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Postwar postcard map of the Balkans including Albania, newly-created Yugoslavia, expanded Romania, and diminished former Central Powers Bulgaria and Turkey. The first acquisitions of Greece in its war against Turkey are seen in Europe where it advanced almost to Constantinople, in the Aegean Islands from Samos to Rhodes, and on the Turkish mainland from its base in Smyrna. The Greco-Turkish war was fought from May 1919 to 1922. The positions shown held from the war's beginning to the summer of 1920 when Greece advanced eastward. Newly independent Hungary and Ukraine appear in the northwest and northeast.
Enver Pasha, Turkish Minister of War
German and Austro-Hungarian forces under the command of generals von Hindenburg and Archduke Friedrich besieged Warsaw, and took it during the Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive. Austrians von Hötzendorf, Friedrich, and Pflanzer-Baltin form the bottom of the ring; the others are German. The flag and shield of Germany are on the bottom left; those of Austria and Hungary the bottom right.
A poilu sleeps beneath a firmament of his dreams, including the moon, Venus, the north star, a comet, clouds of pipe smoke, the Milky Way poured from a bottle of wine, shooting stars, and the Great Bear and Little Bear (the Big and Little Dippers) personified by Kaiser Wilhelm and his son, the Crown Prince.
I've killed many Germans, but never women or children. Original French watercolor by John on blank field postcard. In the background are indolent Russian soldiers and Vladimir Lenin, in the foreground stands what may be a Romanian soldier who is telling the Russians, 'You call me savage. I killed a lot of Boches [Germans], but never women or children!'
"Even among the Greek divisions sent to Macedonia there were units of questionable loyalty. Two detachments at Lamia and Larissa mutinied while on their way to Salonika early in February. But the general could rely on the support of King Alexander. He would not tolerate acts of indiscipline. He sought a soldierly obedience as resolute as his father had received in the halcyon days of the Balkan Wars. It was, of course, as much in his interest as in the interests of the Allies that the Greek Army should cease playing politics. Courageously he visited the dissident troops in Lamia, refusing clemency to their ring leaders and making it clear to the others that Venizelos' Government enjoyed his full confidence. When a group of conscripts defied their officers and pillaged a village, he gave orders that two of the troublemakers were to be shot. He would brook no nonsense." ((1), more)
"On my return journey at the beginning of February I touched at headquarters at Kreuznach. There I learned to my surprise that the new chief of the Turkish general staff, General von Seekt, would shortly take over all establishments erected and administered by the military mission on the lines of communication. The Turkish headquarters thus was to exercise a direct and uniform influence on the entire supply of all armies. . . .The position of the chief of the Turkish general staff was in many ways dependent upon Vicegeneralissimo Enver; that of the chief of the German military mission was more or less independent, insofar as, in spite of friction, the stipulations of the contract had been enforced. It was this kind of independence that made the mission so disliked by Enver." ((2), more)
"February 5, 1918.—Sitting all day. I had several violent passages of arms with Ludendorff. Matters seemed to be clearing up, though this is not yet altogether done. Apart from deciding on our tactics for Brest, we have at last to set down in writing that we are only obliged to fight for the pre-war possessions of Germany. Ludendorff was violently opposed to this, and said, 'If Germany makes peace without profit, then Germany has lost the war.'" ((3), more)
"Dampierre le Chateaule 6 Febrier 1918Ma chere petite femme. Cheris je t'envoi cette petite carte pour te faire rigaler un petit te me dira si sa te fait plaiser embrasse bien petite Solange pour son petit papaBonne SanteMy dear little wife. Cheris, I send you this little card to make you laugh a little Tell me if it pleases you Give a kiss to little Solange for her little papaGood Health" ((4), more)
"The last hope of coming to an understanding with Petersburg has vanished. An appeal from the Petersburg government to the German soldiers has been discovered in Berlin, inciting them to revolt, to murder the Kaiser and their generals, and unite with the soviets. Following on this came a telegram from Kaiser Wilhelm to Kühlmann ordering him to terminate negotiations at once by demanding, besides Courland and Lithuania, also the unoccupied territories of Livonia and Esthonia—all without regard to the right of self-determination of the peoples concerned.The dastardly behavior of these Bolsheviks renders negotiations impossible." ((5), more)
(1) Greece had been sharply divided between its pro-German King Constantine and its pro-Entente-Ally, sometime-Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos. In mid-summer 1917, Constantine abdicated in favor of his son Alexander who strongly supported the Allies, but led a still-divided country. By the beginning of 1918, over 600,000 Allied troops were on the Salonica Front under overall French command — British troops in a malarial area to the east, Italian forces on the Adriatic to the west, French troops, and the revivified Serbian army in the center. Greek troops were needed in part to replace Russian troops that, since the Bolshevik Revolution, were covered by Russia's armistice with the Central Powers. Greece had significantly expanded its territory as a victor in the First and Second Balkan Wars of 1912 and '13. The general referred to was General Bordeaux.
