A watercolor by F.B. champions deliverance and liberty for the cities of Strasbourg and Metz in Alsace-Lorraine.
Image text: Deliverance LiberteStrasbourgMetzDeliverance;Liberty
Italy's armed forces at the ready in a 1915 postcard. In the foreground the artillery, infantry, an Alpine soldier (in feathered hat), and a Bersaglieri (in plumed headgear). Behind them are a bugler and lancer; in the distance marines and colonial troops. The Italian navy is off shore, an airship and planes overhead. On the reverse are the lyrics of a patriotic Italian March by Angelo Balladori, lyrics by Enrico Mercatali. It ends with a call to the brothers of Trento and Trieste, Austro-Hungarian territory with large ethnic Italian populations.
Image text: Reverse:Marcia ItalicaD'Italia flammeggin le sante bandiereBaciate dal sole, baciate dal vento,Su l'aspro sentier di Bezzecca e di TrentoDe l'alma Trieste, sul cerulo mar.. . . Fratelli di Trento, Triestini fratelli,La patria s'è desta alla grande riscossa!Dell'aquila ingorda la barbara possaDai liberi petti domata sarà!Parole di Enrico MercataliMusica di Angelo Balladori.Casa Editrice Sonzogno - Milano. 1915.
'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.
Postcard of a cross-section of the German mine-laying submarine UC5, captured by the British.
Image text: Captured German UC5, mine-laying submarine. by Authority of the Admiralty, July 1916.Areal 2 wiresJumping wiresPeriscopeTelescopic mast Height ???? feetSteering wheel fitted to ????Main vent from tankWaterlineVertical rudderAfter trimming tankSilencerEngine room; engine; electric motors and diesel Benz motorsTank; oil fuel tanksAccumulators??? 70 in number???Ballast keel; 18.3 ?? tonsHand wheelKingston valvesBallast tanks tons; safety weightAccumulatorsBallast keel. . . Reverse:Crown Copyright Reserved.-Not to be reprinted without permission of Controller of H.M. Stationary Office.
Austro-Hungarian trench art pencil drawing on pink paper of a soldier in a ragged, many-times-patched uniform, labeled 'Bilder ohne Worte' (No Comment, or Picture without Words). Kaiser Karl who succeeded Emperor Franz Joseph is on reverse. The printed text on the reverse is in Hungarian and German.
Image text: Bilder ohne WorteNo Comment
"The purpose of the operations in Alsace was to retain a large part of the enemy's forces far from the northern theater of operations. Our offensive in Lorraine was to pursue the same purpose still more directly by holding before it the German army corps operating to the south of Metz.This campaign began brilliantly on August 14th. On the 19th we had reached the region of Saarburg and that of the Etangs (lakes), and we held Dieuze, Morhange, Delme, and Château Salins." ((1), more)
"At 03:00 on 14 August, the artillery opens up. Under cover of the darkness and thundering guns, the Bersaglieri crawl up the trackless hillside. More than once, Bonamore slithers back 20 or 30 metres. They stop some 200 metres below the enemy line and huddle for warmth. Bonamore sleeps 'for an hour or so leaning on the knees of Sergeant Meda who in turn was leaning against a tree trunk so as not to fall'. The climbing sun reveals them to the Austrians, who rake the mountainside with shrapnel. The Italians press themselves against the rocks, and wait. The wire-cutting detail is highest up the slope." ((2), more)
"It is Monday, but the atmosphere is that of Sunday. German weekdays now are all like Sunday. A little group of people is pressed against a big glass window. Here the latest war bulletins are posted. People always assemble at two spots — war bulletins and food shops. It is uncanny to see tragic eyes gazing into pastry shops and fruit stores. Meat is not displayed. I wondered why the butter and cheese stores are ignored. I tried gazing in one. They put up such a good appearance with their shining tinfoil packages. Then I discovered the reason. The packages are fake. Each holds a block of wood. There is no butter or cheese in window or shop. Twice a week a tiny supply arrives to be distributed to the bearers of cards, that is all." ((3), more)
"On 10 August [1917] U-117, operating under prize rules, despatched nine fishing trawlers on Georges Bank off the coast of Maine.Dröscher then turned south, sinking the 3875-ton Norwegian steamer Somerstad in thick fog off Fire Island. Bearing south, Dröscher on 13 August destroyed the 7127-ton American tanker Frederick R. Kellogg, inbound from Mexico with 7500 barrels of crude oil. He then laid his first series of mines off the Barnegat along the New Jersey coast, which 2 months later claimed the American steamer San Saba (2458 tons) as well as the Cuban freighter Chappara (1505 tons). On 14 August Dröscher destroyed the American five-masted schooner Dorothy B. Barrett near the mouth of the Delaware River, and then leisurely approached the Five Fathom Bank lightship to silence its SOS signals.Instead U-117 crash dived at the approach of aircraft. Lying in 25 yards of water Dröscher counted nine bombs in a span of 50 minutes, with each one getting closer. He wondered whether the light-grey colour of his hull could be seen through the shallow water, but feared that air bubbles or leaking oil might have betrayed his position. After several anxious hours on the bottom, U-117 headed for the Fenwick Island Shoal lightship off the coast of Maryland, where it laid a second series of mines, and then for the Winter Quarter lightship, where it sowed a third mindfield. The battleship USS Minnesota was severely damaged by these mines almost 6 months later; in November, the empty troop ship Saetia (2873 tons) also fell victim to the mines." ((4), more)
