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'The first tread-way bridge built across the Isonzo river' is in the background, a destroyed bridge in the foreground, and another under construction. Austrian and German soldiers watch POWs — most likely Italian — draw carts, and cut and trim logs. 'In the background our trenches', and dozens of horse-drawn wagons waiting to cross the tread-way bridge. (The quotations are from a handwritten note on the reverse; translation Thomas Faust.)
I've killed many Germans, but never women or children. Original French watercolor by John on blank field postcard. In the background are indolent Russian soldiers and Vladimir Lenin, in the foreground stands what may be a Romanian soldier who is telling the Russians, 'You call me savage. I killed a lot of Boches [Germans], but never women or children!'
'Warmest regards from the Somme . . . ' from Robert Künger, September 21, 1916, presumably pictured with his machine gun crew. Translation couresy of Thomas Faust, ebay's Urfaust.
Italy's armed forces at the ready in a 1915 postcard. In the foreground the artillery, infantry, an Alpine soldier (in feathered hat), and a Bersaglieri (in plumed headgear). Behind them are a bugler and lancer; in the distance marines and colonial troops. The Italian navy is off shore, an airship and planes overhead. On the reverse are the lyrics of a patriotic Italian March by Angelo Balladori, lyrics by Enrico Mercatali. It ends with a call to the brothers of Trento and Trieste, Austro-Hungarian territory with large ethnic Italian populations.
A large German bomber, capable of bombing England. The plane is powered by two engines, and holds a crew of three with a pilot and front and rear gunners. The plane is likely a Gotha bomber, originally built by Gothaer Waggonfabrik, then built under license by Siemens-Schukert Werke and Luft-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft (LVG). Note the ground crew pushing on the lower wing and the men holding the tail up as the plane is moved backwards. Sanke postcard number 1040.
"At the Battle of Caporetto, within the space of four days, the forces of the Central Powers had virtually destroyed the Italian Second Army and had then pursued the retreating Italians nearly 80 miles to the Piave river. They were now at the gates of Venice. . . .Around 280,000 Italians were taken prisoner and a further 250,000 deserted. Some 30,000 were wounded, with the comparatively small number of 10,000 killed. In material terms the Italians lost 3,150 artillery pieces, 1,700 mortars and 3,000 machine-guns. Wrecked trucks, ambulances, weapons and dead horses littered the battlefields. And the effects of the defeat were not confined to the military as some 400,000 civilian refugees took to the roads." ((1), more)
"The Committee met again at 13 Bolotnaya Street in the Vyborg district on 16 October, this time with representatives from Moscow, and a Military Revolutionary Committee was formed. Once again the cautious Kamenev and Zinoviev demonstrated how unsure they were that Lenin's plans could work but again the vote went his way, with 4 members abstaining, 19 in favour and 2 against. All that remained now was the planning and the selection of the right moment.There was no doubt that the workers had rushed to the Bolshevik cause — the party had steadfastly refused to sully itself by any collaboration with Kerensky's government. When Lenin had arrived back in Petrograd in April the Bolsheviks, with a membership of just 10,000, could not have hoped to control anything, but following the failure of Kornilov's plans, the party's membership had soared to 300,000. At the time of the February revolution, there were 300 Soviets — by October there were 900." ((2), more)
"— the ground was impassable and so powerless were the troops to manoeuvre that they were shot down whilst stuck in the mud.— the Barrage was ineffective and the troops were unable to keep up with it.— oblique hostile M.G. fire was very effective.— the only Lewis Gun which succeeded in getting into action was useless in three minutes [because of the mud].— all uncovered rifles were useless, all covered rifles ditto within ten minutes.— power of manoeuvre was nil.— to sum up the situation, neither FIRE NOR MOVEMENT was possible, and any prospects of success under these conditions was nil." ((3), more)
"Two carabinieri took the lieutenant-colonel to the river bank. He walked in the rain, an old man with his hat off, a carabinieri on either side. I did not watch them shoot him but I heard the shots. They were questioning some one else. This officer too was separated from his troops. He was not allowed to make an explanation. He cried when they read his sentence from the pad of paper, and they were questioning another when they shot him. They made a point of questioning the next man while the man who had been questioned before was being shot. In this way there was obviously nothing they could do about it. I did not know whether I should wait to be questioned or make a break now. I was obviously a German in Italian uniform. I saw how their minds worked; if they had minds and if they worked. They were all young men and they were saving their country." ((4), more)
