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Headstone of Sapper E.M. Des Brisay, 2nd Canadian Signal Company, Attd. Royal Flying Corps, died August 3, 1916, age 23, at Cabaret Rouge British Cemetery, Souchez, France. © 2013 John M. Shea
Re-elect President Woodrow Wilson! An October 18, 1916 cartoon from the British magazine Punch. The German sinking of ships that killed American citizens and sabotage such as the July 30, 1916 attack that destroyed the Black Tom munitions plant in Jersey City, New Jersey, were not enough to make Wilson call for a declaration of war on Germany, much to the distress of Great Britain and the other Entente allies. The date on Wilson's desk calendar is October 8, 1916, a day on which German submarine U-53 sank five vessels — three British, one Dutch, and one Norwegian — off Nantucket, Massachusetts. One of the British ships was a passenger liner traveling between New York and Newfoundland.
Headstones from Martinpuich Cemetery, Martinpuich, France: for J. Reid of the Royal Field Artillery, died October 6, 1916, and R.E. Bullows of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, died November 11, 1916. Martinpuich was in the Somme sector. © 2013 John M. Shea
German ace Oswald Bölcke, second from left, marked with an X, was killed in a collision, October 28, 1916 with 40 victories.
Map of the North and Baltic Seas (labeledNord-See and Ostsee) from a folding postcard of five battlefronts: the Western and Eastern Fronts; North and Baltic Seas, Mediterranean and Black Seas; and the Serbian-Montenegro Front.
"Look here, Kid. Take a tip from me an[d] stop wanting to enlist. You could do nothing but go in the home guards and stay there awhile, and it would be a deuce of a awhile. You hold your horses awhile and go to school every day, and by the time you are seventeen you can get out and enlist.Don't be afraid that the war will be over by then, because if you ask me, it is going to last some time after 1920. So be a good boy and stay on the farm for a while, and go to school every day you possibly can, as that is the best thing you can ever do. I am haveing a pretty good time just now, but I don't know how long it is going to last. Most of the men here are not near as well off as I am by a long sight." ((1), more)
"In New York at the Hotel Astor Mr. Hughes was awakened from his afternoon nap with the news that he would be the next President. The Times searchlight was flashing a Republican victory. A skysign on the roof of the hotel spelled out HUGHES in electric bulbs. Marchers from the Union League Club appeared with a band in Times Square calling on Mr. Hughes to claim election. At Oyster Bay, Theodore Roosevelt was already declaring that the Republican victory was 'a vindication of our national honor.'" ((2), more)
"Why are tired men given no better resting-place than this half-flooded claypit? Why does our Army now leave its dead lying about anyhow? Why does it now leave its wounded in its midst behind, or bring them out only under lethal threats? Why are men being flung against an enemy in these appalling weather conditions?—and with with far less method than our shells are flung. Were we not told a month ago of the German line having been driven in so far that its flanks must be pulled back? — it doesn't look like breaking. Our total casualties these six days are 150." ((3), more)
"— In France, leading light of civilisation, the communiqué never mentions the 'planes which fail to return from battles in the air. The British, on the contrary, do mention them. What is the result? That our communiqués give the impression that all our 'planes return. So when Boelke, the Flying officer, was killed, we were informed that he had just brought down his fortieth 'plane! It is stupefying! There you have a miniature reflection of the amazement people will feel after the war, when they know the truth." ((4), more)
"A story went through the corridors of the Pulitzer Building that a reporter who tried to get into the Hughes suite early that morning for a statement was told, 'The President can't be disturbed.''Well when he wakes up tell him he's no longer President,' replied the reporter. 'Wilson's re-elected.'" ((5), more)
(1) Better part of a letter from Winnie McClare to his brother Herbert, November 6, 1916. From Nova Scotia, Canada, McClare was writing from a training camp in Upper Dibgate in Kent on England's southeast coast.
Intimate Voices from the First World War by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, pp. 226–227, copyright © 2003 by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, publisher: Harper Collins Publishers, publication date: 2003
(2) Election day November 7, 1916 ended with President Woodrow Wilson apparently having failed in his bid for re-election. Republican Charles Evans Hughes had taken New York, Illinois, and, other than New Hampshire, New England. As the day ended, the results from California were not yet in. Hughes had served as Governor of the state of New York from 1907 to 1910. He left that post to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States, and stepped down from that position to accept the Republican nomination for the presidency.
Mr. Wilson's War by John Dos Passos, page 181, copyright © 1962, 2013 by John Dos Passos, publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
(3) Extract from the entry for November 8, 1916 from the writings — diaries, letters, and memoirs — of Captain J.C. Dunn, Medical Officer of the Second Battalion His Majesty's Twenty-Third Foot, the Royal Welch Fusiliers, and fellow soldiers who served with him. The Battalion was then serving in the Somme sector, on the British right. In the preceding days Dunn's unit had been strafed by airplanes and soaked by rain. Unable to sleep, Dunn dried his clothes, cursed, and asked his questions.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 280, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
(4) Extract from the entries for November 9, 1916 from the diary of Michel Corday, French senior civil servant. German ace Oswald Bölcke was killed on October 28, 1916, in a mid-air collision with fellow pilot Erwin Böhme during a dogfight. Bölcke and Böhme were both pursuing a British plane when another British plane, chased by Manfred von Richthofen, flew directly across their path. Böhme survived the mishap, but Bölcke could not control his damaged plane, and died when it struck the ground. In his diary, Corday had previously written about the secrecy of the French government and military, and imagined the surprise and dismay when, after the war, the French public learned the truth of the war and its casualties.
The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, page 208, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934
(5) Election day November 7, 1916 ended with President Woodrow Wilson apparently having failed in his bid for re-election. Republican Charles Evans Hughes, former Governor of New York and Supreme Court Justice, had taken the states with the greatest electoral vote prizes: New York (45), Pennsylvania (38), and Illinois (29). But Wilson took Ohio (24), Texas (20), the south, and the west. It wasn't until November 10 that the 13 electoral votes of California were awarded to Wilson, giving him the presidency with 277 electoral votes to Hughes's 254. Thanks to www.270towin.com for the election results and map.
Mr. Wilson's War by John Dos Passos, page 184, copyright © 1962, 2013 by John Dos Passos, publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
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