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Metal grave markers at the Laventie German Military Cemetery, Laventie, France. A plowed field is in the background. © 2013 by John M. Shea
Headstone of Corporal Harry L. Curtis of Massachusetts and the 6th Engineers, 3rd Division, at the Somme American Cemetery, Bony, France. Curtis died on May 6, 1918. © 2013 by John M. Shea
The disparity in the number of nations arrayed against the Central Powers was a common motif, and was updated as the numbers on each side increased. Italy's entry into the war on May 23, 1915 changed the numbers again.Central Powers (top) Sultan Mohammed V of Turkey, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, Kaiser Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary. Allies (center and bottom rows) Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, King George V of the United Kingdom, President Raymond Poincaré of France, King Nikola of Montenegro, King Peter of Serbia, King Victor Emmanuel of Italy, King Albert I of Belgium, Emperor Taishō of Japan.In the center, a poem: Drei gegen Acht, Three against Eight.
German postcard map of the Western Front in Flanders, looking south and including Lille, Arras, Calais, and Ostend. In the Battle of the Yser in October, 1914, the Belgian Army held the territory south of the Yser Canal, visible between Nieuport, Dixmude, and Ypres (Ypern). Further north is Passchendaele, which British forces took at great cost in 1917.
Peoples of Austria-Hungary in 1914 from Historical Atlas by William R. Shepherd. The empire's population included Germans, Magyars, Romanians, Italians, and Slavs including Croats, Serbians, Ruthenians, Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, and Slovenes.
"5.7. Splendid weather these days cheers me up, as much as this is possible. Under my very eyes, people are plowing all day long, and from my desk I can see the most beautiful scenes of nature. Moreover, all the apple trees are beginning to bloom. Spring again, the second out here! And another? . . . one day it will all have to end, after all, whether they want it or not. The phonograph is plaguing the barracks again. Poisoned sausages are of no avail: it won't eat them." ((1), more)
"A Yankee captain, and a sergeant, arrived for three days instruction. 'This is my birthday in hell,' he began. He seemed a good fellow, said that Yankee divisions are rolling over.Company officers are getting fed up with the daily alarms—'an attack is expected'—which come from behind. Reports says one day that cavalry have come to support us, another day that a division is being sent up in buses; so it goes on; and always that the French are behind. The latest alarm, 'sure this time,' is of a May 8th—big attack to-day. Pending its onset I sat, if the midges allowed, or strolled in the cottage gardens." ((2), more)
"On the afternoon of May 9th [1918]—which was the first possible day of the next period, Keyes and Lynes were both at La Panne as luncheon guests of the King of the Belgians. After a happy and informal meal they all went for a walk among the sand dunes. They had not gone very far when the King drew Keyes to one side and rather shyly offered him the Star of a Grand Officer of the Order of Leopold. It was while thanking His Majesty for this charming gesture that Keyes first became aware of the fact that the wind was shifting offshore.Within a quarter of an hour the wind was steady from the northeast. With brief apologies Keyes cut short the royal luncheon party, and he and Lynes tore back to Dunkirk—bearing with them the fervent good wishes of their hosts, to whom Keyes had permitted himself to drop a broad hint on the reason for their precipitate withdrawal." ((3), more)
"Keyes repeated the attempt on Ostend the night of 10–11 May with the battered Vindictive and old cruiser Sappho serving as blockships. The Sappho suffered a boiler accident that reduced her speed to only 6 knots and she had to drop out. The Vindictive at first had difficulty making out the harbor entrance in the fog and smoke, came under heavy fire, grounded, and was sunk by her crew in a position that, unfortunately, blocked only a third of the fairway. Keyes's flagship Warwick was mined while retiring with Vindictive's crew, which she had embarked from the battered motor launch that had picked them up. The destroyer was lucky to avoid sinking and had to be towed back by the destroyer Velox." ((4), more)
"At the middle of May [1918], Czech patriots and representatives of other Slav national groupings staged ominously anti-Hapsburg demonstrations in Prague, to be recounted farther along. Tactlessly, [Prime Minister Ernst] Seidler poured oil on the flame by announcing that Bohemia would be partitioned for administrative purposes into Czech and German areas; Czech patriotic sentiment firmly insisted upon a unified Bohemia in which Czechs would profit from a majority position. Yet it was believed by the moderate Illas Naroda that 'the entire Czech opinion contemplates a Czech nation within the framework of Austria, under the Hapsburg scepter.'" ((5), more)
(1) Paul Klee's diary entry for May 7, 1918. The artist served with the air corps, varnishing the wings and fuselages of airplanes, transporting airplanes to the front, and, from the beginning of 1918, working as assistant paymaster, a position that meant he no longer needed to fear being transferred to the front, and that left him time to read and work. He would complain of the phonograph again on May 28: 'While I am thinking about this, the phonograph grinds tirelessly. Heads grin around it, devilish masks peer in through the window. The beasts are enjoying themselves. There must be some reason for the fact that there is always a piece of hell near me. This one is at least quite mild. Only a reflection of the real one.'
The Diaries of Paul Klee 1898-1918, Edited, with an Introduction by Felix Klee by Paul Klee, 392 (and 393), copyright © 1964 by the Regents of the University of California, publisher: University of California Press, publication date: 1968
(2) Ending of the entry for May 7 flowing into that for May 8, 1918 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. Dunn's unit was northeast of Amiens where they gone at the beginning of April to reinforce the British line against the German Somme Offensive, Operation Michael, which was suspended on the 5th. It was quickly followed by Operation Georgette on April 9, the second of five German Offensives in 1918. The Allies were expecting the next attack any day.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 480, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
(3) Under the command of Roger Keyes, the Royal Navy attempted to block the canals leading to the German submarine base at Bruges, Belgium the night of April 22–23, 1918, raiding the North Sea ports of Ostend and Zeebrugge in hopes of sinking aging warships across the canals. The operation had some success at Zeebrugge, but at Ostend it was unsuccessful, in part because the Germans had moved a buoy on which the raiders were relying. As Keyes met with Albert King of the Belgians on May 9, he had a plan awaiting favorable weather conditions to try again at Ostend.
Zeebrugge by Barrie Pitt by Barrie Pitt, page 164, copyright © Barrie Pitt 1958, 1959, publisher: Ballantine Books, publication date: 1958
(4) Under the command of Roger Keyes, the Royal Navy attempted to block the canals leading to the German submarine base at Bruges, Belgium the night of April 22–23, 1918, raiding the North Sea ports of Ostend and Zeebrugge in hopes of sinking aging warships across the canals. The operation had some success at Zeebrugge, but at Ostend it was unsuccessful, in part because the Germans had moved a buoy on which the raiders were relying. Keyes made a second attempt at Ostend the night of May 9–10, but with no more success. Our author conflicts with other sources, dating the raid one day later.
A Naval History of World War I by Paul G. Halpern, page 414, copyright © 1994 by the United States Naval Institute, publisher: UCL Press, publication date: 1994
(5) Baron Ernst Seidler von Feuchtenegg served as Austro-Hungarian Prime Minister in 1917 and 1918. In the face of increasing demands for an independent Czech or Czechoslovak state, Seidler more than once offered his resignation to Kaiser Karl, who finally accepted it on July 22, 1918.
The Passing of the Hapsburg Monarchy, 1914-1918 2 Volumes by Arthur James May, Vol. 2, pp. 661-662, copyright © 1966 by the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, publication date: 1966
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