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We'll join in! Women beneath the flags of and in the uniforms of the Vierbund of Turkey, Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Bulgaria, are willing to play their part in the war effort.
1918 German pen and ink drawing of the road to Cambrai, France. Two smaller trees seem to serve as the good and bad thief on either side of the crucified Jesus Christ.
Detail showing the plaque for 1918 from the monument to the Tank Corps, Pozières, France. The base bears plaques commemorating the Tank Corps and the years 1916, when tanks were first used in battle, 1917, when they were proven to be a weapon that could change the war, and 1918, when tanks were decisive in the Allied victory. The plaques for each year list the engagements in which the Corps fought. © 2013 by John M. Shea
A large German bomber, capable of bombing England. The plane is powered by two engines, and holds a crew of three with a pilot and front and rear gunners. The plane is likely a Gotha bomber, originally built by Gothaer Waggonfabrik, then built under license by Siemens-Schukert Werke and Luft-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft (LVG). Note the ground crew pushing on the lower wing and the men holding the tail up as the plane is moved backwards. Sanke postcard number 1040.
A crazed Great Britain urges a broken Russia, a nose-picking, dozing Italy, and a sullen France to continued offensives in a German postcard imagining the November 6, 1917 Entente Ally Conference of Rapallo after the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo. The Battle, also known as the Battle of Caporetto, was a disastrous defeat for Italy and the first Austro-Hungarian offensive on the Isonzo Front. The Austrians had significant German support.
". . . however men have seen it, and may continue for a time to see it, women do count. Everybody counts in applying democracy. And there will never be a true democracy until every responsible and law-abiding adult in it, without regard to race, sex, color or creed has his or her own inalienable and unpurchasable voice in the government. That is the democratic goal toward which the world is striving today.In our own country woman suffrage is but one, if acute, phase of the problem. The Negro question is but another. The enfranchisement of the foreign-born peoples who sweep into this country and forget to leave the hyphen at home is yet another." ((1), more)
"American heroism was further exemplified by a body of unarmed American railway engineers during the German encircling movement around the British position at Cambrai on November 30, 1917. These railway engineers, 284 in number, were working in conjunction with Canadian engineers three miles in the rear of the battle line at Gouzeaucourt. Al were unarmed. The German barrage fire having suddenly shifted in their direction, a general retirement was ordered.During the retreat a body of 50 engineers, being cut off, took refuge in dugouts, where they were captured by the German advance. As they were marching along the road to Cambrai, toward the German prison cages, they sighted a small body of British troops who had become separated from their comrades and were were wandering aimlessly.The prisoners, seeing rescue at hand, turned upon their captors and fought them barehanded until the British troops arrived and vanquished the Germans." ((2), more)
"The morning of December [1, 1917] was cloudy again, after a clear, mild night. The worsening weather kept most of the aircraft of both sides on the ground, and from this point on, air activity played little part in the battle. From 6.30 a.m., an hour before sunrise, the British attacking force of tanks, cavalry and infantry gathered to the west of Gauche Wood. Thirty-one tanks had been collected, twenty-two of H Battalion, seven of B, and two of A; all the others that had arrived from Fins and Havrincourt Wood the previous day, apart from those hit by enemy fire, had mechanical trouble, and were unfit for action. Behind the tanks were two Cavalry Divisions, the 4th and 5th, and the 1st and 3rd Guards Brigades." ((3), more)
"The anger of the people in the threatened areas was turned on Coventry during this tense period, when thousands of workers in the local aircraft engine industry went on strike.Coventry was denounced as 'the center of the contempt of the British Empire.' The Lord Mayor pleaded in vain with the workers to serve as 'loyal soldiers in the munitions shops.' A Royal Naval Air Service chaplain was flown from the front in France to preach patriotism in the strikebound city. Aircraft even dropped leaflets on Coventry on 2 December, calling 'for an increase in aircraft production'." ((4), more)
"— Painlevé is complaining of unfair comment. People forget, he urges, that it was he who brought about the abdication of King Constantine of Greece; the Rapallo Conference, resulting in the Single Command for which he had been working so long; the Franco-British agreements ensuring our food supplies; the selection of Pétain; the wise moderation in suppressing the mutinies; the arrest of Duval and Bolo; the prompt dispatch of French troops to Italy, etc., etc." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from an article 'Votes for All' by Carrie Chapman Catt, published in The Crisis, November, 1917. Catt was president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and had supported America's entry into the war. In her piece, she had already made the point that both black and white men opposed giving women the vote, and that President Woodrow Wilson's call to war had been a call in support of democracy, despite the great failures of his own nation. Catt urges women on, arguing that 'the cure for the ills of democracy is more democracy.'
World War I and America by A. Scott Berg, page 431, copyright © 2017 by Literary Classics of the United States, publisher: The Library of America, publication date: 2017
(2) On November 30, 1917, German forces counterattacked in the Battle of Cambrai, striking toward Gouzeaucourt an the southern end of the British position in the Cambrai sector. The British were utterly unprepared for the action, and were driven back rapidly. The speed of the advance isolated numerous troops like the engineers. Several Americans and Canadians died in the incident cited, and after it all engineers were ordered to be armed.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 347, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
(3) The British launched the largest tank offensive yet seen on November 20, 1917 with three tank brigades, 380 tanks in all, most of them Mark IVs, near Cambrai, France. The first day was a success, with an advance of as much as 4½ miles on a 6-mile front. With no fresh reinforcements, specifically none trained to coordinate with tanks, the advance bogged down, with the role of the tanks diminishing. German forces counterattacked on November 30, and were preparing to attack at 9:30 AM on December 1 when the British struck. British commander General Douglas Haig still hoped for a breakthrough his cavalry could exploit.
The Battle of Cambrai by Brian Cooper, page 208, copyright © Bryan Cooper 1967, publisher: Stein and Day, publication date: 1968
(4) From Monday, September 24 to October 1, 1917, ninety-two German Gotha bombers took part in the Autumn Moon Offensive against England. Fifty-five of the two-engine planes reached England with twenty or fewer making it to London. A handful of Staaken Giant bombers also took part in the raids, with one reaching the capital. On six of the eight nights the bombers struck. A total of 69 people were killed and 260 wounded, some by shell casings from the British defensive barrage. Before the raids had ended, over 300,000 people had taken shelter in the London Underground. A raid on the night of October 31-November 1 struck southeast of London.
The Sky on Fire by Raymond H. Fredette by Raymond H. Fredette, page 167, copyright © 1966, 1976, 1991 by Raymond H. Fredette, publisher: Smithsonian Institution Press, publication date: 1991
(5) Entry between December 2 and 6, 1917 from the diary of Michel Corday, French senior civil servant. Paul Painlevé was appointed French War Minister in March 1917, and was also Prime Minister from September 12 to November 16, 1917, replaced by Georges Clemenceau. The French forced King Constantine I of Greece to abdicate on June 11, 1917. Allied commanders met at Rapallo, Italy on November 6, 1917 after the disastrous Italian defeat in the Battle of Caporetto. At the Conference, both the French and British agreed to dispatch troops to support the Italians, who had already stabilized their line on the Piave River. After the failure of the Nivelle offensive in the spring, large parts of the French army mutinied in May and June. Robert Nivelle was replaced by Henri Pétain who rebuilt the army and demonstrated his commitment to not squandering soldiers' lives with well-prepared, limited offensives.
The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, page 298, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934
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