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With Bulgaria joining the Central Powers in October 1915 assuring the defeat of Serbia by the end of November, the Balkanzug — the Balkan Railway, shown in red — connected Berlin and Constantinople. By the second week of November, Turkey received ammunition and weapons from its allies.
Postwar postcard map of the Balkans including Albania, newly-created Yugoslavia, expanded Romania, and diminished former Central Powers Bulgaria and Turkey. The first acquisitions of Greece in its war against Turkey are seen in Europe where it advanced almost to Constantinople, in the Aegean Islands from Samos to Rhodes, and on the Turkish mainland from its base in Smyrna. The Greco-Turkish war was fought from May 1919 to 1922. The positions shown held from the war's beginning to the summer of 1920 when Greece advanced eastward. Newly independent Hungary and Ukraine appear in the northwest and northeast.
French folding postcard map of Verdun and the Meuse River, number 9 from the series Les Cartes du Front. Montfaucon is in the upper left and St. Mihiel at the bottom.
'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.
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.
"Wednesday, September 20, 1916Hindenburg's plan is taking shape and in course of realization on the whole of the circular Rumanian front. Along the Danube and in the Dobrudja the region of Orsova and the defiles of the Carpathians, the German, Austrian, Bulgarian and Turkish forces are exercising sustained and converging pressure, under which the Rumanians are giving way at all points." ((1), more)
"As announced in the communiqués of September 20th and 21st, the battle now came to a standstill. . . .The results of Mackensen's victorious progress up to this point were important. Eight Rumanian divisions had been taken prisoner or terribly shattered; the Russian forces sent to aid Rumania had been so often defeated that their fighting power was badly shaken; and positions on the lower Danube flanking Wallachia and the national capital had been won. In addition, any invasion of the southern Dobrudja by the enemy had been rendered impossible, and his main army on the Transylvanian front had been weakened by the withdrawal of troops which it could ill spare. These were now shut up behind Trajan's wall. The Rumanians were compelled to wage war upon three fronts." ((2), more)
"— They have started their shootings again. Out of four soldiers in a mutinous regiment who were shot at Verdun, one had voluntarily enlisted, another was the father of three children, while another had won the Croix de Guerre. And those were not the real ringleaders." ((3), more)
"The food distribution is fairer [in Bavaria than in Prussia]. Wild birds are to be had without meat cards, but not chickens or ducks. For all supplies, visitors must have cards. The hotels furnish only bread and meat tickets. I refused to go through the red tape needed to secure magistrate's cards for other edibles. The result made meals frugal. Eagerly I would scan a bill of fare. My eye would light on a pudding. Putting is a luxury. 'I'll have some,' I'd order. 'I'm sorry, Madame,' the waiter would reply, 'but the pudding contains an egg and you have no egg card.' In despair I would turn to something else. 'Give me this,' I would urge. But again would come the answer, 'I'm sorry, Madame, but that contains meal and you have no meal card.' Food is richer in Munich than in Berlin, for fodder is better and the animals fatter. But I had less to eat than in Prussia." ((4), more)
"The airship was well lighted by searchlights but there was not a sign of any gunfire. I could distinctly see the propellers revolving and the airship was maneuvering to avoid the searchlight beams. I fired at it. The first two drums of ammunition had apparently no effect, but the third one caused the envelope to catch on fire in several places; in the center and the front. All firing was traversing fire along the envelope. The drums were loaded with a mixture of Brock, Pomeroy and tracer ammunition. I watched the burning airship strike the ground and then proceeded to find my flares. I landed at Sutton's farm at 1:40 A.M., 24th instant. My machine was B.E.2C 4112. After seeing the Zeppelin had caught fire, I fired a red Very light." ((5), more)
(1) Entry from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia, for Saturday, September 20, 1916. A combined German and Austrian army under German General Erich von Falkenhayn, and a German, Bulgarian, and Turkish army under German General August von Mackensen attacked Romania, the former in Transylvania, Austria-Hungary, and the latter in from the south in Dobrudja, a region between the Danube River and the Black Sea. The Carpathian Mountains formed a significant natural barrier between Austria-Hungary and Romania.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. III by Maurice Paléologue, page 32, publisher: George H. Doran Company
(2) Excerpt from an account by German General Wollman of the campaign against Romania which had entered the war on August 27, 1916 by invading Transylvania, an Austro-Hungarian region with a large ethnic-Romanian population, with three of its four armies. German General August von Mackensen led an allied German, Bulgarian, Turkish army on the south side of the Danube River facing Wallachia (southern Romania), and threatening the capital of Bucharest. The region of Dobrudja in eastern Romania had no natural protection to the south. Roman emperor Trajan had constructed earthen barriers there two millennia ago.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. IV, 1916, pp. 351–352, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
(3) Entry from mid- to late-September, 1916 from the diary of Michel Corday, a French senior civil servant, critical of the military, the politician, and the average citizen who pressed only for peace only through victory. The Battle of Verdun had started seven months before Corday wrote, and the majority of the French army served on the nightmarish front, constantly under bombardment, and, until mid-summer, subject to German offensives. The French held, but at great cost. The mutinous spirit would burst forth in the spring of 1917 after the Nivelle Offensive.
The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, page 199, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934
(4) American Madeleine Doty writing of her visit to Munich in Bavaria in September, 1916. She continues, 'In spite of Bavaria's attempt to democratize food, her poor go hungry. As in Berlin, there are long lines of people struggling for potatoes. The wages of unskilled workers have not perceptibly increase. The poor can't afford the city's feeding kitchens. Munich is one of Germany's richest cities but it has extreme poverty.' Doty begins her chapter on 'Peace Meetings in Munich' relating how, 'Official Germany tries to Prussianize her people through education.' Of a teacher friend she writes, 'German for generations, she comes of Jewish stock' and taught history. Learning of this the central school authorities sent the school principal the following order: 'Do not let that young woman teach history. Only a Prussian may teach German history. Let her teach mathematics.' The same spirit walks among us in 2016.
Short Rations: an American Woman in Germany 1915-1916 by Madeleine Z. Doty, pp. 208–209, copyright © 1917, by The Century Co., publisher: A. L. Burt Company, publication date: 1917
(5) Part of the official report of his downing of Zeppelin LZ.32 on the night of September 23–24, 1916 by Lieutenant Frederick Sowrey of Number 39 Squadron flying from his base at Sutton's Farm. The commander of LZ.32 was Oberleutnant-zur-See (naval Lieutenant) Werner Peterson who perished with his crew. The British found a copy of the latest signal book of the German navy in the wreckage. The same night L.33 was brought down relatively gently after being hit by ground fire, and losing some of its gas gas compartments or cells. L.33 was commanded by Kapitänleutnant (Lieutenant Commander) Alois Böcker who survived with his crew of 21. Although they fired the airship, the frame survived to provide intelligence to the British. Peterson and Böcker captained two Zeppelins in a raid by twelve. The losses were unsustainable. 'Brock' and 'Pomeroy' were types of explosive bullets.
The Zeppelin Fighters by Arch Whitehouse, page 152, copyright © 1966 by Arch Whitehouse, publisher: New English Library, publication date: 1978
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