Chosen Boy, a 1918 watercolor by Paul Klee. From Paul Klee: Early and Late Years: 1894-1940. © 2013 Moeller Fine Art
Image text:
Zeppelin Kommt! Children play a Zeppelin raid on London. Holding his bomb in the gondola is a doll of the airship's inventor, Count Zeppelin. The other children, playing the English, cower, and the British fleet — folded paper boats — remains in port. Prewar postcards celebrated the imposing airships and the excitement they generated with the same expression, 'Zeppelin Kommt!'. Postcard by P.O. Engelhard (P.O.E.). The message on the reverse is dated May 28, 1915.
Image text: P.O.E.? EnglandLondonZeppelin Kommt!Reverse:Message dated May 28, 1915Stamped: Geprüft und zu befördern (Approved and forwarded) 9 Komp. Bay. L.I.N. 5
Bulgarian machine-gunners laying out ammunition belts on the Salonica Front.
1898 map of St. Petersburg, the Russian capital, from a German atlas. Central St Petersburg, or Petrograd, is on the Neva River. Key landmarks include the Peter and Paul Fortress, which served as a prison, Nevski Prospect, a primary boulevard south of the Fortress, the Finland Train Station, east of the Fortress, where Lenin made his triumphal return, the Tauride (Taurisches) Palace, which housed the Duma and later the Petrograd Soviet.
Image text: St Petersburg (Petrograd); Neva River, Peter and Paul Fortress; Nevski Prospect, Finland Bahnhof (Train Station); Taurisches (Tauride) Palace
Fantasy map of Europe with the territory of Germany and Austria-Hungary incorporated into France, Russia, Italy, and Serbia. Children representing Belgium, Great Britain (pen in hand), Russia, and France admire the result as Germany and Austria-Hungary walk away bearing their dead or dying national symbols, the eagle or double-headed eagle. A postcard by Aurelio Bertiglia.
Image text: Nuova EuropaL'Europe NovelleNew EuropeA. BertigliaReverse:Logo: C.C.M. in a circle
"By the evening of the 17th August these [seven German] Armies were concentrated, ready to move, on a long front extending from the fortress of Strasbourg to the Dutch frontier north of Liège. This front ran through Sarrebourg, Metz and Thionville; up the centre of the Duchy of Luxembourg (the neutrality of which had been violated on the 2nd August), to Liège; and to the north-west of this fortress, where the northernmost German Army, von Kluck's, was deployed facing the Belgians on the Gette." ((1), more)
"On August 17 [1915] four more Zeppelins were sent out with definite orders to bomb the City of London. Two of these ships had serious mechanical trouble and had to turn back before they reached England. Von Buttlar in LZ.11 produced another dramatic, but totally fictitious, account of how he bombed London, but he was never at any time within forty miles of the British capital. . . .Wenke, aboard LZ.10 was more successful as far as navigation was concerned, for he actually did reach London, the first Naval Airship commander to do so. . . . He thought he bombed the metropolis between Blackfriars and London bridges and reported that great buildings collapsed and big fires were observed, but he hit the Leyton railroad station, damaged a tramcar roundhouse, and destroyed a number of small houses. Ten people were killed and forty-eight wounded." ((2), more)
"At two in the morning on August 17 [1916] a column of Bulgarian infantry, with light artillery trundling behind, set out along half-forgotten hill tracks on the western fringe of the Kenali valley, which led from Monastir to Florina. Shortly afterward a second infantry regiment began a parallel advance on the opposite side of the valley. By dawn they had overpowered the Serbian outposts, and by the time that news of the attack had reached Sarrail eighty miles away in Salonika, the Bulgarians had captured the station of Florina and were in a position to cut off the town, which lay three miles west of the railway. By the following morning the Bulgarians had rushed 18,000 men through the gap and outnumbered the Serbs who opposed them by two to one." ((3), more)
