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England's Distress: Postcard map of England and Ireland with the restricted zone Germany proclaimed around the islands, showing the ships destroyed by submarine in the 12 months beginning February 1, 1917.
A heavyset English sailor flies a panoply of flags of neutral nations including Sweden (civil ensign), Norway, Spanish Merchant Marine, the United States, Netherlands, Italy, and the Red Cross. Germany accused Great Britain of flying false flags on merchant and passenger ships, and of arming them. A postcard by P.O.Engelhard (P.O.E.), dated and postmarked January 15, 1916.
View over the battlefield of the Loretto Heights, France. Notre Dame de Lorette, a pilgrimage site, stood on the Heights, and was, with Vimy Ridge, part of the high ground seized by German troops in the Race to the Sea after the Battle of the Marne in 1914. French commander Joffre hoped to capture Loretto Heights and Carency, a village the Germans had fortified, in the First Battle of Artois in December, 1914. He tried to take the hill again in mid-February, 1915.
The poet, novelist, and political activist Gabriele d'Annunzio speaking in favor of Italy's entry into the war on the side of the Entente Allies, and against 'Giolittismo' at the Costanzi Theater in Rome, May, 1915. Giovanni Giolitti was five-time Prime Minister of Italy, and opposed intervention in the Great War. Illustration by Achille Beltrame.
'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red' — the Tower of London poppies — each of the 888,246 ceramic poppies representing one serviceman of the British Empire killed in World War I. The installation was a collaboration of artist Paul Cummins and stage designer Tom Piper. Since November, 2014 the poppies have been installed in other sites in the United Kingdom. Photographed October 3, 2014. © 2014 by John M. Shea
"On the 25th and 27th of May [1915] the recently arrived German submarines scored two great successes in that Lieutenant Hersing torpedoed the British battleships Triumph and Majestic off the outer coast of the peninsula. The enemy now temporarily withdrew the greater part of his battleships to the protected ports of Imbros and Lemnos and during the next few weeks the artillery support of the landed army came chiefly from the destroyers and torpedo boats. At the same time, however, all the effective means of defense against submarines were put in operation by the enemy who had at his disposal every kind of material he wanted. Thereafter the German submarines were unable, during the next seven months of the campaign, to score any success against the hostile fleet, except that they torpedoed a transport." ((1), more)
"If neutral vessels have come to grief through the German submarine war during the past few months by mistake, it is a question of isolated and exceptional cases which are traceable to the misuse of flags by the British Government in connection with carelessness or suspicious actions on the part of the captains of the vessels." ((2), more)
"During the night of May 29-30 we left Mazingarbe, replaced by the English, who took up positions there. We weren't sure of the direction in which we would be heading. At six in the evening the grenadiers left for the trenches in the 'Ouvrages Blancs' [White Earthworks]. A battalion headed out for the front, soon afterward.Our battalion left around midnight, doubtless following the other one. Upon leaving Mazingarbe we could see the front right nearby, a true volcano lit up by flares of every color. In the continual rumbling of cannon fire you could distinguish the crackling of machine-gun fire and grenades going off.This was the terrible Lorette sector." ((3), more)
"The insatiable war machine had an additional 40 million bodies to draw upon for cannon fodder, a new front was created from Switzerland to the Adriatic, and the stalemate continued. It was a very difficult front, much of it in the high Alps, in a setting of natural grandeur, but truly more suited to the destruction of human life than to it preservation." ((4), more)
"So well was London guarded from hostile air craft that the zeppelins were denied access to the areas above the metropolis until May 31st [1915], ten months after the opening of the War. Near midnight on that day, several zeppelins appeared above the city, raining down shells upon the city and killing six persons.In reprisal the citizens of London declared a boycott upon every person having a name of German origin; German shops were looted, German homes were attacked, and rioting took place in many districts where Germans were numerous." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from the memoir of German General Liman von Sanders, commander of Turkish forces on the Gallipoli peninsula during the 1915 Anglo-French campaign. With little artillery on-shore, the Allied invaders relied on the naval batteries off-shore, and lost significant firepower with the withdrawal of the heavy battleships. Triumph was lost with 78 men, Majestic with 49.
Five Years in Turkey by Liman von Sanders, page 77, publisher: The Battery Press with War and Peace Books, publication date: 1928 (originally)
(2) Excerpt from the May 28, 1915 statement of German Minister of Foreign Affairs Gottfried von Jagow defending the May 7 sinking of the Lusitania. In his statement von Jagow further charges not only that 'practically all the more valuable English merchant vessels have been provided with guns, ammunition and other weapons, and reënforced with a crew specially practiced in manning guns,' but also that when disguised by neutral flags and markings, they 'attack German submarines by ramming them.'
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. III, 1915, pp. 196 and 197, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
(3) Excerpt from the Notebooks of French Infantry Corporal Louis Barthas. The British took over the left end of the French line, extending their own, and allowing the French to concentrate more troops for the Second Battle of Artois, which had begun on May 9, 1915. The two ridges of Loretto Heights and Vimy dominate the battlefield. The largest French military cemetery is at Notre Dame de Lorette on Loretto Heights, many of the dead having lost their lives in the battle Barthas was joining. An earlier church reputed to have held some bones of John the Baptist had been a pilgrimage site since the late nineteenth century.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, page 69, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
(4) Until May 23, 1915 when it declared war on Austria-Hungary, Italy was the only great power not at war. The Entente Allies expected that Italy's entry in the war would quickly lead to the defeat of first Austria-Hungary, then Germany. As René Albrecht-Carrié writes, the Italian front was very difficult terrain.
Italy from Napoleon to Mussolini by René Albrecht-Carrié, page 102, copyright © 1950 Columbia University Press, publisher: Columbia University Press, publication date: 1960
(5) The prevailing winds and stormy weather provided some of London's defense against Zeppelin air raids. Most aircraft were as yet unable to operate at the altitudes at which the airships did.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 155, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
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