The Dardanelles and the Gallipoli Peninsula, an inset from Collier's War Maps of the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmora, and the Bosphorus.
Image text: The Dardanelles, Scale of Miles, Main Roads, Railroads, Prop[osed] Railroads, FortsAegean Sea, Dardanelles, Gallipoli Peninsula, Gallipoli, Asia Minor, Cape Helles, Suvla Bay, shore batteries, and other place names.
Austro-Hungarian soldiers marching through a city, their officers bawling orders. Women and a child watch and talk, possibly shouting to be heard over the marching feet. An original watercolor on blue paper, signed W. Rittermann or Pittermann, December 26, 1915.
Image text: signed W. Rittermann or Pittermann, December 26, 1915.
A large German bomber, capable of bombing England. The plane is powered by two engines, and holds a crew of three with a pilot and front and rear gunners. The plane is likely a Gotha bomber, originally built by Gothaer Waggonfabrik, then built under license by Siemens-Schukert Werke and Luft-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft (LVG). Note the ground crew pushing on the lower wing and the men holding the tail up as the plane is moved backwards. Sanke postcard number 1040.
Image text: Deutsches Riesen-Flugzeug(Englandflieger)1040Postkartenvertrieb W. SankeBerlin No. 37Nachdruck wird gerichtlich verfolgtGerman giant aircraft(England flyer)1040Postcard distributor W. SankeBerlin No. 37Reproduction will be prosecuted
View from the Observation Tower on Californie Plateau, Chemin des Dames, France.
Image text:
"Scared? Sometimes you were too scared to be scared. I would laugh at any individual who says he wasn't afraid. Those who say they were devoid of fear talk absolute phooey. I was paralysed with fear. I was so paralysed with fear on Chunuk Bair and in other placed on Gallipoli that I was sometimes incapable of action, but lucky enough to get away. Strange to say, though, at no point did I ever think that I wouldn't get home. I was wounded but I did get home. I was torpedoed in the Triumph but I still got home. That fortune-teller in Cairo had it right." ((1), more)
"From 20th May [1916], a series of appeals from Italy reached Stavka, 'each more peremptory in tone than the last'. Joffre, through Laguiche at Stavka; the Italian representative there; the Italian embassy in Petrograd; finally the King of Italy in a personal telegram to the Tsar prevailed on Alexeyev. It seemed that only an immediate Russian offensive could help Italy; and if Italy dropped out of the war, then large numbers of Austrian divisions would be free to take up the battle against Russia." ((2), more)
"As the nights grew shorter, even the prospect of Zeppelin raids seemed remote. The people of England trustingly turned their thoughts to more pleasant things, such as the coming of summer and the approaching Whitsun holiday.This supreme but misguided sense of security was completely shattered when German bombs tumbled down on Tontine Street in Folkestone late in the afternoon of 25 May 1917. The shoppers in the crowded street were given no warning. Earsplitting explosions smashed shop windows, splintered beams, and sent bricks and rubble cascading into the roadway. Then all was quiet except for the cries and moans of the injured." ((3), more)
"The second event was the escape of three French prisoners-of-war from their camp not far behind the German lines, as a result of the massive reorganization of life there consequent upon the preparations for the attack. They reached the British lines just before dawn on May 25th, where they were admitted, fed, and closely questioned upon the conditions existing on the far side of the Ailette. Any doubts still existing in the minds of those conducting the interrogations as to the precariousness of their position were quickly dispelled, and a strongly worded report was forwarded to Sixth Army Headquarters.But Duchesne's reply read coldly: 'In our opinion there are no indications that the enemy has made preparations which would enable him to attack tomorrow' . . ." ((4), more)
(1) From the recollections of veteran Vic Nicholson of the New Zealand Wellington Infantry Battalion of his service in the Gallipoli campaign. The British battleship Triumph was sunk on May 25, 1915 by German submarine U-21 newly arrived at the Dardanelles with the loss of 78 men. Nicholson and two of his mates had their fortunes accurately foretold on the street in Cairo before they went to Gallipoli, Nicholson would be wounded but go home, the second would be badly injured but go home. The third would 'be in a fight,' but the fortune teller knew nothing further. This man died in the August 8 Battle of Chunuk Bair.
Voices of Gallipoli by Maurice Shadbolt, page 95, copyright © 1988 Maurice Shadbolt, publisher: Hodder and Stoughton, publication date: 1988
(2) After five Battles of the Isonzo River along the Italian-Austro-Hungarian border in northeast Italy, battles in which Austria-Hungary stood on the defensive, the Austrians struck in northern Italy from Trentino on May 15, 1916 in the Asiago Offensive, and made great advances that threatened to break through from the mountains to Italy's northern plain, isolating the Italian armies. French Commander in Chief Joffre, preparing an Anglo-French offensive on the Somme River, and desperately battling at Verdun, was not yet ready for an offensive. Alexeyev was Chief of Staff to Commander in Chief of Tsar Nicholas II. Stavka was the Russian general staff. General Brusilov was preparing an offensive, and was both ready and willing to strike sooner rather than later.
The Eastern Front, 1914-1917 by Norman Stone, page 246, copyright © 1975 Norman Stone, publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons, publication date: 1975
(3) Zeppelin raids England had killed civilians, but the airships increasingly fell victim to bad weather and improved British defenses. Six new high-altitude Zeppelin capable of climbing to four miles targeted London the night of May 23/24, 1917, but turned back before reaching their goal. The attack on Folkstone, west of Dover on the English Channel coast, by 21 twin-engine Gotha G.V bombers on May 25 caused more damage than any Zeppelin raid: 95 killed and 195 wounded. Whitsun or Whitsunday is the name used in the Anglican and Methodist churches for Pentecost, the moveable feast commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples of Jesus after his death. Pentecost fell on May 27, 1917.
The Sky on Fire by Raymond H. Fredette by Raymond H. Fredette, page 19, copyright © 1966, 1976, 1991 by Raymond H. Fredette, publisher: Smithsonian Institution Press, publication date: 1991
(4) German forces were preparing what would prove to be a devastating attack on the Allied line, the Aisne (Blücher) Offensive, the third of five drives to victory in 1918. The first event our author, Barrie Pitt, refers to had two parts: the first that American intelligence officers had recognized that an attack on the Chemin des Dames, which is south of the Ailette River, was imminent, and the second that the Chief of French intelligence came to believe they were correct. French General Denis Auguste Duchêne, who had already failed to follow General Henri Philippe Pétain's order to strengthen and restructure his line, would have none of it. Duchêne was correct to the extent that the former prisoners provided their information on May 25, 1918, and the attack took place on the 27th, not his 'tomorrow'. Four British divisions that had been devastated in Operations Michael and Georgette in March and April had been moved into what was expected to be a quiet sector held by the French.
1918, the Last Act by Barrie Pitt, page 145, copyright © 1962 by Barrie Pitt, publisher: Ballantine Books, Inc., publication date: 1963
