Portraits of generals who led Austria-Hungary's armies in 1914, including Dankl, Böhm-Ermolli, Brudermann, and Auffenberg, the generals who led the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Armies against Russia, losing badly, and Oskar Potiorek, who led three failed invasions of Serbia in 1914.
Image text: Zur ewigen Erinnerung an das ereignisreiche Jahr1914Glück und Sieg unseren heldenmütigen Vaterlands-Verteidigern.To the eternal memory of the great year1914Happiness and victory to our heroic defenders of Fatherland.Reverse:Message field postmarked October 6, 1914 to Heinrich Küffel of the K.u.K 13th Landwehr Infantry Regiment.
Illustration of Turkish quarters in the Dardanelles from 'Ambassador Morgenthau's Story' by Henry Morgenthau, American Ambassador to Turkey, 1913 to 1916.
Image text: Turkish quarters at the DardanellesThese dugouts, for the most part, were well protected. The Turks defended their batteries with great heroism and skill
The nacelle or car of an airplane, likely a pusher plane, shot down in Serbia being examined by German officers.
Image text: In Serbien abgeschossenes FlugzeugAn airplane shot down in SerbiaReverse:Herausgegeben von der Ostpreußenhilfe 1915.Der Krieg 1914/16 in PostkartenZ.F. Lehmanns Verlag, München, Paul Heyse=Str.26Edited by the East Prussian Aid 1915.The war 1914/16 in postcardsZ.F. Lehmanns publishing house, Munich, Paul Heyse = Str.26
A crazed Great Britain urges a broken Russia, a nose-picking, dozing Italy, and a sullen France to continued offensives in a German postcard imagining the November 6, 1917 Entente Ally Conference of Rapallo after the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo. The Battle, also known as the Battle of Caporetto, was a disastrous defeat for Italy and the first Austro-Hungarian offensive on the Isonzo Front. The Austrians had significant German support.
Image text: Entente Konferenz der XII. IsonzoschlachtEntente Conference of the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo
"At long last, the war with Serbia seemed to be turning in Austria's favor. Meeting with Regent Alexander and Prime Minister Pasic, General Putnik described the Serbian army's situation as dire, and even mentioned the possibility of a separate peace with the Austrians. The Serbs yielded Valjevo, the main communications hub in western Serbia, on November 15. Potiorek, who had planned to trap and annihilate the Serbs there, nevertheless celebrated in a communiqué that was broadcast across the empire: 'After a violent nine-day battle that followed nine days of marching through mountains, swamps, rain, snow, and cold, the brave troops of the Fifth and Sixth Armies have taken the line of the Kolubara and put the enemy to flight.'" ((1), more)
"18.00 hrs. Heavy rain, driven by violent wind, drenches everything. My dugout is leaking. Would love to see those people who say 'soldiering is easy, the military are overpaid!' spend one night sleeping in the mud. Would they say such things ever again? I don't think so. I'm 21 years old. My hair and beard are already grey. My moustache is white. My face is wrinkled and my body is rotting. I can't bear these hardships and privations any more. Being an Ottoman officer just means putting up with shells and bombs." ((2), more)
"On November 17 the dawn was bright and clear, the white contours of the mountains and the roofs of Monastir standing out sharply in the frozen air. The indomitable Serbs stormed two nameless hills due east of the town while the French and Italians and Russians moved slowly forward from one tiny hamlet to another all that day and most of the night." ((3), more)
". . . the 112th Heavy Artillery found itself in late November en route to the Piave valley (where the Italian retreat had halted a month earlier). Still headquartered in the Champagne, where the regiment had enjoyed a few months of respite after the bitterly contested battles of the summer, the 112th received its marching orders on 12 November and left five days later. The journey was slow—Paul did not arrive in Italy until the first of December—and fraught with logistical difficulties." ((4), more)
(1) Potiorek's communiqué was delivered on November 17, 1914 during his and Austria-Hungary's third invasion of Serbia in 1914. General Oskar Potiorek had served as military governor of Bosnia since 1911 in which role he had been host to Archduke Franz Ferdinand when he was assassinated in Sarajevo. Potiorek had launched his first invasion of Serbia on August 12, and been repelled by the Serbs. His second invasion, begun on September 7, was more successful, and the Austro-Hungarians took and held positions on the Serbian side of the Save and Drina Rivers, part of Serbia's natural defenses. In response, Field Marshall Putnik and his Serbian armies had retreated to a stronger defensive line. Potiorek had 200,000 troops for his third invasion, and the Serbs were driven back, but they were getting closer to their supplies as the Austro-Hungarians were outpacing theirs and suffering from cold, hunger, and the effects of the battles and marches Potiorek speaks of.
A Mad Catastrophe by Geoffrey Wawro, page 320, copyright © 2014 by Geoffrey Wawro, publisher: Basic Books
(2) Turkish Second Lieutenant Mehmed Fasih writing on the Gallipoli Peninsula, November 17, 1915. Some French and British Empire troops had been withdrawn from the Peninsula for deployment to Salonica in a failed attempt to aid Serbia. With fewer troops on the ground, Allied ships had shelled the Turkish positions more heavily.
Intimate Voices from the First World War by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, page 141, copyright © 2003 by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, publisher: Harper Collins Publishers, publication date: 2003
(3) Along the Salonica Front extending across Greece, the Allied French, British, Serbian, Russian, and Italian army faced a Bulgarian army supported by German troops. The liberation of Monastir would be the first significant victory for Serbian forces since their country was occupied the year before.
The Gardeners of Salonika by Alan Palmer, page 90, copyright © 1965 by A. W. Palmer, publisher: Simon and Schuster, publication date: 1965
(4) Martha Hanna's Your Death Would Be Mine is based on the correspondence between Paul Pireaud and his wife Marie. In the summer of 1917, Paul served with the 112th Heavy Artillery Regiment in the Moronvilliers sector northeast of Reims in Champagne. French and British units were sent to support the Italians after the disaster of Caporetto. The Italian retreat finally stopped on the Piave River.
Your Death Would Be Mine; Paul and Marie Pireaud in the Great War by Martha Hanna, page 232, copyright © 2006 by Martha Hanna, publisher: Harvard University Press, publication date: 2006
