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City street scene with German and Austro-Hungarian Hapsburg flags — the Dual Alliance — and a group clustered around a kiosk, likely reading war news and casualty lists. By RS (BS?) 1915. Postmarked October 9, 1916.
Headstones from Martinpuich Cemetery, Martinpuich, France: for J. Reid of the Royal Field Artillery, died October 6, 1916, and R.E. Bullows of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, died November 11, 1916. Martinpuich was in the Somme sector. © 2013 John M. Shea
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!'
Postcard of a German soldier guarding French POWs, most of them colonial troops, the colorful uniforms of a Zouave, Spahi, Senegalese, and metropolitan French soldier contrasting with the field gray German uniform. A 1915 postcard by Emil Huber.
God punish England & destroy Italy! A sailor drowns. The hand and sword of God blaze from the heavens as a ship begins to sinks, either struck by a torpedo or having struck a mine. In the distance a Zeppelin approaches the coast. A submarine may lurk.
"You must imagine a building like the Post Office in New York, for instance, or the Auditorium Hotel in Chicago, with a band of white paper, like newspapers, spread out and pasted end to end, running along one side, round the corner, and down the other. Not inches, but yards, rods, two city blocks almost, of microscopic type; columns of names, arranged in the systematic German way — lightly wounded, badly wounded — schwer verwundet — gefallen. Some have died of wounds — tot — some dead in the enemy's country — in Feindesland gefallen. Rank on rank, blurring off into nothingness, endless files of type, pale as if the souls of the dead were crowding here." ((1), more)
"It was, moreover, very clear that the Germans had early realized that the war was to be one calling for colossal supplies of munitions; supplies, indeed, upon such a stupendous scale as the world had never before dreamed of, and they also realized the vital necessity of heavy artillery. They began with an inferior field gun, and they never stopped to remedy this defect, but directed all their energies, from the first, to developing their heavy artillery." ((2), more)
"The scene of battle now shifts to the frozen North, where the Russians are courting fresh disaster in the treacherous region of the Mazurian Lakes in East Prussia. Early in February, a small Russian Army in command of Gen. Sievers had rashly invaded East Prussia from the North. As usual, the Germans proceeded to envelop and trap this army.. . . On February 10th, the snow still falling heavily, the Russians made a stand at Eydtkuhnen. At midnight the Germans launched a surprise attack and drove the Russians from village to village, until on February 15th, this wing was forced back across the Russian frontier." ((3), more)
"You must imagine them coming back from the war, and pale, benign, leaning on their canes as returning heroes do in plays, talk across the footlights to real young soldiers you have just seen limping in with real wounds — pink-cheeked boys with heads and feet bandaged and Iron Crosses on black-and-white ribbons tucked into their coats, home from East Prussia or the Aisne. Then between the acts you must imagine them pouring out to the refreshment-room for a look at each other and something to eat — will they never stop eating?" ((4), more)
"The repeated attacks to which the Russians have been treated in covering Warsaw on the Bzura line during the last ten days are only a feint. All indications point to the fact that the Germans have concentrated in East Prussia everything necessary for a very violent offensive, under the pressure of which the Russian line is already wavering." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from 'The Great Days' in Antwerp to Gallipoli by Arthur Ruhl, a journalist from the neutral United States. In February, 1915 Ruhl wrote from Berlin of the Great Days — die große Zeit — 'days of achievement, of utter sacrifice, and flinging all into the common cause.' The German capital is 'an all day's express journey from either front', and, despite the casualty lists, Ruhl finds Berliners strong in their conviction they are fighting a defensive fight, and will prevail. He also points out that the German papers, unlike the British or American, publish little 'news', but are 'working all the time to create a definite public opinion.'
Antwerp to Gallipoli by Arthur Ruhl, pp. 95, 96, copyright © 1916 by Charles Scribner's Sons, publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons, publication date: 1916
(2) Excerpt from the chapter 'Ammunition', in the memoir 1914 by Sir John French, Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), the British forces on the continent, from August 1914 to December 1915. Britain was not only short of ammunition, but also of field and heavy artillery. Both France and Germany responded much more quickly than Great Britain to the need of the war for guns, machine guns, and munitions. Sir John documents some of his exchanges with the War Office, dating them back to September 28, 1914, in which the War Office suggested he be more economical in his use of ammunition. The British shell shortage would lead to a coalition government in the spring of 1915.
1914 by John French, pp. 359, 360, copyright © 1919, by Houghton Mifflin Company, publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company, publication date: 1919
(3) The German Eighth Army attacked the Russian invaders of East Prussia from the west on February 7, 1915 in a blinding snowstorm. The new German Tenth Army attacked from the north the next day. Unaware of the second German army, the Russians were threatened with encirclement in the Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 147, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
(4) Excerpt from 'The Great Days' in Antwerp to Gallipoli by Arthur Ruhl, a journalist from the neutral United States. In February, 1915 Ruhl wrote from Berlin. Author of 1914's People And Ideas Of The Theatre To-day, Ruhl saw a number of plays in Berlin — including 'The Categorical Imperative', a comedy set in 1815 Vienna against the background of Napoleon's return and defeat at Waterloo, the show his wounded soldiers see. He wrote of Berliners' love for the theater and the high standards of the performances. The wounded men divided by the footlights and 100 years begins Ruhl's chapter, which closes with scenes from two musicals. In the first, a man and woman fly the dovelike Taube airplane over nighttime Paris, singing and dropping bombs that flash and flame in the city. In the second, a man and woman sing a duet, he representing the 42 cm. shell of Krupp's Big Bertha, she the Taube. Ruhl sees, in these plays, in the audience engagement with them, and throughout his Berlin trip, a 'passionate unity' of the German people that his American audience needs to understand.
Antwerp to Gallipoli by Arthur Ruhl, page 94, copyright © 1916 by Charles Scribner's Sons, publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons, publication date: 1916
(5) Entry from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia, for Friday, February 12, 1915. Russian commander Grand Duke Nicholas continued to claim he was ready to resume his offensive on Berlin when he had adequate ammunition.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. I by Maurice Paléologue, page 280, publisher: George H. Doran Company, publication date: 1925
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