WAR OF 1914-1918. 56 L.A.S. and 2 L.A. from Henry TISSIER (1 - Lot 476

WAR OF 1914-1918. 56 L.A.S. and 2 L.A. from Henry TISSIER (1866-1926, physician and bacteriologist), to his wife, née Alice Garnier, in Petites-Dalles (Seine-inférieure) and Paris, October 8, 1914-February 28, 1915 and December 24, 1915-May 25, 1916; 187 pages in various formats, one address on military correspondence postcard, one envelope (one letter missing). Interesting correspondence from this Pasteur Institute researcher, attached to the 87th Territorial Infantry Division ambulance as aide-major. The letters are written from Saint-Pol-sur-Mer, Blamertinghe, Ypres, Killem (Nord), Polincove and elsewhere. The division operates in Belgium and Northern France. "I have absolutely nothing to fear", Tissier assures us on October 11, 1914; he insists on the convenience of their installations, the courage of the fighters, the interest of their stages, the superiority of French weapons, the distance between the ambulance and the front lines. And he cheerfully recounts small incidents from his service. "Their corpses are cluttering up the trenches, and as our territorials have taken their trenches by bayonet, we've thrown the bodies over them, and as we can't bury them, we're spraying them with quicklime. It's unbelievable how many men they sacrifice! We lose half as many as they do. Our weapons seem more lethal. Theirs injure but kill less" (October 30, 1914)... Observations and anecdotes on enemy equipment, the differences between ambulances, what we know or hear about the Kaiser, the bad tongues that would like to turn the admirable retreat of the Marne into a rout, who accuse the troops of the Midi of being cowards, and the wives of the poilus of being unfaithful... At the beginning of February 1915, it seems that the enemy is saving its projectiles: "25 wounded in 8 days, what misery instead of the 1,000 a week in November"... The Germans had already lost two and a half million men... Etc.