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
1915 pencil sketch by Alois Gruber of a German soldier with his rifle crawling through grass.
Image text: Geschreiben den . . . 1915Alois Gruber1915
Watercolor self-portrait by Lance Corporal Hugh F. Ward showing himself bathing, washing, and delousing his uniform. Ward served in the 97th Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC), 30th Division, B.E.F.
Image text: Reverse:An every day occurrenceJust an unfinished study.Done at Braudhoek(?)
I've killed many Germans, but never women or children. Original French watercolor by John on blank field postcard. In the background are indolent Russian soldiers and Vladimir Lenin, in the foreground stands what may be a Romanian soldier who is telling the Russians, 'You call me savage. I killed a lot of Boches [Germans], but never women or children!'
Image text: T'appelles moi sauvage !. Moi, tuer Boches beaucoup, mais jamais li femmes et li s'enfants !You call me wild. I killed a lot of Boches [Germans], but never women or children!
"[General] Samsonov, who suffered from asthma, was visibly weakening. He kept repeating to Potovsky, his Chief of Staff: 'The Czar trusted me. How can I face him after such a disaster?' After covering six miles, they stopped for a rest. It was then 1:00 A.M. [on August 30] Samsonov moved apart into the thicker darkness under the pines. A shot cracked the stillness of the night. Potovsky knew instantly what it meant. Earlier Samsonov had confided his intention of committing suicide but Potovsky thought he had argued him out of it. He was now sure the General was dead." ((1), more)
"The losses of the Russian army have been colossal. From 350,000 men a month in May, June and July, the figure has risen to 450,000 in August. Since the first defeat on the Dunajec the Russian army has thus lost approximately 1,500,000 men." ((2), more)
"Allied intelligence assessed German casualties in July as between 130,000 and 175,000. By the end of August, that figure had risen to 200,000, which was actually a significant underestimate: after the war the German official history acknowledged 243,129 casualties in the first two months. The heart seemed to be being torn out of the old army, while its material and human resources were also stretched. G.H.Q. analysts noted a dispiriting report from one soldier's home town: 'You should have seen the recruits who were mustered this week; it was like the boys coming out of school, but they have all become soldiers; it hardly seems possible.' Older untrained men, 'until now unfit for active service, and those who have become unfit during the war,' were also to be mustered, 'Germany's last hope.'" ((3), more)
"Things look pretty hopeful now, don't they? The Italians seem to have remembered Caesar and his far wars and glory. What the Austrians remember I cannot say (Austerlitz?) And the French dont seem exhausted, and as for the English . . . . Our guns would frighten imps in the lowest concrete dugout of Hell, so they shake me up pretty considerably." ((4), more)
"It was nearly 10 p.m. by the time Lenin emerged from the Mikhelson factory; sundown in Moscow at that time of year is around 9 p.m. and Fanny could not see in the dark. When Kaplan was arrested, she was not even wearing glasses. Not one of the eighteen witnesses who were interviewed actually saw her firing. And the bullet removed from Lenin's neck, almost four years later, was found not to have come from the Browning pistol alleged to have been held by Kaplan." ((5), more)
(1) The last hours of Russian General Alexander Samsonov, defeated in the Battle of Tannenberg. Commanding the Russian Second Army in the invasion of Germany in August, 1914, Samsonov’s right (which should have been covered by the Russian First Army under Paul von Rennenkampf), was thrown back. On August 27, his left wing collapsed. Rather than falling back to defend his forces, Samsonov continued to advance. By August 29, the Germans had encircled most of the Russian Second Army. By August 31, the Russians had been captured or had surrendered, and the Germans had taken over 90,000 of them prisoner.
The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman, page 342, copyright © Barbara W. Tuchman 1962, publisher: Dell Publishing Co., Inc., publication date: 1963
(2) Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia, writing on August 30, 1915. He had met earlier with General Bielaïev, chief of the General Staff of the Russian Army. The German-Austro-Hungarian Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive — begun on May 2 on a line lying, in part, along the Dunajec River — had broken the Russian line, and the Russian army's retreat extended from the Baltic Sea to Romania. The ambassador also recorded that Russia was producing more shells and rifles, and importing more weapons, and that Moscow lay far from the front, that four armies defended the capital of Petrograd, and that autumn rains would soon slow the German advance. The two cities were likely safe.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. II by Maurice Paléologue, page 62, publisher: George H. Doran Company
(3) German casualties in the first two months of the Battle of the Somme exceeded those of the first six months in the Battle of Verdun.
Three Armies on the Somme by William Philpott, page 272, copyright © 2009 by William Philpott, publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, publication date: 2009
(4) Ivor Gurney, English poet, composer, and private in the Gloucestershire Regiment, writing to the composer Marion Margaret Scott, on August 29 or 30, 1917. In the Battle of Austerlitz, fought on December 3, 1805, Napoleon triumphed over an allied Austrian and Russian army. As Gurney wrote, the Italians were making progress against the Austro-Hungarian forces in the Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo. Days earlier, French forces had retaken ground lost to the Germans in 1916's siege of Verdun.
War Letters, Ivor Gurney, a selection edited by R.K.R. Thornton by Ivor Gurney, page 192, copyright © J. R. Haines, the Trustee of the Ivor Gurney Estate 1983, publisher: The Hogarth Press, publication date: 1984
(5) In 'Fanny Kaplan's Attempt to Kill Lenin', Martin Sixsmith contests the standard version of the attempted assassination of Vladimir Lenin. Kaplan, a Socialist Revolutionary, has been seriously injured in 1906 while building a bomb to kill the Governor of Kiev. She was nearly blinded in the incident, suffered injuries to her face and hands, and was condemned to life imprisonment. Like other political prisoners, she was freed after the 1917 February Revolution and returned to Moscow. In the election for the Constituent Assembly that was held after the Bolshevik Revolution, the Socialist Revolutionaries earned a majority of the seats, but Lenin had no intention of giving up power. Laying blame on Kaplan, and by extension her party, gave him an excuse and primary target for the Terror that followed the attempt on his life.
Was Revolution Inevitable? Turning Points of the Russian Revolution by Tony Brenton, page 184, copyright © Tony Brenton 2017, publisher: Oxford University Press, publication date: 2017
