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Italy asks her King Victor Emmanuel when she can don her military garb. Allied to Germany and Austria-Hungary, Italy declared neutrality on August 3, 1914. Not yet having recovered from its war with Turkey over Libya, Italy delayed until joining the Entente Allies on May 23, 1915. The government of Prime Minister Antonio Salandra required the King's approval for the declaration of war. Postcard by Aurelio Bertiglia.
A squadron of the German Imperial Navy under the eye of a Zeppelin off the North Sea island and port of Helgoland.
A Liebig bullion card from the series "Colonies of the European Powers" — The German colonies of Togo, Cameroon, and German East Africa, c1910.
Russian troops fleeing a solitary German soldier. The Russian First Army invaded Germany in August 1914, and defeated the Germans in the Battle of Gumbinnen on the 20th. In September the Germans drove them out of Russia in the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes. In September and October, a joint German, Austro-Hungarian offensive drove the Russians back almost to Warsaw. Illustration by E. H. Nunes.
Lithograph postcard of the uniforms of the Belgian military including infantry, cavalry, and bicycle corps beneath a portrait of King Albert I.
"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." ((1), more)
"The Austrians counterattacked in the central Adriatic on 23 July. Cruisers, destroyers, and torpedo boats raided the Tremiti Islands and the Italian coast from Grottamare to Termoli. They repeated the attacks, joined by aircraft, somewhat farther to the north between Fano and Ancona on the 28th. The same day they made an unsuccessful attempt to recapture Pelagosa. The expedition consisted of two cruisers, six destroyers, and a number of torpedo boats, with the submarine UB.14 scouting in advance." ((2), more)
"The Germans tempered the cruelty of war by shielding their troops with expensive technology; the Austro-Hungarians economized—before and during the war—and threw their infantry away like trash. 'The Germans expend metal, we expend life,' a Russian general confessed in 1915, and the same could be said of the Austrians. . . . Gorlice-Tarnów was more of a breakthrough for the Germans than the Austrians. Despite the fact that whole Russian artillery regiments were limited to just ten shells a day by this date, Austro-Hungarian battle reports spoke of yet more fruitless and costly attacks and limited gains." ((3), more)
"The Germans and rebel Boers were still holding out in various sections of the Kameruns during 1915, and it was the business of the French, Belgian, and British forces to subdue them. Many small engagements took place, but with the capture of the forts at Garna on June 11th, and that of Ngaundere on July 29th, the Germans were practically dispossessed of their colony, although in the fall of 1915, a considerable force still occupied Yaunds and did not surrender until New Year's Day, 1916." ((4), more)
"Demoralization, surrender, and desertion are assuming huge proportions." ((5), more)
(1) 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
(2) Italy had declared war on Austria-Hungary on May 23, 1915. One July 11, Italian troops occupied the Austro-Hungarian island Pelagosa in the Adriatic Sea.
A Naval History of World War I by Paul G. Halpern, page 149, copyright © 1994 by the United States Naval Institute, publisher: UCL Press, publication date: 1994
(3) July 28, 1915: Austria-Hungary's war is one year old, as is Serbia's. The Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive, a joint German, Austro-Hungarian offensive begun on May 2, 1915, continued to drive Russia back, out of Austro-Hungarian territory, but also out of Polish-Russia with Warsaw itself threatened. But Austria-Hungary was no match for Russia, and its victories were Germany's. After a year of war, Austria-Hungary's casualty toll was approaching two million men, dead, missing, prisoner, wounded.
A Mad Catastrophe by Geoffrey Wawro, pp. 371, 372, copyright © 2014 by Geoffrey Wawro, publisher: Basic Books
(4) Germany lost most of its colonies in 1914, but war continued in Africa even after the armistice in 1918. Rebel Boers from the Union of South Africa had also alongside the Germans in German Southwest Africa. In German Kamerun (Cameroons), they faced French and British armies that did not always coordinate their activities.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 167, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
(5) Russian Minister of War, General Poplivanov, to his ministerial colleagues. The Russian front has collapsed before the German-Austro-Hungarian Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive.Quoted in Gilbert, p. 176.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 176, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
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