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
Amputees at a hospital in Budapest, Austria-Hungary in the summer of 1915. Some had lost their feet to freezing in the Carpathian Mountains in the winter. From 'Antwerp to Gallipoli' by Arthur Ruhl.
Image text: In a hospital garden, Budapest. All of these Austro-Hungarian soldiers have had one or both legs amputated.
We'll join in! Women beneath the flags of and in the uniforms of the Vierbund of Turkey, Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Bulgaria, are willing to play their part in the war effort.
Image text: Wir machen mit!We'll join in!Reverse:Dated Augsburg, February 3, 1916
Pope Benedict XV, holding a basket of olive leaves, uses a megaphone to address troops fighting — shooting, bayoneting, using rifles as clubs — in uniforms of France, Germany, Turkey, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Australia.Title at the top:A Päpa Bëkeszözata 1917The Pope's Words of Peace, 1917At the bottom:XV Benedek Vigëcz:Pardon Uraim! Szëp Müpätmät tesseneh. . . The Pope issued his message on August 1, 1917.Watercolor postcard by Schima Martos.
Image text: Title at the top:A Päpa Bëkeszözata 1917The Pope's Words of Peace, 1917.At the bottom:XV Benedek Vigëcz:Pardon Uraim! Szëp Müpätmät tesseneh. . .
Peoples of Austria-Hungary in 1914 from Historical Atlas by William R. Shepherd. The empire's population included Germans, Magyars, Romanians, Italians, and Slavs including Croats, Serbians, Ruthenians, Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, and Slovenes.
Image text: Peoples of Austria-Hungary in 1914Legend:Germans, Magyars, Romanians, Italians, and Slavs including Croats, Serbians, Ruthenians, Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, and Slovenes.
"Liège, 16 Août 1914. . . Sire,Vous apprendrez avec douleur que ce fort a sauté hier, à 5 h. 20 environ, ensevelissant sous ses ruines, la majeure partie de la garnison, peut-être les 0,8.Si je n'ai pas perdu la vie dans cette catastrophe, c'est parce que mon escorte m'a tiré d'un endroit où j'allais être asphyxié par les gaz de la poudre. J'ai été porté dans le fossé où je suis tombé . . .Je suis certain d'avoir soutenu l'honneur de nos armes. Je n'ai rendu ni la forteresse, ni les forts.Daignez me pardonner, Sire, la négligence de cette lettre; je suis physiquement très abimé par l'explosion de Loncin.En Allemagne, où je vais être dirigé, mes pensées seront ce qu'elles ont toujours été : la Belgique et son Roi. J'aurais volontiers donné ma vie pour les mieux servir, mais la mort n'a pas voulu de moi.Le lieutenant-général,Leman.Liège, August 16, 1914 . . . Sire, You will learn with sorrow that this fort blew up yesterday at about 5:20 [P.M.], burying most of the garrison, perhaps 80%, in its ruins. If I have not lost my life in this disaster, it is because my escort pulled me from a place where I would be asphyxiated by gases from the powder. I was taken into the moat where I fell. . .I am sure I maintained the honor of our arms. I have surrendered neither the fortress, nor the forts. Condescend to forgive me, sir, the carelessness of this letter; I was badly injured by the explosion of Loncin. In Germany, where I am being conducted, my thoughts will be what they always have been: Belgium and her King. I would have gladly given my life to serve them better, but death did not want me. Lieutenant-General, Leman." ((1), more)
"If I had stayed in London and continued to read the lies of but one side, I should doubtless, by this time, be able to loathe and despise the enemy with an entire lack of doubt, discomfort, or intelligence. But having been in all the countries and read all the lies, the problem is less simple. . . . Be joyful if you can, when you know what war is, and, knowing it, know also that it is the only way to do your necessary work. The absurd and disgusting thing is the ignorance and cowardice of those who can slaughter an army corps every day for lunch, with words, and would not be able to make so trivial a start toward the 'crushing' they are forever talking about as to fire into another man's open eyes or jam a bayonet into a single man's stomach. Among the Utopian steps which one would most gladly support would be an attempt to send the editors and politicians of all belligerent countries to serve a week in the enemy's hospitals." ((2), more)
"August 16th.—Moody is back: another asset. A German airman he met in hospital at Rouen said their game is up, Austria has let them down, but they will fight to the end: he was quite ignorant of our side of things, thought our Navy was scuppered at Jutland." ((3), more)
"For one blinding moment the evil sorcery, the taboo, about discussing peace was broken. August 16 [1917] Pope Benedict XV sent from the Vatican a note to all belligerent governments crying out against the war: 'Shall, then, the civilized world be naught but a field of death? And shall Europe, so glorious and flourishing, rush, as though driven by universal madness, toward the abyss, and lend her hand to her own suicide?' He suggested broad means of ending the conflict and settling the issues. The Times denounced the note as 'pro-German and anti-Ally . . . permeated with German ideas.' Every major power on both sides rejected it. The fighting would go on until somebody won. At Birkenhead Lloyd George estimate in an impromptu speech that 'we shall just win,' to which the Nation, that irreverent organ of the Left, innocently asked, 'Win What?'" ((4), more)
