Indian soldiers unload a wagon. The caption on the back refers to the soldiers helping the Allies by 'unloading their baggage,' but Indian soldiers fought on their own. © American Press Assciation
Image text: Reverse:India's army which is helping the allies unloading their baggage. (C) American Press AssociationSEP 14 1914
Postcard report and map of an Austrian victory at Krasnik on August 26, 1914. The three-day Battle of Krasnik, an Austro-Hungarian victory, began on August 23, 1914 when General Dankl leading the Austro-Hungarian First Army, advancing, struck the Russian Fourth Army, and drove them back towards Lublin. Russia is shown in green, Austria-Hungary yellow, and Germany blue.
Image text: Österreichische Siege, 26. 8. 1914Das österreichische Kriegspressequartier meldet: Westlich der Weichsel errichten unsere Kräfte im Anschluß an die deutschen Verbündeten unter kleinen Kämpfen gestern den Abschnitt des Komionka Flussen zwischen Kielce und Radom. Oestlich der Weichsel warfen unsere Siegreich vordringenden Kräfte am 23 August bei Krasnik auf dem Wege nach Lublin eine starke Gruppe zweier russischer Korps zurück. Ueber 1000 Russen, darunter viele Offiziere, fielen unverwundet in unsere Hände. Eine Anzahl Fahnen, Maschinengewehre und Geschütze wurden erbeutet. (19)Austrian victories, 26 8th 1914The Austrian war press bureau reports: West of the Vistula our forces were increased by the addition of our German allies in fighting yesterday at the section of the Komionka River between Kielce and Radom. East of the Vistula our victorious forces advanced on 23 August at Krasnik, and drove a strong group of two Russian corps back to Lublin. About 1,000 Russians, including many officers, fell uninjured into our hands. A number of flags, rifles and machine guns were captured. (19)Reverse:Message dated February 7, 1915. Field postmark 9 Res. Div.B.Z. KriegskarteVerlag der B.Z. am Mittag, BerlinB.Z. War cardPublishing the B.Z. at noon, BerlinSEE HERWIG, PP. 92, 93
The Polish children are coming for lunch. German soldiers with Polish children in Lomza, Polish Russia, June, 1915. The photo postcard from Adolf Herzell was sent July 7, 1915. Herzell wrote that 'the Polish children are coming for lunch.' Translation courtesy of Thomas Faust, ebay's Urfaust.
Image text: Div. St. Qu. Dembg Gouv. Lomza June 1915.Reverse:... the Polish children are coming for lunch ...Translation courtesy of Thomas Faust, ebay's Urfaust.
Detail from a map of southern Turkey, Syria, Palestine, and Mesopotamia from the Baedeker 1912 travel guide 'Palestine and Syria with Routes through Mesopotamia and Babylonia and with the Island of Cyprus'. The detail is of Mesopotamia from Baghdad to Basra and the Persian Gulf and the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
Image text:
Detail showing the British sector of the Western Front from a map of the Allied offensives of 1918, from July 18 and the Second Battle of the Marne to the Armistice on November 11. From The Memoirs of Marshall Foch by Marshall Foch. The 1st and other armies to the south are French.
