Photograph of the Russian monk Grigory Rasputin from The War of the Nations Portfolio in Rotogravure Etchings Compiled from the Mid-Week Pictorial. Tsar Nicholas of Russia and his wife were introduced to Rasputin in 1907. According to Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia, Rasputin, 'wheedled them, dazzled them, dominated them.'
Image text: Gregory Rasputin, the charlatan who was the evil genius of the Russian Court and was assassinated in December, 1916.
Postwar postcard map of the Balkans including Albania, newly-created Yugoslavia, expanded Romania, and diminished former Central Powers Bulgaria and Turkey. The first acquisitions of Greece in its war against Turkey are seen in Europe where it advanced almost to Constantinople, in the Aegean Islands from Samos to Rhodes, and on the Turkish mainland from its base in Smyrna. The Greco-Turkish war was fought from May 1919 to 1922. The positions shown held from the war's beginning to the summer of 1920 when Greece advanced eastward. Newly independent Hungary and Ukraine appear in the northwest and northeast.
Image text: Péninsule des BalkansÉchelle 1:12.000.000Petit Atlas de Poche Universel25 Édition Jeheber GenèveReverse:No. 20 Édition Jeheber, Genève (Suisse)BalkansRoumanie(Royaume.)Superficie . . . 290 000 sq. km.Population . . . 16 000 000 hab. (50 par sq. km.Capitale: Bucarest . . . 338 000 hab.Bulgarie(Royaume.)Superficie . . . 100 000 sq. km.Population . . . 4 000 000 hab. (40 par sq. km.)Capitale: Sofia . . . 103 000 hab.Grèce(Royaume. Capitale: Athènes.)En Europe (y compris la Crète et les iles) 200 000 sq. km. 6 000 000 hab. 30 p. sq. km.En Asie mineure . . . 30 000 sq. km 1 300 000 hab. 43 p. sq. km.Total 230 000 sq. km. 7 300 000 hab. 32 p. sq. km.Ville de plus de 50 000 habitants:Smyrne (Asie) . . . 350 000 hab.Athènes . . . 175 000 hab.Salonique . . . 150 000Andrinople . . . 70 000 hab.Pirée . . . 70 000 hab.Turquie d'Europe(Empire Ottoman.)Superficie . . . 2 000 sq. km.Population . . . 1 100 000 550 par sq. km.Capitale: Constantinople 1 000 000 hab.AlbanieSuperficie . . . 30 000 sq. km.Population . . . 800 000 hab. (27 par sq. km.)Villes: Scutari . . . 30 000 hab.Durazzo . . . 5 000 hab.YougoslavieVoir le tableau des statisques de ce pays, ainsi que la carte de la partie occidentale de la Yougoslavie, sur la carte d'Italie.Inst. Géog. Kummerly & Frey, Berne.Balkan PeninsulaScale 1: 12,000,000Little Univeral Pocket AtlasRoyaume - KingdomSuperficie - AreaEn Europe (y compris la Crète et les iles) - In Europe (including Crete and the islands)En Asie mineure - In Asia MinorYugoslaviaSee the table of statistics of this country, as well as the map of the western part of Yugoslavia, on the map of Italy.
Greetings from Austro-Hungarian Landsturm Battalion 171. A pencil sketch of the sun rising between mountains and over a forested hill, dated October 14, 1916, postmarked two days later. In the center an oak-leaf crown of victory above the Hapsburg flag encircles the battalion identifier. The year before the drawing, the battalion had been in the Sugana Valley (Valsugana), Trentino, in the Alps.
Image text: LBi 17114.10.1916
A French soldier wearing the uniform of 1914/1915 stands by the side of a water-filled shell crater.
Image text: Reverse:R. Guilleminot, Bœspnug et Cie. - Paris
King Albert of Belgium decorates Willy Coppens, Belgium's Ace of Aces. Coppens describes this June 30, 1918 ceremony, in which he was awarded the Ordre de la Couronne in his memoir Flying in Flanders.
