A gleeful Russian Cossack skewers Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph in Galicia, the Empire's northeastern region isolated from the rest of the country by the Carpathian Mountains. The caption is a play on words echoing the name of the mountain range in telling Franz Joseph, 'it seems your soldiers took to their heels.' After twin defeats in the Battles of Gnila Lipa and Rava Russka, the Austro-Hungarian Army lost the great fortress at Lemberg, and was being driven out of Galicia and back through the Carpathians. Russia's attempts to break through the Carpathians continued through April 1915, with heavy losses on both sides. The Austro-Hungarians, with German support, held.
Image text: Parait que tes soldats se CarapathentSeems that your soldiers took to their heelsDix 701Reverse:Dixo-Couleur Paris, Visé Paris, Numéro au Verso.
A German Fokker Eindecker flying over the front in the Meuse/Verdun sector.
Image text: No. 104. Westlichen Kriegschauplatz: Schwere Niederlage der Franzosen auif den Maashöhen bei Combres.Western theater of war: Heavy French defeat on the heights of the Meuse at Combres.Serie 63/4Towns include: Les Éparges, St. Remy, and Combres.Reverse:Kriegshilfe München N.-W. 11.Zum Gloria-Viktoria AlbumSammel. u. Nachschlagewerk des VölkerkriegesWar Fund Munich 11, N. W. 11For Gloria Viktoria AlbumCollection. and reference work of international war
Zeppelin Kommt! Children play a Zeppelin raid on London. Holding his bomb in the gondola is a doll of the airship's inventor, Count Zeppelin. The other children, playing the English, cower, and the British fleet — folded paper boats — remains in port. Prewar postcards celebrated the imposing airships and the excitement they generated with the same expression, 'Zeppelin Kommt!'. Postcard by P.O. Engelhard (P.O.E.). The message on the reverse is dated May 28, 1915.
Image text: P.O.E.? EnglandLondonZeppelin Kommt!Reverse:Message dated May 28, 1915Stamped: Geprüft und zu befördern (Approved and forwarded) 9 Komp. Bay. L.I.N. 5
Russian troops stopped by barbed wire.
Image text: Die Russen vor den DrahtverhauenThe Russians in front of the barbed wireReverse:Wohlfahrts-PostkarteDer Reinertrag dient zum besten des deutsche HeeresDer Auschuss:Herzogin von RatiborFrau C. v Stumm, Frau Konf. StaudtDr. von Behr-PinnowKammerherr S. M. des KaisersKabinetsrat a. D. J. M. d. KaiserinJ. Andreae, Bank-DirectorNr. 13Verlag für Sozialpolitik, Berlin C19Welfare PostcardNet proceeds serve the best of the German ArmyThe Committee:Duchess of Ratibor, Mrs C. von Stumm, Women's Conference Staudt,Dr. von Behr-Pinnow, Chamberlain of His Majesty the Emperor, Cabinet Council retd. J. M. of the EmpressJ. Andreae, Bank DirectorNo. 13Publisher of Social Policy, Berlin C19
'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red' — the Tower of London poppies — each of the 888,246 ceramic poppies representing one serviceman of the British Empire killed in World War I. The installation was a collaboration of artist Paul Cummins and stage designer Tom Piper. Since November, 2014 the poppies have been installed in other sites in the United Kingdom. Photographed October 3, 2014. © 2014 by John M. Shea
Image text:
German soldier operating and anti-aircraft gun.
Image text: German Anti-Aircraft Gun
"On August 25 there began a great battle for the possession of Lemberg, the seat of the Austrian Government in Galicia... The contest for Lemberg raged during seven days, and extended over a distance of 200 miles from the Lublin district in Russian Poland to Halicz, south-southwest of the threatened city. By September 2nd the Austrians were completely defeated. There were thousands killed and wounded, and the Russians claimed to have taken no fewer than 70,000 prisoners, in addition to 200 guns and several standards." ((1), more)
"Britain's only nominal fighter at that time was the Vickers F.B.5 Gunbus, which had begun full-squadron operations at about the same time as the Fokker E.I was making its combat debut. Among the first of No. 11 Squadron's pilots to directly challenge the Eindeckers was an aggressive Welsh warrior named Captain Lionel Wilmot Brabazon Rees, who with his observer, Flight Sergeant J. M. Hargreaves, was credited with 'driving down' an Eindecker on July 28. On August 31, the duo destroyed an LVG C.II near Achiet le Grand . . ." ((2), more)
"P.S. There are two important items of news. One is that I have just had a birthday — my 25th. The other that we had Zeps here about a fortnight ago. Two bombs were dropped on Chelmsford itself, both on or near the Glosters billetting area. The damage was perhaps 5£ worth. It cured an old lady of muscular rheumatism, indeed it made an athlete, a sprinter of her — she went down the street in her nightgown like a comet or some gravity-defying ghost. One of the bombs was terrifying and must severely have shocked the elm tree which it mostly affected. Our supply guard did a roaring trade in old iron, and if it ever occurs to some wealthy enthusiast to buy up the two bombs in bits for purposes of reconstruction, he will probably get prostrated either by worry or rage; some of the guard may also suffer prostration." ((3), more)
