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
Embossed postcard of the flag and coins of Mexico, with fixed exchange rates for major currencies including the German Mark, Austro-Hungarian Krone, British Shilling, Latin Monetary Union Franc, Dutch Guilder, Russia Ruble, Scandinavian Monetary Union Krone/Krona, and United States Dollar. Includes images for 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 25 and 50 Centavo coins, and 1, 5, and 10 Peso coins.
Image text: Mexiko.1 Peso = 100 Centavos.Doppelwärung. Der Handelswert des Silbergeldes hängt von den Schwankungen des Silberpreises ab. Goldmünzen älterer Prägungen kommen als Handelsmünzen im Verkehr vor.Dual currency. The commercial value of silver coins depends on fluctuations in the price of silver. Older gold coin imprints are found in circulation as trade coins.
View of the South African Memorial in Delville Wood, Longueval, France. © 2013 John M. Shea
Image text:
Metal cross grave marker of Army Reservist Paul Schwarz, who died on April 12, 1918, likely in Operation Georgette, the Lys Offensive, launched April 9. From the Laventie German Military Cemetery, Laventie, France.
Image text: Paul SchwarzErsatz-Reservist12.4.1918Paul SchwarzArmy ReservistApril 12, 1918
". . . there was a terrific explosion which shook all the windows of the room and made the chandeliers quiver. At the same time a huge cloud of purple smoke rose across the Neva, east of Petrograd. . . . A few less violent explosions followed. The flames of the conflagration illuminated the horizon. There could be no doubt; the great Okhta works — the most important of the factories for the manufacture of explosives, catridges, propellants, fuses, and grenades from which the Russian army is supplied — had been destroyed." ((1), more)
". . . Troop K, Thirteenth Cavalry, and Troop M, Thirteenth Cavalry, entered Parral [Mexico] 11 a.m., 12th instant. Proceeding was cordially received by higher civil and military authorities. Military Commander General Lozano accompanied Major Frank Tompkins on way to camp.In the outskirts of the town groups of native troops and civilians, following, jeered, threw stones, and fired on column. Major Frank Tompkins took defensive position north of railroad, but was soon flanked by native troops and forced to further retire.About 300 Carranza troops joined in pursuit, and Major Frank Tompkins continued to withdraw to avoid further complications until he reached Santa Cruz, eight miles from Parral. Fighting ceased about fifteen miles from town. Major Frank Tompkins deserves great praise for his forbearance. General Lozano attempted to control his men when fight first began, but failed to." ((2), more)
"From where I was sitting in a half-dug German Reserve trench, the noise of the German machine guns was completely inaudible and, as I watched, the ranks of the Highlanders were thinned out and torn apart by an inaudible death that seem[ed] to strike them from nowhere. It was peculiarly horrible to watch: the bright day, the little scudding clouds and these frightened men dying in clumps in a noiseless battle." ((3), more)
"After crossing the Lawe Canal, General von Quasts's troops seized Locon and Estaires and, farther north, Hollebeke. On the 12th Merville and Merris fell into their hands, and their advance guards were already on the edge of the Nieppe Forest. The depth of the progress had thus attained 11 miles. Faced with this development of the battle, Field Marshal Haig saw his resources being rapidly used up, and he deemed it more than ever essential that the French co-operate in Flanders." ((4), more)
(1) Excerpt from the entry for Monday, April 12, 1915 from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador in Russia. The Ambassador was about to dine with one of his military attachés and two French officers with the munitions mission to Russia when Russia's Okhta munitions plant was blown up. Russia had inadequate munitions to support its offensives against the Central Powers, and was planning one against Silesia in southeastern Germany.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. I by Maurice Paléologue, page 329, publisher: George H. Doran Company, publication date: 1925
(2) Excerpt from the April 15, 1916 report by General Frederick Funston, commander of United States troops on the U.S./Mexican border, on the attack three days earlier by civilians and Mexican troops on American cavalry in Parral, Mexico. Pancho Villa, a former revolutionary Mexican general, was defeated by government forces in 1915, losing most of his army. In part blaming the United States, he attacked, seizing a train in Mexico on January 11, 1916, killing 19 US citizens, and raiding Columbus, New Mexico on March 9, killing 11 civilians. The United States sent a force under the command of General John Pershing into Mexico to capture Villa. Venustiano Carranza was president of Mexico. Funston's report further states: 'Reported privately forty Mexicans killed, all soldiers, including one major. One civilian wounded. Americans killed, two; wounded, six; missing, one.'
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. IV, 1916, p. 63, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
(3) Artillery subaltern Richard Talbot-Kelly writing of the April 12, 1917 advance of the 4th South African Scottish Battalion on the Chemical Works of Roeux, held by a strong German force with 30 machine guns. The Seaforth Highlanders and 1st Royal Irish Fusiliers had tried to capture it the day before. The Highlanders lost all 12 officers and 363 of 420 other ranks. On the 12th, the South Africans, rather than taking the road that had proven so deadly the day before, advanced 1,800 yards down a 'slope in full view of the enemy.' The British were unprepared for their success on April 9, the first day of the Battle of Arras, a day that included the capture of Vimy Ridge and an advance of up to three and a half miles. Some commanders seem to have tried to compensate for their inaction on April 10 with commands in the following days that were little short of criminal.
Cheerful Sacrifice: The Battle of Arras, 1917 by Jonathan Nicholls, page 163, copyright © Jonathan Nicholls [1990 repeatedly renewed through] 2011, publisher: Pen and Sword, publication date: 2010
(4) The British were in increasingly difficult straits on April 12, the fourth day of German commander Erich Ludendorff's second great offensive of 1918, Operation Georgette, the Lys Offensive. On the first day, after a two-day preliminary bombardment, the Germans demolished a half-strength Portuguese line, then spread north and south striking the British to either side. The offensive, a pared-down version of a previously rejected plan, was an attack on the Lys River in Flanders along the Franco-Belgian border. British commander was Douglas Haig already badly weakened by Operation Michael in March, looked to newly appointed Commander-in-Chief Ferdinand Foch for reinforcements.
The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, translated by Col. T. Bentley Mott by Ferdinand Foch, pp. 286–287, copyright © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., publisher: Doubleday, Doran & Co., publication date: 1931
