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Railroad and occupied territory map of western and central Europe, northern Africa, and Turkey. A German postcard map postdating the taking of Riga on the Baltic Sea on September 3, 1917 but before the German advance in February, 1918. The inset shows the Western Front and French-occupied territory in Alsace, then German Elsass.
Stamps of occupied Belgium: German stamps overprinted in black with 'Belgien' and denominations in centimes: 3, 5, 8, 10, 15, 25, and 75.
Ink drawing of the German battleship SMS Westfalen off Helsingfors (Helsinki), Russia, April 1918. From Paul to his brother.
Postcard celebrating the independence of Czechoslovakia from Austria-Hungary, proclaimed in its capital Prague on October 28, 1918. The lion, a symbol of Bohemia dating to the 12th or 13th century, became part of the coat of arms of, and a symbol for, Czechoslovakia. The lion holds in its mouth remnants of a Habsburg banner, while looking at part of the Prague skyline.
Irish and German brotherhood. Standing in France, an Irish rebel soldier clasps the hands of a German soldier. The German sun shines upon the scene. In Germany, Irish rebel Roger Casement tried to raise an Irish unit to fight the British from Irish prisoners of war. Field postmarked October 5, 1915.
"The fate of the [Black Sea] fleet became worrisome to the Allies after the armistice, and the situation turned critical when German and Austrian troops marched into the Ukraine to secure the wheat fields. . . .The Germans continued to the east and then turned southward to the Crimea. They were in front of Sebastopol by 1 May [1918]. What would happen to the Black Sea Fleet? The commander in chief was now Vice Admiral N. P. Sablin, but his authority was extremely tenuous and no one could be certain what the sailors would do. The Bolshevik government, now in Moscow, ordered Sablin to sail to Novorossisk on the eastern shores of the Black Sea. Sablin managed to get fourteen destroyers and torpedo boats to sail on the 13th, but the two dreadnoughts and four destroyers remained behind. They finally sailed on the night of the 14th, just as German patrols entered the city." ((1), more)
"In German-occupied Belgium, it was three years since the first printing and circulation of an illegal patriotic newspaper Libre Belgique. Its network had been wide, its operations vexing for the Germans. At the end of January 1918 most of the paper's distributors, sixty-one in all, had been arrested, the Kaiser sending a telegram of congratulations to the Military Governor, General von Falkenhausen, whom the paper had described as 'a bird of prey sent to live on the palpitating flesh of Belgium'. The Kaiser himself was 'His Satanic Majesty' in the paper's parlance.On May 15 the sixty-one were brought to trial in Brussels. They were sentenced to imprisonment, some for ten to twelve years. After a short interval, the paper appeared once more . . ." ((2), more)
"Both in Vienna and Berlin, the authorities had to keep alert to any danger of revolution, and were responsive to any calls for help against Bolshevism. In southern Russia, the new leader of the Don Cossacks, General Krasnov, appeal to the Germans on May 16 for financial and military help against the Red Army. This was given readily, and included fifteen million roubles and 12,000 rifles. German influence extended across a thousand miles of southern Russia. That day, in Finland, the Finnish national leader, General Mannerheim, entered Helsinki at the head of 16,000 men. More than a century of Tsarist rule, six months of Bolshevik control, and most recently German military occupation, were over." ((3), more)
". . . the mutinies spread, and within a few weeks both a Ruthenian battalion, and a Serbian unit in the Austrian army, had mutinied, though both revolts were quickly crushed. On May 17, in Prague, a provocatively named Conference of the Suppressed Nations of Austria-Hungary was held in Prague. A fourth mutiny, by Czech troops, broke out in Rumburg four days later. They refused to go to the front unless they were paid the money due to them when they were prisoners-of-war in Russia. They occupied the town, received some support from the local Czech citizens, and threatened to march on Prague." ((4), more)
"The 'German Plot' arrests, involving the round-up of seventy-three prominent Sinn Féin members in May 1918 on the pretext that a German agent had been arrested off the coast of Clare and that there was a necessity to stamp out pro-German 'intrigues' in Ireland, backfired for Sinn Féin's enemies. Regarding these arrests, a letter to the Chief Secretary's Office insisted, 'You have got to prove your accusation or else your action in arresting these men will be worse than useless . . . if you merely imprison these men, deport them to England and hush the whole thing up — the course of action adopted with the arrested suspects after the 1916 rebellion — you will make things worse.'" ((5), more)
(1) The Russian Bolshevik Revolution of November 1917, the armistice that quickly followed in December, and Treaty of Brest-Litovsk signed between Russia and the Central Powers in March all occurred as ethnic groups within Russia and Europe's remaining empires increasingly called for independence. In the last days before the signing of the Treaty, a newly independent Ukraine signed its own treaty even as the Ukrainian and Russian delegations debated whose forces controlled Kiev, the new capitol of the new state.
A Naval History of World War I by Paul G. Halpern, page 256, copyright © 1994 by the United States Naval Institute, publisher: UCL Press, publication date: 1994
(2) The Belgians of Libre Belgique were imprisoned. Many other Belgians under the occupation were executed for far less. Occupation always and everywhere corrupts the occupier. The occupied always and everywhere have the right to fight for freedom.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 423, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(3) Finland was a region of Russia with significant autonomy, so much that Czarist police, and their revolutionary successors, had limited ability to pursue persons of interest, such as Vladimir Lenin who entered Russia from Finland after the 1918 February Revolution, and fled there after the July Days that summer. After the October Revolution that brought Lenin and the Bolsheviks to power, the Russian government quickly agreed an armistice with the Central Powers, but, in negotiations at Brest-Litovsk, could not reach agreement on a peace treaty. Finland declared its independence from Russia in December, 1917, with Soviet Russia finalizing recognition on January 4, 1918 (December 22, 1917 Old Style).
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 422, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(4) The predecessor to the spreading mutinies described was one that began on May 12, 1918 when the largely Slovenian 40th Battalion of the 17th Infantry Regiment, with parts of 41st and 42nd Battalions, mutinied in Judenburg. (Thanks to @IndijancTecumse for clarification.) Czechs and representatives of other Slavic national groups staged anti-Hapsburg demonstrations in Prague. Ukraine and Finland had already declared independence from Russia. The ethnic groups of Austria-Hungary were eager for their own nations.
(5) Letter from James O'Mahony to Edward O'Farrell, May 18, 1918 from the United Kingdom National Archives in Kew quoted in Diarmaid Ferriter's A Nation and Not a Rabble. The arrests followed Britain's April extension of conscription to Ireland, itself coming on the heels of Germany's Operations Michael, begun on March 21, and Georgette, launched April 9, which pushed British forces back and left them desperate for men. Sinn Féin, which called for Irish independence, was preparing for the December general election. After executing leaders of the immediate aftermath of the 1916 Easter Rising, British authorities jailed in England many of those involved. Sir Edward O'Farrell was Assistant to Sir Wm. Byrne, Under-Secretary for Ireland. On-line research shows a James O'Mahony who was an officer (Lieutenant, 1918–1919; Captain 1919–1920) in the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
A Nation and Not a Rabble: The Irish Revolution 1913–1923 by Diarmaid Ferriter, page 177, copyright © Diarmaid Ferriter, 2015, publisher: The Overlook Press
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