"Around 6 p.m. the first wounded appeared; they had attacked only three hours earlier. We were all at work. Our orderlies were busily cutting away the stained garments. Only the heavily-wounded had been brought, and their injuries were indescribably terrible: heads, chests, stomachs, arms, legs, every kind of wound was there and we found body after body smashed, broken, lacerated. The operating hut became intolerably hot and the flies, too, gave us no peace. There were many deaths. . . ." ((4), more)
"During my leave, I remember principally observing the large decay of lively bright love of country, the crystallization of dull civilian hatred on the basis of 'the last drop of blood'; the fact that the German air raids had almost persuaded my London friends that London was the sole battle front; the illusion that the British Army beyond Ypres was going from success to success; the ration system. Perhaps the ration system weighed most upon us. This was not the ancient reward of the warrior! He had never had a sugar-card in Marlborough's wars, or even 1916. Meanwhile Hampton Court, and even the Palladium, seemed to be standing where they did." ((5), more)
"On August 31, between two patrols, I flew over to Bray-Dunes to take lunch with the new 5th Squadron. On the same aerodrome, there was a British Squadron whose officers invited me to go hunting with them. . . .When one comes down close to the ground and sees German troops, one experiences at first a certain amount of apprehension, but after this has passed off there is very little in it, because gun-fire ceases, it being impossible to fire at aeroplanes flying at a height of 15–30 feet. Even the enemy's machine-guns have few opportunities of coming into action—and then only for a very brief spell—the aeroplane being generally hidden by trees, and the speed at which it passes across the machine-guns' sights making it impossible to take steady aim." ((6), more)
(1) Excerpt from an account by Ernest Vizetelly on the battles on the Russian and Austro-Hungarian Front and in Galicia in August and September, 1914. On August 31, 1914, the Austro-Hungarians defeated a Russian army in the Battle of Komarov. But, as in their victory in the Battle of Krasnik days before, the Russian armies to their north were still fighting forces. But in the Austro-Hungarian offensive to the east, two Russian armies were driving back an isolated Austro-Hungarian army in the Battle of Gnila Lipa. In the coming days Russia would be victorious in the Battle of Rava Russka and rout the same Austro-Hungarian armies from Galicia.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. II, 1914, pp. 185, 186, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
(2) Introduced in early 1915, Dutch aircraft designer Anton Fokker's E.I (Eindecker (monoplane) I) had a single fixed-position machine gun that could fire through the revolving propeller by using an interrupter gear. (An earlier innovation by French pilot Roland Garros had no such gear, and protected the propeller with metal plates that deflected bullets.) The Allies at first struggled to match it, but responded with the French Nieuport, with a machine gun mounted on the upper wing firing over the propeller, and pusher planes, such as the Vickers F.B.5 (Fighting Biplane) Gunbus, with its rear-mounted engine and front-mounted machine gun. The L.V.G. C.II two-seat reconnaissance plane was introduced in late 1915.
The Origin of the Fighter Aircraft by Jon Gutman, page 34, copyright © 2009 Jon Gutman, publisher: Westholme Publishing, publication date: 2009
(3) Postscript to an undated letter by Ivor Gurney, composer, poet, and soldier in the 2nd 5th Gloucesters. As Gurney was born on August 28, 1890, and a Zeppelin raid struck Chelmsford on August 17, the letter is likely from about August 31, 1915.
War Letters, Ivor Gurney, a selection edited by R.K.R. Thornton by Ivor Gurney, page 39, copyright © J. R. Haines, the Trustee of the Ivor Gurney Estate 1983, publisher: The Hogarth Press, publication date: 1984
(4) Florence Farmborough, an English nurse serving with the Russian Red Cross writing on August 31 (August 18 Old Style), 1916. Whatever success the Russians had enjoyed in the Brusilov Offensive of June and July had ended.
Nurse at the Russian Front, a Diary 1914-18 by Florence Farmborough, page 232, copyright © 1974 by Florence Farmborough, publisher: Constable and Company Limited, publication date: 1974
(5) Edmund Blunden, English writer, recipient of the Military Cross, second lieutenant and adjutant in the Royal Sussex Regiment, left the front of the Third Battle of Ypres to go on leave in London which had suffered bombing attacks from both Zeppelins and Gotha bombers. Hampton Court Palace is on the river Thames, about 12 miles southwest of London. The London Palladium is a theater in central London, opened in 1910, that seats over 2,200.
Undertones of War by Edmund Blunden, pp. 206–207, copyright © the Estate of Edmund Blunden, 1928, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: November 1928
(6) Excerpt from Flying in Flanders, a memoir by Willy Coppens, Belgium's greatest ace in World War I with 37 victories, all but two of the victims observation balloons. Coppens flew a Hanriot HD.1, a French plane used by the Belgian and Italian air services. He was clearly an adroit pilot.
Flying in Flanders by Willy Coppens, page 295, publisher: Ace Books, publication date: 1971