"[Kornilov] wanted the right to shoot deserters and mutineers, and he proposed a far more rigid control of the political commissars and soldiers' committees at the front. In the rear he wanted to exercise military discipline on the railways, the arsenals and the munition factories: and there is no doubt he was justified in urging reforms. When Kerensky hesitated the general proceeded to Petrograd to have the matter out, and everything in the capital, even Kerensky himself, filled him with anger and disgust. On his return to his headquarters at Mogilev on August 17 he declared to his staff that the only way to clean things up was to hang Lenin and disperse the Soviets before they could engineer another rising." ((4), more)
". . . the whole thing could collapse as soon as this year. Here I can see and hear more than you can, and I have also read various secret orders. The mood among the troops is quite extraordinarily bad. Many regiments that are supposed to attack are simply refusing to do so . . . Troops coming back there from the field simply refuse to cooperate, and officers can barely show themselves on the streets in the evenings. In my opinion, we will have the same conditions here as in Russia within one year at most. Not one person in the officer corps believes that we will gain a victory any more, and everyone believes that there will be a collapse." ((5), more)
(1) Almost one and a half million men comprised the seven German armies with the largest army, the First with 320,000 men, being on the right wing of the German advance. On its left was the Second with 260,000. The Third, Fourth, and Fifth Armies formed the inner arm of the wheel which pivoted on Thionville north of Metz. With Liège secured, the armies were ready to advance.
Military Operations France and Belgium, 1914, Vol. I, August to October by J. E. Edmonds, page 42, copyright © Second Edition 1925, publisher: MacMillan and Co., Limited, publication date: 1925
(2) The morning of August 12, 1915, Naval First Lieutenant (Oberleutnant-zur-See) H. von Buttlar had been caught in a violent storm over the North Sea while returning from an aborted raid on England, that lifted his airship dangerously high before driving it towards the sea. He was fortunate to survive. Oberleutnant-zur-See Friedrich Wenke was more successful, but overestimated his success. Ian Castle covers this raid on his website: www.iancastlezeppelin.co.uk/17-august-1915-1.
The Zeppelin Fighters by Arch Whitehouse, page 99, copyright © 1966 by Arch Whitehouse, publisher: New English Library, publication date: 1978
(3) German and Bulgarian commands anticipated an offensive against Bulgaria by the Allies forces in Greece and were aware Romania was about to join the Allies in the war against Austria-Hungary. German forces had helped, and continued to help, Austria stop Russia's attempts to reinvigorate their success in the Busilov Offensive, leaving the Bulgarians to take the lead in preempting the Allied attack. Under the command of French General Maurice Sarrail, the Allied line included French, British, Russian, and Serbian troops. It was the Serbian sector on the Greek frontier the Bulgarians struck.
The Gardeners of Salonika by Alan Palmer, page 77, copyright © 1965 by A. W. Palmer, publisher: Simon and Schuster, publication date: 1965
(4) Alexander Kerensky, already War Minister, became Prime Minister on July 20, 1917 even as his offensive, launched on July 1, was ending in defeat and retreat. Alexsei Brusilov, commander in chief of the Russian armies, was replaced by General Lavr Kornilov. Kronilov had supported Russia's February Revolution earlier in the year, but insisted on abolishing some of the reforms the Revolution had implemented, such as the abolishment of the death penalty for desertion. He also wanted to restrict the power of the soviets among the soldiers. In August, after a government attack on the Bolsheviks, their leader Vladimir Lenin had fled Petrograd and was in hiding in Russia's semi-autonomous region of Finland.
The Russian Revolution by Alan Moorehead, page 217, copyright © 1958 by Time, Inc., publisher: Carroll and Graf, publication date: 1989
(5) German Lieutenant Richard Schütt writing to his parents on August 17, 1918 and recommending they sell their war bonds as quickly as possible.
Hundred Days: The Campaign that Ended World War I by Nick Lloyd, page 91, copyright © 2014 by Nick Lloyd, publisher: Basic Books, publication date: 2014