"Reports reached Berlin that if the Central Powers did not bring off an armistice soon, Vienna would be obliged to make a separate settlement with the enemy.Such was the environment when Emperor Charles and his leading counsellors appeared at Spa on August 14 for another top-level parley on war and peace with the Germans. The Hapsburg armed services could not possibly carry on another winter, the men from Vienna flatly asserted, and an armistice must be sought forthwith. Burián presented his plan for an informal, confidential meeting of representatives of the warring states to examine the fundamental considerations on which a settlement might be negotiated. Although Ludendorff had described August 8 as 'the black day' for the German army, the Berlin policy makers recoiled in dismay at Burián's proposal, and insisted that no move for peace should be undertaken until the military situation in France had been stabilized. In the light of first-hand observations in Dresden and Munich, the Austrians were sure that ordinary Germans urgently desired an armistice, and the governments of Bulgaria and Turkey assented to a general conference of belligerents with alacrity." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from French Commander Joseph Joffre's Official Review of the first month of the Campaign in France. Executing France's war Plan XVII, Joffre struck east across the Franco-German border. German Commander Helmuth von Moltke reversed initial French advances, first in Alsace, then in Lorraine, by bolstering his defenses, drawing from, and weakening, his right wing advancing through Belgium. Germany would feel this loss in its defeat at the Marne.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. II, 1914, p. 119, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
(2) The Italian attack began 20 minutes after the artillery barrage stopped at 12:15. The artillery had not cut the Austro-Hungarian wire, and the wire-cutters were killed before they could complete their mission. The infantry were slaughtered by the defenders. Those who tried to retreat were cut down. Those who survived were hidden from the Austro-Hungarian defenders, yet too close to the enemy line to call for artillery attacks on it. Some 50 men made it back to their lines after nightfall. The account, in Thompson's The White War, is based on that of Italian infantryman Virgilio Bonamore, who fought the Austro-Hungarians in the Julian Alps. The Bersaglieri were light infantry regiments identifiable by the cockerel feathers that adorned their hats.
The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919 by Mark Thompson, page 110, copyright © 2008 Mark Thompson, publisher: Basic Books, publication date: 2009
(3) American Madeleine Doty writing of street life — 'thin streams of people' — in Berlin on Monday, August 14, 1916. In her luxury hotel she can still get coffee, a little milk, and rolls, but no butter. Her 'delicious jam' is 'last year's jam. This year's has little sugar.' Her words presage the musical Cabaret: 'War and poverty exist outside, but here all is comfort.'
Short Rations: an American Woman in Germany 1915-1916 by Madeleine Z. Doty, pp. 118-119, copyright © 1917, by The Century Co., publisher: A. L. Burt Company, publication date: 1917
(4) Under Lieutenant-Commander Otto Dröscher, U-117 left Kiel on July 11, 1917 for Canada and the United States. He attacked ships and a convoy, but had no success until the August 10 sinkings above.
The First World War: Germany and Austria Hungary 1914-1918 by Holger H. Herwig, pp. 323–324, copyright © 1997 Holger H. Herwig, publisher: Arnold, publication date: 1997
(5) The success of the Anglo-French Battle of Amiens, particularly the seven-mile advance on a broad front in the first day, stunned German commander Erich Ludendorff who referred to a 'black day for the German Army.' Military and civilian leaders met at Spa on August 13 to review the situation, joined by the Emperors Wilhelm II of Germany and Karl of Austria-Hungary the next day. Hungarian Stephan Burián served as Joint Foreign Minister of Austria-Hungary from January 1915 to December 1916 and again from April 16 to October 24, 1918. He also served as Joint Finance Minister from December 1916 to September 7, 1918.
The Passing of the Hapsburg Monarchy, 1914-1918 2 Volumes by Arthur James May, pp. 730–731, copyright © 1966 by the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, publication date: 1966
