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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.
A call to Italians to buy war bonds to help fund the powerful weapons needed for the last push to Trieste, a mere 25 kilometers from the Italian front lines. It pays 5%, after all, tax free, for an effective rate of 5.55%!
From a series on the Great War, a 1916 map on the the Sixth Battle of the Isonzo, Italian commander Luigi Cadorna's offensive in August of the same year. The Italians crossed much of the Isonzo, and took Gorizia. The Austro-Hungarians continued to hold high ground to the east. © The Great War
British pilot Captain Albert Ball from an insert to the French magazine Guerre Aerienne No. 23, April 19, 1917. He died weeks later, on May 7, with 44 victories, fourth highest of British pilots in the war.
Map showing the territorial gains (darker shades) of Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece, primarily at the expense of Turkey, agreed in the Treaty of Bucharest following the Second Balkan War. Despite its gains, Bulgaria also lost territory to both Romania and Turkey.
"The German submarine, 'U-53,' appeared off Newport, R.I., October 7th [1916], and after the commander had landed and sent a message to Ambassador Bernstorff, the boat left the port. On the next day, when off Nantucket, this submersible raider sank five vessels—three British, one Dutch, and one Norwegian. On one of the British vessels, the Stephano, a passenger liner plying between New York and New Foundland, there were several Americans. Luckily the attack on these vessels had been observed by the commanders and crews of several nearby American destroyers, who rescued all the victims." ((1), more)
"Commencing on 30 September [1916] with a bombardment that lasted more than a week, counting interruptions for bad weather, the Eighth Battle [of the Isonzo] replayed the Seventh, except that Cadorna involved the Second Army more actively, attacking from the north while the Duke of Aosta's men pushed eastwards. The epicentre would be 800 metres wide, around the village of Nova Vas, where 10,000 men were massed. On 9 October, the shelling intensified into so-called 'annihilation fire', marking the climax before the infantry attacked. Even with more than a thousand guns, it was less the half the weight of equivalent bombardments on the Western Front." ((2), more)
"On October 10th a surprise attack was successfully driven into the Austrian positions north and south of the Vipacco River, and conformably with this success the Italian line on the Carso pushed forward by about a mile. In the two days' fighting, 7,0000 Austrian prisoners were taken." ((3), more)
"Several of our aeroplanes came over, making for hangars, many miles behind, and tales were told of gallant deeds and especially of the prowess of a young fellow, named Albert Ball, who has just brought down his thirtieth Boche aeroplane, is aged nineteen, and lives to tell the tale. We stood for a long while riveted by the strange Satanic scene — but, at last, it was a relief to turn away. The ground which we were treading, the shell-holes we avoided, are broken patches of the battlefield of only a short month ago. It was here and then that Raymond Asquith's brilliant promise was extinguished and my dear nephew, Charles Feversham, was killed, and on the grey horizon beyond Albert there are, at this moment, thousands of fellow-countrymen, their trenches the playground for shells . . ." ((4), more)
"The Romanian army ought not to count on Russian troops in defending its extended frontier, chief of staff Mikhail Alekseev had warned General Berthelot on 12 October when the latter stopped at STAVKA en route to Romania. On a map of Romania Alekseev drew 'a large blue line' along the Siret river from Galaţi to the Carpathians. This he termed 'the only line of defense.' Alekseev repeated the same theme directly to the Romanians, urging them to prepare the evacuation of Wallachia and to build fortifications on the Siret. It became clear that additional Russian troops would be sent only to defend Moldavia at the left wing of the Russian Front. Elsewhere the Romanians would be essentially on their own." ((5), more)
(1) Declared after Great Britain imposed a blockade of Germany, and suspended after the May 7, 1915 sinking of the passenger liner Lusitania in which 1,195 civilians, 128 of them Americans, Germany suspended, to some extent, its campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare. Accusing Britain of flagging its ships with the flags of neutral nations, German submariners sometimes continued to sink the ships of neutral nations, like Netherlands, Norway, and the United States.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 260, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
(2) Although the Austro-Hungarians stopped the Italian seventh offensive on the Isonzo, the battle had followed close on the heels of Italian success in Sixth Isonzo. With Austria-Hungary fighting Russia in Galicia and Romania in Transylvania, Italian commander Luigi Cadorna hoped for a breakthrough.
The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919 by Mark Thompson, page 221, copyright © 2008 Mark Thompson, publisher: Basic Books, publication date: 2009
(3) Excerpt from an account of the Italian conquest of Gorizia and subsequent, less successful, actions, by British historian Edwin Grewe. The Eighth of Twelve Battles of the Isonzo began on October 9, 1916. The Vipacco River flows westerly and into the Isonzo River. North of the Carso plateau, the Vipacco is south of the city of Gorizia which the Italians took on August 10, 1916. The Austro-Hungarians held the high ground. With any advance, the Italians faced the next range.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. IV, 1916, p. 296, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
(4) Excerpt from the diary of Viscountess D'Abernon, quoted in Martin Gilbert's The First World War, who had visited the Somme battlefront from Pozières to Thiepval. British pilot Captain Albert Ball eventually had 44 victories, fourth highest of British pilots in the war. He died on May 7, 1917 during a dogfight, but possibly of engine failure.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 293, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(5) Romania entered the war on the side of the Entente Allies hoping for significant Russian support and an offensive on the Salonica Front that would prevent Bulgaria from attacking. Russian chief of staff Alekseev was prepared to support a Romanian army on the Russian left, but not to advance towards the Romanian capital of Bucharest in Walachia, a region that covered half of Romania's territory and a salient that was proving indefensible. French General Berthelot stopped at Stavka, Russian military command, on his way to Romania as a military advisor.
The Romanian Battlefront in World War I by Glenn E. Torrey, page 110, copyright © 2011 by the University Press of Kansas, publisher: University Press of Kansas, publication date: 2011
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