The poet, novelist, and political activist Gabriele d'Annunzio speaking in favor of Italy's entry into the war on the side of the Entente Allies, and against 'Giolittismo' at the Costanzi Theater in Rome, May, 1915. Giovanni Giolitti was five-time Prime Minister of Italy, and opposed intervention in the Great War. Illustration by Achille Beltrame.
Image text: The great demonstrations against the 'Giolittism'; Gabriele d'Annunzio speaks to the people of Rome, in Theatro Costanzi.
Headstones from Martinpuich Cemetery, Martinpuich, France: for J. Reid of the Royal Field Artillery, died October 6, 1916, and R.E. Bullows of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, died November 11, 1916. Martinpuich was in the Somme sector. © 2013 John M. Shea
Image text: 54766 DriverJ. ReidRoyal Field Artillery6th October 1916Known to be Buried in this Cemetery3009 Lance Cpl.R.E. BullowsRoyal Warwickshire Rgmt.11th November 1916 Age 22Greater love hath no man than this
Gravestone of an unknown soldier of the Seaforth Highlanders, a Scottish regiment, in Cabaret Rouge British Cemetery. © 2013 by John M. Shea
Image text: Cuidich 'n Righ (Aid the King)A Soldier of the Great WarSeaforth HighlandersKnown Unto God
Postcard celebrating the independence of Czechoslovakia from Austria-Hungary, proclaimed in its capital Prague on October 28, 1918. The lion, a symbol of Bohemia dating to the 12th or 13th century, became part of the coat of arms of, and a symbol for, Czechoslovakia. The lion holds in its mouth remnants of a Habsburg banner, while looking at part of the Prague skyline.
Image text: Ať ŽijeČeskoslovenska Republika!28. Rijna 1918Long liveThe Republic of Czechoslovakia!October 28, 1918
"Monday, May 17, 1915There is intense excitement in Italy. In Rome, Milan, Venice, and Genoa there is a continuous succession of stormy demonstrations which are almost revolutionary in character.Under the pressure of popular feeling King Victor Emmanuel yesterday refused the resignation of the Salandra-Sonnino Cabinet. Giolotti's plot has thus failed. The only course now open to the 'neutralist' Parliament is to bow to the demands of the national instincts." ((1), more)
"Whatever the reason, all of a sudden a volley of small-caliber shellfire fell all around us with a crackling like fireworks. What kind of devilish device was this, which we hadn't encountered before—and never did afterward? Doubtless it was some new kind of rapid-firing cannon which the Germans never use again (too bad for them). The firing lasted about thirty seconds, which seemed interminable, then started up again. These packets of shells tore up the earth all around us, whistled, farted, shot off showers of sparks and flames, and stirred up a storm of iron fragments, chunks of dirt, and stones.Flat on our bellies with our noses in the dirt, we were terrified, disconcerted by this new way of scaring and killing people." ((2), more)
"Officially, the Battle of Arras ended on 17 May — but in reality it ceased at the termination of the last major British attack, which was on 4 May, 1917. For most of the troops, however, the war still had a long, terrible path to follow.On the Arras battlefront the village of Bullecourt finally succumbed to the 58th (2nd/1st London Division on 17 May." ((3), more)
". . . the mutinies spread, and within a few weeks both a Ruthenian battalion, and a Serbian unit in the Austrian army, had mutinied, though both revolts were quickly crushed. On May 17, in Prague, a provocatively named Conference of the Suppressed Nations of Austria-Hungary was held in Prague. A fourth mutiny, by Czech troops, broke out in Rumburg four days later. They refused to go to the front unless they were paid the money due to them when they were prisoners-of-war in Russia. They occupied the town, received some support from the local Czech citizens, and threatened to march on Prague." ((4), more)
(1) Entry for Monday, May 17, 1915, from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador in Russia. Italy had signed the Pact of London on April 26, committing the country to enter the war on the side of the Entente Allies by May 26 in exchange for a loan of £50,000,000 and promises of territories (such as Trentino and Trieste) to be won. King Victor Emmanuel, Prime Minister Antonio Salandra, and Foreign Minister Sidney Sonnino all favored war, but faced overwhelming neutralist sentiment throughout the country and in the figure of former Prime Minister Giolotti. By mid-May Benito Mussolini, Gabriele D'Annunzio, and other pro-war activists were demonstrating, sometimes violently, for war.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. I by Maurice Paléologue, page 338, publisher: George H. Doran Company, publication date: 1925
(2) On May 17, 1916, French Infantry Corporal Louis Barthas was on Hill 304, facing the hill of Mort-Homme during the Battle of Verdun when this new type of German shell fell upon his unit. The men retreat only to debate advancing to their old position when they are subjected to what Barthas calls 'one of the terrible bombardments that I heard and saw throughout the whole war' advancing, retreating, and advancing again. Barthas marvels that the same immense 'salvoes of iron and fire' he suffered in his 'small link in Verdun's chain of defense' are falling to his left and right across the Verdun sector.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, page 198, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
(3) The British suffered 159,000 casualties in the 1917 Battle of Arras, a battle that lasted 39 days at an average cost of 4,076 casualties per day. In Cheerful Sacrifice, his history of the battle, Jonathan Nicholls compares Arras to other deadly offensives by the British, noting that the Battle of Arras had the highest daily rate: the Battle of the Somme (1916) 141 days, 2,943 casualties per day; the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele, 1917) 105 days, 2,323 daily casualties; Britain's final offensive of 1918, 96 days, 3,645 casualties per day.
Cheerful Sacrifice: The Battle of Arras, 1917 by Jonathan Nicholls, page 209, copyright © Jonathan Nicholls [1990 repeatedly renewed through] 2011, publisher: Pen and Sword, publication date: 2010
(4) The predecessor to the spreading mutinies described was one that began on May 12, 1918 when the largely Slovenian 40th Battalion of the 17th Infantry Regiment, with parts of 41st and 42nd Battalions, mutinied in Judenburg. (Thanks to @IndijancTecumse for clarification.) Czechs and representatives of other Slavic national groups staged anti-Hapsburg demonstrations in Prague. Ukraine and Finland had already declared independence from Russia. The ethnic groups of Austria-Hungary were eager for their own nations.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 422, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
