A medal suspended on a green triangular ribbon with red stripes, bleeds. The medal reads 'Laeso Militibi' (or 'Militiri') MDCCCCXVIII (1918). Beneath the medal is written 'M?gegy', Another, or One More.The image is based on the Austro-Hungarian wound medal which was instituted under Kaiser Karl whose profile is on the obverse. The red stripes indicate the number of wounds, three in this case. The actual medal reads 'Laeso Militi', To the Wounded Soldier (Latin), and shows the year as MCMXVIII.The card was sent to Franz Moritos, and is postmarked Budapest, Hungary, November 16, 1918.
Image text: A medal suspended on a green triangular ribbon with red stripes, bleeds. The medal reads 'Laeso Militibi' (or 'Militiri') MDCCCCXVIII (1918). Beneath the medal is written 'M?gegy', Another, or One More.The image is based on the Austro-Hungarian wound medal which was instituted under Kaiser Karl whose profile is on the obverse. The red stripes indicate the number of wounds, three in this case. The actual medal reads 'Laeso Militi', To the Wounded Soldier (Latin), and shows the year as MCMXVIII.The card was sent to Franz Moritos, and is postmarked Budapest, Hungary, November 16, 1918.
Postcard of early German aviators including Wintgens, Boelcke, Immelmann, Mulzer, Buddecke, von. Althaus, Höhndorf, Berthold, Parschau, Frankl, von Cossel, and Windisch. Sanke card #408. The men are Kurt Wintgens — KIA, September 25, 1916, 19 victories; Oswald Bölcke (Boelcke) — killed in collision, October 26, 1916, 40 victories; Max Immelmann — KIA (accident collision), June 18, 1916, 15 victories; Max Ritter von Mulzer — accidentally killed, September 26, 1916, 10 victories; Hans-Joachim Buddecke — KIA, March 10, 1918, 13 victories; Ernst Freiherr von Althaus — died November 29, 1946, 9 victories; Walter Höhndorf — killed in flying accident, September 5, 1917, 12 victories; Rudolf Berthold — killed in political street fighting in Hamburg, March 15, 1920, 44 victories; Otto Parschau — died of wounds, July 21, 1916, 8 victories; Wilhelm Frankl — KIA April 8, 1917, 20 victories; Maximilian von Cossel — POW, August 1917; and Rudolf Windisch — MIA, May 27, 1918, 22 victories. Sanke card #408.
Image text: Unsere Flieger HeldenWintgens, Boelcke, Immelmann, Mulzer, Buddecke, v. Althaus, Höhndorf, Berthold, Parschau, Frankl, v. Cossel, u. Windisch.W. Sanke Berlin, N. 37.408Our Aviator Heroes
View of the South African Memorial in Delville Wood, Longueval, France. © 2013 John M. Shea
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A call to Italians to buy war bonds to help fund the powerful weapons needed for the last push to Trieste, a mere 25 kilometers from the Italian front lines. It pays 5%, after all, tax free, for an effective rate of 5.55%!
Image text: La Banca d'ItaliaRiceve e agevola le sottoscrizionial Prestito Consolidato 5% nettoEsente da imposte presenti & futureReddito Effettivo 5,55 per centoItaliani!I nostri avamposti sono a 25 Km da Trieste — date loro armi potenti per l'ultimo sbalzo, sottoscrivendo al Prestito Nazionale Consolidato 5%.The Bank of ItalyReceives and facilitates subscriptionsBorrowing 5% Consolidated NetExempt from present and future taxes5.55 percent effective incomeItalians!Our outposts are 25 Km from Trieste - give them powerful weapons for the last rush, by subscribing to the National 5% Loan Consolidation.
