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Serbia's wartime capital, Niš or Nisch, was taken by Bulgarian forces on November 5, 1915 in the combined Central Power invasion and conquest of Serbia. The postcard portrait is of Bulgaria's Tsar Ferdinand beneath the Imperial Bulgarian flag, and shows street scenes in Nisch.
Tinted French Postcard of French Generals de Castelnau, Joffre, and Pau. Joffre was Commander of the French Army at the beginning of the war, and engineered the Allied victory of the Marne. General Pau was brought out of retirement to lead the short-lived Army of Alsace, disbanded to strengthen French forces to the west for the French counterattack at the Marne. De Castlenau commanded the French Second Army at the beginning of the war.
Postcard map of East Prussia and Polish Russia with a message and postmark, Vienna, August 20, 1915. From a series that asks, 'Do you know the high times?'
The Dolphin Tavern, London, was destroyed by a Zeppelin bomb on September 9, 1915 that killed three people. A clock in the wreckage stopped at 10:30 PM, and and in the rebuilt tavern. © 2014 by John M. Shea
Chosen Boy, a 1918 watercolor by Paul Klee. From Paul Klee: Early and Late Years: 1894-1940. © 2013 Moeller Fine Art
"The German victory at Gorlice-Tarnów and the Allies' failure to force the Turkish Straits encouraged Romania to maintain its neutrality, and Berlin spent the summer of 1915 negotiating Bulgaria's entry into the war. Offers of immediate cession of Turkish lands (Thrace) and future gains at Serbia's and possibly Greece's expense (Macedonia) led Tsar Ferdinand, the "Balkan Richelieu", to conclude a military convention with the OHL on 6 September. Turkey joined the alliance 8 days later." ((1), more)
"— The 7th. Painlevé has seen Castelnau, who adopted the same tone of fatalism he displayed to Foch. Painlevé expressed the gravest concern about it to Poincaré. Absurd to take the risk of an offensive under the orders of a general who has no faith in it. Poincaré went to see Castelnau, who declared that he was not obliged to tell the truth to Deputies." ((2), more)
". . . the line had been so shortened—from 1,700 kilometres to 1,000—that Russian reserves could now be freed for the northern sector. Moreover, the Russian output of shell was increasing: 100,000 rounds per week in July, 220,000 in September, while reserve-troops began to come in greater numbers. X Army around Vilna had 105,000 men, most of them with rifles, and 600 guns, with up to 200 shells to use.. . . The German offensive took the form of a frontal attack on Vilna, which failed, and a flank-attack to the north, which succeeded. On 8th September [1915] three German infantry divisions and three cavalry divisions came round the northern flank of the Vilna defenders." ((3), more)
"The Dolphin TavernThe history of the Dolphin ClockA Zepplin bomb exploded on 9th September 1915 destroying these premises and killing three peopleA clock found in the wreckage stopped at 10:40 PM & hangs inside the pub" ((4), more)
"At that time the farmers were harvesting the hops. One day one of our bosses had the bright idea of issuing an order at roll call authorizing us to help harvest the hops that afternoon . . .To win the favor of the Flemish girls, the young poilus posted themselves alongside them and helped them to fill their sacks. And these young people, careless as they have always been and always will be, sang, laughed, flirted, and embraced, indifferent to the dull roar of cannon fire which sounded over toward Ypres." ((5), more)
(1) Since May 2, 1915, the German-Austro-Hungarian Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive had driven the Russians back and ultimately out of Poland. The Allied attempt to force the Dardanelles with a naval assault had been abandoned for the Gallipoli invasion, which also failed, dashing hopes of driving Turkey out of the war and reopening the Mediterranean route to Russia. Favoring the Entente Allies, Romania remained neutral in the face of these defeats. More certain of the war's outcome, Bulgaria sided with the Central Powers against Russia, a fellow-Slav empire, with the opportunity to expand at the expense of Greece and Serbia, its allies in the First and enemies in the Second Balkan war. Tsar Ferdinand had ruled over the expansion of Bulgaria in 1885 and its independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1908. OHL was Oberste Heeresleitung, the German High Command.
The First World War: Germany and Austria Hungary 1914-1918 by Holger H. Herwig, page 157, copyright © 1997 Holger H. Herwig, publisher: Arnold, publication date: 1997
(2) Entry for September 7, 1915 from the diary of Michel Corday, a senior civil servant in the French government. Paul Painlevé was a French Deputy representing Paris's Latin Quarter, who would later serve as cabinet minister and Prime Minister. Raymond Poincaré was President of France throughout the war. General Noel de Castelnau would command the French Fourth and Fifth Armies in the Second Battle of Champagne, French Commander Joffre's great offensive in the autumn of 1915. Many French and British commanders doubted the attack could succeed, particularly the British, who did not expect to have adequate men or weapons until spring or summer of 1916. With the industrial north of their country occupied, Italy's failures in its initial battles, and Russia's continuing retreat before the month's-long German-Austro-Hungarian advance, Joffre and other French leaders believed they had no alternative.The Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament.
The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, page 105, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934
(3) By late August, 1915, the German-Austro-Hungarian Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive, which had driven the Russian Army from the Carpathian mountains and Russian Poland, was coming to an end. Defending a shorter line, able to arm its soldiers and provide more shells for its artillery, the Russians faced invaders who had marched hundreds of miles, extended their supply line, and were reaching their limit. German Commander Erich von Falkenhayn had instructed his generals to stop in August and again on September 2, but General Erich Ludendorff proceeded with his plan for a continued offensive, one Falkenhayn had rejected in June.
The Eastern Front, 1914-1917 by Norman Stone, pp. 188, 189, copyright © 1975 Norman Stone, publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons, publication date: 1975
(4) The Dolphin Tavern on the corner of Red Lion Street and Lamb's Conduit Passage in London was destroyed by a bomb from Zeppelin LZ.13 commanded by Kapitänleutnant (Lieutenant Commander) Heinrich Mathy on September 9, 1915. Twenty-two people were killed in the raid, at least four of them children, most when Mathy's bombs hit two motor omnibuses. The Tavern has since been reconstructed. The 1990 song 'After the Dolphin' by Crosby, Stills and Nash mistakenly attributes the bomb to 'a plane'.
The Dolphin Tavern, London, external wall plaque of the Dolphin Tavern
(5) Excerpt from the Notebooks of French Infantry Corporal Louis Barthas from around September 10, 1915. His unit had deployed to Flanders near the village of Oost-Cappel, on the Franco-Belgian border. Barthas, 'an old papa,' helped two old people with their harvest, 'a pretty meager one even counting the few sous which my help added to their earnings.'
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, pp. 104, 105, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
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