Children dressed as Allied soldiers run to bring the New Year, 1916. France carries the 1, the United Kingdom (in a kilt) and Belgium — his national roundel on his hat — the 9, Serbia and Russia the 1 of the decade, and Italy the 6. Japan, bearing a flag, hurries to catch up. A folding calendar card for 1916 by G. Bertrand.Reverse: the calendar for 1916Inside:With best wishes for a happy Christmas with love from Wallis
Image text: 1916Modèle DéposéP. Racine, Éditeur, ParisFrom . . .Registered DesignP. Racine, Publisher, Paris
Our Joffre, a version of the Lord's Prayer, the Notre Père or Our Father, for French commander Joseph Joffre to bring victory in 1915.
Image text: Notre JoffreQui êtes au feu,Que votre nom soit glorifié, que votre victoire arrive,Que votre volonté soit faite sur la terre comme dans le ciel;Donnez-leur aujourd'hui votre 'pain' quotidien;Redonnez-nous l'offensive, comme vous l'avez donnée à ceux qui les ont enfoncés;Ne nous laissez pas succomber à la teutonisation, mais délivrez-nous les Boches! Ainsi soit-il.75(Un combattant anonyme, pr. c.c.Malatesta 2182.D'après la guerre par l'image.Visé Paris CroissantOur JoffreWho art the fire,So that your name will be glorified, so that your victory will come,Thy will be done on earth as in heaven;Give them today your daily 'bread';Give us back the offensive, as you have given it to those who have driven them back;Do not let us succumb to Teutonisation, but deliver us from the Boches! So be it.75 [the French 75mm field gun](An anonymous fighter, private C.C.Malatesta 2182.After The War in Images.Referred Paris CroissantReverse:Guerre Européenne de 1914-1915.Édition PatriotiqueEuropean War 1914-1915.Patriotic edition
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
Postcard of a September 4, 1916 German air raid on Constanta, Romania's principal port on the Black Sea. Romania had entered the war a week before, invading Transylvania in Austria-Hungary on August 27.
Image text: Deutscher Fleigeranfriff auf Constanza am 4. September 1916.Аеропланно нападние на Ккюстенджа 4. Септември 1916.German air raid on Constanza on 4 September 1916.
Reproduction Sopwith Camel from Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in Rhinebeck, New York. © 2015 John M. Shea
Image text:
Personifications of Alsace and Lorraine in a German postcard. Lorraine looks to France, but Alsace to Germany, a point made by the poem.
Image text: Dass Lothringia schaut nach Frankreich hinDas tritt hier deutlich zu Tage.Alsatia hat einen andren Sinn,Das macht geographische Lage!That Lorraine looks to FranceThis is clearly evident here.Alsatia has another sense,That makes geographical location!
"'The undersigned duly authorized thereto by their respective Governments hereby declare as follows:-'The British, French and Russian Governments mutually engage not to conclude peace separately during the present war. The three Governments agree that when terms of peace come to be discussed, no one of the Allies will demand terms of peace without the previous agreement of each of the other Allies.'" ((1), more)
"(1) The time has come to profit by the adventurous position of the German First Army and concentrate against that Army all the efforts of the Allied Armies of the extreme left.All dispositions will be made during the 5th of September for beginning the attack on the 6th.(2) The following will be the positions to be attained by the evening of the 5th: . . . [positions for the French Sixth, Fifth and Ninth Armies, the First and Second Cavalry Corps, and the British Army follow](3) These various Armies will take the offensive on the morning of the 6th September." ((2), more)
"A new front line was dug in Nomansland in the Cambrin sector. Everywhere assembly trenches were dug behind the support line, and gun-emplacements were dug in it. Stores for bridging trenches, ladders for getting out of them, had to be carried. Large and heavy metal cylinders, slung from a pole, that weighed on the shoulders of two men, were carried from Annequin cross-roads to be dug into the front line. The official name for the content of these cylinders was 'accessory.' It was a crime to call it 'gas.' . . . New batteries rolled in behind us, flung up emplacements in the chalky soil, and registered: all with the barest pretence of secrecy. Troop, train, and wagon movements were unconcealed. There was so much to be seen and sought for by both sides . . . And air activity increased greatly on both sides." ((3), more)
"Mackensen's object, which was to occupy Dubrudja and thus block the Russians from their shortest road to Constantinople, was accomplished in a comparatively short time. One smashing blow after another was delivered against the allied Russians and Rumanians. The bridgehead at Tutrakan on the Danube was attacked on September 4th, and captured on the 6th, at a cost to the enemy of 22,000 men. On the day that Tutrakan fell, a Rumanian division hurrying to the rescue was routed at Sarsinlar by the west wing of Mackensen's army, which subsequently took 30,000 prisoners and much war material." ((4), more)
"Instrument-lighting equipment was installed in the Camels the very next morning. 'Two-gallon petrol tins with the tops cut off, half filled with cotton waste and soaked with paraffin,' were set out to illuminate the aerodrome. And the pilots were told to practise night landings immediately. One of them judged that 'in twenty-four hours the Home Defence squadrons ceased to be looked upon as anything but night fighters.'" ((5), more)
"The enemy assault will continue for some time, but our enemies must themselves see that they will not be able to attain their aim. Our troops are fighting splendidly and I attribute to their courage that such colossal superiority in strength does not crush us.The French fight brilliantly and are bleeding to death. They do not hesitate at any sacrifice. With the English, the individual man is very good and tenacious, but the leadership is deficient. Among the Americans I have found that the majority do not know what they are fighting for. I asked an American prisoner what they were fighting for and he answered, 'For Alsace.' Then to the question, 'Where is Alsace?' he replied, 'It's a big lake,'" ((6), more)
(1) Declaration of the Triple Entente, signed at the Foreign Office at London on September 4, 1914 by French Ambassador, Paul Gambon, Russian Ambassador Count Benckendorff, and British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Edward Grey.
