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
View of the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme 1914–1918 from Mouquet Farm, commemorating the 72,246 British and Empire missing of that sector. It is a monument both to the British Empire and French missing from the Battle of the Somme and other battles in Picardy. © 2013 John M. Shea
Image text:
Map showing the territorial gains (darker shades) of Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece, primarily at the expense of Turkey, agreed in the Treaty of Bucharest following the Second Balkan War. Despite its gains, Bulgaria also lost territory to both Romania and Turkey.
Image text: The Balkan States According to the Treaty of Bucharest; Acquisitions of New Territory shown by darker shades
"Decision to Break Off the Flanders OffensiveInundations, skillfully managed by the Belgians, put an end to the attack of the German right wing, which was making good progress and bore the main pressure. The young army corps further South fought with incomparable enthusiasm and unexcelled heroism. The disadvantages of their urgent and hasty formation and training, and the fact that they were led by older and for the most part retired officers, as others were not to be had, naturally made themselves felt. In particular there were deficiencies in the new field-artillery formations, a fact that was emphasized by the shortage of ammunition. At the beginning of November, G.H.Q. could not conceal from itself that a further thorough-going success was no longer to be obtained here, particularly in the inundated area, in the face of an opponent who was continually growing stronger.. . . After the East had been provided with all the reserves at hand, both of men and ammunition, the forces in the West were no longer sufficient . . ." ((1), more)
"The main Serbian forces, by this time, had been rolled back upon the great Kossove Plain, 40 miles long, where they were joined by a hundred thousand Serbian refugees. Here they decided to risk all upon a final decisive battle at Pristina, on the same battleground that saw the defeat of the Serbian Czar Lazar by the Turks in 1389.The battle of Pristina was fought November 13th amidst a ceaseless downpour of rain, with thunder reverberating and lightning flashing. It was reciprocal slaughter, not warfare. Whole regiments were blotted out in a trice. Along that battle line of 40 miles, quarter was neither asked nor given....The Serbians were overwhelmed by the numbers of their enemy and retreated toward Prisrend, leaving 50,000 dead and 50,000 prisoners behind them." ((2), more)
". . . the main blow was to be struck northward towards Grandcourt and Beaumont Hamel. Struck it was in the shabby clammy morning of November 13.That was a feat of arms vieing with any recorded. The enemy was surprised and beaten. From Thiepval Wood battalions of our own division sprang out, passed our old dead, mud craters and wire and took the tiny village of St. Pierre Divion with its enormous labyrinth, and almost 2,000 Germans in the galleries there. Beyond the curving Ancre, the Highlanders and the Royal Naval Division overran Beaucourt and Beaumont, strongholds of the finest . . ." ((3), more)
"French officers addressing units of its 30th ID were met with shouts of 'Russians make war for France' and 'Peace and nothing more.' Their reports described Russian officers as demoralized and humiliated. In the 117th Regiment, officers of one battalion were arrested by their men and forced to march at command. Men of the 119th Regiment stormed their officers' mess, sacked the place, and forced its occupants to flee out a window. '30 Division is not the only [Russian] division . . . in a state of anarchy,' Colonel Ion Antonescu commented. 'The Russian 6th Army does not wish to fight and the troops of this army . . . would retreat at the first move of the enemy.'Consequently, Romanian reserves were channeled into strategic areas behind the 6th Army. Neighboring Romanian commanders made contact with their Russian counterparts to work out a plan of operations in the event of an enemy attack. On 13 November, after one regiment of the 30th ID left the line and its replacement refused to man it, a Romanian regiment took its place." ((4), more)
(1) Conclusion of General Erich von Falkenhayn Chief of the German General Staff in early November 1914. The Allies had defeated the Germans in the Battle of Flanders, the Belgians on the Yser at the end of October, the British and French at Ypres. The last great German attack in the campaign was on November 11. In the East, a German-Austro-Hungarian advance in September and October, almost to the gates of Warsaw was reversed by the Russians, requiring Falkanhayn to send men and supplies to the Eastern Front, and to entrench on the Western Front.
General Headquarters and its Critical Decisions, 1914-1916 by Erich von Falkenhayn, pp. 35, 36, copyright © 1920 by Dodd, Mead and Company, Inc., publisher: Dodd, Mead and Company, Inc., publication date: 1920
(2) Isolated, cut off from potential Allied reinforcements in Greece, Serbia's army had only one route of retreat, westward, out of the country through Albania to the Adriatic Sea. They fought a final pitched battle against the combined invasion force of German, Austro-Hungarian, and Bulgarian troops.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 191, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
(3) Excerpt from Edmund Blunden, English writer, recipient of the Military Cross, second lieutenant and adjutant in the Royal Sussex Regiment, writing of an attack on November 13, 1916, during the Battle of the Somme. Of one month earlier, October 13, Blunden had referred to his battalion's position as being 'at the edge of the Thiepval inferno.' The November 13 attack began in thick fog against the villages of Beaumont Hamel, Beaucourt, and St. Pierre Divion on the Ancre River. Hamel had seen the ruin of the Newfoundland Regiment on July 1, the first day of the Battle.
Undertones of War by Edmund Blunden, pp. 136–137, copyright © the Estate of Edmund Blunden, 1928, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: November 1928
(4) Until being ordered on July 25,1917 by Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky to stop all offensive action, the Russians had participated in a Romanian offensive. France had helped rebuild the Romanian army after its defeat in 1916, providing materiel and training. One of the demands of the Bolshevik Revolution was an immediate end to the war. Without Russian support, what remained of the Romanian army would not be able to hold what remained of unoccupied Romania: Moldavia, the northern part of the country. 'ID' is an infantry division.
The Romanian Battlefront in World War I by Glenn E. Torrey, pp. 261–262, copyright © 2011 by the University Press of Kansas, publisher: University Press of Kansas, publication date: 2011
