Zweibund — the Dual Alliance — Germany and Austria-Hungary united, were the core of the Central Powers, and here join hands. The bars of Germany's flag border the top left, and those of the Habsburg Austrian Empire and ruling house the bottom right.
Image text: Schulter an SchulterUntrennbar vereintin Freud und in Leid!'Shoulder to shoulderInseparably united in joy and in sorrow!
The Cripple Entente: Great Britain, Russia, and France. Their flags behind them, King George V, Tsar Nicholas II, and President Poincaré show the effects of the initial German victories in 1914.
Image text: Kriegs-Karte der 'Lustigen Blätter' Nr. 12.So muß es kommen:Die "Krüppel-Entente'.War Card of the 'Lustigen Blätter' (Funny Pages) No. 12It must come to this:The 'Cripple Entente'.Reverse:Kriegs-PostkarteVerlag der Lustigen Blätter (Dr. Eysler & Co.) G.m.b.H. Berlin SW. 68Druck von H.S. Hermann, BerlinWar PostcardPublisher of the Lustigen Blätter (Dr. Eysler & Co.) LLC Berlin SW. 68Printed by H.S. Hermann, Berlin
Albatros Scout from the Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C. © 2012 John M. Shea
Image text:
'December snow.' Hand-painted watercolor calendar for December 1917 by Schima Martos. Particulates from a smoking kerosene lamp overspread the days of December, and are labeled 'December höra,' 'December snow.' The first five days or nights of the month show a couple at, sitting down to, or rising from a lamp-lit table. The rest of the month the nights are dark, other than four in which the quarter of the moon shows through a window, or Christmas, when the couple stands in the light of a Christmas tree.
Image text: December höraDecember snow2½ liter petroleum.
"The Austrians had their backs to the wall and were in danger of being flung through the Carpathians and into the Hungarian plain. They were now deployed in a thin gray line, a weak Second Army on the left, lying along the German border north of Cracow. . .To save Cracow, Austria's last foothold east of the Carpathians, Conrad ordered an attack across the Vistula. The Austrian Fourth Army and a German division beat the Russian Third Army to a standstill near Cracow at Limanowa in the first two weeks of December. Southeast of Cracow, facing west, the Russians had made themselves vulnerable to a flanking attack, which Archduke Joseph Ferdinand delivered." ((1), more)
"On December 4 [1915], a few days after Joffre's appointment as commander-in-chief, French and British leaders attended a meeting at Calais in which the main point of discussion was Salonika. The meeting occurred at a time when the currents of the war seemed to be flowing against the allies. The Germans had broken through at Gorlice-Tarnów and driven the Russians back 350 kilometers; Joffre's autumn offensive had failed to make significant gains; the British were considering abandoning Gallipoli; the Serbs were fleeing across the mountains toward the Adriatic; and Sarrail's forces were withdrawing from Serbia toward Salonika." ((2), more)
"Zeppelin hangers. Maubeuge at 3:30 p.m. Right after, Haumont. A perfect example of a French provincial town. The poesy of sobriety, everyday life without makeup. Food? Sugar? Oil? Rice? Wool? Rubber? Little, barely more than we have, and already plundered, because it is a military station. Soldiers scouting for goods, hoarding merchants, the speculators! I too would like butter, but not for trading, only for me and my family to eat. The Satan of usury has no strength, he is too much of a bourgeois." ((3), more)
"[Austro-Hungarian Emperor] Karl on 4 December [1917] called a meeting of military leaders. Szurmay reiterated the demand for a separate Hungarian army and informed those present that 'all groups' in Budapest were 'united on the issue of a Hungarian army'. General Sarkotić, the Croat wartime leader of Bosnia-Herzegovina, countered that Szurmay's demands were inadmissible and instead argued for a 'small unitary army' designed to 'repress revolutionary subversions and coups'. . . . War Minister Stöger-Steiner defused a potentially explosive situation by suggesting that Karl bow to the inevitable on the issue of a separate Hungarian army, but that he do so in such a manner as to turn its creation into a 'genuine coronation of dualism'. In any case, Stöger-Steiner lectured the council, such a step would have to wait until the end of the war. General Dankl, colonel of the Leibgarden, closed the meeting on a true Habsburg note by muttering 'later, much later' in support of the War Minister's decision to delay the issue." ((4), more)
(1) Meeting on November 29 and 30, 1914, Grand Duke Nicholas, Commander of the Russian Army, had approved General Ivanov's plan to continue his successful offensive against Austria-Hungary, driving the enemy from Galicia and crossing the Carpathian Mountains to threaten the Hungarian capital of Budapest. As he would again, Austro-Hungarian commander Conrad von Hötzendorf requested and received German support in a counterattack that stopped the Russian advance and forced them to pull most of their forces from the battles for the mountain passes.
A Mad Catastrophe by Geoffrey Wawro, page 305, copyright © 2014 by Geoffrey Wawro, publisher: Basic Books
(2) In a too-late attempt to save Serbia from being overrun by a German-Austro-Hungarian-Bulgarian invasion, France and Britain had landed at Salonica, Greece and moved north, but were prevented from providing any relief by Bulgarian forces. The British were eager to leave the new front, as they were soon to leave Gallipoli. The French argued for staying. 1915 had indeed been bleak for the Entente Allies. To the litany of Allied disappointment and outright failure above — the Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive, Joffre's autumn offensive, the invasion of Gallipoli, the defeat of Serbia, and the failed attempt to aide their ally — could be added Italy's failures in four Battles of the Isonzo River. General Maurice Sarrail commanded the French forces in Greece. On December 2, 1915, French President Poincare appointed General Joseph Joffre Commander-in-Chief of the French armies.
Pyrrhic Victory; French Strategy and Operations in the Great War by Robert A. Doughty, page 233, copyright © 2005 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College, publisher: Harvard University Press, publication date: 2005
(3) Excerpt from the diary of the Swiss-German painter Paul Klee serving with the air corps where he had varnished of the wings and fuselages of airplanes. On December 4, 1916, Klee was transporting two planes — B.F.W. (Bayerische Flugzeugwerke) 3054/16 and 3053/16 and spare parts to Fighter Squadron 5. The journey takes him through Cologne, Belgium, and into France. Jagdstaffel 5 was on the Somme battlefront at the time. Both Hermann Göring and Werner Voss flew with the squadron. B.F.W. manufactured planes under license from Albatros-Flugzeugwerke.
The Diaries of Paul Klee 1898-1918, Edited, with an Introduction by Felix Klee by Paul Klee, page 354, copyright © 1964 by the Regents of the University of California, publisher: University of California Press, publication date: 1968
(4) Karl, Emperor of Austria and Apostolic King of Hungary, inherited his thrones from Franz Joseph after the latter's death in November, 1916. Incompetent leadership on the battlefield, an inability to produce adequate materiel for war or adequate food for civilians and soldiers alike, and increasing national aspirations in its ethnic groups were driving the Empire to its dissolution. The two nations of the Empire, Austria and Hungary, shared a head of state and ministries of foreign affairs, finance, and defense. The countries had separate parliaments (in Vienna and Budapest) and prime ministers. Szurmay was Minister for the Honvéd, the equivalent of Austria's Landwehr, the territorial or national guard.
The First World War: Germany and Austria Hungary 1914-1918 by Holger H. Herwig, page 353, copyright © 1997 Holger H. Herwig, publisher: Arnold, publication date: 1997
