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Kaiser Wilhelm II, his generals, admiral, and Chancellor. With the Kaiser are Erich Falkenhayn, Chief of the General Staff, the two eastern commanders Generals Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff (later successors to Falkenhayn). Admiral von Tirpitz is seated at the far right. German Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg, in uniform, stands behind von Hindenburg.
Western Front: Aisne & Oise. French folding postcard map of the Aisne and Oise, number 3 from the series Les Cartes du Front. The map includes the Champagne front from Compiègne in the west to Chalons-sur-Marne in the east including Soissons, Chemin des Dammes, Laon, Reims, and Château Thierry.
Zeppelin Kommt! Children play a Zeppelin raid on London. Holding his bomb in the gondola is a doll of the airship's inventor, Count Zeppelin. The other children, playing the English, cower, and the British fleet — folded paper boats — remains in port. Prewar postcards celebrated the imposing airships and the excitement they generated with the same expression, 'Zeppelin Kommt!'. Postcard by P.O. Engelhard (P.O.E.). The message on the reverse is dated May 28, 1915.
Photograph of the Russian monk Grigory Rasputin from The War of the Nations Portfolio in Rotogravure Etchings Compiled from the Mid-Week Pictorial. Tsar Nicholas of Russia and his wife were introduced to Rasputin in 1907. According to Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia, Rasputin, 'wheedled them, dazzled them, dominated them.'
"Never in the history of the Prussian Army had a theatre commander demanded the dismissal of the Chief of the General Staff, much less under threat of resignation. And never in the annals of that institution had an army commander registered a vote of no confidence in the Chief of the General Staff with the monarch. Ominously, the affair introduced a deep and abiding lack of trust among the Chancellor, the Chief of the General Staff, and the two eastern commanders. Bethmann Hollweg survived the crisis, but only so long as Falkenhayn and Hindenburg-Ludendorff continued their animosity. . . .The greatest loser — apart from the German war effort — was Wilhelm II. On 15 January the Supreme War Lord begged Hindenburg to remain at his post." ((1), more)
"On January 11th [1915] the tide turned, but it was not until January 16th, when a strongly fortified Turkish position at Zivin, a few miles west of Kara Urgan, was stormed, that victory was assured and the Turks were thoroughly routed. 'Despite violent snowstorms, which lasted from the 8th to the 16th of January, rendering the roads very difficult, our troops by dint of the greatest heroism and extraordinary tenacity progressed continuously with attack after attack,' says the Russian communiqué of February 1st; 'the enemy's forces were completely broken up and retreated precipitately, abandoning wounded and ammunition and flinging their guns down precipices.'" ((2), more)
"Just as the course of the war hitherto had given every soldier new conceptions of human powers of endurance, so it had established totally new standards for the requirements of matériel and its efficiency. Only those who held responsible posts in the German G.H.Q. in the winter of 1914-15, during which almost every single shot had to be counted in the Western Army, and the failure of one single ammunition train, the breaking of a rail or any other stupid accident, threatened to render whole sections of the front defenceless, can form any estimate of the difficulties that had to be overcome at that time." ((3), more)
"The fighting in and about Sarikamish lasted in all nearly a fortnight, but the various and varying accounts of its later phases convey a somewhat blurred impression rather than provide a consecutive narrative. That impression is mainly of great masses of Turks, brave to the last but famished and half-frozen, being mown down by guns and maxims and rifle-fire on the main road, in the passes, and on the lower slopes of the mountains; or of their fierce attacks repulsed and Russian counter-attacks driven home, the cold steel finishing what was left undone by shell and bullet — the whole against a background of snow, in an atmosphere so arctic that the wounded succumbed to the cold where they fell." ((4), more)
"The first raid by Zeppelins in which bombs were dropped on British soil occurred on the night of January 19-20, 1915, when two airships bombed Sheringham, Snettisham, King's Lynn, and Yarmouth. Four people were killed and sixteen injured, and during the next six months only six small raids were recorded. These did little damage. Then in the summer of that year three raids were made on London, and considerable damage was inflicted." ((5), more)
(1) Unable to pressure Chief of the General Staff Erich von Falkenhayn to move new troops and additional resources to the Eastern Front to further their plan to defeat Russia, the two eastern commanders Generals Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff campaigned against Falkenhayn, and brought others into their their widening struggle including German Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg and Kaiser Wilhelm's wife. The Kaiser's submission to von Hindenburg made a mockery of his title of Supreme War Lord.
The First World War: Germany and Austria Hungary 1914-1918 by Holger H. Herwig, page 134, copyright © 1997 Holger H. Herwig, publisher: Arnold, publication date: 1997
(2) The Turkish offensive that aimed to seize the frontier rail terminus at Sarikamish before advancing on Russia's fortress at Kars ended in disaster in the mountains, snow, and bitter weather of the Caucasus. On January 16, 1915, the Battle of Sarikamish, which had begun on December 24, 1914, was drawing to a close.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. III, 1915, pp. 47, 48, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
(3) No army had been prepared for the enormous quantities of munitions that were expended in the opening months. By early 1915 all nations were under-supplied, and did not have the weapons to mount major offensives. The shell shortage was particularly acute in Russia, which purchased weapons from Japan and the United States, and Britain, were the issue precipitated a political crisis.
General Headquarters and its Critical Decisions, 1914-1916 by Erich von Falkenhayn, pp. 47, 48, copyright © 1920 by Dodd, Mead and Company, Inc., publisher: Dodd, Mead and Company, Inc., publication date: 1920
(4) A grim summary by Robert Machray of the Turkish offensive that ended in disaster in the mountains, snow, and bitter weather of the Caucasus in the Battle of Sarikamish. The incompetent War Minister Enver Pasha aimed to seize the frontier rail terminus at Sarikamish before advancing on Russia's fortress at Kars. He instead destroyed a Turkish Army, and left as many as 70,000 of him men dead.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. III, 1915, pp. 46, 47, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
(5) Zeppelins had been used in the sieges of the Belgian fortresses of Liège in August 1914 and Antwerp in October, and against French cities near the Franco-German border. To forestall an attack on Britain, the British had struck the Zeppelin sheds at Cuxhaven on December 25, 1914, causing little damage.
The Zeppelin Fighters by Arch Whitehouse, page 67, copyright © 1966 by Arch Whitehouse, publisher: New English Library, publication date: 1978
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