Shared headstone for the remains of Sergeant Emil Müller, died July 15, 1918, and driver Ernst Dolderer, died July 10, 1918, buried in Belleau German Cemetery, Belleau, France. © 2014 by John M. Shea
Image text: Emil MüllerVizewachtmeister† 15.7.1918Ernst DoldererFahrer† 10.7.1918
"The most important question for us is, what, if any, are the intentions of the Austro-Hungarian Government as regards the Serajevo outrage. Until now I have been unable to find this out, and my other colleagues are in a similar position. The word has now been passed round here not to tell anybody anything.. . . In the Hungarian Parliament Count Tisza has replied to the interpellations of the opposition concerning the Serajevo incident; you are acquainted with his statements. His speech was not clear, and I believe it was intentionally obscure. . . . (The Bourse has now recovered; both the War Minister and the Chief of Staff have gone on leave.) I am loath to express an opinion. In the above-mentioned speech it is to be noted that the possibility of war is not excluded, in the event of the demands of Austria-Hungary in regard to the Serajevo outrage not being complied with." ((1), more)
". . . the fifth [production Fokker E.I], 5/15, went to Leutnant Kurt Wintgens.. . . Wintgens had previously earned the Iron Cross 2nd Class as an observer over the Eastern Front. He had then trained to be a pilot and demonstrated sufficient skill to be assigned Fokker E.I 5/15, which he flew while with Flieger Abteilungen 67 and 6b. It was with the latter Bavarian unit that Wintgens claimed a Morane-Saulnier L east of Lunéville on July 1, 1915, which went down too far in French lines for witnesses to confirm. . . .Finally, on the 15th [July], Wintgens was credited with a Morane-Saulnier over Schucht—although it is is curiously ironic that the French recorded no casualties between July 14 and 18." ((2), more)
"On July 15[, 1916], the fight for Delville Wood began, the first of fifteen days' hand-to-hand fighting and ferocious artillery bombardments. The battle started when the 3,000 strong South African Brigade, of which Hugh Boustead was a part, was ordered to capture the wood. 'We moved forward through an orchard in single file, led by the platoon officer,' he later recalled. 'Smith, the Second Lieutenant, got through but the next seven who followed him were shot dead in a circle of a few yards, picked off by clean shooting without a murmur.'" ((3), more)
"In the middle of July [1917] the brigade was withdrawn for a rest. My battalion encamped between Asiago and Gallio, on the reserve line along Monte Sesemol, to carry out defensive works. We were still within range of enemy artillery fire, but well sheltered in narrow valleys. Occasionally a single enemy reconnaissance machine flew over us at a great height and was quickly chased away by our fighting squadrons from the base at Bassano. Bombing planes never disturbed our rest. So it was that the tragic days through which we had just passed were followed by others almost happy. Men who had been lightly wounded rejoined the battalion, and new arrivals, both officers and men, came to fill the gaps that had been made in the ranks. . . . One very soon began to forget. Life regained its ascendancy. My orderly, who had also been wounded, rejoined from hospital. He once more took up his study of the book on birds and I that of Baudelaire and Ariosto." ((4), more)
"At midnight on Sunday, July 14th, Paris was awakened by the sound of great guns. At first she thought it an air raid, but the blaze in the eastern sky showed that business was afoot on the battlefield. She waited for news with a solemn mind, for she knew that the last phase had begun of the struggle for her possession. The 'preparation' lasted till four o'clock; but before the dawn broke the Germans were aware of a new feature in the bombardment. The French guns were replying, and with amazing skill were searching out their batteries and assembly trenches, so that when zero hour came the attacking infantry in many parts of the line were already disorganized. Foch's intelligence service had done its work; he had profited by the enemy's bravado, and he read their plans like an open book.About 4 a.m., just at dawn, the German infantry crossed the parapets." ((5), more)
(1) Yov. M. Yovanovitch, Serbian Minister at Vienna, reporting to N. Pashitch, Serbian Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Vienna, July 2/15 (New Style), 1914.Austria-Hungary had decided for war against Serbia on July 14, and tried to create the impression that no such thing had occurred. Political and military leaders left the capital for vacation.Hungarian Premier Tisza had been the last holdout against war. Having joined in the decision, he spoke to the Hungarian Parliament in Budapest, saying that, 'every state, every nation, must be in a position to carry on war as an ultima ratio, if it is to continue as a state and as a nation.'
Collected Diplomatic Documents Relating to the Outbreak of the European War, page 381, publisher: His Majesty's Stationery Office by Harrison and Sons, publication date: 1915
(2) The German Fokker E.I was a monoplane similar to the French Morane-Saulnier, and the first aircraft with an interrupter mechanism to allow a machine gun to fire through a rotating propeller, allowing the pilot to point his plane and shoot. The plane and its armament was superior to any of the Allied planes. With stalemate on the Western Front, fighter pilots with five or more victories, aces, were celebrated.
The Origin of the Fighter Aircraft by Jon Gutman, pp. 28, 29, copyright © 2009 Jon Gutman, publisher: Westholme Publishing, publication date: 2009
(3) British and French forces launched the Battle of the Somme on July 1, 1916, the British and Empire forces north of the Somme River, the French to the south. The French advanced rapidly on the first day, their ally more slowly and suffering terrible losses. On July 15, the British attacked at High Wood as the Union of South Africa troops began the assault at Delville Wood.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, pp. 265-266, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(4) Beginning paragraph of the last chapter of Emilio Lussu's Sardinian Brigade, an account of a year fighting on the Asiago plateau, on Italy's northern border. The book closes with Lussu and his fellow officers being told they are about to be transferred to the front beyond Italy's northeast, where the Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo was in progress.
Sardinian Brigade by Emilio Lussu, pp. 268–269, copyright © 1939 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., publisher: Knopf, publication date: 1939
(5) British novelist John Buchan describing the beginning of Germany's Champagne-Marne Offensive on July 15, 1918, the last of Germany's five offensives of 1918, and its last offensive of the war. Since the end of the Noyon-Montdidier Offensive on June 14, the Allies had been awaiting, and preparing for, the next. The French had captured plans for the German offensive, and began the accurate counter-bombardment Buchan describes ten minutes before the German bombardment.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. VI, 1918, p. 244, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
