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Map of the North and Baltic Seas (labeledNord-See and Ostsee) from a folding postcard of five battlefronts: the Western and Eastern Fronts; North and Baltic Seas, Mediterranean and Black Seas; and the Serbian-Montenegro Front.
Chosen Boy, a 1918 watercolor by Paul Klee. From Paul Klee: Early and Late Years: 1894-1940. © 2013 Moeller Fine Art
A Swiss postcard of 'The European War' in 1914. The Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary face enemies to the east, west, and south. Germany is fighting the war it tried to avoid, battling Russia to the east and France to the west. Germany had also hoped to avoid fighting England which came to the aid of neutral (and prostrate) Belgium, and straddles the Channel. Austria-Hungary also fights on two fronts, against Russia to the east and Serbia and Montenegro to the south. Italy, the third member of the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary, declared neutrality, and looks on. Other neutral nations include Spain, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania. Japan enters from the east to battle Germany. The German Fleet stays close to port in the North and Baltic Seas while a German Zeppelin targets England. The Austro-Hungarian Fleet keeps watch in the Adriatic. Turkey is not represented, and entered the war at the end of October, 1914; Italy in late May, 1915.
Children playing 'In the Dardanelles'. From February 19 to March 18, 1915, a Franco-British fleet tried to force its way through the Dardanelles to Constantinople. The Strait was defended by forts, some with modern German artillery. After a failure to break through on March 18, the Allies decided to invade, and in April, landed on the Gallipoli peninsula. Illustrated postcard by Pauli Ebner.
A folding postcard from a pencil sketch of an unsuccessful Allied gas attack in Flanders.
"The final Russian mining operations for the year produced mixed results. On the early morning of 6 December [1915], five cruisers, covered by the Petropavlovsk and Gangut, laid a minefield halfway between Hela and the southern tip of Gotland. The Russian success at radio interception enabled them to avoid a German minelaying expedition at work off Lyserort the same night. However, only the small cruiser Lübeck was damaged by the Russian field on 13 January. The far less ambitious operation in which three destroyers laid mines between Windau and Lyserort on the night of 15 December was more productive. The next morning the German cruiser Bremen and destroyer V.191 were sunk in the field, which also claimed on the 23d the destroyer S.177 and auxiliary patrol boat Freya." ((1), more)
". . . the operations in the Dardanelles were drawing to a close. On the 3rd November the newly constituted War Committee of the Cabinet met for the first time. It was opposed, as General Joffre found, to the Balkan operations, and the following day Lord Kitchener himself proceeded to the Gallipoli peninsula. The Cabinet on the 7th December agreed to the evacuation of Anzac and Suvla, and this was completed on the 20th of that month. On the 27th the abandonment of the peninsula was agreed to and the evacuation of Helles was completed on the 8th January 1916." ((2), more)
"By the end of 1915, with no sign of the promised breakthrough, morale was beginning to flag. 'It's maddening the way people think,' commented Alfred Joubert (124th Infantry) on 8 December. They've gone off the idea of war and many talk about surrendering. . . . Happily they don't suit action to the word.' Meanwhile Sous-lieutenant Pierre Masson (261st Infantry) wrote with considerable prescience: 'an immense weariness seems to be weighing on everyone and neither side can feel triumphant. We wondered if perhaps we were heading for a worse catastrophe: one of morale.'" ((3), more)
"15.00 hrs. Had hardly taken 10 steps when I hear the hum of an approaching howitzer shell. Realise that if I'm to survive, I need to throw myself into a side-trench. The shell seems to be coming straight at me . . . the explosion is awesome. A violent shock follows. I'm thrown against the ramp. Feel pain on the left side of my groin. Clamp my hand on that spot and run towards my dugout. The path is shattered and covered in earth. Shell fragments are everywhere and a strong smell of acid fills my nostrils. You can come face-to-face with death here any minute . . . Oh my God! For the sake of your holy name, please protect us!" ((4), more)
"If a whiff of gas you smell,Bang your gong like bloody hell,On with your googly, up with your gun—Ready to meet the bloody Hun." ((5), more)
(1) In 1915 the Russian fleet more than held its own against the German in the Baltic Sea, securing its coast with mines.
A Naval History of World War I by Paul G. Halpern, page 205, copyright © 1994 by the United States Naval Institute, publisher: UCL Press, publication date: 1994
(2) The operations in the Dardanelles, both naval operations and the Gallipoli invasion, had failed to meet their objectives. In a failed attempt to aid Serbia which was unable to withstand an invasion by the combined forces of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Bulgaria, French and British forces had landed at Salonika in Greece. Although driven by the Bulgarians, some in France, including Commander-in-Chief Joffre, saw value in keeping an active front in the Balkans. British War Minister Kitchener visited both Greece and Gallipoli to take stock of the situation. He recommended evacuating Suvla Bay and Anzac Cove, two of the three positions held by the Allies, the third being Cape Helles.
Military Operations France and Belgium, 1915, Vol. II, Battles of Aubers Ridge, Festubert, and Loos by J. E. Edmonds, pp. 406, 407, copyright © asserted, publisher: Macmillan and Co., Limited, publication date: 1928
(3) And after sixteen months of war, German troops still held nearly all of Belgium and a large swath of northern France, including its industrial heartland. French commander Joseph Joffre's spring and autumn offensives had ended with little gain. Nor had France's allies fared well: A combined German and Austro-Hungarian offensive had driven the Russians from Polish Russia, and Italy's May entry into the war had failed to deliver on its promise and had not dislodged Austria-Hungary from any significant territory. In contrast Bulgaria's casting off of neutrality had assured the swift defeat of France's ally Serbia. The Franco-British invasion at Gallipoli was ending in defeat and evacuation. In both the home front and the trenches, there were French who believed a negotiated settlement was needed.
They Shall Not Pass: The French Army on the Western Front 1914-1918 by Ian Sumner, pp. 94, 95, copyright © Ian Sumner 2012, publisher: Pen and Sword, publication date: 2012
(4) Excerpt from the diary of Turkish Second Lieutenant Mehmed Fasih writing on December 9, 1915 on the Gallipoli Peninsula. The British Cabinet had agreed the evacuation of two of the three Allied positions — those at Suvla Bay and Anzac Cove — on December 7, leading the Allied fleet to increase its shelling of Turkish positions.
Intimate Voices from the First World War by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, page 143, copyright © 2003 by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, publisher: Harper Collins Publishers, publication date: 2003
(5) Trench wisdom found by C. S. Owen, commander of a Royal West Kent battalion, at one of his unit's sentry posts. Owen copied and sent it to his commanding officers, recommending it as a 'model of concise Order that men could understand and remember.' The doggerel is recorded in the entry for December 10, 1915 from the writings — diaries, letters, and memoirs — of Captain J.C. Dunn, Medical Officer of the Second Battalion His Majesty's Twenty-Third Foot, The Royal Welch Fusiliers. A gas attack indicated an infantry attack was imminent. On the sounding of the gong, men put on their gas masks — their googlies — and prepared to meet the attack.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 171, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
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