Postcard of the ships of the German South Seas Squadron, commanded by Vice-Admiral Graf von Spee: S.M.S. Nürnberg, Leipzig, Scharnhorst, Dresden, and Gneisenau.
Image text: Das Deutsche Südsee-Geschwader.Graf v. Spee, Vice-Admiral.S.M.S. NürnbergS.M.S. LeipzigS.M.S. ScharnhorstS.M.S. DresdenS.M.S. GneisenauThe German South Sea Squadron.[S.M.S. - Seiner Majestäts Schiff - His Majesty's Ship]A 142
Chosen Boy, a 1918 watercolor by Paul Klee. From Paul Klee: Early and Late Years: 1894-1940. © 2013 Moeller Fine Art
Image text:
'Warmest regards from the Somme . . . ' from Robert Künger, September 21, 1916, presumably pictured with his machine gun crew. Translation couresy of Thomas Faust, ebay's Urfaust.
Image text: 'Warmest regards from the Somme . . . ' from Robert Künger, September 21, 1916. Translation couresy of Thomas Faust, ebay's Urfaust.
A large German bomber, capable of bombing England. The plane is powered by two engines, and holds a crew of three with a pilot and front and rear gunners. The plane is likely a Gotha bomber, originally built by Gothaer Waggonfabrik, then built under license by Siemens-Schukert Werke and Luft-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft (LVG). Note the ground crew pushing on the lower wing and the men holding the tail up as the plane is moved backwards. Sanke postcard number 1040.
Image text: Deutsches Riesen-Flugzeug(Englandflieger)1040Postkartenvertrieb W. SankeBerlin No. 37Nachdruck wird gerichtlich verfolgtGerman giant aircraft(England flyer)1040Postcard distributor W. SankeBerlin No. 37Reproduction will be prosecuted
A squadron of the German Imperial Navy under the eye of a Zeppelin off the North Sea island and port of Helgoland.
Image text: Deutscher Geschwader vor HelgolandGerman squadron off HeligolandLogo, bottom left: M Dieterle, Kielbottom right: PH 125Handwritten: 1915Reverse:Verlag: M Dieterle, Kiel.
"At 7 o'clock the sun set, and Spee, having now every advantage of light, opened fire at 12,000 yards. The Good Hope in reply made a hit or two, but her forward 9.2 gun was soon knocked out, and the ship was on fire. The Monmouth was also burning within three minutes. The Glasgow was engaged by both the Leipzig and the Dresden, but was saved by the German smoke which drifted towards her. With the sunset glow behind them, our ships were a fair target, while the British gunners could no longer see anything but the flash of the enemy's guns. Both the Good Hope and the Monmouth were continually on fire, and at 7.45 the flagship blew up with an explosion which sent up flames 200 feet high. By 8 o'clock the Monmouth too was silenced and sinking in the heavy sea; as the moon rose the German ships could just be seen closing on her." ((1), more)
" — During the last few years a prominent manufacturer in the Rue d'Avron has been loudly complaining of German competition declaring that it could not last, that we must have a war without delay. He had four sons. The war broke out. Three sons were killed, the fourth was carefully posted ten miles behind the line. But even there a shell reached him and killed him. His father and mother have committed suicide. — An echo of the attack of the 25th September. A colonel received the order to attack. He noticed that the artillery had not made adequate preparations, that his regiment would simply be massacred. He telephoned to H.Q., which replied : 'It is not your business to argue about your orders, but to carry them out.' The colonel went over the top alone and was killed." ((2), more)
"At nine in the morning on November 1, the order was given to go forth from the trenches. There was a moment of hesitation, but on our left the 125th Regiment went out with élan and swept right over the first German line.Seeing that they were being outflanked by the 125th Regiment, the Germans came out of their holes with arms raised, calling out 'Comrades! Comrades!' This word is now known in all languages.Their obliging machine gunners carried their murderous machines across their shoulders." ((3), more)
"[Hauptman Rudolph] Kleine launched his first incendiary raid on the evening of 31 October [1917] with twenty-two Gothas. They were loaded with over six tons of bombs, nearly half of them incendiaries. A departure schedule was worked out to stagger the take-off over a period of almost three hours. The attack plan called for a stream of bombers to reach the south-east coast at Deal. From there, they were to fly across Kent and approach London from the south, thereby avoiding the heavy defences to the east. Because of rising winds over the Channel and low clouds over Kent, this route proved to be a mistake." ((4), more)
