French postcard celebrating the Allied victory at the Battle of the Marne with the Kaiser tumbling in the river, Germans (in green) fleeing. The French in blue and red advance and tend to German wounded. The British, France's ally, advance in the distance.
Image text: Caption:Dans un élan magnifique, les armées allemandes on passé deux fois la Marne. Tout va bien. Les troupes sont fraîches. (Agence Wolff)With magnificent élan, the German armies have crossed the Marne twice. All is well. The troops are fresh. (Wolff Agency)Signs and text:On demande couturière pour recoudre les bochesVoulez vous que j’écrive a vos parents?Poudres sèches pour la guerre future 1873Sucre pastilles caramelleBaton provisoire de maréchalWe need a seamstress to mend the BocheYou want me to write to your parents?Dry powder for future war 1873Caramel sugar lozengesMarshal’s provisional batonReverse:"Artistic Caricatures" (1re Série de 6 cartes)
A Swiss postcard of 'The European War' in 1914. The Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary face enemies to the east, west, and south. Germany is fighting the war it tried to avoid, battling Russia to the east and France to the west. Germany had also hoped to avoid fighting England which came to the aid of neutral (and prostrate) Belgium, and straddles the Channel. Austria-Hungary also fights on two fronts, against Russia to the east and Serbia and Montenegro to the south. Italy, the third member of the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary, declared neutrality, and looks on. Other neutral nations include Spain, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania. Japan enters from the east to battle Germany. The German Fleet stays close to port in the North and Baltic Seas while a German Zeppelin targets England. The Austro-Hungarian Fleet keeps watch in the Adriatic. Turkey is not represented, and entered the war at the end of October, 1914; Italy in late May, 1915.
Image text: Der Europäische KriegThe European WarReverse:Kriegskarte No. 61. Verlag K. Essig, BaselKunstanstalt (Art Institute) Frobenius A.G. Basel
A Turkish funeral with Turkish and German soldiers and officers attending and praying. Is this a young Mustapha Kemal praying?
Image text: Türk[isches] BegräbnisTurkish funeral
Map showing the territorial gains (darker shades) of Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece, primarily at the expense of Turkey, agreed in the Treaty of Bucharest following the Second Balkan War. Despite its gains, Bulgaria also lost territory to both Romania and Turkey.
Image text: The Balkan States According to the Treaty of Bucharest; Acquisitions of New Territory shown by darker shades
Bulgarian and German soldiers with a Skoda mountain gun on the Balkan Front.
Image text:
The disparity in the number of nations arrayed against the Central Powers was a common motif, and was updated as the numbers on each side increased. Italy's entry into the war on May 23, 1915 changed the numbers again.Central Powers (top) Sultan Mohammed V of Turkey, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, Kaiser Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary. Allies (center and bottom rows) Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, King George V of the United Kingdom, President Raymond Poincaré of France, King Nikola of Montenegro, King Peter of Serbia, King Victor Emmanuel of Italy, King Albert I of Belgium, Emperor Taishō of Japan.In the center, a poem: Drei gegen Acht, Three against Eight.
Image text: Drei gegen Acht.Gebt Acht, Ihr “Acht”, es blitzt und krachtund schlägt manch’ schwere Lücke.Jung-Siegfrieds Schwert schlug unversehrtDen Ambosz einst in Stücke.Und Treue, Mut und EinigkeitGeb’ uns zum Siege das Geleit.- Richard OttThree against eightTake heed, your "night" flashes and crashesAnd suggests some serious gap.Young Siegfried's sword split the anvilYet stayed intact.And loyalty, courage and unityWill lead us to victory.Reverse:Postmarked Frankfurt, July 21, 1915
". . . under extremely violent fire from heavy artillery and machine guns, we advanced a few kilometers — at least three or four — from ten in the morning until six at night. Our losses were severe; my company alone, which was certainly not the worst hit, suffered almost one-third casualties. If my memory is correct, the time did not seem long; indeed, those dreadful hours must have passed fairly quickly. We advanced on an undulating field, at first dotted with clumps of trees, then completely bare. I recall that while crossing a hedge, I sharply questioned a man who had stopped. He answered, 'I've been wounded.' In fact, though he had not actually been hit, he had been stunned by the blast of a shell. He was the first to be hurt. Farther on I noticed the first body, a corporal who did not belong to our regiment. He lay on a slope all rigid with his face down, while around him were scattered some potatoes that had escaped from his camp kettle, which had opened as he fell. Machine gun bullets rustled through the branches like swarms of wasps. The heavy detonations of the shells shook the air, followed by the chorus of bursts that accompanied each explosion. The shrapnel shell, in particular, vibrates gently while tumbling through the air, only to stop abruptly at the end of its fall. How many of those murderous melodies did I hear on that day! I hunched my head between my shoulders, awaiting the silence and perhaps the fatal blow." ((1), more)
"At that time the farmers were harvesting the hops. One day one of our bosses had the bright idea of issuing an order at roll call authorizing us to help harvest the hops that afternoon . . .To win the favor of the Flemish girls, the young poilus posted themselves alongside them and helped them to fill their sacks. And these young people, careless as they have always been and always will be, sang, laughed, flirted, and embraced, indifferent to the dull roar of cannon fire which sounded over toward Ypres." ((2), more)
"Conflicting versions began to reach us. It was said that large forces of Turkish soldiers had broken through our right flank and were swarming across the countryside, killing everything in their way. We heard alas! too, that it was our 103rd Regiment which had been forced out of their trenches and driven backwards. We had received no orders, so were obliged to remain where we were. In about three hours' time we noted that the great wave of movement on the road had dwindled into small, fitful groups. Soon news was brought that the Turkestanski Division had swept up in the nick of time, suppressed the enemy encroachment and reoccupied our trenches. A feeling of great thankfulness spread among us; we smiled and chatted cheerfully again. The Retreat was at an end!" ((3), more)
