Search by or
Search: Quotation Context Tags
A bound, neutral Italy is sorely tempted by the appeal of Trieste. Trentino (the south Tyrol) and Trieste were chief among the war aims of those Italians who wanted to discard neutrality to war on Austria-Hungary. A postcard by V. Retrosi.
The Cripple Entente: Great Britain, Russia, and France. Their flags behind them, King George V, Tsar Nicholas II, and President Poincaré show the effects of the initial German victories in 1914.
Food supplies in the French trenches. A Susini tobacco / cigarette card.
Map of the North and Baltic Seas (labeledNord-See and Ostsee) from a folding postcard of five battlefronts: the Western and Eastern Fronts; North and Baltic Seas, Mediterranean and Black Seas; and the Serbian-Montenegro Front.
Chosen Boy, a 1918 watercolor by Paul Klee. From Paul Klee: Early and Late Years: 1894-1940. © 2013 Moeller Fine Art
"Never as in the deathly silence, when the trench is sleeping and 10 metres beyond lies an ambush of darkness and foliage, does one feel the presence of war. War is not in the explosion of grenades or a fusillade nor in hand-to-hand combat. War is not in what, from far off, one believes to be its terrible reality and which, close at hand, turns out to be a poor thing and makes little impression; it is — as Tolstoy realized — to be found in that curious space beyond one's trench, where there is silence and calm and where the corn is ripening to no purpose. It is that sense of certain death which lies 'beyond', there where the sun still shines on the age-old roads and the peasants' houses." ((1), more)
"On December 4 [1915], a few days after Joffre's appointment as commander-in-chief, French and British leaders attended a meeting at Calais in which the main point of discussion was Salonika. The meeting occurred at a time when the currents of the war seemed to be flowing against the allies. The Germans had broken through at Gorlice-Tarnów and driven the Russians back 350 kilometers; Joffre's autumn offensive had failed to make significant gains; the British were considering abandoning Gallipoli; the Serbs were fleeing across the mountains toward the Adriatic; and Sarrail's forces were withdrawing from Serbia toward Salonika." ((2), more)
"Two hours later, when we came back [from the work detail], we saw with horror that an enormous mound of earth had collapsed onto the very spot where we had earlier been lying. If not for this work detail, we would have been buried alive. They wouldn't have needed a grave digger to bury us.A big shell had fallen onto the shelter a few days earlier, leaving a big crater which filled up with rainwater, which seeped into the ground, causing the landslide. Now the water was rushing into the shelter in multiple streams, and we had to struggle for several hours to dig out our blankets, our weapons, all our gear, and to seek out a slightly drier spot.. . . Despite our working day and night to keep the trenches in shape, they became more and more impassable. Some rationers met horrible deaths there, buried in mudslides. We worked for four hours to dig out a medical officer from the 296th Regiment. He was lucky that we were close enough to hear his cries for help." ((3), more)
"The final Russian mining operations for the year produced mixed results. On the early morning of 6 December [1915], five cruisers, covered by the Petropavlovsk and Gangut, laid a minefield halfway between Hela and the southern tip of Gotland. The Russian success at radio interception enabled them to avoid a German minelaying expedition at work off Lyserort the same night. However, only the small cruiser Lübeck was damaged by the Russian field on 13 January. The far less ambitious operation in which three destroyers laid mines between Windau and Lyserort on the night of 15 December was more productive. The next morning the German cruiser Bremen and destroyer V.191 were sunk in the field, which also claimed on the 23d the destroyer S.177 and auxiliary patrol boat Freya." ((4), more)
". . . the operations in the Dardanelles were drawing to a close. On the 3rd November the newly constituted War Committee of the Cabinet met for the first time. It was opposed, as General Joffre found, to the Balkan operations, and the following day Lord Kitchener himself proceeded to the Gallipoli peninsula. The Cabinet on the 7th December agreed to the evacuation of Anzac and Suvla, and this was completed on the 20th of that month. On the 27th the abandonment of the peninsula was agreed to and the evacuation of Helles was completed on the 8th January 1916." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt by Scipio Slataper, an Austro-Hungarian writer from Trieste and Italian nationalist. His mother was Italian, his father Slavic. He and his wife were living in Hamburg, Germany when war broke out in 1914. They returned to Italy where, by the end of the year, Slataper was writing in favor of Italy's entry into the war. After Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary he joined the Sardinian Grenadiers using, because he was Austro-Hungarian, an assumed name. He was shot and killed on December 3, 1915 on Mount Podgora as the Fourth Battle of the Isonzo was drawing to a close.
The Lost Voices of World War I, An International Anthology of Writers, Poets and Playwrights by Tim Cross, page 320, copyright © 1989 by The University of Iowa, publisher: University of Iowa Press, publication date: 1989
(2) In a too-late attempt to save Serbia from being overrun by a German-Austro-Hungarian-Bulgarian invasion, France and Britain had landed at Salonica, Greece and moved north, but were prevented from providing any relief by Bulgarian forces. The British were eager to leave the new front, as they were soon to leave Gallipoli. The French argued for staying. 1915 had indeed been bleak for the Entente Allies. To the litany of Allied disappointment and outright failure above — the Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive, Joffre's autumn offensive, the invasion of Gallipoli, the defeat of Serbia, and the failed attempt to aide their ally — could be added Italy's failures in four Battles of the Isonzo River. General Maurice Sarrail commanded the French forces in Greece. On December 2, 1915, French President Poincare appointed General Joseph Joffre Commander-in-Chief of the French armies.
Pyrrhic Victory; French Strategy and Operations in the Great War by Robert A. Doughty, page 233, copyright © 2005 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College, publisher: Harvard University Press, publication date: 2005
(3) Excerpt from the Notebooks of French Infantry Corporal Louis Barthas from the first week of December, 1915 when his unit returned to the front after six days of 'rest' in Agnez-lès-Duisans, west of Arras, where heavy rain kept them indoors and hunting lice. The medical officer he helped dig out was fortunate. Struggling through mud and freezing water on their return to the trenches, Barthas and his men tried but failed to get one man out of the mud, leaving him with a shovel and a promise to return in the morning.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, page 140, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
(4) In 1915 the Russian fleet more than held its own against the German in the Baltic Sea, securing its coast with mines.
A Naval History of World War I by Paul G. Halpern, page 205, copyright © 1994 by the United States Naval Institute, publisher: UCL Press, publication date: 1994
(5) The operations in the Dardanelles, both naval operations and the Gallipoli invasion, had failed to meet their objectives. In a failed attempt to aid Serbia which was unable to withstand an invasion by the combined forces of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Bulgaria, French and British forces had landed at Salonika in Greece. Although driven by the Bulgarians, some in France, including Commander-in-Chief Joffre, saw value in keeping an active front in the Balkans. British War Minister Kitchener visited both Greece and Gallipoli to take stock of the situation. He recommended evacuating Suvla Bay and Anzac Cove, two of the three positions held by the Allies, the third being Cape Helles.
Military Operations France and Belgium, 1915, Vol. II, Battles of Aubers Ridge, Festubert, and Loos by J. E. Edmonds, pp. 406, 407, copyright © asserted, publisher: Macmillan and Co., Limited, publication date: 1928
1 2 Next
