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
Copy of 'Vieux Charles,' the 1916 Spad VII of French ace Georges Guynemer, landing at Olde Rhinebeck Aereodrome, Rhinebeck, New York, September 15, 2013. © 2013 John M. Shea
Image text: Vieux CharlesOld Charles
The Sword of Damocles dangling from a Zeppelin over the Tower of London and a cringing John Bull. By. A Johnson.
Image text: Das Schwert des DamoklesThe Sword of DamoclesReverse:Kriegs-Postkarten des 'Kladderadatsch' Nr. 3Kunstverlagsanstalt Gerh. Stalling, Oldenburg i. Gr.War Postcards of 'Kladderadatsch' no. 3Art Publishing House Gerh. Stalling, Oldenburg i. Gr.
Mark V tanks: One with a smokescreen and semaphore, the second moving up in the Battle of Amiens. In the latter, note the German prisoners on the left carrying a casualty to the rear on a stretcher. From The Tank Corps by Major Clough Williams-Ellis & A. Williams-Ellis.
Image text: Smoke-screen and SemaphoreMoving up in the Battle of Amiens
". . . he gave my unsophisticated spirit a couple of rather dismal chills; as when putting some of the dots on the i's of what is currently meant by the state of things at Bordeaux, and even when speaking from personal observation of some of the idiosyncrasies of the Russian officer. He in fact told me some anecdotes in the course of which the Russian Army was qualified as 'mushy' though I take comfort in the reflection that this proceeded probably from some German source (and sauce) that he was more or less derisively quoting, rather than from his own dark mind. . . .Mrs. C., who had been lunching with Emily Sargent, further brought me in the dismal news of the death of the so distinguished little French husband of her niece, Violet Ormond's daughter, the Rose-Marie whom Sargent so exquisitely painted a year ago; the said André Michel having been killed in one of these last engagements." ((1), more)
"General Teodoroff's Bulgarian Army, moving rapidly into Macedonia, in two columns, aimed at seizing the main line of railroad and preventing communications between the vanguard of General Sarrail's French Army and the Serbians.One Bulgarian column cut the railroad at Vranya and occupied the city on October 17th [1915]. Teodoroff's main army, going South, seized Palanka, Sultan Pepe and Katshaua, and advanced to Veles, where on October 20th, they again cut the railroad line, making any further advance of General Sarrail's army impossible." ((2), more)
"During the days between October 20th and October 23rd, our artillery and our aviation established superiority on the battle field, against enemy batteries which were still present in great numbers but which were doubtless forced to exercise sever economy of munitions." ((3), more)
"The Thames we just dimly saw from the outline of the lights; two great railway stations I thought I saw, but the speed of the ship running almost before the gale was such that we could not distinguish much. We were half frozen, too, and the excitement was great. It was all over in a flash. The last bomb was gone and we were once more over the darkness and rushing onwards." ((4), more)
"On the 18th and 19th [October, 1918] the infantry managed to make good progress, and at 2 p.m. on the 20th we made another attack, still on the line of the Selle, north of Le Cateau.Only four tanks of the 11th Battalion were employed. The enemy's resistance was serious, for he had been able to erect strong wire entanglements along the greater part of the line. This time, there being no available fords, the Tanks, successfully crossed the river by means of an under-water sleeper bridge, which the Sappers had secretly constructed at night, the enemy being quite unaware of its existence until, to their dismay, they saw the Tanks crossing over it.There was severe fighting round Neuvilly, Solesmes, and Haspres, but we gained all our objectives on the high ground east of the Selle, all the four Tanks successfully reaching their final goal." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpts from a letter of October 20, 1914 from Henry James to Edith Wharton, reporting on, among other events, his dinner with Walter Berry, President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Paris. The French government had fled Paris for Bordeaux immediately before the French victory in the Battle of the Marne. The 'mushy' Russian Army had retreated — almost to Warsaw — before the German and Austro-Hungarian advance of September and October, but the Russians had been strengthening their forces. Realizing their danger, German commanders Hindenburg and Ludendorff ordered a retreat on October 20. Robert André-Michel was a French art historian and author of Avignon: the Frescoes of the Palace of the Popes. His widow, a niece of, and the subject of a number of works by, John Singer Sargent, worked with blinded soldiers, and was killed in 1918 in a Paris church hit by a German shell.
Henry James Letters, Vol. IV: 1895-1916, edited by Leon Edel by Henry James, pp. 721-723, copyright © 1984, Alexander R. James, publisher: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, publication date: 1984
(2) Inflicting heavy casualties on German and Austro-Hungarian forces invading along its northern and northwestern border, and awaiting support from French and British troops recently landed in Salonika, Greece, Serbia was isolated when Bulgaria's two armies invaded along its eastern border in mid-October, 1915. With the cutting of the railroad, the Serbian government, having fled the capital in Belgrade, was isolated in the city of Nish, and cut off from the Franco-British forces under the command of French General Maurice Sarrail.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 188, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
(3) Excerpt from French General Henri Philippe Pétain's account of the preparations for the retaking of Fort Douaumont, which had fallen to the Germans on February 25, 1916, in the first days of the Battle of Verdun. It's garrison had been unaware the fort was at risk, and it was taken with virtually no struggle. On October 20, 1916, it would soon be retaken by the French. The French Spad and German Albatros fighter planes had recently reached the front, both formidable improvements on the air arms of the two armies.
Verdun by Henri Philippe Pétain, page 201, copyright © 1930, publisher: The Dial Press, publication date: 1930
(4) Description by a crew member of one of the Zeppelins that bombed London the night of October 19–20, 1917. The airships had set out to bomb Liverpool, Manchester, and Sheffield, but faced gale force winds at 16,000 feet. They had little idea of their position until their unexpected sighting of the British capital. Londoners had no idea of their airship's presence until bombs began exploding in the city, in Cricklewood, PIccadilly Circus, Camberwell, and Hither Green. The attack by the unseen, unheard airships became known as the 'silent raid.' It killed 31 and wounded 48 in London.
The First Blitz: Bombing London in the First World War by Ian Castle, page 96, copyright © 2015 Osprey Publishing Ltd., publisher: Osprey Publishing, publication date: 2015
(5) Through October, 1918, the Allied advance continued as the Germans were driven back or retreated to establish a shorter, more defensible line. The Selle River was one barrier behind which they hoped to make a stand. The Battle of the Selle began on October 17, in thick fog and with the river in full flood, and continued through the 25th.
The Tank Corps by Clough Williams-Ellis & A. Williams-Ellis, page 264, publisher: The Offices of "Country Life," Ltd. and George Newnes, Ltd., publication date: 1919