"Slovene politicians who desired a united Yugoslavia openly collaborated with Czech and Polish separatists, fraternization reaching a peak at a Pan-Slav congress convened on August 16 at Laibach (Ljubljana), attended by thousands. As features of the affairs, a monument to the memory of Dr. Johann Krek, courageous fighter for a united South Slavdom, was unveiled, and warmly Pan-Slav speeches were delivered; for instance, Count Skarbeck, a Pole, declared that Slav unity from Danzig (Gdánsk) to Trieste would thwart the menacing Berlin Bagdad proposition. Now Klofáč boldly asserted that the Czechs would not traffic with Vienna, but would 'struggle for complete independence,' reinforced by fellow Slavs and by the knowledge that the Entente was dedicated to a free Czechoslovakia. 'To-morrow is ours,' announced Korošec prophetically." ((5), more)
(1) Letter from Lieutenant-General Gérard-Mathieu Leman, commander of the forts of Liège, to King Albert of Belgium on August 16, 1914, the day the last of the forts fell, and on which he was taken into captivity. Leman was unconscious in Fort Loncin when German forces took it. The remaining two forts of Liège surrendered the same day.
General Leman and his letter to King Albert on August 16, 1914, the day the last forts of Liège fell by Gérard-Mathieu Leman, Postcard face, publisher: Ligue Nationale du Souvenir, publication date: 1914-08-16
(2) Excerpt from 'Cannon Fodder' in Antwerp to Gallipoli by Arthur Ruhl, a journalist from the neutral United States. Having written from Antwerp, Berlin, Gallipoli, and Romania, Ruhl was in Budapest in summer, 1915. Between the two paragraphs quoted, Ruhl has another about those who love the notion of 'flashing sabers.' He describes the grim wound he could fit four fingers in that a saber had made. He had read that the call to 'Sharpen sabers!' was 'joyful.' He demurs.
Antwerp to Gallipoli by Arthur Ruhl, pp. 262, 263, copyright © 1916 by Charles Scribner's Sons, publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons, publication date: 1916
(3) Extract from the entry for August 16, 1916 from the writings — diaries, letters, and memoirs — of Captain J.C. Dunn, Medical Officer of the Second Battalion His Majesty's Twenty-Third Foot, the Royal Welch Fusiliers. Captain P. Moody, one of the contributors to Dunn's book, had attempted to complete the capture of High Wood in late July and had been hit in the food. Part of the Battle of the Somme, the English attack on High Wood began July 14, but was not completed until mid-September. In June and July, the Austro-Hungarians had crumbled before Russia's Brusilov Offensive until Germany came, once again, to its ally's aid. The German military would soon assume command of the Austro-Hungarian army.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 250, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
(4) In August 1917 the war had been going on for three years for most combatants, and calls for peace came from numerous sources. Germany had floated a peace proposal in December 1916. President Woodrow Wilson had done the same at the same time. The Russian Revolution in March 1917 and the French army mutinies in the spring and summer had both been in part driven by demands for peace. Desertion rates were up in France and Italy and endemic in Russia where thousands of soldiers simply left the front.
In Flanders Fields, the 1917 Campaign by Leon Wolff, page 160, copyright © 1958 by Leon Wolff, publisher: The Viking Press, publication date: 1958
(5) President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points included calls for the satisfaction of nationalist aspirations:9. Readjustment of the frontiers of Italy along clearly recognizable lines of nationality.10. Assuring the freest opportunity of autonomous development to the peoples of Austria-Hungary.11. Restoration of Roumania, Serbia and Montenegro; free access to the sea accorded to Serbia; international guarantees of the independence and integrity of the several Balkan states.13. Erection of an independent Polish state, which should include the indisputable Polish territories, having access to the sea, and guaranteed by international covenant.(Quoted in King's Complete History of the World War, page 371.)The Berlin to Baghdad axis and railway, crossing Austria-Hungary, occupied Serbia, and Bulgaria, would be crossed and thwarted by a Slavic axis from a Polish state on the Baltic Sea to Trieste on the Adriatic Sea. Yugoslavia would be the Union of South Slavs that Gavrilo Princip had killed and died for.
The Passing of the Hapsburg Monarchy, 1914-1918 2 Volumes by Arthur James May, pp. 736–737, copyright © 1966 by the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, publication date: 1966