Collected Diplomatic Documents Relating to the Outbreak of the European War, page 264, publisher: His Majesty's Stationery Office by Harrison and Sons, publication date: 1915
(2) Excerpt from French Commander Joffre's General Order of September 4, 1914. Since their defeat in the Battle of the Frontiers, the French and their British allies had been in general retreat from the center of their line at Verdun west to the left wing. As Joffre transferred forces west to strengthen his left, he asked his generals when they would be ready to counter-attack. Newly commanding the French Fifth Army, General Franchet d'Esperey would be ready on September 6.
Military Operations France and Belgium, 1914, Vol. I, August to October by J. E. Edmonds, page 495, copyright © Second Edition 1925, publisher: MacMillan and Co., Limited, publication date: 1925
(3) Captain J.C. Dunn, Medical Officer of the Second Battalion His Majesty's Twenty-Third Foot, The Royal Welch Fusiliers, describing on September 4, 1915 some of the preparations for the Champagne-Loos-Artois Offensive, the great Anglo-French autumn offensive. With the Russians ongoing retreat since the beginning of the German-Austro-Hungarian Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive, Italy's failures in the First and Second Battles of the Isonzo, and French political pressure to drive German forces from occupied territory, French commander Joseph Joffre continued planning for the offensive despite reservations from French and British generals including Noël Édouard de Castelnau and Douglas Haig, who thought the first British use of poison gas might lead to victory.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 146, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
(4) Excerpt from a German statement on the 1916 war in Romania by General Wollman. German General August von Mackensen commanded the Central Powers Danube Army of German, Bulgarian, and Turkish units that struck in Dubrudja. Shaped by the Danube River to the west and north, and the Black Sea to the east, Romania's region of Dubrudja had no natural protection to the south and Bulgaria. Tutrakan was a Danube fortress that Romania had seized from Bulgaria in 1913 in the Second Balkan War. Russia had designs on Constantinople. Although most of Romania including the region of Walachia with the capital of Bucharest fell in 1916, part of the Romanian army continued to fight on in Moldavia in 1917,forming a line with the Russians.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. IV, 1916, pp. 350–351, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
(5) Ten Gotha bombers reached England on August 22, 1917 in a midday raid. Three were shot down near Margate and Dover demonstrating the improvement in Britain's defenses and leading Germany to end daylight raids on the country. On September 3, in the first night raid by the bombers, a single bomb struck the glass-roofed drill hall at the Chatham Naval Barracks at 11:12 PM, killing 131 recruits and wounding 90 more, much of the mayhem from the flying glass. Of five bombers that had set out, four reached England and safely returned. The rushed British attempt on September 4 to establish night defenses did not stop five Gotha's that followed the Thames River that night, until reaching London where, in Oberleutnant (first lieutenant) Richard Walter's account, 'Tens of thousands of lights suddenly emerged out of the darkness, and looking straight down, every street is clearly discernible.' The attack killed 19 and injured 71. Britain's Sopwith Camel was one of the war's best fighter planes, though one that was tricky to handle.
The Sky on Fire by Raymond H. Fredette by Raymond H. Fredette, page 123, copyright © 1966, 1976, 1991 by Raymond H. Fredette, publisher: Smithsonian Institution Press, publication date: 1991
(6) September 4, 1918 statement given to newspapers by German Crown Prince Frederick William who already knew from German commander Erich Ludendorff that the war was lost.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. VI, 1918, p. 303, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
