Austro-Hungarian soldiers, one with goggles around his hat, posing at their dugout in a January, 1917 photograph. The card is dated January 27, 1917, and field postmarked January 31.
The message is dated January 27, 1917, and field postmarked January 31.
"The Allies had abandoned exclusive use of patrolled routes in the Mediterranean shortly before the Germans adopted unrestricted submarine warfare. The Germans declared the great majority of the Mediterranean a Sperrgebiet (prohibited area) except for the extreme western portion off Spain, including the Balearics, and initially, the 20-mile-wide corridor to Greek waters. The Austrians promised to assist the Germans outside the Adriatic. Their smaller submarines as they became available would now operate against Allied shipping between Malta and Cerigo. In the early part of 1917, the situation in the Mediterranean was deceptively favorable to the Allies, for in January the greater part of the Mediterranean U-boat flotilla was under repair and refit at Pola and Cattaro after the heavy demands of 1916. In January sinkings fell to 78,541 tons, only 24 percent of the total of 328,391 tons sunk in all theaters. It was the lull before the storm . . ."
The British, French, and Italian allies only poorly coordinated efforts to counteract the U-boat threat in the Mediterranean, trying to establishing zones and patrolled routes. The Austro-Hungarian Adriatic ports of Pola and Cattaro were used by both Austrian and German U-boats. Germany proclaimed a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare beginning February 1, 1917.
A Naval History of World War I by Paul G. Halpern, page 390, copyright © 1994 by the United States Naval Institute, publisher: UCL Press, publication date: 1994
1917-01-29, 1917, January, Mediterranean, Adriatic, Malta, unrestricted submarine warfare, submarine warfare, submarine