"[Admiral Hipper's] tragic hesitation at the moment of greatest danger is apparent in his inept handling of the men and his total misjudgment of the situation. Although by November 1 it was obvious that the men were out of control, Hipper informed Scheer at the Seekriegsleitung that he saw no reason why the situation should be viewed pessimistically. Aghast at this calm amidst the disaster that was overtaking the fleet, the Seekriegsleitung curtly replied, 'We cannot concur with this view. It has been established that a military operation has been ruined by the illegal will of [certain] elements within the crews.' . . .Totally lacking in defensive measures, Kiel lay at the mercy of the rebellious sailors and stokers of the Third Squadron who, from the moment they landed in the city, were determined not to allow their recently arrested comrades to be martyred. . . . At a meeting on November 1 at the Trade Union Hall attended by 250 men from the Third Squadron, it was decided to form a committee to negotiate the prisoners' immediate release. At the same time it was agreed to convene another meeting for the following day in the event that those demands were not met." ((5), more)
(1) On November 1, 1914, a British squadron under Rear-Admiral Craddock encountered German Vice-Admiral von Spee's East Asiatic Squadron, which had sailed from Tsingtao, China, off the coast of Chile in the Battle of Coronel. The five German ships and crews outmatched the four British ships: Monmouth, Good Hope, Otranto, and Glasgow. The British Admiralty expected Craddock to go into battle with Canopus, an older, slower, more heavily armored battleship with guns superior to those of the German battleships. Inexplicably he did not. All hands, including Craddock, were lost on the two sunken British ships.
Days To Remember: The British Empire in the Great War by John Buchan and Herny Newbolt , page 131, publisher: Thomas Nelson and Sons, Ltd., publication date: 1922
(2) Entries for November 7, 1915 from the diary of Michel Corday, a senior civil servant in the French government. The attack of September 25, 1915 was the Champagne-Artois Offensive, French Commander Joseph Joffre's great offensive in the autumn of 1915. The offensive failed.
The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, page 116, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934
(3) Excerpt from the notebooks of French Infantry Corporal Louis Barthas, writing of a November 1, 1916 attack by his 296th Infantry Regiment in conjunction with the 125th IR in the Battle of the Somme. The attack was near Combles. The English were on the left of the 125th Infantry Regiment.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, pp. 273–274, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
(4) The Gotha bomber attack the night of October 31-November 1, 1917 was intended to strike London, but many of the planes never reached the city, dropping their bombs on Kent on England's coast south of the Thames. Many of the incendiary bombs failed to ignite, but 11 were killed, including one from British shrapnel.
The Sky on Fire by Raymond H. Fredette by Raymond H. Fredette, page 162, copyright © 1966, 1976, 1991 by Raymond H. Fredette, publisher: Smithsonian Institution Press, publication date: 1991
(5) At the end of October 1918, with Germany clearly losing the war, German admirals and other naval officers planned a suicidal attack by the High Seas Fleet on the Royal Navy, the 'military operation' referred to in the first paragraph, itself an illegal mutiny by the naval officer corps. The men who 'ruined' the plan were sailors and coal stokers who refused to go ahead with the mission. Many of them were arrested and transported from the North Sea port of Cuxhaven to the Baltic port of Kiel. The Seekriegsleitung was the Maritime Warfare Command, formed in August 1918, and headed by Admiral Reinhard Scheer, the Chief of the German Admiralty Staff. He had commanded the German High Seas Fleet in the Battle of Jutland where Rear Admiral Franz Hipper had commanded a smaller battle squadron.
German Naval Mutinies of World War One by Daniel Horn, pp. 226, 236, copyright © 1969 by Rutgers University, The State University of New Jersey, publisher: Rutgers University Press, publication date: 1969
