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Vote Yes pin for Australian conscription, October 28, 1916, with the flags of Australia and Great Britain. A tin badge or tie-back pin in support of the Australian referendum on conscription, October 28, 1916. Australia voted no on this occasion and again, by a wider margin, in December, 1917.
The three kings or wise men (Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar) follow the Star of Bethlehem bearing gifts for the infant Jesus, passing German soldiers round a fire on their way. Rather than the traditional offerings of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, one king carries a box of Leibniz cookies. One king raises the star before them, giving the scene a stage-set quality. From a series of war advertising cards for Bahlsens Leibniz Cookies. Illustration by HDiez.
A bird's eye view of the Anzac Cove on the Gallipoli Front, showing the Gully leading to the shore and hospital. From 'Gallipoli' by John Masefield.
To the Dardanelles! The Entente Allies successfully capture their objective and plant their flags in this boy's 1915 war game, as they did not in life, neither in the naval campaign, nor in the invasion of the Gallipoli peninsula.
French and Montengrin troops on Mount Lovćen. From Mount Lovćen, Montenegrin artillery were able to bombard the Austro-Hungarian naval base at Cattaro, and began doing so in August, 1914. They conducted an artillery duel with Austro-Hungarian guns on land and on the armored cruiser Kaiser Karl VI, which was joined by three more battleships in September. The French supported the Montenegrins, landing four 12 cm and four 15 cm naval guns in September and moving them into position in the following month, opening fire on October 19. With the addition of SMS Radetsky, the Austro-Hungarian battery was able to overcome the Montenegrin position, which was abandoned by November, 1914. From a painting by Alphonse LaLauze, 1915.
". . . the Canadian Prime Minister, Sir Robert Borden, having visited Britain and gained some idea of the magnitude of the task, called in his New Year's message on January 1 [1916] for 500,000 Canadians to join the fight, out of a population of eight million.In Britain itself, pressure was mounting for the introduction of conscription, which would add at least two million more men to the armed forces. On January 5, Prime Minister Asquith introduced the first Conscription Bill to the House of Commons." ((1), more)
"My informer B———, who has friends in the Okhrana, tells me that the leaders of the various socialist groups held a secret session a fortnight ago in Petrograd, as they did last July. Once again the chairman of the conference was the 'labour' deputy, Kerensky. The main purpose of the meeting was to consider a programme of revolutionary action which the 'maximalist,' Lenin, at the present time a refugee in Switzerland, recently expounded to the Zimmerwald International Socialist Congress. . . .(1) The uninterrupted defeats of the Russian army, the disorder and inefficiency in public administration, the terrible rumours about of the Empress and the Rasputin scandals have ended by discrediting tsarism in the eyes of the masses. . . .Kerensky is said to have closed the debate with this practical conclusion: 'The moment we see the supreme crisis of the war at hand, we must overthrow tsarism, seize power ourselves and set up a socialist dictatorship.'" ((2), more)
"On 7 January [1916], von Sanders delivered the first attack of his campaign to drive the British forces from Helles. At midday a massive bombardment fell on 13 Division at Gully Spur, which was countered by the few guns remaining on short and by the navy off-shore. At 4 p.m., two enormous onshore Turkish mines were exploded at Gully Spur, and the bombardment increased in intensity. Shortly afterwards the Turks charged, but the British machine-guns were still intact and the navy, unhampered by concerns over ammunition usage, cut down the Turkish troops before they made any progress. By 6 p.m. the fighting was over." ((3), more)
"There were now just 17,000 men left, and January 8 [1916] was another calm spring-like day. Once again as at Suvla and Anzac great stores and ammunition were got ready for destruction. Landmines were laid, and the self-firing rifles set in position in the trenches. Once again the sad mules lay dead in rows. . . .The thing that the soldiers afterwards remembered with particular vividness was the curious alternation of silence and of deafening noise that went on through the day. . . .Apart from the spasmodic shelling there was no movement in the Turkish lines, and as the night advanced the Turks very largely ceased to count; it was the weather which engrossed everybody's mind. By 8 p.m. the glass was falling, and at nine when the waning moon went down the wind had risen to thirty-five miles an hour. . . ." ((4), more)
"Rest of company left, leaving only ten of us. Part of firing line went off. 8th: . . . Hoods on our left moved out very quickly . . . straw down and muffled feet . . . 23.45: All moved out. We put down crinolines in front line . . . we put down umbrellas and crinolines at Supports . . . Waited for Dumezil and bomb people at Ligne de Repli barricade. Further wait at Post 11 for Thompson. Then all down to Post 15. Eski. Longish wait for Blake. Barricaded road. Put gear on, proceeded down. Very quiet. Few French left round Camp des Oliviers. Via Cypresses to F.U.P. at Seddel Bahr—then in fours—slow progress over beached French warship on to destroyer Grasshopper. Like sardines, on board before 0300. Few dud shells from Annie. Out to sea. Bonfires started 0400 on all beaches and Turks started shelling like blazes and sending up red flares. Fine to watch it from a distance." ((5), more)
(1) By mid-1915 three million British men had volunteered for the war, but Britain did not have enough volunteers to man the army it planned to put into the field. The country was sharply divided on conscription, with Conservatives generally supporting, and Liberals and Labor opposing. Asquith's bill became effective on March 2, 1916, but not in Ireland outside of Northern Ireland. Britain conscripted 2,300,000 soldiers during the war.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 224, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(2) The participants unanimously agreed that 'the nation is utterly sick of the war' and 'economic difficulties are still accumulating and steadily growing worse.' Russia would be obliged to make a separate peace, but one made by the Imperial Government would be reactionary and monarchical, therefore it must be a democratic and socialist peace. The Okhrana was the tsarist secret police, the Department for Protecting Public Security and Order.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. II by Maurice Paléologue, pp. 145, 146, publisher: George H. Doran Company
(3) The Allies were abandoning their Gallipoli campaign, when German General Liman von Sanders, commanding Turkish forces on the Gallipoli peninsula. Having already evacuated their positions at Suvla Bay and Anzac Cove to the north, British forces held only Cape Helles at the end of the peninsula. French, French colonial, and some British and Empire forces had already left, leaving a force that feared such an attack. Sanders claimed to have gained some ground. In his Gallipoli, Alan Moorehead claims that, after a few minutes and many dead, the Turkish infantry refused to charge.
Gallipoli — Attack from the Sea by Victor Rudenno, page 263, copyright © 2008 Victor Rudenno, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2008
(4) The Allies' Gallipoli campaign, begun in April with great hopes of quick victory, was in its penultimate day. Having already evacuated their positions at Suvla Bay and Anzac Cove to the north, a British force, its numbers determined by what the fleet could transport in a single night, held, and thinly, only Cape Helles at the end of the peninsula.
Gallipoli by Alan Moorehead, page 346, copyright © 1956 by Alan Moorehead, publisher: Perennial Classics 2002 (HarperCollins Publications 1956), publication date: 2002 (1956)
(5) Excerpt from the diary of Eric Wettern of the Royal Naval Division 2nd Field Company Engineers, beginning from the end of the entry for January 7, 1916, the day of a Turkish attack, through 4:00 a.m. the morning of January 9. Ellipses in original. 'Annie' was likely Turkish heavy artillery.
Men of Gallipoli: The Dardanelles and Gallipoli Experience August 1914 to January 1916 by Peter Liddle, page 270, copyright © Peter Liddle, 1976, publisher: David and Charles, publication date: 1976
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