Red Cross postcard of Turkish cavalry routing a Russian patrol in the Caucasus. 1914 illustration.
Image text: Türkische Kavallerie schlägt eine russische Patrouille im Kaukasus in die FluchtTurkish cavalry routs a Russian patrol in the Caucasus putting it to flightReverse:Offizielle Karte für Rotes Kreuz, Kriegsfürsorgeamt, Kriegshilfsbüro No. 65Official card for the Red Cross, war welfare office, war aid office no. 65
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.
Weihnachten im Unterstand 1916 (Christmas in the dugout 1916)A well built shelter with stove and chimney, towels drying on a line, a table decorated with greens and three small Christmas trees, two wine bottles.Original Austrian pencil sketch by Karl, 1916. © John M. Shea
Image text: Weihnachten im Unterstand 1916 (Christmas in the dugout 1916)
A Russian Cossack riding among refugees fleeing before a Central Power advance. The Russians adopted a scorched-earth policy in the months-long retreat before the German-Austro-Hungarian Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive of the spring, summer, and fall 1915, with Cossacks accused of burning homes and crops to deny them to the advancing enemy, and to prevent civilians from remaining behind and providing intelligence to the invader.
Image text: Il Cammino della CiviltàThe Path of Civilization
"The morale of the Russians defending Sarikamiş was to be another [crucial factor]. Few in number they might have been, but they were ready to take the fight to the enemy. Before dawn on 26 December [1914], Frontier Guards and railwaymen marched from the town and climbed the road towards the Bardiz Pass. Three hard hours they crossed the col and began the descent towards Kizilkilise; some way below the crest they halted, dispersed, secreted themselves in the snow and brushwood which covered the slopes, and settled down to await the Turks.They were in action by mid-afternoon. Unsure of the numbers which faced them, the Turks deployed into an attacking formation; eventually they managed to threaten the dispersed snipers, who promptly fell back just far enough to repeat the exercise, and continued to do so until dusk fell and they were able to disappear into the gathering darkness. The Turks bivouacked where they were, still ten kilometers short of their objective, to spend their fourth night in the open." ((1), more)
"The butcher's bill for 1914-15 was staggering: more than 2 million Russian, 2.1 million Austro-Hungarian, 1.3 million French, 612 000 German, 279 000 British, and 180 000 Italian men. . . . Few soldiers looked forward to the new year with great expectations." ((2), more)
"On 18 December [1916], the division was relieved, and I rejoined my regiment, now on rest in the village of Fresnoy-le-Grand. There, I took over the command of the 2nd Company from Lieutenant Boje, who had a spell of leave. In Fresnoy, the regiment had four weeks of uninterrupted rest, and everyone tried to make the most of it. Christmas and New Year were marked by company parties, at which the beer and grog flowed. Only five men were left of the 2nd Company with whom I had celebrated Christmas in the trenches at Monchy, a year ago." ((3), more)
"That night not one of us slept; we were very cold and we were afraid. All around us were drunken, unruly men, drunken with freedom as well as with alcohol. Bands of them were passing through Botushany after dark; shouting, singing, swearing their way past our hiding-place — yes, hiding-place. It had come to that; we had to hide, because we were afraid of our own soldiers. As they passed, we would hold our breath and speak in whispers; a sharp tap from Mamasha now and then would remind us that even a whisper was too loud. And more than once, during that black, dreadful night, we heard a peasant-woman's shrill, desperate cry for help." ((4), more)
(1) Turkish War Minister Ismail Enver Pasha planned and took command of a winter assault on the Russians on Turkey's eastern border, a drive on Tiflis (Tbilisi), the Russian Empire's administrative center in the Caucasus, along the rail line from the mountain cities of Sarikamish and Kars. Enver had neither prepared nor supplied his troops for the bitter winter mountain weather they faced, and hundreds froze to death the night of December 26. The Battle of Sarikamish would be a major defeat for the Turks.
Eden to Armageddon: World War I in the Middle East by Roger Ford, page 130, copyright © Roger Ford 2010, publisher: Pegasus Books, publication date: 2010
(2) Holger Herwig's summary of casualties for the war 1914-1915. Serbia suffered as
The First World War: Germany and Austria Hungary 1914-1918 by Holger H. Herwig, page 172, copyright © 1997 Holger H. Herwig, publisher: Arnold, publication date: 1997
(3) German Ensign Ernst Jünger was wounded by shrapnel in September, 1916. During the month he was either in hospital or recuperating, his unit was wiped out in fighting at Guillemont in the Battle of the Somme. After his return in November, he was stationed by the woods of St-Pierre-Vaast, ten kilometers north of Péronne and the Somme River. The night of November 12, he was hit by a sniper's bullet that went through one calf and grazed the other, and spent another two weeks recuperating.
Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger, pp. 118–119, copyright © 1920, 1961, Translation © Michael Hoffman, 2003, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 2003
(4) Excerpt from the entry for December 16 (December 29, Old Style), 1917, covering the last several days, from the diary of Florence Farmborough, an English nurse serving with the Russian Red Cross. Farmborough's unit had been with the Russian Army in Romania when the Bolshevik Revolution brought Vladimir Lenin to power. He had consistently called for an immediate end to the war, and Russia had agreed an armistice on December 15 with the Central Powers. On December 26, Farmborough's unit received orders to make their way to Moscow as best they could. She traveled first to Odessa on the Black Sea before going on to Moscow, finally reaching it after a journey of 13 days.
Nurse at the Russian Front, a Diary 1914-18 by Florence Farmborough, page 363, copyright © 1974 by Florence Farmborough, publisher: Constable and Company Limited, publication date: 1974
