German and Austro-Hungarian forces under the command of generals von Hindenburg and Archduke Friedrich besieged Warsaw, and took it during the Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive. Austrians von Hötzendorf, Friedrich, and Pflanzer-Baltin form the bottom of the ring; the others are German. The flag and shield of Germany are on the bottom left; those of Austria and Hungary the bottom right.
Image text: Der Ring um Warschau, The Ring Encircling Warsaw.Bottom right: 5258; illegible logo bottom leftReverse: registration lines only.
A map of the Russian-Turkish front from Der Weltkrieg 1914-1918, a 1930s German history of the war illustrated with hand-pasted cigarette cards, showing the Turkish Empire in Asia Minor and Mesopotamia, the Mediterranean, Black, and Caspian Seas and the Persian Gulf. To the west is Egypt, a British dominion; to the east Persia. Erzerum in Turkey and Kars in Russia were the great fortresses on the frontier.
Image text: Mittelmeer: Mediterranean SeaSchwarzes M: Black SeaKasp. M.: Caspian SeaKleinasien: Asia MinorTürkei: TurkeyRussland: RussiaMesopot.: MesopotamiaPersien: PersiaAgypten: EgyptKairo: CairoStellungen der: Positions of theTürken Jan. 1915. . .August 1916Russen Mai 1915 . . . Frühjahr 1916Engländer: November 1914 . . . Ende 1917Herbst 1918Positions of theTurks Jan. 1915 . . . August 1916Russians May 1915 . . . spring 1916English: November 1914 . . . the end of 1917autumn 1918
Egypt and Sinai from Cram's 1896 Railway Map of the Turkish Empire.
Image text: Egypt, Penisula of Sinai, Red [Sea], Nubia, Nubain Es Soudan, Gulf of Suez, Suez Canal, Suez
'Street Life, 1916' by Hans Larwin, a native of Vienna and painter of the war on multiple fronts, including the home front. A bread line, chiefly of women, waits along the shopfronts to buy bread. To the left, a policeman stands guard.
Image text: Hans LarwinStraßenbild 1916Street Life, 1916Reverse:Galerie Wiener Künstler Nr. 681.Gallery of Viennese Artists, No. 681.W.R.B. & Co, W. III.
"When Ludendorff detached a number of of divisions from Oberost to support Conrad (a technical device which he hoped would lead to a supreme command of both German and Austrian forces in the east, Falkenhayn promptly formed them into an independent army and ordered Ludendorff himself to report to it as chief-of-staff! Hindenburg was called in to write a personal appeal to the Kaiser for the return of his indispensable aide. A meeting took place at Breslau on 11th January, at which Falkenhayn's suave courtesy made a disagreeable impression '. . . it was all unsatisfactory and pointless, a contest of opinions settled beforehand', wrote Ludendorff in his diary." ((1), more)
"Germany continued to look to anti-war agitation in Russia as a way to lessen the burdens on the Eastern Front, and perhaps to end them altogether. On January 11 more than 10,000 Russian workers went on strike at the Black Sea port and naval base of Nikolayev. Within two weeks the strike spread to Petrograd, where as many as 45,000 dock workers went on strike. Both the Russian discontent with the war and the national aspirations of Russia's subject people stimulated German attention." ((2), more)
"The year 1916 opened with a maritime loss, when a German submarine sank the British troop transport Ivernia off Cape Matapan and 121 troops were drowned. They had been on their way to Egypt, to form part of the force that was pushing the Turks back across the Sinai desert towards Palestine. Nine days later a British force drove the Turks out of the border town of Rafah, taking 1,600 prisoners. The whole of the Sinai Peninsula, hitherto an outpost of the Ottoman Empire, was now under British control." ((3), more)
"More than 2000 women had rioted in Vienna's public market on 11 January; 5 days later 25 000 stood in line at the main meat market. It was not unusual for buyers to line up at markets the night before; many fainted in the process. While the best hotels and butcher shops had beef and port for sale to their regular (and wealthy) clients, the markets in the working-class districts had only horse meat on hand. Butchers there complained bitterly that they were forced to sell at fixed prices. Soup kitchens were besieged by patrons, many of them Landser on leave. Countless 'soldiers in rags' went door to door begging food. The capital's populace, in the words of the police, was on the point of starvation and rebellion." ((4), more)
(1) Generals Paul von Hindenburg and his chief-of-staff Erich Ludendorff, commanding Germany's armies on the Eastern Front, insisted they could win the war by a victory over Russia before turning on the British and French on the Western Front. German Chief of the General Staff Erich von Falkenhayn had already watched German forces sweep across Polish Russia three times and be driven back. He had little faith these great advances and retreats would win the war. Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf was Chief of the Austro-Hungarian General Staff, and Falkenhayn's maneuver would have had Ludendorff reporting to him. Oberost was Oberbefehlshaber der deutschen Streitkräfte im Osten — the Commander in Chief of the German armed forces in the East. Hindenburg and Ludendorff were at the beginning of their campaign against Falkenhayn. They would win it in 1916.
Suicide of the Empires by Alan Clark, page 74, copyright © 1971 by Alan Clark, publisher: American Heritage Press, publication date: 1971
(2) Throughout the war German authorities provided support to revolutionary groups and individuals both inside and outside Russia. Revolutionaries in turn tried to influence workers, soldiers, and sailors in Germany and Austria-Hungary. The Russian navy battled Turkey in the Black Sea. The strike in the capital, Petrograd, on the Baltic, was more threatening to the Russian government and war effort.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 227, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(3) In February, 1915, the British had halted a Turkish offensive on the Suez Canal, and had subsequently begun to build the infrastructure — roads, water — to advance along the coast to Palestine. Allied, primarily British and Dominion forces, were progressing against the southern regions of the Ottoman Empire, both in Sinai and Palestine to Turkey's southwest, and in Mesopotamia to the southeast.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 305, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(4) Food shortages were acute in Austria-Hungary in January, 1918, and a strong impetus for the country to conclude peace with Russia in the negotiations at Brest-Litovsk. Austria-Hungary had not recovered from the loss of its rolling stock in the battles of 1914, Hungary withheld food supplies from the rest of the empire, and the failure to agree treaties prevented transportation of food from the breadbaskets of Russia and Romania. Landser is a colloquial expression for Landwehrmann, the Austrian home or territorial guard.
The First World War: Germany and Austria Hungary 1914-1918 by Holger H. Herwig, pp. 363–364, copyright © 1997 Holger H. Herwig, publisher: Arnold, publication date: 1997