"On the night of 10–11 September [1917], several parties of engineers from the 1st ID were sent out with wire cutters. They succeeded in opening only one hole of about 20 meters. When the infantry attacked the next morning, the first wave was able to penetrate the gap. But then the men encountered additional barriers and enemy machine guns. Virtually all were either killed or wounded. . . . The final attempt to take Cireşoaia was a needless and costly failure. Casualties for the Romanians in two days exceeded 1,200 killed, wounded, or missing." ((4), more)
"'The British Government,' Guillaumat was informed, 'give their consent to the proposal so far as it concerns them and the British troops.' It was all he wanted.There were still the Italians to consult. As soon as Guillaumat returned to Paris, he was off again, this time on the Rome Express. Franchet d'Esperey was becoming anxious. All was ready and further delay might prove disastrous: the enemy could discover what was afoot, and there was the risk of the weather breaking. To make his position clear, d'Esperey even sent a staff officer by plane to Rome to insure that Guillaumat understood the situation. He need not have worried. Guillaumat took the Italians by storm, as he had taken 10 Downing Street; they gave their consent.Triumphantly Franchet d'Esperey made a laconic entry in his diary: 'Tuesday, September 10. I receive from Clemenceau authority to commence operations when I judge it suitable. Artillery fire to open September 14. D. Day [Jour J]: 15 September.'" ((5), more)
"Marshal Foch's plan entailed the direct participation in favourable conditions of nearly the entire Belgian Army in an important phase of the general offensive. The Sovereign gave his consent when the Marshal came to La Panne on the 9th September to offer him, in agreement with Sir Douglas Haig, command of a combined force in which the preponderant role would be reserved to our troops. The constitution of the 'Flanders Army Group' was decided—it would include the Belgian Army and the Second British Army. The French Army would be represented by the 7th Corps of three divisions and the 2nd Cavalry Corps, as well as important reinforcements of artillery.On the following day, the 10th, at the Château de Bombom, the Marshal's residence, the King signified his approval and accepted as Major-General General Degoutte, who had distinguished himself at the head of the Sixth French Army." ((6), more)
(1) French historian Marc Bloch remembering his platoon's advance on September 10, 1914 in the Battle of the Marne. The previous day he had crossed the Marne heading southwest in what seemed like a resumption of the Allied retreat that had taken his regiment 'from the border of Belgian Luxembourg to the Marne.' He and his men would instead advance northwards from Perthes pursuing the retreating Germans.
Memoirs of War 1914-15 by Marc Bloch, pp. 89, 90, copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988, publisher: Cambridge University Press, publication date: 1988
(2) Excerpt from the Notebooks of French Infantry Corporal Louis Barthas from around September 10, 1915. His unit had deployed to Flanders near the village of Oost-Cappel, on the Franco-Belgian border. Barthas, 'an old papa,' helped two old people with their harvest, 'a pretty meager one even counting the few sous which my help added to their earnings.'
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, pp. 104, 105, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
(3) Excerpt from the diary of Florence Farmborough, an English nurse serving with the Russian Red Cross, writing on September 10 (August 28 Old Style), 1916. The advance of Russia's Brusilov Offensive was nearly at its limit, with intermittent advances at its southern end. At this time, Turkish troops were deployed to Europe both against Russia and as part of Mackensen's army invading Romania. German General Liman von Sanders had advised Turkish War Minister Enver Pasha against sending any of his troops to fight in Europe when they were needed in the Caucasus Mountains, where the Turks were fighting the Russians, and in Mesopotamia and Palestine, where they were battling the British.
Nurse at the Russian Front, a Diary 1914-18 by Florence Farmborough, page 236, copyright © 1974 by Florence Farmborough, publisher: Constable and Company Limited, publication date: 1974
(4) A Romanian offensive, the Battle of Cireşoaia on September 9, 10, and 11, 1917 was an attempt to take advantage of the transfer of German and Austro-Hungarian troops from the Romanian front in Moldavia in a sector that had seen the Austro-German offensive at Oituz in early August. It would be the last Romanian offensive for more than a year.
The Romanian Battlefront in World War I by Glenn E. Torrey, pp. 252–253, copyright © 2011 by the University Press of Kansas, publisher: University Press of Kansas, publication date: 2011
(5) French general Adolphe Guillaumat commanded Allied forces — French, British, Italian, and Serbian — on the Balkan Front from December 1917 until his replacement by General Louis Franchet d'Esperey in June, 1918. During his tenure, Guillaumat laid the groundwork for the offensive d'Esperey would execute and could argue strongly and knowledgeably for it. French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau had sent Franchet d'Esperey to the Balkans, scapegoat for the French failure in the Aisne (Blücher) Offensive.
The Gardeners of Salonika by Alan Palmer, page 198, copyright © 1965 by A. W. Palmer, publisher: Simon and Schuster, publication date: 1965
(6) Allied Commander-in-Chief Ferdinand Foch was preparing for offensives along the Western Front, from the North Sea to Verdun, all to launch at the end of September, 1918. Albert, King of the Belgians, would command the Flanders Army Group described, Douglas Haig the British forces, incorporating some American units. Henri Philippe Pétain commanded the French forces, still including some American units, and John J. Pershing the American First Army.
The War Diaries of Albert I King of the Belgians by Albert I, pp. 221–222, copyright © 1954, publisher: William Kimber
