its signing before it was officially announced. Georges Courbet's letters document his various posts, his association with general and senior officers, and his initial refusal of the rank of corporal so as not to be immediately placed in the front line. He also passes on what his brother Ernest wrote to him, and evokes Ernest's death in battle. -S.l., January 28, 1916: "...I told you about the diphtheria epidemics; far from stopping, they have got worse, and now all the companies are infested. There are a great many men who have this disease, or who have some germs of it. All these people have been evacuated from here, and those who were next to them in the same room have been consigned and set aside for any exercise. That's the case with my squad... The orders are getting stricter and stricter: we can't leave the room, and they've put a sentry on the door... You must have seen in the papers the Zeppelin that bombed the countries around Épernay, it was near here that it launched them, it was midnight. Talk about a potain, if it woke us up..." -S.l., January 31, 1916: "...You're talking about a Zeppelin bombing. I think I've already told you that it was a locality near here, 2km away. You can believe they were well informed about the country and the importance of the target. Besides, they didn't make a mistake, they found just the house, fortunately the bombs only grazed it. There were no casualties or damage..." -Postal Sector 169" [Verdun]. S.l., May 17, 1916. "...The "totos", as lice are called, never leave the poilus, everyone has them, officers and men alike, and it's impossible to get them to leave, they always remain or return as soon as they've been chased away. I had some like my friends, I cleaned my laundry with petrol and I do it every day, but I still found some. It's funny to see the oils looking for them every morning for an hour or two. For the moment, it's the Kamarades waiting for the Boche, but I'd still rather see those from another part of the front than from Verdun, because I've got indigestion... Everyone who's come back for the 2nd or 3rd time says it's terrible, they've never suffered so much, I can tell, if it's not the machine-gun fire, it's the disease... What you tell me about Rigaudier is unfortunately true... It was a shell that buried him in the trench, and one of his sergeants was also buried and died before being asphyxiated, which is very sad...". -S.l., May 23, 1917: "...We're still in our hole, not really knowing what to become. etc. ATTACHED: 20 PHOTOGRAPHIES in period prints, including several portraits of Georges Courbet, his family record book, a packing list list, his demobilization letter, and a few letters from 1919 evoking the possibility of a departure for Russia. [ATTENTION record truncated by Drouot - Full description in catalog (photo 3-4)]
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