Australians at Anzac Cove, December 17, 1915, from 'Gallipoli' by John Masefield. The Allied completed evacuating their positions at Suvla Bay and Anzac Cove on December 19.
Image text: Australians at Anzac two days before the evacuation took place.
The rulers of the Central Powers stumped by Verdun. Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary, Mohammed V of Turkey, Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, and Czar Ferdinand of Bulgaria puzzle over a map labeled "Verdun." The ink and watercolor drawing is dated March 4, 1916. By R. DLC?The German assault on Verdun began on February 21, 1916 and continued through August.
Image text: Illustrated map labeled "Verdun." Drawing dated March 4, 1916. By R. DLC?
Western Ottoman Empire showing the travels of Rafael De Nogales, Inspector-General of the Turkish Forces in Armenia and Military Governor of Egyptian Sinai during the World War, from his book Four Years Beneath the Crescent.
Image text: Legend for the author's travels for the years 1915, 1916, 1917, and 1918.
Panorama of the Western theater of war 1914/15 from Compiègne to Arras, with the North Sea coast in the distance.
Image text: Reverse:Panorama des westlichen Kriegschauplatzes 1914/15 von Compiegne bis Arras.Die Panorama-Postkartenreihe umfaßt mit ihren 9 Abschnitten Nr. 400 bis 408 den gesamten westlichen Kriegschauplatz von der Schewizer Grenze bis zur Nordseeküste.Panorama of the Western theater of war 1914/15 from Compiègne to Arras.The panoramic postcard series includes with their 9 sections No. 400 to 408 the entire western front from the Schewizer border to the North Sea coast.Nr. 407Wenau-Postkarte Patentamtl. gesch.Logo: W&N AGL
"On the morning of March 26 [1915] we landed at the port of Gallipoli where the headquarters of the Third Corps had been for some time, and established temporary headquarters there.. . . The British gave me four full weeks before their great landing. They had sent part of their troops to Egypt and perhaps also to Cyprus. The time was just sufficient to complete the most indispensable arrangements and to bring the 3rd Division under Colonel Nicolai from Constantinople." ((1), more)
"Sunday, March 26, 1916.The frightful struggle at Verdun is still continuing.Notwithstanding the extreme cold and heavy snowfalls the Russians are trying to help us by attacks on the Dvina front. Yesterday they gained substantial successes in the Jacobstadt sector and west of Lake Narotch." ((2), more)
"A few minutes after our arrival at Beersheba we met a German sergeant who told us, in reply to my question as to where he was going, that he was following Lieutenant Ande, who had set out a half hour previous with his machine-gun detachment, in the direction of Shellal. At once we suspected that something of grave importance was underway. We hurried on therefore to our encampment; and reached it at the precise moment when Essay Bey sallied forth with the entire garrison of Beersheba to take part in the First Battle of Gaza." ((3), more)
"General Foch is charged by the British and French governments with coördinating the action of the Allied armies on the western front. To this end he will come to an understanding with the commanders in chief, who are requested to furnish him with all necessary information. . . . Instead of a British battle to cover the Channel ports and a French battle to cover Paris, we would fight an Anglo-French battle to cover Amiens, the connecting link between the two armies." ((4), more)
(1) On March 24, 1915, six days after the failure of the Anglo-French attempt to force the Dardanelles in a naval assault, Turkish War Minister Enver Pasha asked German General Otto Liman von Sanders to take command of the Turkish Fifth Army and organize it to defend the Dardanelles.
Five Years in Turkey by Liman von Sanders, pp. 57, 58, publisher: The Battery Press with War and Peace Books, publication date: 1928 (originally)
(2) Entry for March 23, 1916, from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia. The German assault on and siege of Verdun had been underway for over a month. The Russian offensive at Lake Narotch, begun in unsuitable weather and at the French request for support, was foundering. The 'successes' were less than the Ambassador had been led to believe.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. II by Maurice Paléologue, page 220, publisher: George H. Doran Company
(3) Rafael de Nogales was a Venezuelan mercenary and officer in the Ottoman Army who had been Inspector-General of Turkish Forces in Armenia. In 1916 he served under German General von der Goltz in Mesopotamia. In January, 1917 he was in Palestine where he heard the news that the British had advanced 'beyond El-Arrisch and were at the gates of the city of Gaza.' He had just returned from a failed mission to destroy the chief pumping station of the British pipe line when he found the First Battle of Gaza beginning.
Four Years Beneath the Crescent by Rafael De Nogales, page 326, copyright © 1926, by Charles Scribner's Sons, publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons, publication date: 1926
(4) The first paragraph is from the agreement signed by Lord Alfred Milner, a member of the British War Cabinet, and French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau on March 26, 1918, appointing General Ferdinand Foch commander over the French and British Armies on the Western Front to ensure the two did not separate and fall back to the the national capital or the evacuation ports for transfer to Britain. The second paragraph is a summary of Foch's immediate plan, first sent to Clemenceau two days earlier. The 'commanders in chief' were British General Douglas Haig and French General Henri Philippe Pétain. Amiens was a critical communication center in northern France. Germany's Operation Michael, the Somme Offensive, was on the verge of breaking the Allied line and seizing Amiens.
The Memoirs of Marshall Foch, translated by Col. T. Bentley Mott by Ferdinand Foch, pp. 264, 265, copyright © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., publisher: Doubleday, Doran & Co., publication date: 1931
