A map of the Russian-Turkish front from Der Weltkrieg 1914-1918, a 1930s German history of the war illustrated with hand-pasted cigarette cards, showing the Turkish Empire in Asia Minor and Mesopotamia, the Mediterranean, Black, and Caspian Seas and the Persian Gulf. To the west is Egypt, a British dominion; to the east Persia. Erzerum in Turkey and Kars in Russia were the great fortresses on the frontier.
Image text: Mittelmeer: Mediterranean SeaSchwarzes M: Black SeaKasp. M.: Caspian SeaKleinasien: Asia MinorTürkei: TurkeyRussland: RussiaMesopot.: MesopotamiaPersien: PersiaAgypten: EgyptKairo: CairoStellungen der: Positions of theTürken Jan. 1915. . .August 1916Russen Mai 1915 . . . Frühjahr 1916Engländer: November 1914 . . . Ende 1917Herbst 1918Positions of theTurks Jan. 1915 . . . August 1916Russians May 1915 . . . spring 1916English: November 1914 . . . the end of 1917autumn 1918
A gleeful Russian Cossack skewers Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph in Galicia, the Empire's northeastern region isolated from the rest of the country by the Carpathian Mountains. The caption is a play on words echoing the name of the mountain range in telling Franz Joseph, 'it seems your soldiers took to their heels.' After twin defeats in the Battles of Gnila Lipa and Rava Russka, the Austro-Hungarian Army lost the great fortress at Lemberg, and was being driven out of Galicia and back through the Carpathians. Russia's attempts to break through the Carpathians continued through April 1915, with heavy losses on both sides. The Austro-Hungarians, with German support, held.
Image text: Parait que tes soldats se CarapathentSeems that your soldiers took to their heelsDix 701Reverse:Dixo-Couleur Paris, Visé Paris, Numéro au Verso.
Zeppelin kommt! And a submarine too. A postcard by Kriwub on the threat German airships posed to the United Kingdom, and the fear they engendered in the British public.
Image text: Zeppelin kommt!KriwubReverse:Message postmarked Hannover, July 7, 1917
A portrait of German General Paul von Hindenburg superimposed on a map of his victories in East Prussia and conquests in Russia. In Prussia (in pink) the Russians took Gumbinnen and Insterburg before being defeated at Allenstein (in the Battle of Tannenburg), and in the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes in the first two months of war in 1914. Before the year had ended, German troops advanced well into Polish Russia before being driven back. In 1915 von Hindenburg was victorious, taking the fortresses and cities of Ivangarod, Grodno, and Warsaw, in his Gorlice-Tarnow offensive. Tarnow in Galicia is at the bottom of the map, Austria-Hungary being show in yellow.
Image text: Sieges-Sonne im OstenSun of Victory in the Eastv. Hindenburg
"Everyone who spoke to the Emperor at Moscow talked of Constantinople, and all in the same strain :'The acquisition of the Straits is of vital interest to the Empire, far more important than all the territorial advantages Russia may obtain at the expense of Germany or Austria. . . . The neutralization of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles would be an imperfect, hybrid compromise, fraught with peril for the future. . . . Constantinople must be a Russian city. . . . The Black Sea must become a Russian lake. . . .A French manufacturer who has come from Karkov and Odessa tells me that the same thing is being said there. But whereas the historical, political, and mystical aspects inspire Moscow, it is the commercial argument which appeals to southern Russia." ((1), more)
"In the present case, generals assumed that with crushing numerical superiority and one heavy shell for every square yard of the front—both of them now attained—all would be well. The artillery would pulverise Austrian defences, and the infantry would easily pick up the wreckage. Nine infantry and two cavalry corps were mustered for attack, beginning on 27th December [1915] in eastern Galicia. The attempts when on for a fortnight, in which 50,000 men were lost." ((2), more)
"Mr Britling says: 'Everywhere cunning, everywhere small feuds and hatreds, distrusts, dishonesties, timidities, feebleness of purpose, dwarfish imaginations, swarm over the great and simple issues . . . It is a war now like any other of the mobbing, many-aimed cataclysms that have shattered empires and devastated the world; it is a war without point, a war that has lost its soul, it has become mere incoherent fighting and destruction, a demonstration in vast and tragic forms of the stupidity and ineffectiveness of our species.'" ((3), more)
"December 27, 1917.—The Russians are in despair, and some of them even talked of withdrawing altogether. They had thought the Germans would renounce all occupied territory without further parley, or hand it over to the Bolsheviks. Long sittings between the Russians, Kühlmann, and myself, part of the time with Hoffman. . . .Afternoon.—Matters still getting worse. Furious wire from Hindenburg about 'renunciation' of everything; Ludendorff telephoning every minute; more furious outbursts, Hoffman very excited, Kühlmann true to his name and 'cool' as ever." ((4), more)
(1) Entry from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia, for Sunday, December 27, 1914. Tsar Nicholas II had returned to Moscow from the Caucasus Mountains where the Turks had battled in the preceding weeks, and where the Battle of Sarikamish had just begun. 'The Straits' are the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, which, with the intervening Sea of Marmora, connected the Black and Mediterranean Seas, giving Russia a warm water port in Europe. Turkey's entry into the war on the side of the Central Powers severely constrained Russia's access to its British and French allies, its exports of grain and other food, and its imports of weaponry. Located on the Bosphorus, Constantinople was also symbolically important as the former center of the Eastern Rite Church.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. I by Maurice Paléologue, page 228, publisher: George H. Doran Company, publication date: 1925
(2) The Russians launched a new offensive in eastern Galicia on December 27, 1915. During the year Russia's production of weapons and shells had finally begun to meet the demands of the war. Despite the improved weaponry, the Russian preparations for the battle were poor.
The Eastern Front, 1914-1917 by Norman Stone, page 223, copyright © 1975 Norman Stone, publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons, publication date: 1975
(3) Excerpt from H. G. Wells' Mr Britling Sees it Through quoted by Siegfried Sassoon in his diary entry of December 27, 1916. Sassoon had been taken ill in July, and returned to England. On December 27th he learned he had been given another month's home service. H.G. Wells visited the front and reported on his experience and thoughts on the war in Italy, France And Britain At War, published in 1917.
Siegfried Sassoon Diaries 1915-1918 by Siegfried Sassoon, pp. 109–110, copyright © George Sassoon, 1983; Introduction and Notes Rupert Hart-Davis, 1983, publisher: Faber and Faber, publication date: 1983
(4) Excerpt from the entry for December 27, 1917 by Count Ottokar Czernin in his In the World War, on the stalemate at the Brest-Litovsk peace conference between Russia and the Central Powers. Baron Richard von Kühlmann was Germany's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from August 6, 1917 to July 9, 1918. Major General Max Hoffman commanded the German Eighth Army on the Russian Front, and took part in the negotiations. Generals Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff shared leadership of the German army, and were virtual dictators while in power.
In the World War by Count Ottokar Czernin, pp. 253, 254, copyright © 1920, by Harper & Brothers, publisher: Harper and Brothers, publication date: 1920
