An Italian postcard of the Industry of War. Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany squeezes gold from France and Belgium, filling sacks of money he provides to his ally Emperor Franz Josef of Austria-Hungary who feeds his guns to fire at Tsar Nicholas of Russia who vomits up troops. On the bottom right, Serbia, Montenegro, and Japan join the battle against Germany and Austria-Hungary. To the left, Great Britain flees to its ships. King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy surveys it all, serenely neutral until May 1915. Germany taxed Belgium and occupied France heavily during its occupation, in money, in food and other necessities, and in human life and labor. Austria-Hungary borrowed heavily from Germany to support its war effort. The enormous manpower of Russia was a source of consolation for its allies, and of trepidation to its enemies. Some suspected Great Britain would take its small army and return to its ships, home, and empire.
Image text: Le Industrie della GuerraThe Industry of War
Turkish machine-gun crews, from 'Four Years Beneath the Crescent' by Rafael De Nogales, Inspector-General of the Turkish Forces in Armenia and Military Governor of Egyptian Sinai during the World War.
Image text: Turkish machine-gunners in action
Stamps of occupied Belgium: German stamps overprinted in black with 'Belgien' and denominations in centimes: 3, 5, 8, 10, 15, 25, and 75.
Image text: 'Belgien' and denominations in centimes: 3, 5, 8, 10, 15, 25, and 75.
A crazed Great Britain urges a broken Russia, a nose-picking, dozing Italy, and a sullen France to continued offensives in a German postcard imagining the November 6, 1917 Entente Ally Conference of Rapallo after the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo. The Battle, also known as the Battle of Caporetto, was a disastrous defeat for Italy and the first Austro-Hungarian offensive on the Isonzo Front. The Austrians had significant German support.
Image text: Entente Konferenz der XII. IsonzoschlachtEntente Conference of the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo
"Today is the Emperor's name day. A thanksgiving service has been held at Our Lady of Kazan. All the court dignitaries, ministers, high officials, and the diplomatic corps have attended in full dress. The public throng the far end of the nave between the two noble rows of columns in pairs.In the dazzling blaze of the candelabra and candles, the glittering of the ikons — one mass of gold and precious stones — the national sanctuary is a superb edifice. Throughout the service the anthems followed each other with a wealth of melody, perfection of execution, breadth and solemnity which attained the highest pitch of religious emotion.Toward the end of the ceremony I singled out Goremykin, the President of the Council, and drawing him behind a pillar I taxed him with the inadequate military support given by Russia to our common cause." ((1), more)
"03.35 hrs. Battalion commander arrives. 'Hurry! Prepare a reconnaissance patrol. The enemy has withdrawn from Anafarta and the entire right flank.' Offer him tea. The patrol is readied. Explain it will move into no-man's-land from the spot where the mine was detonated." ((2), more)
"Whatever procedure may be adopted for the reply to the German notes, we cannot identify our reply with that of the Great Powers. The Belgian point of view is not the same. Our country is almost entirely overrun. On the other hand, the experience of recent offensives shows that the conquest of Belgium by the Allied armies would expose her to total destruction. What judgement would history pronounce on a policy which had been unable to conceive any other means of liberating the country than a war of attrition, bringing in its wake the ruin and depopulation of our finest provinces?" ((3), more)
"— The 19th [December, 1917]. — C— gave me details about the accident at Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne in which 439 men on leave, on their way from Italy, were burnt to death when their train was derailed. Half of them cannot be identified. It has been decided to inform their families that they died 'gloriously' in battle. Compensation for the families and the railway company. The newspapers have preserved a religious silence about the whole incident." ((4), more)
(1) Entry from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia, for Saturday, December 19, 1914. On December 17, Grand Duke Nicholas, commander of the Russian Army, told Paléologue he had to suspend operations because of his heavy losses in troops, and because 'the artillery had used up all its ammunition.' The next day Paléologue wrote, 'I learn this morning that the infantry is short of rifles!' From the Army Chief of Staff at the Ministry of War, Paléologue heard that senior military officials had been misled on the weapons available for the war effort, and learned details of Russian manufacturing inadequacies, of orders placed with Japan and the United States for 1,000,000 rifles, and of the exhaustion of Russian artillery reserves. At the service celebrating Tsar Nicholas II's name day, Paléologue addressed his concerns in the company of the British ambassador to Russia, and the Russian Foreign minister. Ivan Goremykin, Chairman of the Imperial Council of Ministers, weakly defended his country and its Army's Chief of the General Staff.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. I by Maurice Paléologue, pp. 221-224, publisher: George H. Doran Company, publication date: 1925
(2) Last entry from the diary of Turkish Second Lieutenant Mehmed Fasih writing on December 19, 1915 on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Over the course of several days, the British troops had been evacuating their positions at Suvla Bay and Anzac Cove, and had managed to do so without raising suspicions of the Turks. It was the most successful part of their invasion of Gallipoli. Anafarta was the Turkish name for the area of Suvla Bay, the Allied left flank and the Turkish right.
Intimate Voices from the First World War by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, page 143, copyright © 2003 by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, publisher: Harper Collins Publishers, publication date: 2003
(3) Excerpt from a speech by Albert, King of the Belgians, to his ministers on December 19, 1916, in a meeting to discuss their country's response to the German peace proposal of December 12, 1916. Nearly all of Belgium was occupied by German forces. 'Recent offensives' included the German offensive of Verdun and the Anglo-French Battle of the Somme, both of which caused vast destruction for little gain.
The War Diaries of Albert I King of the Belgians by Albert I, page 135, copyright © 1954, publisher: William Kimber
(4) The accident happened on December 12, 1916, just inside France, west of Turin, Italy. The French had been supporting the Italians after their disastrous defeat in the Battle of Caporetto, but the northeastern front was holding and neither French nor British troops needed to be on the Italian front line on the Piave River. The deployment also followed the French army mutinies in which, besides their demand that they no longer be thrown pointlessly into an abattoir, French soldiers also insisted that leave policy be honored. Leave from Italy was particularly knotty because of the transport logistics. In his First World War, Martin Gilbert puts the number of dead in the disaster at 543 soldiers (page 387).
The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, page 302, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934
