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The headstone of Private L.D. Sheridan, of the Black Watch, who died July 23, 1915. He is buried in Le Trou Aid Post Cemetery in Fleurbaix, Pas-de-Calais, France. © 2013 John M. Shea
Uncle Sam weighs the lives lost in the German sinking of the Lusitania (and other ships, as seen on the horizon) to his cash flow from selling weapons and other supplies to the combatants, particularly the allies. The moneybags have tipped the scales. A 1916 postcard by Em. Dupuis.
Great Britain declared the entire North Sea a military zone as of November 5, 1914, imposing a blockade of Germany with nets, mines, and ships from Scotland across the northern end of the North Sea, and at the mouth of the English Channel. Germany's response depended on its submarine fleet.
Anzac Cove, Ari Burnu, from John Masefield's 'Gallipoli.'
The poet, novelist, and political activist Gabriele d'Annunzio speaking in favor of Italy's entry into the war on the side of the Entente Allies, and against 'Giolittismo' at the Costanzi Theater in Rome, May, 1915. Giovanni Giolitti was five-time Prime Minister of Italy, and opposed intervention in the Great War. Illustration by Achille Beltrame.
"In the evening we went, at eight o'clock, to poor Mignot's funeral. Sad and horribly gruesome it was. Imagine a little chapel with four coffins in front of a small altar — one of them with many flowers, and of oak — Mignot's — the other three just pinewood — the ordinary war coffin. The Governor came, and I shall not forget the dim scene — the priest who intoned the Latin burial service out of tune, and the 'choir' consisting of one man who sang badly and as loud as he could, and a congregation of silent mourners. Every note, every word, as it re-echoed through the chapel, seemed like the cry of despair of France — a small put pitiful note of the anguish of this country. Over at last, the coffins were shuffled out of the little chapel, and we were allowed to follow them to the bridge of St. Martin, where they were buried in a cemetery constantly upheaved by German shells. Horrible! horrible! horrible! — that is all I can write." ((1), more)
"The train ground to a stop at the Fiftieth Street Station, jerking Albert from his nap. Abruptly awake, he saw that the doors were open and this was his stop. He hurried from the train. In his groggy haste, he left the bulging briefcase on the adjacent seat.Burke stared at it. He had no intimation that it contained anything of consequence. For all Burke knew, it held the man's lunch. He simply saw the briefcase lying there and, in an instant, made up his mind. He took it because he could. With the briefcase tucked under his arm like a football, he started to make his way to the rear door of the train." ((2), more)
"The Special Service ship or Q-boat of 1915 was a tramp or collier with a concealed armament for the decoying and destruction of submarines. The first success was achieved on July 25, 1915, when one of them, the Prince Charles (Lieutenant W.P. Mark-Wardlaw), was pursued and shelled by U 36, near North Rona Island. Her crew abandoned ship, leaving their gunners concealed on board. The U-boat thereupon closed; but when she was within five hundred yards of her apparently helpless prey, the British guns were suddenly unmasked, and the submarine sank under their fire, leaving fifteen of her crew to be rescued by the victors." ((3), more)
"In this war of digging, the daily life in the trenches gives digging enough to every soldier. Men dig daily even if they do not fight. At Anzac in July the Australians had a double share of digging—their daily share in the front lines, and when that was finished their nightly share, preparing cover for the new troops. During the nights of the latter half of July the Australians at Anzac dug, roofed, and covered not less than twenty miles of dug-outs. All this work was done in their sleep time, after the normal days work of fighting, digging, and carrying up stores. Besides digging these hiding-places they carried up, fixed, hid, and filled the water-tanks which were to supply the newcomers." ((4), more)
"On July 27th, the Italians again stormed the Plava Heights and St. Michels with bombs and bayonets. Though they gained both summits, they could not retain the positions, so withering was the enemy's artillery fire. Gorizia itself seemed impregnable. Further assaults on the stronghold were postponed. The Italians and Austrians each were said to have lost 150,000 in this engagement." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from a letter dated July 24, 1915, by Leslie Buswell recounting events of the the previous days. A driver with the American Ambulance Field Service, a volunteer organization attached to the French Armies, Buswell was stationed at Pont-à-Mousson, France, north of Nancy. On July 22nd, a dozen shells exploded just after Buswell had finished his lunch, and a dozen more in the evening, seemingly targeting the Ambulance unit. Mignot, an all-purpose aide to the American drivers, was killed in the evening bombardment.
Ambulance No. 10; Personal Letters from the Front by Leslie Buswell, pp. 78, 79, copyright © 1915, and 1915, by Houghton Mifflin Company, publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company, publication date: 1916
(2) Dr. Heinrich Albert was the German commercial attaché and paymaster to the network of German agents in the United States. Frank Burke was an agent in the Secret Service, which President Woodrow Wilson had recently, in the wake of the May 7, 1915 sinking of the Lusitania by a German submarine, assigned to provide surveillance of German and Austro-Hungarian embassy and consular staff. In the briefcase Burke stole in New York on July 24, 1915 were papers documenting the establishment of shell companies to purchase supplies and raw materials for manufacturing weapons including explosives, shells, and poison gas, and to solicit British purchases of weapons, orders that would never be fulfilled. Other papers documented payments to encourage press reports favorable to German interests, and labor activity contrary to those of the Allies. Because the documents had been stolen from a German diplomat, the United States could not officially use them, but they were leaked to the press. The United States did substantial business with the Allies, but because of the British blockade of Germany, commercial ties with it were limited.
Dark Invasion; 1915; Germany's Secret War and the Hunt for the First Terrorist Cell in America by Howard Blum, page 342, copyright © 2014 by Howard Blum, publisher: Harper Collins Publishers, publication date: 2014
(3) Great Britain declared the entire North Sea a military zone as of November 5, 1914, imposing a blockade of Germany with nets, mines, and ships from Scotland across the northern end of the North Sea, and at the mouth of the English Channel. Germany responded on February 4, 1915 by declaring a war zone around the British Isles, within which ships of Britain and its allies were subject to being sunk. The submarine was Germany's only weapon for enforcing the zone. After the sinking of Lusitania on May 7 and subsequent American protests, Germany suspended its campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare. In his Naval History of World War I, Paul G. Halpern dates the sinking of U-36 on July 24.
Days To Remember: The British Empire in the Great War by John Buchan and Herny Newbolt , page 142, publisher: Thomas Nelson and Sons, Ltd., publication date: 1922
(4) Since the April 25, 1915 Allied landing of the Gallipoli peninsula, the Turkish defenders had confined the invaders to two footholds on the peninsula, one at the southern end, where British, Indian, French, and Senagalese troops had made little headway, the second at Anzac Cove, named for the men of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, the ANZACs who held the beach and some of the hills above it at the Cove. Just as the Allies had hoped that the invasion would lead to a breakthrough in the war by opening a new front against the Central Powers, they hoped to break the stalemate at Gallipoli by launching a new invasion, at Suvla Bay, north of Anzac. On the same day, August 7, the ANZACs would be reinforced for an advance of their own. In preparation, in July, the men dug.
Gallipoli by John Masefield by John Masefield, pp. 110, 111, publisher: William Heinemann, publication date: 1916
(5) From Switzerland to the Adriatic Sea, Austria-Hungary held the high ground along its border with Italy. Along the narrow front northeast of Venice, Italy would attack repeatedly in Battles of the Isonzo. The Second Battle, July 18 to August 3, 1915, saw small Italian advances. The Austro-Hungarians, who fought poorly against Russia and Serbia, fared better against the Italians.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 164, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
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