"[Hauptman Rudolph] Kleine launched his first incendiary raid on the evening of 31 October [1917] with twenty-two Gothas. They were loaded with over six tons of bombs, nearly half of them incendiaries. A departure schedule was worked out to stagger the take-off over a period of almost three hours. The attack plan called for a stream of bombers to reach the south-east coast at Deal. From there, they were to fly across Kent and approach London from the south, thereby avoiding the heavy defences to the east. Because of rising winds over the Channel and low clouds over Kent, this route proved to be a mistake." ((5), more)
(1) In eleven Battles of the Isonzo from June 23, 1915 to September 12, 1917 the Italian army under the command of Luigi Cadorna had crossed the border into Austria-Hungary, crossed the Isonzo River, and taken plateaus and mountain peaks, only to look on more peaks beyond. The Eleventh Battle nearly broke the Austro-Hungarian defenders. When joint German and Austro-Hungarian forces (the two empires at the core of the Central Powers) attacked on October 24, 1917 in their first offensive of the Isonzo, the Italian Second Army, and then the entire front collapsed. The mountain war that had been fought since 1915, with the Italians perpetually attacking defenders who held higher ground, was suddenly ended and brought to Italy's northeastern plain, within reach of the Adriatic port and prize of Venice.
Caporetto and the Isonzo Campaign: The Italian Front 1915–1918 by John MacDonald with Željko Cimprić, page 172, copyright © John MacDonald, 2011, 2015, publisher: Pen and Sword Books, publication date: 2011
(2) The Bolshevik Central Committee met on October 29, 1917 (October 16 Old Style) to debate whether to seize power. Vyborg was a working-class district on the north side of the Russian capital of Petrograd. Alexander Kerensky had been in the government since the overthrow of Tsar Nicholas in the February Revolution, as Justice Minister, War Minister, and finally Prime Minister. He supported continuing the war, and had assumed near-dictitorial powers in defending the revolution against General Lavr Kornilov, a defense in which the government armed the Bolsheviks who would soon overthrow them. Soviets, councils of workers and soldiers representing cities, towns, military units, and factories, had been formed on the first day of the revolution following a pattern that dated to the revolution of 1905. Vladimir Lenin consistently supported ending the war, a position he sometimes held virtually alone.
1917: Russia's Year of Revolution by Roy Bainton, page 157, copyright © Roy Bainton 2005, publisher: Carroll and Graf Publishers, publication date: 2005
(3) Excerpt from the report of the commanding officer of the British 58 (London) Division on the October 30, 1917 attack on the village of Passchendaele in the Third Battle of Ypres. 'M.G.' is 'machine gun.' The Lewis gun was a British M.G. The officer also reported on the utter failure of communications with runners shot after being stuck in mud, pigeons too mud-encrusted to fly, and aircraft not flying. Brackets in source.
Passchendaele The Untold Story by Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson, page 177, copyright © 1996 Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2002
(4) A lieutenant in the Italian Army Ambulance Corps and narrator of Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, Frederic Henry is caught up in the collapse of the Italian Second Army and the Italian retreat in the Battle of Caporetto. Having managed to evade German and Austro-Hungarian troops, he is seized at a bridge crossing the Tagliamento River. As Mark Thompson writes in his history of the Italian Front, The White War, 'an order on October 31 authorized any officer to shoot any soldier who was separated from his unit or offered the least resistance' (page 319). Henry is a junior officer speaking Italian with a foreign accent, and was, in the chaos of the retreat, separated from his unit.
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, page 224, copyright © 1957 Ernest Hemingway, publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons, publication date: 1929
(5) The Gotha bomber attack the night of October 31-November 1, 1917 was intended to strike London, but many of the planes never reached the city, dropping their bombs on Kent on England's coast south of the Thames. Many of the incendiary bombs failed to ignite, but 11 were killed, including one from British shrapnel.
The Sky on Fire by Raymond H. Fredette by Raymond H. Fredette, page 162, copyright © 1966, 1976, 1991 by Raymond H. Fredette, publisher: Smithsonian Institution Press, publication date: 1991
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