Mounted backwards on an ass, a bellicose Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph is borne away from Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. Austria-Hungary invaded Serbia three times in 1914. At the end of the year, the Serbians had driven them out at great cost to the invaders. Signed MT.
Image text: Via per BelgradoRoute to BelgradeMT.Reverse:LogoDepose
A folding postcard from a pencil sketch of an unsuccessful Allied gas attack in Flanders.
Image text: Erfolgloser feindlicher Gasangriff in FlandernUnsuccessful enemy gas attack in FlandersOutside:FeldpostkarteNachdruck verboten.Field postcardReproduction prohibited.
1898 map of St. Petersburg, the Russian capital, from a German atlas. Central St Petersburg, or Petrograd, is on the Neva River. Key landmarks include the Peter and Paul Fortress, which served as a prison, Nevski Prospect, a primary boulevard south of the Fortress, the Finland Train Station, east of the Fortress, where Lenin made his triumphal return, the Tauride (Taurisches) Palace, which housed the Duma and later the Petrograd Soviet.
Image text: St Petersburg (Petrograd); Neva River, Peter and Paul Fortress; Nevski Prospect, Finland Bahnhof (Train Station); Taurisches (Tauride) Palace
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
"One Austro-Hungarian soldier's diary reads: 'We could not even have imagined that the Serbs were on our heels, after all we have recently been victorious' (9 December 1914); 'Toppled field kitchens, wagons knocked over . . ., dead horses in ditches, all over the place discarded goods, clothes, harnesses, tins, barrels' (10 December)" ((1), more)
"If a whiff of gas you smell,Bang your gong like bloody hell,On with your googly, up with your gun—Ready to meet the bloody Hun." ((2), more)
"'In the second half of November,' wrote Protopopov shortly before his death, 'the workers' movement began to crystallize. Strikes broke out sporadically in different areas of the city . . . We had to plan a campaign that would suppress the workers' movement should it flare up violently and begin to spread.' . . . While a detailed plan was being worked out to bring in troops with machine guns to assist the Petrograd police, the minister of the interior was intensifying his campaign against the Union of Zemstvos and Union of Towns as well as against cooperative and civic organizations." ((3), more)
"General Pétain is not satisfied with the general situation; it has never been worse.He believes the Italians will not hold if strong pressure is brought to bear on their left flank.He declares that the British Army is very tired; that the British Command will not agree to relieving the Third French Army; that the French armies drawn out on a 360-mile front run the risk of being broken if they are suddenly subjected to a large-scale attack. The depots are bare—except for the new class and a few men who are reported fit again. The morale of the troops is good, but they are incapable of large and sustained effort....The General deplores the inefficiency of the British Command. The troops are excellent but they have been clumsily used.The Americans lack discipline and experience. Their baptism of fire will probably cost them dear.In conclusion, the General considers that the moment is not ripe for making peace, but if the enemy in a few months' time makes any proposals he thinks that they should be carefully examined." ((4), more)
(1) In his third and largest invasion of Serbia in 1914, Austro-Hungarian General Oskar Potiorek had driven his men mercilessly, as the Serbian army retreated before them. The invaders outran their supply lines and the Serbs fell back towards theirs. Potiorek had finally allowed his men some rest at the end of November, even as the Serbs received supplies, most critically artillery shells, from their French allies. Sure of victory, the Austro-Hungarians collapsed when the Serbs launched their counter-attack on December 3, and retreated in panic.
Serbia's Great War 1914-1918 by Andrej Mitrovic, page 72, copyright © Andrej Mitrovic, 2007, publisher: Purdue University Press, publication date: 2007
(2) Trench wisdom found by C. S. Owen, commander of a Royal West Kent battalion, at one of his unit's sentry posts. Owen copied and sent it to his commanding officers, recommending it as a 'model of concise Order that men could understand and remember.' The doggerel is recorded in the entry for December 10, 1915 from the writings — diaries, letters, and memoirs — of Captain J.C. Dunn, Medical Officer of the Second Battalion His Majesty's Twenty-Third Foot, The Royal Welch Fusiliers. A gas attack indicated an infantry attack was imminent. On the sounding of the gong, men put on their gas masks — their googlies — and prepared to meet the attack.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 171, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
(3) Excerpt from Alexander Kerensky's account of events leading to the Russian Revolution. Russian Minister of the Interior Alexander Protopopov was widely believed to be working for a separate peace and to be deranged. The Union of Zemstvos and Union of Towns had been instrumental in supporting the war effort. One of their activities was transporting wounded soldiers, an activity which had allowed them to develop ties to the military. The 'second half of November' Old Style was the first half of December, New Style.
Russia and History's Turning Point by Alexander Kerensky, pp. 174–175, copyright © 1965 by Alexander Kerensky, publisher: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, publication date: 1965
(4) Excerpt from the entry for December 10, 1917 from the diary of Albert, King of the Belgians, recording the thoughts of French Commander-in-chief Henri Pétain. The Nivelle Offensive, the Third Battle of Ypres, and the Battle of Caparetto had nearly broken the morale of the Entente Allies, leading to mutinies in the French Army and revolution in Russia. The United States was building an army in France, but had not yet seen its 'baptism of fire.'
The War Diaries of Albert I King of the Belgians by Albert I, pp. 182–183, copyright © 1954, publisher: William Kimber
