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
With Bulgaria joining the Central Powers in October 1915 assuring the defeat of Serbia by the end of November, the Balkanzug — the Balkan Railway, shown in red — connected Berlin and Constantinople. By the second week of November, Turkey received ammunition and weapons from its allies.
Image text: Vierbund-TreubundQuadruple Alliance-True AllianceReverse:Message dated February 28, 1916, and postmarked the next day.Logo: ErikaNr. 5448
'December snow.' Hand-painted watercolor calendar for December 1917 by Schima Martos. Particulates from a smoking kerosene lamp overspread the days of December, and are labeled 'December höra,' 'December snow.' The first five days or nights of the month show a couple at, sitting down to, or rising from a lamp-lit table. The rest of the month the nights are dark, other than four in which the quarter of the moon shows through a window, or Christmas, when the couple stands in the light of a Christmas tree.
Image text: December höraDecember snow2½ liter petroleum.
Currency card for the United States, with American coins, currency conversions, and the national flag.
Image text:
"Little by little we edged our trenches forward from the side of the wood toward the road from Servon to Vienne-le-Château. By the end of December we reached the road. From there we could see a broad horizon. In front of us, just beyond the slope where the lines of the enemy trenches became clearly visible against the darker surrounding soil, we could see the belfry of Binarville pointing to the sky. When we wanted to speak of a great struggle or a brilliant offensive, we would not say, 'When we are at Mézieres' or 'at Lille,' but 'When we are at Binarville.' I believe that we are not there yet." ((1), more)
"The enemy was kept well informed of these preparations. Agents attached to the German, Turkish, Bulgarian, and Austrian consulates were to be seen on the quays, complete with notebooks in which to record details of units and their equipment. . . .It was not until German aircraft bombed [Salonika]—aided, so it was alleged, by signals from the consulates—that the French decided to act. The first air raid took place early in the morning of December 30, 1915, killing a Greek shepherd on the outskirts of the city but otherwise causing no casualties and doing little enough damage. But it was enough for Sarrail. At three o'clock in that afternoon French and British detachments entered the four consulates and arrested twenty Austrians, seventeen Turks, twelve Bulgarians and five Germans. Five more 'enemy aliens' were subsequently rounded up in the city. With information obtained from the archives of the consulates, the British and French military police were able to gather in many of the spies from the old quarter of the town. As the German official history says, 'An essential source of information was thus lost.'" ((2), more)
"Two day after the return of the Empress from her visit to Novgorod, in the earliest hours of December 17 (December 31, Western Calendar) was struck the first blow of the 'bloodless' Russian Revolution, the assassination of Rasputine. On the Afternoon of December 16 (December 30) I was sent by the Empress on an errand, entirely non-political, to Rasputine's lodgings. . . . he expected to pay a late evening visit to the Yusupoff Palace to meet Grand Duchess Irene, wife of Prince Felix Yusupoff. Although I knew that Felix had often visited Rasputine it struck me as odd that he should go to their house for the first time at such an unseemly hour." ((3), more)
"When interested folksWax eloquentIn their praisesOf your patriotism,And nobility,And self sacrifice,And other virtues,Carefully countThe contentsOf your pay envelope." ((4), more)
(1) Excerpt from the memoir of French historian Marc Bloch, a sergeant in the 272nd infantry regiment in the line in Champagne. Mézieres, the chief town of the Ardennes, had a population of 9,393. Lille, a major manufacturing center, one of 205,602 (Baedeker's Northern France, 1909), Binarville a few hundred at most.
Memoirs of War 1914-15 by Marc Bloch, page 152, copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988, publisher: Cambridge University Press, publication date: 1988
(2) In October 1915, as neutral Bulgaria signaled its intention to join the Central Powers by mobilizing for war, Eleftherios Venizelos, Prime Minister of neutral Greece, discussed inviting Entente Allies forces to land at Salonika with the French and British ambassadors and with Greek King Constantine. Venizelos favored the Allies; Constantine the Central Powers. Venizelos received the backing of the Greek Parliament, but the King refused to back his Prime Minister even as an Allied fleet entered the Gulf of Salonika. Venizelos resigned. The King threatened to intern British troops in Greece (consistent with Greece's neutral stand), and the Allies replied with threats of their own. This tense and dangerous situation was the background to the arrest and deportation of the Central Power consular staffs. General Sarrail commanded the Allied forces in Greece.
The Gardeners of Salonika by Alan Palmer, pp. 53, 54, copyright © 1965 by A. W. Palmer, publisher: Simon and Schuster, publication date: 1965
(3) Extract from the memoir of Anna Viroubova, confidant to the Empress Alexandra, and one of the few people, other than Rasputin, the Empress associated with. Other conspirators with Felix Yusupoff were Felix's brother, Grand Duke Dimitry, Vladimir Purishkevich, a monarchist and right-wing member of the Russian Duma, and an army doctor Lazovert. The assassination took place the night of December 30–31, New Style, or December 17–18, Old Style, 1916.
Memories of the Russian Court by Anna Viroubova, page 178, copyright © 1923 by The MacMillan Company, publisher: The MacMillan Company, publication date: 1923
(4) Excerpt from 'The Sayings of Patsy' by Bernice Evans, in the New York Call, a Socialist Party newspaper, December 30, 1917. Evans wrote thirteen poems of that name.
World War I and America by A. Scott Berg, page 446, copyright © 2017 by Literary Classics of the United States, publisher: The Library of America, publication date: 2017
