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The German Navy above and below the surface. A poem on the reverse touts that although the submarine is hard to spot (and fire upon), images of surface ships, as bright as mirrors, are projected within the submarine.
Watercolor of Royal Navy motor launch ML148, by LHS, 1918. The motor launch was a small vessel designed for harbor defense and anti-submarine work. The Elco company built 580 between 1915 and 1918 in three series of different lengths: 1 to 50 (75 ft.), 51 to 550 (86 ft.), and 551 to 580 (80 ft.). The original armament of a 13 pound cannon was later replaced by three depth charges. Signed: L.H.S. 18
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.
Greetings from the field! A shell takes a dwarf for a ride in a German postcard from 1917.
A Russian POW leaning on a shovel or other tool. A drawing by Wilhelm Hartmann dated September 22, 1915.
"The Germans had 105 U-boats available on 1 February [1917]. They were deployed as follows: High Sea Fleet, 46; Flanders, 23; Mediterranean, 23; Kurland (Baltic), 10; and Constantinople, 3. Thanks to new construction, and despite losses, U-boat strength rose steadily to a peak of 129 on 1 June; for the remainder of the year it did not fall below 120, ending the year at 125. The U-boat construction program itself remained plagued by difficulties, exacerbated by the severe winter of 1916–1917, which brought shortages of coal, difficulties in transport, and poor morale among workers." ((1), more)
"13th February [1917]All eyes are on the submarine conflict. The British Navy inspires very great confidence. We have faith in its strategy and in the courage of its crews. Nevertheless, the problem of British supplies entails fearful unknown problems. Has everything been foreseen? May they not run short of tonnage? The Government has allocated for war purposes 50 percent according to Lloyd George, 60 per cent according to Runciman. There remains a very small margin for the food-supply and general commercial requirements. Submarine warfare could eat into this margin dangerously." ((2), more)
"My Dear Miss Scott: Now we are nestled in a village under a huge rock; or so it seems, after much regular country. The place reminds me of Birdlip and Crickley, but O tis ruddily cold. The fates have been kind to me, and still leave me as canteen attendant; which means that though freezing one has time to oneself, and are off those confounded cleaning parades, which so gnaw at my life. . . .There is more literature in this letter, but not yet. The literal translation of the pretty name of this place is The Star, and there are earthworks all round, remains of 1870. Soon we go up again to the trouble; soon Fritz will be hurling high explosive compliments at us with gusto, and we close to the parapets. Well, tres bien, if there is no soft job, the hard one must do, but the first is better." ((3), more)
"During the night of February 14–15 [1917], at one in the morning, we were tumbled out of our beds by a sudden, violent bombardment which the Germans unleashed on our lines.Shaken, we got up to see what was happening. Shells were falling all around, even on the edge of our shelter, normally a peaceful corner. It was clear that this bombardment, completely unexpected, was the prelude to a German infantry attack. . . . The spectacle was impressive, and you had to think back to the tragic days of Lorette, Verdun, and the Somme to conceive of a bombardment like this one." ((4), more)
"Germany now prepared to face the might of the United States. The danger of America's entry into the war was offset, however, as far as the German High Command was concerned, by the continual news from Russia of military weakness and anti-war feeling behind the lines. On February 16 [German] General Hoffmann noted in his diary: 'There is very encouraging news from the interior of Russia. It would seem that she cannot hold out longer than the autumn.'" ((5), more)
(1) Summary of deployment of its U-boat fleet on February 1, 1917 when Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare, in an attempt to starve Great Britain. The winter of 1916–1917 — Germany's 'Turnip Winter' — was bitterly cold, and the shortages of coal, difficulties in transport, and poor morale struck France, Germany, and Russia.
A Naval History of World War I by Paul G. Halpern, pp. 338–339, copyright © 1994 by the United States Naval Institute, publisher: UCL Press, publication date: 1994
(2) Beginning of the entry for February 3, 1917 from the war diary of Albert, King of the Belgians. Germany had begun its campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare two weeks before on February 1, seeking to starve Great Britain into submission. David Lloyd George was British Prime Minister. Runciman is, I believe, Walter Runciman, who served on the Board of Trade and focused on defeating Germany through the naval blockade.
The War Diaries of Albert I King of the Belgians by Albert I, page 156, copyright © 1954, publisher: William Kimber
(3) Two paragraphs from a letter dated February 14, 1917 to Marion Scott from British soldier (Gloucestershire Regiment), poet, and composer Ivor Gurney. Scott was a composer and President of the Society of Women Musicians from 1915 to 1916, and was working with Gurney on his first book of poems. The letter continues with two Gurney sonnets, 'Home-sickness' and 'Servitude'. The commune of L'Étoile (The Star) is northwest of Amiens, France. The earthworks were from the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871. The village of Birdlip and Crickley Hill are in Gurney's beloved Gloucestershire. The winter of 1916–17 was bitterly cold.
War Letters, Ivor Gurney, a selection edited by R.K.R. Thornton by Ivor Gurney, pp. 128–129, copyright © J. R. Haines, the Trustee of the Ivor Gurney Estate 1983, publisher: The Hogarth Press, publication date: 1984
(4) Excerpt from the notebooks of French Infantry Corporal Louis Barthas then stationed in Massiges, between Rheims and Verdun, at the 'Main de Massiges' 'formed by six hills extending from a little plateau.' Barthas had fought at Loretto Heights in the Second and Third Battles of Artois, at Verdun, and on the Somme. The bombardment continued through the night on three regiments, Barthas's in the center, but at dawn the focus shifted to the 208th Regiment on his left. At 3:00 p.m. the Germans blew mines beneath the 208th and overran their lines, taking 1,050 prisoners, most of whom surrendered in what was referred to as L'Affaire de Maisons-Champagne.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, page 296, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
(5) Russia was coming to a crisis in a winter of brutal cold that disabled transport,and kept supplies from the army and food from Petrograd, the capital, and Moscow. In the armed forces, cities, and factories, antiwar and anti-Tsarist sentiment flared.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 309, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
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