General August von Mackensen in the uniform of the Death's Head Hussars.
Image text: Generaloberst von Mackensen7178Verlag von Gustav Liersch & Co. Berlin, S.W.Original Aufnahme von Gottheil & Sohn, DanzigGeneral von Mackensen7178Published by Gustav Liersch & Co. Berlin, S.W.Original picture by Gottheil & Son, Danzig
French and Montengrin troops on Mount Lovćen. From Mount Lovćen, Montenegrin artillery were able to bombard the Austro-Hungarian naval base at Cattaro, and began doing so in August, 1914. They conducted an artillery duel with Austro-Hungarian guns on land and on the armored cruiser Kaiser Karl VI, which was joined by three more battleships in September. The French supported the Montenegrins, landing four 12 cm and four 15 cm naval guns in September and moving them into position in the following month, opening fire on October 19. With the addition of SMS Radetsky, the Austro-Hungarian battery was able to overcome the Montenegrin position, which was abandoned by November, 1914. From a painting by Alphonse LaLauze, 1915.
Image text: Batailles des Monts Lowsen, 29 Août 1914.Français et Monténégrins.Signed A[lphonse] LaLauze, 1915Battle of Mount Lovćen, August 29, 1914French and Montenegrins
Postwar postcard map of the Balkans including Albania, newly-created Yugoslavia, expanded Romania, and diminished former Central Powers Bulgaria and Turkey. The first acquisitions of Greece in its war against Turkey are seen in Europe where it advanced almost to Constantinople, in the Aegean Islands from Samos to Rhodes, and on the Turkish mainland from its base in Smyrna. The Greco-Turkish war was fought from May 1919 to 1922. The positions shown held from the war's beginning to the summer of 1920 when Greece advanced eastward. Newly independent Hungary and Ukraine appear in the northwest and northeast.
Image text: Péninsule des BalkansÉchelle 1:12.000.000Petit Atlas de Poche Universel25 Édition Jeheber GenèveReverse:No. 20 Édition Jeheber, Genève (Suisse)BalkansRoumanie(Royaume.)Superficie . . . 290 000 sq. km.Population . . . 16 000 000 hab. (50 par sq. km.Capitale: Bucarest . . . 338 000 hab.Bulgarie(Royaume.)Superficie . . . 100 000 sq. km.Population . . . 4 000 000 hab. (40 par sq. km.)Capitale: Sofia . . . 103 000 hab.Grèce(Royaume. Capitale: Athènes.)En Europe (y compris la Crète et les iles) 200 000 sq. km. 6 000 000 hab. 30 p. sq. km.En Asie mineure . . . 30 000 sq. km 1 300 000 hab. 43 p. sq. km.Total 230 000 sq. km. 7 300 000 hab. 32 p. sq. km.Ville de plus de 50 000 habitants:Smyrne (Asie) . . . 350 000 hab.Athènes . . . 175 000 hab.Salonique . . . 150 000Andrinople . . . 70 000 hab.Pirée . . . 70 000 hab.Turquie d'Europe(Empire Ottoman.)Superficie . . . 2 000 sq. km.Population . . . 1 100 000 550 par sq. km.Capitale: Constantinople 1 000 000 hab.AlbanieSuperficie . . . 30 000 sq. km.Population . . . 800 000 hab. (27 par sq. km.)Villes: Scutari . . . 30 000 hab.Durazzo . . . 5 000 hab.YougoslavieVoir le tableau des statisques de ce pays, ainsi que la carte de la partie occidentale de la Yougoslavie, sur la carte d'Italie.Inst. Géog. Kummerly & Frey, Berne.Balkan PeninsulaScale 1: 12,000,000Little Univeral Pocket AtlasRoyaume - KingdomSuperficie - AreaEn Europe (y compris la Crète et les iles) - In Europe (including Crete and the islands)En Asie mineure - In Asia MinorYugoslaviaSee the table of statistics of this country, as well as the map of the western part of Yugoslavia, on the map of Italy.
