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
Intermission at a French theater, 1915. Women and a girl knit, socks perhaps, for soldiers at the front, as does a Red Cross nurse seated between two sleepy soldiers, one — from an Algerian regiment — visibly wounded. An older man reads the news. Illustrated by A. Guillaume, the postcard is captioned in the languages of the Entente Allies, French, English, and Russian.
Image text: 15 minutes d'entr'act.15 minutes intermission.Антрактъ въ 15 минутъ.Pinx. A. GuillaumeА. ГильомъVisé Paris.2260.I.M.L.Reverse:Guerre Européenne de 1914-1915Édition Patriotique.Imp. I. Lapina. - Paris, Rue Denfert-Rochebeau, 75European War 1914-1915Patriotic Edition.Printer I. Lapina. - Paris, Rue Denfert-Rochebeau 75
Peoples of Austria-Hungary in 1914 from Historical Atlas by William R. Shepherd. The empire's population included Germans, Magyars, Romanians, Italians, and Slavs including Croats, Serbians, Ruthenians, Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, and Slovenes.
Image text: Peoples of Austria-Hungary in 1914Legend:Germans, Magyars, Romanians, Italians, and Slavs including Croats, Serbians, Ruthenians, Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, and Slovenes.
The salute of General Black Jack Pershing, Commander in Chief of the American Expeditionary Force, landing in France, June, 1917. Pershing landed in Boulogne on June 13.
Image text: Le Salut du Général Pershing, Commandant en Chef des Troupes Américanines, à la terre de France. (Juin 1917).Message dated September 18, 1917R et E[nvoyée?] le 20-9-1917Reverse:Postmarked September 18, 1917
"20 Dec-12 Jan [1915]The French attack in Flanders, at La Boiselle, in the Argonne, on the Meuse, on the Aisne, and around Reims . . ." ((1), more)
"— A terrible and distressing cruelty still reigns, in the name of patriotism, over the hearts of those who ever express their views — even the women. An actress, who has taken up hospital nursing, declares with satisfaction that this winter there have been no trench truces (that is not correct, by the way), and expresses delight that the French are shooting Germans who try to fraternise. What a strange perversion of decent feeling that is! Thus, again, Captain N——— considered the following trick positively heroic and laudable: at one point in the line trench truces had given rise to regular contact between the two lines, but one day, when a German N.C.O. was coming across in perfect confidence, the French shot him." ((2), more)
". . . on January 12, in Vienna, Count Czernin told the Austrian Council of Ministers that it was necessary to look for a compromise peace. This was made all the more urgent, as far as maintaining the unity of the Hapsburg Empire was concerned, by an Allied declaration that day, issued in Rome, promising to strive for the national liberation of all the subject people of the Hapsburg dominions, chief among them the Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Slovenes, Croats, Serbs and Roumanians." ((3), more)
"France's new allies received a very different welcome [from that given the Russians]. The first American units had disembarked in June 1917, but the build-up over the autumn and winter was slow, and by January only 161,750 men had crossed the Atlantic. By September, however, there would be over 1.5 million American troops in France." ((4), more)
(1) After heavy losses since August, 1914, with supplies of munitions low, French commander Joseph Joffre launched offensives to demonstrate French resolve and prevent the Germans from disengaging and redeploying their forces elsewhere. He used the unfortunate expression 'nibbling at the enemy' for his offensives.
They Shall Not Pass: The French Army on the Western Front 1914-1918 by Ian Sumner, page 48, copyright © Ian Sumner 2012, publisher: Pen and Sword, publication date: 2012
(2) Undated January, 1916 entry from the diary of Michel Corday, a senior civil servant in the French government. Although there were instances of fraternization on the front at Christmastime, 1915, it was suppressed by military leadership, in part by regular shelling of enemy lines.
The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, pp. 133, 134, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934
(3) Count Ottokar Czernin took office as Austro-Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs on December 23, 1916. On January 12, 1917, when he spoke to the Council of Ministers for Common Affairs of the Empire, he was evidently unaware that Germany had already decided on a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare to begin on February 1. That decision had just been made at the Pless Conference of January 9 and 10.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, pp. 306–307, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(4) After their revolution in November, 1917, the Bolsheviks agreed an armistice with the Central Powers while a peace treaty was negotiated. Many French, anticipating a German offensive supported by troops recently redeployed from the Eastern Front, spoke ill of their former ally. The United States had declared war in April, 1917, but were not on the front lines.
They Shall Not Pass: The French Army on the Western Front 1914-1918 by Ian Sumner, page 185, copyright © Ian Sumner 2012, publisher: Pen and Sword, publication date: 2012
