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With Bulgaria joining the Central Powers in October 1915 assuring the defeat of Serbia by the end of November, the Balkanzug — the Balkan Railway, shown in red — connected Berlin and Constantinople. By the second week of November, Turkey received ammunition and weapons from its allies.
Text:
Vierbund-Treubund
Quadruple Alliance-True Alliance
Reverse:
Message dated February 28, 1916, and postmarked the next day.
Logo: Erika
Nr. 5448

With Bulgaria joining the Central Powers in October 1915 assuring the defeat of Serbia by the end of November, the Balkanzug — the Balkan Railway, shown in red — connected Berlin and Constantinople. By the second week of November, Turkey received ammunition and weapons from its allies.

Image text

Vierbund-Treubund



Quadruple Alliance-True Alliance



Reverse:

Message dated February 28, 1916, and postmarked the next day.



Logo: Erika

Nr. 5448

Other views: Larger, Back

Tuesday, November 9, 1915

"9th November [1915]

16.00 hrs. Our commander gives us sweet news. Three hundred railway wagons of ammunition have arrived, as well as 21 and 24 mm guns and 15 cm howitzers. We shall now be able to bombard the enemy for 70 hours instead of 22 and follow that with a new offensive!"

Quotation Context

Turkish Second Lieutenant Mehmed Fasih writing on the Gallipoli Peninsula, November 9, 1915. With the imminent defeat of Serbia, the capture of its railway, and with Bulgaria joining the Central Powers, trains can run from Berlin, Germany, through Austria-Hungary, Serbia, and Bulgaria to Turkey and its capital Constantinople. The weapons and ammunition give the Turkish forces on Gallipoli renewed hope of their ultimate defeat of the Allied invasions of April and August, and of driving the invaders into the sea.

Source

Intimate Voices from the First World War by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, page 136, copyright © 2003 by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, publisher: Harper Collins Publishers, publication date: 2003

Tags

1915-11-09, November, 1915, Gallipoli, Balkanzug, Balkan Zug