The Gardeners of Salonika by Alan Palmer, pp. 173–174, copyright © 1965 by A. W. Palmer, publisher: Simon and Schuster, publication date: 1965
(2) Excerpt from German General Otto Liman von Sanders' account of his return to Constantinople after a January visit to Belgium on the Western Front. With Interior Minister Mehmed Talaat Pasha and Minister of the Navy Ahmed Djemal Pasha, War Minister Ismail Enver Pasha ruled Turkey throughout the war. Starting in December 1913, six months before the war began and ten months before Turkey entered it, General Otto Liman von Sanders led a German mission to Turkey to reorganize and train its army.
Five Years in Turkey by Liman von Sanders, page 194, publisher: The Battery Press with War and Peace Books, publication date: 1928 (originally)
(3) First paragraph of the entry for February 5, 1918 by Count Ottokar Czernin in his In the World War. As Minister of Foreign Affairs, Czernin headed the Austro-Hungarian delegation to the Brest-Litovsk peace conference between Russia and the Central Powers. He wrote in Berlin where he was meeting with his German counterparts and the German High Command, including Erich Ludendorff, which insisted on annexing territory Germany had taken in the war. The negotiations were at a stalemate. Austria was desperately short of food and other supplies, and had suffered strikes and riots in January.
In the World War by Count Ottokar Czernin, page 275, copyright © 1920, by Harper & Brothers, publisher: Harper and Brothers, publication date: 1920
(4) A postcard from a French poilu to his wire on February 6, 1918, writing from Dampierre-le-Chateau, which is between Rheims and Verdun, southwest of the Argonne. The card shows a poilu sleeping beneath a firmament of his dreams, including the moon, Venus, the north star, a comet, clouds of pipe smoke, the Milky Way poured from a bottle of wine, shooting stars, and the Great Bear and Little Bear (the Big and Little Dippers) personified by Kaiser Wilhelm and his son, the Crown Prince.
A poilu sleeps beneath a firmament of his dreams, including the moon, Venus, the north star, a comet, clouds of pipe smoke, the Milky Way by JK, Reverse
(5) Excerpt from the entry for February 7, 1918 by Count Ottokar Czernin in his In the World War. As Minister of Foreign Affairs, Czernin headed the Austro-Hungarian delegation to the Brest-Litovsk peace conference between Russia and the Central Powers. The negotiations came to a standstill over the German High Command's refusal to evacuate territory seized in the war, while claiming to believe in the right of self-determination of the peoples of that territory, while the Russians argued for self-determination for these same people while declaring this could not occur under occupation. Hoping for international revolution, hopes encouraged by hundreds of thousands of workers who had gone on strike in both Austria-Hungary and Germany in January, the Bolsheviks played for time. In calling for murder and revolt after weeks of prolonging the stalemate, the Russians had pressed German military commanders beyond their limits.
In the World War by Count Ottokar Czernin, page 277, copyright © 1920, by Harper & Brothers, publisher: Harper and Brothers, publication date: 1920
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