Map of the Trentino, part of "Italia Irredenta," unredeemed Italy: Venezia Tridentina (Trentino and Alto Adige)
Image text: Venezia Tridentina (Trentino and Alto Adige)Confine del Regno d'ItaliaConf.[ine] Geografico d'ItaliaConfine fra Trentino e Alto AdigeFerrovieTramvieIst. Geogr. De Agostini-Novara - Riproduzione InterdettaVenezia Tridentina (Trentino and South Tyrol)Border of the Kingdom of ItalyGeographic boundary of ItalyBorder between Trentino and Alto AdigeRailwaysTramwaysGeographic Institute of Agostini-Novara - Reproduction prohibitedReverse:Message dated December 14, 1917
". . . Scheffer, commanding the German reserve corps, kept his force together. Cavalry to the south and east co-operated with him, covering the retreat. Scheffer himself stayed awake for seventy-two hours to organise retreat along poor, icy roads as his battalions and batteries withdrew, in the night of 22nd-23rd November. The retreat succeeded. On the western side, the Lódz defenders were too exhausted to respond with any speed." ((1), more)
". . . On 22 November [1915] the Italians occupied the Albanian town of Valona, on the other side of the Otranto Straits from Brindisi. To the north of Albania lay Montenegro, whose partially blocked port of Antivari was unsuitable, given its location close to Cattaro. Sixty miles to the south of Cattaro in Albania was the port of San Giovanni de Medua, 30 miles north of Durazzo, which was a further 30 miles north of Valona. Supplies were now to be transported across the straits primarily to San Giovanni de Medua, in support of the hard-pressed Serbians, as they made their retreat.An Austrian naval force attempted to disrupt operations and attacked and sank a number of schooners on 23 November. . . ." ((2), more)
"A heavy seasonal fog over the Danube concealed Kosch's forces as they assembled and boarded a variety of boats on the night of 22 November. The crossing began the next day at sunrise. The initial landing parties met no resistance, and the well-organized transfer of the five divisions began. Each had approximately 20,000 men, 5,000 horse, and 1,200 wagons and required eight to ten hours to transport. On 23—24 November, two divisions crossed." ((3), more)
". . . by November 20th the Allied forces were in position to afford serious support to the Italian Army. On the 22nd and 23rd, heavy fighting took place on the Asiago plateau, as well as in the region of Monte Grappa and Monte Tomba; the Italian soldiers put up a splendid resistance everywhere.On the 23rd, General Foch was able to leave Italy; the crisis was conjured. The first demoralization once over, the Comando Supremo rapidly recovered itself and, under its direction, the Italian Army reëstablished with its own forces a continuous front in the valley of the Piave, without the British and French units having to be engaged." ((4), more)
(1) Russia's advance towards Berlin in early November was met by a German counter-stroke towards Warsaw that required the Russians to abandon their plan. The German Ninth Army under General von Mackensen threatened to surround the Russian Second Army around Lódz in Russian Poland. The Russian First and Fifth Armies moved uncommonly swiftly to prevent this, and in turn threatened to surround German units north and east of the city. Scheffer, commanding a German reserve corps, managed to extricate and save his men. The Russians overestimated the size of Scheffer's force when they mistook for German soldiers the many Russian prisoners he had taken. By the time the Battle of Lódz ended in early December, the Russians had lost over 100,000 men.
The Eastern Front, 1914-1917 by Norman Stone, page 106, copyright © 1975 Norman Stone, publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons, publication date: 1975
(2) Although Serbia was defeated it did not surrender, and its army retreated westward through Albania to the Adriatic coast for evacuation by the Allies. Albania was newly independent in the Second Balkan War of in 1912. Italy was interested in not only in the city of Trieste, but in additional territory along the coast of Bosnia-Herzegovina, including the city of Valona. Austria-Hungary would soon make clear it had designs not only on Serbia and Montenegro, but also on Albania. Cattaro was a major port for the Austro-Hungarian Navy.
A Naval History of World War I by Paul G. Halpern, page 212, copyright © 1994 by the United States Naval Institute, publisher: UCL Press, publication date: 1994
(3) Romania entered the war on August 27, 1916 invading Transylvania, Austria-Hungary. In September and October a German and Austro-Hungarian army drove the invaders back into Romania, while a combined German, Bulgarian, and Turkish army pushed the Romanians from southern Dobruja, a region between the Danube River and the Black Sea, northwards toward the delta of the Danube on the Black Sea. On November 23, a Central Powers army under German General Robert Kosch began crossing the Danube from Bulgaria into Romania 130 kilometers southwest of the Romanian capital of Bucharest. Kosch's army included four infantry divisions — one German, one Turkish, and two Bulgarian, and a mixed cavalry division.
The Romanian Battlefront in World War I by Glenn E. Torrey, page 137, copyright © 2011 by the University Press of Kansas, publisher: University Press of Kansas, publication date: 2011
(4) When joint German and Austro-Hungarian forces attacked on October 24, 1917 in the Battle of Caporetto, their first offensive on the Isonzo Front in Italy's northeast, the Italian Second Army, and then the entire front collapsed. Fearing Italy would be driven out of the war, the British and French agreed at the Rapallo Conference in early December to send troops to Italy. Italian King Victor Emmanuel sacked Luigi Cadorna, his commander in chief, replacing him with Armando Diaz. General Ferdinand Foch was the lead French representative at the conference. The Asiago plateau was on Italy's northern front near Trentino. Monte Grappa and Monte Tomba were on the new northeastern front of the Piave River.
The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, translated by Col. T. Bentley Mott by Ferdinand Foch, page 232, copyright © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., publisher: Doubleday, Doran & Co., publication date: 1931
