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On May 23, 1915 Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary, its former ally as a member of the Triple Alliance. Clasping the hands of the German and Austro-Hungarian emperors Wilhelm II and Franz Josef, Italy's king Victor Emmanuel III conceals the tattered document behind his back.
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.
Grave and marker for an unknown French soldier at Le Trou Aid Post Cemetery, Fleurbaix, France, a primarily British cemetery. © 2014 John M. Shea
Soldiers of the Great War Known Unto God, Cabaret Rouge Cemetery, Souchez, France. © 2013 by John M. Shea
Islamic memorial, Verdun Cemetery and Ossuary. © 2015 John M. Shea
"Shortly after 7 a.m. on 8 November, Foch's Chief of Staff, Maxime Weygand, noticed a red light moving slowly through the mist. It was all he could see of the train that was carrying the German Armistice Commission . . .On 8 November, as Prince Max tried desperately to hold the country together at the end of telegraph and telephone lines that flickered and failed like the struggles of a dying man, the Social Democrats issued their ultimatum. Unless the Kaiser and the Crown Prince went, they would walk out of the Government. That night Prince Max received word that the revolution was continuing to spread. Brunswick and Munich had already gone. The authorities in Stuttgart had handed over power to Workers' and Soldiers' Councils and Cologne was expected to fall into revolutionary hands that night. It was even rumoured that sailors were marching on Berlin." ((1), more)
"Le 31 de mois d'Août 1914Je partis de Deauville un peu avant minuitDans la petite auto de RouveyreAvec son chauffeur nous étions troisNous dîmes adieu à toute une époqueDes géants furieux se dressaient sur l'EuropeLes aigles quittaient leur aire attendant le soleilLes poissons voraces montaient des abîmesLes peuples accouraient pour se connaître à fondLes morts tremblaient de peur dans leurs sombres demeures" ((2), more)
"I. The German Government to the plenipotentiaries at headquarters of the Allied High Command:The German Government accepts the conditions of the Armistice communicated to it on November 8th. The Imperial Chancellor—3,084.II. The German Supreme Command to the plenipotentiaries at headquarters of the Allied High Command: . . .Your Excellency is authorized to sign the Armistice. You will please, at the same time, have inserted in the record the following:The German Government will do all in its power to fulfil the terms agreed upon. However, the undersigned deems it his duty to point out that the execution of some of the conditions will bring famine to the population of that part of the German Empire which is not to be occupied." ((3), more)
"When the sound of victorious guns burst over London at 11 a.m. on November 11th, 1918, the men and women who looked incredulously into each other's faces did not cry jubilantly: 'We've won the War!' They only said: 'The War is over.' . . .For the first time I realised, with all that full realisation meant, how completely everything that had hitherto made up my life had vanished with Edward and Roland, with Victor and Geoffrey. The War was over; a new age was beginning; but the dead were dead and would never return." ((4), more)
"Bells are ringing. The air is full of their peals. Soldiers dance with ecstasy. They brandish flags. They wave bouquets of flowers. It is a pleasure to witness their delight. Tragedy was looming over them. The 1919 class . . . they were just on draft for reinforcements. Within six months they would all have been killed. At noon, we heard of the flight of the Kaiser to Holland.At three o'clock, I was informed by telephone from Paris of the terms of the armistice. . . . The only chance that this unparalleled war shall not entail further war, lies in vigorous action by international Socialism during the peace discussions. God grant it may play its full part! And now, for the moment, we must savour the gladness of salvation and echo the soldiers' words: 'The war is over.'" ((5), more)
(1) Allied Commander-in-Chief Ferdinand Foch continued attacks along the Western Front even as the Germany requested an armistice. German Chancellor Prince Max von Baden had been saddled with the job of ending a war the German High Command had belated acknowledged was lost. Rebellious sailors, some Bolsheviks, were in control of Kiel, Lübeck, Cuxhaven, Hanover, and Hamburg.
Hundred Days: The Campaign that Ended World War I by Nick Lloyd, pp. 254–255, copyright © 2014 by Nick Lloyd, publisher: Basic Books, publication date: 2014
(2) Beginning of 'La Petite Auto' by French poet, author, and critic Guillaume Apollinaire, an artilleryman, wounded in the head by shrapnel in March 1916. Never fully recovered, he died of influenza November 9, 1918 at the height of the pandemic. The first declaration of war of World War I was that of Austria-Hungary on Serbia on July 28, 1914, a month before Apollinaire and his friend Rouveyre set out for Paris. The poem beginsThe Little CarThe 31st of the month of August 1914I left Deauville a little before midnightIn Rouveyre's little carWith his chauffeur, we were threeWe said goodbye to an entire ageFurious giants stood upright over EuropeEagles abandoned their aeries waiting for the sunVoracious fish rose from the depthsPeoples flocked to understand each other to the coreThe dead trembled from fear in their dark dwellings
Calligrammes: Poems of Peace and War (1913–1916) by Guillaume Apollinaire, page 104, copyright © 1980 by the Regents of the University of California, publisher: University of California Press, publication date: 2004
(3) Between 7:00 and 8:00 PM on November 10, 1918, the German armistice negotiators received two wireless messages from the German Chancellor, Prince Max von Baden. The first appears above in its entirety, the second in part. The armistice was signed at 5:10 the following morning. 3,084 was a code to ensure authenticity.
The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, translated by Col. T. Bentley Mott by Ferdinand Foch, page 476, copyright © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., publisher: Doubleday, Doran & Co., publication date: 1931
(4) Excerpt from Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth. Brittain served in the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD), on the Western front. Her brother Edward was killed on June 15, 1918 serving with the Royal Artillery on the Italian Front. Roland Leighton had been Brittain's fiancé. He died on December 23, 1915 after being shot by a German sniper while inspecting wire defenses in Hébuterne, France on a moonlit night. Richardson and Thurlow were both friends first of Edward befriended by Brittain. Victor Richardson, was severely wounded in the head on April 9, 1917, in the Battle of Arras. Blind and hospitalized, seemingly recovering, he was visited by Brittain and his family, but died of a cerebral abscess on June 9. Geoffrey Thurlow was killed in action at Monchy-le-Preux, southeast of Arras, on 23rd April 1917.
Testament of Youth: An Autobiographical Study of the Years 1900–1925 by Vera Brittain, pp. 460, 463, copyright © Vera Brittain, 1933, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 1978, originally 1933
(5) Entry from the diary of Michel Corday, a senior civil servant in the French government based in Paris on November 11, 1918. Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany had renounced the throne and fled to the Netherlands, which had remained neutral through the war, as Wilhelm Hohenzollern on the 10th.
The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, page 387, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934
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