"Ever since our position in the French line was altered by the advance of General Maunoury's Sixth Army to the river Ourcq, I have been anxious to regain my original position on the left flank of the French armies. On several occasions I have thought of suggesting this move, but the strategical and tactical situation from day to day has made the proposal inopportune. Now, however, that the position of affairs has become clearly defined, and that the immediate future can be forecasted with some confidence, I wish to press the proposal with all the power and insistence which are at my disposal. The moment for the execution of such a move appears to me to be singularly opportune." ((1), more)
"The next morning at first light, reconnaissance flights revealed that the Turks had abandoned their positions on both sides of the river, and the naval flotilla easily breached the boom and pressed on as far as Kut, arriving off the town at 1000. . . .The battle for Kut cost the Turks around four thousand men, of whom 1,153 were made prisoner, together with fourteen guns and a large quantity of stores. British losses were just ninety-four killed, but over 1,200 were hospitalised. This large number of wounded put a severe strain on the medical teams operating with the army, and even more on the scant resources allocated to evacuating the injured men to Basra and the single hospital ship available there." ((2), more)
"Friday, September 29, 1916.The economic situation has become much worse in the last few weeks. The increased cost of living is causing hardship all round. The price of the most elementary necessaries is three times what it was at the beginning of the war; in the case of wood and eggs it is four times, and in that of butter and soap five times. The main causes of this situation are unfortunately as fundamental as obvious—the closing of foreign markets, congestion on the railways and confusion and dishonesty in the public services.What will it be in few weeks time when we have to cope with the rigours of winter and the tortures of the cold, which are even more cruel than those of hunger?" ((3), more)
"At 0615 elements of the 12th Brigade began advancing towards the Aziziya Ridge once more; despite some initial setbacks, by 0700 they were pressing on to the western end of the Shaikh Farajah Ridge beyond, form which they believed they could control the only bridge over the Aziziya Canal. In fact, this was not the case, and it was necessary to fight their way along the canal and take this bridge, which was secured at some cost. By 0930 the Turks had begun to surrender in significant numbers, and by 1100 the capitulation had become complete. In all, 3,456 prisoners were taken, together with ten guns, three 1-pounder pom-poms and twelve machine guns." ((4), more)
"On the first day of their attack in this region, September 29, the British Fourth Army advanced five kilometers. After two more days of heavy fighting, the British pushed their way through German defenses. Though the density of enemy divisions between Arras and Soissons was almost double that between Soissons and Verdun, the British made rapid progress south of Arras while the French and Americans made only small progress between Soissons and Verdun. . . .To the south of St.-Quentin, Debeney's First Army, which had the mission of supporting the British Fourth Army's operation, did nothing more on the twenty-ninth than provide assistance with artillery and launch a small attack on an enemy strong point ten kilometers south of St.-Quentin." ((5), more)
(1) Beginning of a proposal from British Commander Sir John French to French Commander-in-Chief Joffre on September 29, 1914. French's army would soon be augmented by British and Indian infantry and cavalry divisions. Joffre's reply of the next day agrees with French's desire to be on the left end of the line, but provides a more considered schedule for the move.
1914 by John French, page 167, copyright © 1919, by Houghton Mifflin Company, publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company, publication date: 1919
(2) The British, protecting an oil pipe line that ran from Ahwaz and the oil fields in Persia to Basra, a commercial and communications center on the Persian Gulf, expanded their foothold in Mesopotamia, part of the Ottoman Empire, as the war went on. In the November, 1914 Battle of Basra, British and Indian troops defeated Turkish forces that retreated up the Shat el-Arab to Qurna (Kornah or Kurna) at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The British took Qurna on December 9, 1914. In July, 1915 the British continued up-river and took Nasiriya. Kut, and Baghdad beyond it, lured them on. Abandoned by the Turkish defenders, Kut el Amara on the Tigris River was occupied by the British on September 29.
Eden to Armageddon: World War I in the Middle East by Roger Ford, page 36, copyright © Roger Ford 2010, publisher: Pegasus Books, publication date: 2010
(3) September 29, 1916 entry from the diary of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia. Imperial Russia's last great offensive had ground to an end, but casualties continued to climb. The hope that Romania's entry into the war would turn the tide was proving to be unfounded.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. III by Maurice Paléologue, page 44, publisher: George H. Doran Company
(4) General Stanley Maude, commander of the British forces in Mesopotamia, responded to reports that the Turks then gathering in Aleppo would move down the Euphrates River to recapture Baghdad on the Tigris River. To prevent that, the British set out to take Ramadie, 120 km west of Baghdad and on the Euphrates. Begun on September 28, 1917, the successful operation was completed the following day. The Turks in Aleppo would instead move south against British forces in Palestine.
Eden to Armageddon: World War I in the Middle East by Roger Ford, page 97, copyright © Roger Ford 2010, publisher: Pegasus Books, publication date: 2010
(5) The British offensive on September 29, 1918 was the last of Allied Commander-in Chief Ferdinand Foch's four offensives on four consecutive days at the end of the month, preceded by the Franco-American Meuse-Argonne Offensive of the 26th, the British offensive by the First and Third Armies towards Cambrai on the 27th, and the attack by the Flanders Group of Armies — Belgian, French, and British — under the command of Albert, King of the Belgians on the 28th.
Pyrrhic Victory; French Strategy and Operations in the Great War by Robert A. Doughty, pp. 488–489, copyright © 2005 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College, publisher: Harvard University Press, publication date: 2005