Image text: Caption: Le Roi décore l'As Belge Coppens. - Le Roi le félicite. (The King [Albert] decorates the Belgian Ace Coppens. The King congratulates him.)Reverse:Carte PostaleService photographique de l'armée Belge.Phot. Belge, r. Ma Campagne, 30, BruxLogo PhoB
"In Moscow, however, there is some uneasiness owing to the rumours coming from Petrograd. The Empress and those about her are suspected of carrying on a secret correspondence with Germany; this suspicion extends to the Grand Duchess Elizabeth, the Empress's sister, abbess of the Convent of Martha and Mary in Moscow, who spends her life in good works. The Emperor's weakness with the Empress, Vyrubova, and Rasputin comes in for severe criticism. On the other hand, the popularity of the Grand Duke Nicholas increases every day." ((1), more)
"Bulgaria threw off the mask of neutrality on October 11th [1915], declaring war against Serbia on the pretext that the Serbians had crossed the frontier and attacked Bulgarian troops. An army of 200,000 under General Boyadjieff, occupied a line along the frontier from Viden to Zaribrod, threatening the Belgrade-Sofia Railroad. A second army, 100,000 strong, under Gen. Teodoroff, faced toward Macedonia, with the railroad center of Uskub as its main objective. By seizing Uskub, they would be able to drive a wedge into Serbia from east to west and close the natural path of retreat.Opposing these great armies on the Eastern frontier, Serbia had a force of 100,000 men." ((2), more)
". . . on Saturday of the following week (October 14) the Allies attacked again. It was a ghastly shambles. Meeting uncut wire, the French and Russians came to a halt and, as they tried to hack their way through, the Bulgarian machine guns opened up on them. In one afternoon the French lost nearly 1,500 men and the Russians 600. And still the Bulgarian lines remained inviolate. On the extreme right of the valley, the burning village of Brod showed that the Serbs, at any rate, had fulfilled their mission." ((3), more)
"One man left the front line wounded slightly at dusk on the 12th and on the morning of the 13th was discovered stuck fast in a shell hole a few yards from where he started. Repeated efforts were made to get him out with spades, ropes etc. At one time 16 men were working at once under enemy view. But he had to be left there when the Battalion was relieved on the night 13th/14th." ((4), more)
"At 5 A.M., it was too dark to leave the ground. The sky was overcast and a damp mist lay across Flanders. Our aeroplanes were brought out, but were almost invisible in the half-light. At 5:30 A.M., the preliminary artillery bombardment opened with terrible intensity in the east, where a red glow now heralded the day.I thought of Alfred Mouton's remark, and said to Kervyn de Meerendré, who was standing by my side: 'Is this what they call the end of the War?' Never had the guns fired so fiercely in our sector.At 5:35 A.M., Gusto de Mévius came from the office and handed me a telephoned appeal from our artillery asking for the Thourout balloon to be destroyed. The observer in this balloon, it appeared, was directing the enemy's batteries on to our own, and seriously interfering with our preparation." ((5), more)
(1) Entry from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia, for Wednesday, October 14, 1914, recounting his discussion with a Jewish businessman from Odessa whose 'intelligence and sagacity' struck the Ambassador. The Tsaritsa, Empress Alexandra, was German. Her son, heir to the throne, was a hemophiliac, a condition he shared with many on his mother's side. Tsar Nicholas and his wife were introduced to the monk Rasputin in 1907, and Paléologue earlier (September 28, 1914) reported that 'Rasputin obtained an extraordinary ascendancy over the Tsar and Tsaritsa,' in part because the empress believed the monk had healed her son. Anna Vyrubova was lady-in-waiting, confidant, and friend to Empress Alexandra. Grand Duke Nicholas was Army Chief of Staff until 1915. (Elipsis in the original.)
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. I by Maurice Paléologue, page 168, publisher: George H. Doran Company, publication date: 1925
(2) In September 1915, Bulgaria's two armies were positioned along its border with Serbia. Tenaciously battling the German and Austro-Hungarian forces that had invaded the country on October 6 and seized the capital of Belgrade the next day, Serbia had approximately 100,000 troops to defend its eastern border. By October 14, Bulgarian forces invaded Serbia, threatening not only the Serbian government that had fled to Nish, but more importantly the rail line from Serbia to Greece and the potential for men and supplies from the Anglo-British forces that had recently landed at Salonika. From Belgrade, the railway ran to Nish, where one branch forked east to Sofia, capital of Bulgaria, and the other continued south to Uskub.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 187, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
(3) The Allies attacked on the Salonica Front in September and October, 1916 in attempts to aid Romania which was falling back before Central Power armies. The Allied army, commanded by French General Maurice Sarrail, included French, British, Russian, and Serbian troops. The offensive would not save Romania.
The Gardeners of Salonika by Alan Palmer, page 86, copyright © 1965 by A. W. Palmer, publisher: Simon and Schuster, publication date: 1965
(4) The commander of the 7 Seaforth Highlanders on a soldier slightly wounded in the October 12, 1917 First Battle of Passchendaele, an action in the Third Battle of Ypres. Artillery bombardments destroyed terrain, turning farmland, irrigation channels, and rain to shellholes, mud, and deadly pools.
Passchendaele The Untold Story by Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson, page 169, copyright © 1996 Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2002
(5) Excerpt from the memoir of Willy Coppens describing the morning of October 14, 1918 on which the Belgian Army Group, under the command of Albert, King of the Belgians, resumed the offensive in Flanders. The day before, Coppens met Alfred Mouton, another Belgian pilot who had told Coppens he was lucky as the war would 'be over in a day or two and you will have come through unscratched.' After downing an observation balloon over Praet-Bosch at 6:00 AM, his thirty-sixth victory, Coppens was seriously wounded by an incendiary bullet through his left shin in the course of downing a second balloon over Thourout. He made it back to the Belgian lines and began a months-long convalescence that included multiple surgeries, the loss of his leg, and life threatening infections.
Flying in Flanders by Willy Coppens, page 227, publisher: Ace Books, publication date: 1971
