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The German Navy above and below the surface. A poem on the reverse touts that although the submarine is hard to spot (and fire upon), images of surface ships, as bright as mirrors, are projected within the submarine.
A folding postcard from a pencil sketch of an unsuccessful Allied gas attack in Flanders.
A hold-to-light postcard of the German and Austro-Hungarian victory (shortlived) over the Russians in the Uzroker Pass in the Carpathians on January 28, 1915. Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, Chief of the Austro-Hungarian General Staff, launched an offensive with three armies on January 23, including the new Austro-Hungarian Seventh Army under General Karl von Pflanzer-Baltin.
The rulers of the Central Powers — Kaisers Wilhelm and Franz Joseph, Tsar Ferdinand, and Mohammed V — surrounded by the Allies: Belgium, Britain, France, Italy to the west, the Balkan states of Montenegro, Serbia, and Greece, where Britain and France ensure Greek participation in the war, and Russia its strength bolstered by Japan's munitions supplies. Out to sea, the British, French, and Italian navies stand guard, with that of Russia in the distance. Portugal likely stands at the lower left. By 1916, Serbia was already occupied by the Central Powers.
What do you want here? Turkish and British child soldiers on the Suez Canal. After crossing the Sinai Peninsula during January, 1915, a Turkish army of approximately 12,000 soldiers reached the Suez Canal on February 2, and tried to cross after nightfall, but were driven back. On the 3rd, the British crossed the canal, and struck the Turkish left flank, driving them back. By February 10, the Turks had evacuated the Peninsula.
"On January 22, 1915, the steamship Durward was stopped by a U-boat about thirteen miles from the lightship Maas. The crew was ordered to take to the boats, no time being allowed for the removal of their private belongings. The submarine then towed the boats to a safe distance, ordered them to wait there while it sank the ship, and them towed them onwards in the direction of the lightship. A week later (January 30) two ships, the Ben Cruachan and the Linda Blanche, were sunk, in both cases with reasonable consideration for the safety of the crews. . . . the Kölnische Zeitung, about the middle of the month, had published an article declaring that 'in future German submarines and aircraft would wage war against British mercantile vessels without troubling themselves in any way about the fate of the crews.'" ((1), more)
"On the last day of January, the German Ninth Army undertook a feint in the direction of Warsaw, designed to distract Russian attention from the main efforts elsewhere. The Battle of Bolimow was not a success. Sub-zero weather negated the first use of poison gas (xylyl bromide) by the Germans — which the Russians failed to report to their western allies. The Russians committed 11 divisions to defend the 6-mile-wide front, losing 40 000 men in just 3 days." ((2), more)
"They resumed the attack five days later, assaulting the same three-thousand-foot Russian-held heights they had stormed, taken, and lost the previous week. Snow that had been knee deep a few days earlier was waist deep now. Companies were down to a handful of men. By the end of January, the 6th Jäger Battalion, which had numbered 1,069 men on New Year's Eve, had only 100 left. Even the fabled Jägergeist — the Spirit of the Huntsman — could not bear this blood, snow, ice, wind, and death forever. An alarming number of officers broke under the strain, sent home with only this explanation: zusammengebrochen, 'shattered.'" ((3), more)
"On the left bank of the Vistula, in the region of Sochaczev, the Russians are engaged in a series of partial, short attacks which correspond closely with what the Grand Duke Nicholas has called 'as active a defense as possible.' In the Bukovina they are slowly retreating owing to the shortage of ammunition." ((4), more)
"The main army of the Turks, which had now dwindled to 12,000 men, arrived at the canal on February 2d. A skirmish near Ismailia Ferry was suddenly terminated by a violent sandstorm. After nightfall, however, the Turkish Army hauled some 30 pontoon boats to the banks of the canal at Toussoun, 12 miles below Ismailia, and attempted to cross. The British troops opened fire with maxim guns, which took a heavy toll in lives. The Turks brought several batteries of field guns into action, but failed to silence the British batteries." ((5), more)
(1) Capturing enemy mercantile ships was legitimate according to international war. The captured vessel was then to be taken to a neutral port for adjudication by a Prize Court. If that was dangerous or not practical, the prize ship could be sunk after 'due provision for the safety of passengers and crew, and for the preservation of the ship's papers.'
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. III, 1915, p. 54, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
(2)
The First World War: Germany and Austria Hungary 1914-1918 by Holger H. Herwig, page 135, copyright © 1997 Holger H. Herwig, publisher: Arnold, publication date: 1997
(3) Chief of the Austro-Hungarian General Staff Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf had lost Galicia and Bukovina, Austria-Hungary's northeastern provinces in 1914, and hoped to regain them in a winter offensive. He also hoped to end the threat of the Russians advancing through the passes of the Carpathian Mountains, which would put them in a position to strike Budapest, the Hungarian capital.
A Mad Catastrophe by Geoffrey Wawro, pp. 350, 351, copyright © 2014 by Geoffrey Wawro, publisher: Basic Books
(4) Entry from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia, for Monday, Febuary 1, 1915. The ammunition shortage which affected all combatants at the end of 1914 and early 1915 was particularly acute for the Russians. With inadequate production capacity, they imported shells and weapons from Japan and the United States. On the Vistula River, the Russians faced the German Army. In the Bukovina, they were retreating before Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf's winter offensive, one costly to both sides.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. I by Maurice Paléologue, page 271, publisher: George H. Doran Company, publication date: 1925
(5) A Turkish army of 65,000 men advanced from Constantinople to the Sinai Peninsula to seize the Suez Canal from the British. Before its arrival, and after a November 21, 1914 skirmish between the British and 2,000 Bedouins, the British had enhanced their defenses of the canal, in part by breaking through the canal dyke to flood the desert to the east. British gunships and French warships patrolled the Bitter Lakes and flooded land through and along which which the canal ran. The Turkish force had been significantly diminished by the time it reached the canal.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 139, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
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