The poet, novelist, and political activist Gabriele d'Annunzio speaking in favor of Italy's entry into the war on the side of the Entente Allies, and against 'Giolittismo' at the Costanzi Theater in Rome, May, 1915. Giovanni Giolitti was five-time Prime Minister of Italy, and opposed intervention in the Great War. Illustration by Achille Beltrame.
Image text: The great demonstrations against the 'Giolittism'; Gabriele d'Annunzio speaks to the people of Rome, in Theatro Costanzi.
A mine explosion in Flanders. From The Nations at War, 1918 Edition, by Willis J. Abbot.
Image text: A mine explosion on the bitter battle front in Flanders. The explosion has thrown a great quantity of earth into the air, giving the effect of an ivy grown ruin
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!
Zweibund — the Dual Alliance — Germany and Austria-Hungary united, were the core of the Central Powers, and here join hands. The bars of Germany's flag border the top left, and those of the Habsburg Austrian Empire and ruling house the bottom right.
Image text: Schulter an SchulterUntrennbar vereintin Freud und in Leid!'Shoulder to shoulderInseparably united in joy and in sorrow!
"What became the first of more than a dozen 'battles of the Isonzo' began on 23 June 1915. Enjoying numerical superiority — 18 Italian against eight Austro-Hungarian divisions — Cadorna's 460 000 soldiers of the Second and Third armies charged Archduke Eugen's Austrian positions along the Isonzo. The fighting in what Conrad called Italy's 'cowardly, despicable, treacherous predatory raid' quickly degenerated into savage hand-to-hand combat, some of it on frozen Alpine peaks in sub-zero temperatures. Both sides attacked and counterattacked, mined and countermined. Neither achieved a breakthrough. Cadorna lost 15 000 men during the First Battle of the Isonzo in June and July, and a further 42 000 during the Second Battle of the Isonzo in July and August. Another 200 000 Italian soldiers were reported either prisoners of war or simply 'missing'." ((1), more)
". . . I had just stepped off the fire-step into the sap—Pattison was about 5 yards from me—when I felt my feet lifted up beneath me and the trench walls seemed to move upwards. There was a terrific blast of air which blew my steel helmet heaven knows where. I think that something must have struck me then on the head—it was said in hospital that my skull was fractured—anyhow, I remember nothing more until I woke to find myself buried up to the neck and quite unable to move hand or foot. I do not know how long I had been unconscious. I was told afterwards that there was a heavy bombardment of our trenches lasting nearly an hour after the explosion of the mine." ((2), more)
"Already in June the factories and the regiments were quietly returning more and more Bolsheviks as their delegates to the various socialist conferences. By the middle of the month Lenin felt strong enough to show his hand in the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets. Tseretelli, the leading Menshevik and the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, made a speech in which he rejected the idea that the Soviets should seize power from the government. 'There is,' he said, 'no political party in Russia which at the present time would say "Give us power."'Lenin interjected, 'There is.'" ((3), more)
"Now we undertake a strategic withdrawal — a strategic withdrawal always succeeds! (A few cries of 'Hurrah!' and scattered cheering.) And I have been certain from the start that the enemy will not prevent the manoeuvres we have envisaged for years and now been implementing for days. Our operations are being carried out according to plan. We have simply disengaged from the enemy and now we are drawing him after us! Then we'll give 'em a kicking! The men's morale is sky-high! Gentlemen, we shall be as firm as a rock and we shall never yield! The more opportunity we give the enemy to push forward, the more chance we have to wear him out! That is the tactic we put to the test on the Somme. That is the tactic which shall also succeed on the Piave. So, let's have no defeatist talk! God is on our side! We'd pull it off — against a world full of devils! The enemy — be assured, gentlemen — the enemy will shatter against us as against a bronze wall of flame —" ((4), more)
(1) Much of the Italian-Austro-Hungarian border was mountainous with the higher ground on the Austro-Hungarian side. The Isonzo River flowed through Austria-Hungary roughly along Italy's northeastern border. The First Battle of the Isonzo was soon followed by the Second. There would ultimately be twelve, the last more famously known as the Battle of Caparetto. General Luigi Cadorna was Chief of the Italian General Staff; Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf of the Austro-Hungarian.
The First World War: Germany and Austria Hungary 1914-1918 by Holger H. Herwig, page 153, copyright © 1997 Holger H. Herwig, publisher: Arnold, publication date: 1997
(2) Excerpt from the account by Captain H. Blair of his being buried in the largest German mine exploded on the Western Front, one that created a crater 120 yards long by 75 yards wide, at 2:00 AM on June 22, 1916. It would be nearly 24 hours before Blair was freed. He woke to a German raiding party running nearby, and feared he would be kicked in the head. Another soldier was buried immediately behind him, both buried and suffering a broken leg. Blair freed an arm, and began digging, attracting the attention of a German sniper. Fear and thirst and desperation ruled their day. By 3:00 AM a rescue party, after nearly three hours of work, freed them. The narrative is 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 and dozens of his comrades. The unit was west of La Bassée, France, in Artois.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 210, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
(3) The All-Russian Congress of Soviet and Front Line Organizations began on June 16, 1917 and ran for three weeks. Since the first day of the Russian Revolution, the government had been divided between two centers of power, the Duma and the Soviets, councils elected in factories, the army, and from cities and towns across the country. Vladimir Lenin was leader of the Bolsheviks. The Mensheviks were a competing socialist party.
The Russian Revolution by Alan Moorehead, page 194, copyright © 1958 by Time, Inc., publisher: Carroll and Graf, publication date: 1989
(4) Excerpt from one of the Prussian Colonel's speeches in Act V, Scene 55 from Karl Kraus's play The Last Days of Mankind. Much of the scene takes place over a ceremonial banquet of Austro-Hungarian (including Czech, Polish, Romanian, and Croatian) and German officers. In 1917's Operation Alberich the Germans had conducted a strategic retreat to a stronger, more easily defensible line. In the Battle of the Piave, launched on June 15, 1918, the Italians, with aid from their French and British allies, stopped the Austro-Hungarian offensive, and drove the attacker back to his starting line, inflicting roughly 120,000 casualties in the course of the battle.
The Last Days of Mankind by Karl Kraus, page 538, copyright © 2015 Translation and Afterword Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2015
