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Re-elect President Woodrow Wilson! An October 18, 1916 cartoon from the British magazine Punch. The German sinking of ships that killed American citizens and sabotage such as the July 30, 1916 attack that destroyed the Black Tom munitions plant in Jersey City, New Jersey, were not enough to make Wilson call for a declaration of war on Germany, much to the distress of Great Britain and the other Entente allies. The date on Wilson's desk calendar is October 8, 1916, a day on which German submarine U-53 sank five vessels — three British, one Dutch, and one Norwegian — off Nantucket, Massachusetts. One of the British ships was a passenger liner traveling between New York and Newfoundland.
Russian troops arriving in Marseilles, on France's Mediterranean coast, in April 1916. With the Dardanelles closed to them, they would have had a journey along the Atlantic coast of France, Spain, and Portugal before entering the Mediterranean at Gibraltar. Russian troops fought with the Allied forces on the Salonica and Western Fronts.
Dust jacket of I Flew With the Lafayette Escadrille by Edwin Parsons.
The Kasaba of Kut-el-Amara, Mesopotamia, where a British Indian army was surrounded and besieged by Turkish forces from the end of 1915 until the British surrender on April 29, 1915. Photograph from 'Four Years Beneath the Crescent' by Rafael De Nogales, Inspector-General of the Turkish Forces in Armenia and Military Governor of Egyptian Sinai during the World War.
'All for their Good,' a cartoon by Dutch artist Louis Raemaekers, from 'Through the Iron Bars (Two years of German occupation in Belgium)' by Emile Cammaerts Illustrated with Cartoons by Louis Raemaekers.
"I have deemed it my duty, therefore, to say to the Imperial German Government that if it is still its purpose to prosecute relentless and indiscriminate warfare against vessels of commerce by use of submarines, notwithstanding the now demonstrated impossibility of conducting that warfare in accordance with what the Government of the United States must consider the sacred and indisputable rules of international law and the universally recognized dictates of humanity, the Government of the United States is at last forced to the conclusion that there is but one course it can pursue and that unless the Imperial German Government should now immediately declare and effect an abandonment of its present methods of warfare against passenger and freight-carrying vessels, this Government can have no choice but to sever diplomatic relations with the Government of the German Empire altogether." ((1), more)
"Les Troupes Russes a Marseille: 20 Avril 1916 — Défilé des Russes se rendant au Camp de MirabeauRussians troops in Marseilles: April 20, 1916 — Column of Russians on their way to Camp Mirabeau" ((2), more)
"On April 20, 1916, the American Escadrille had its actual formation as a unit at the flying field of Luxeuil-les-Bains in the Vosges Mountains. It was a vision come true after nearly a year and a half of unremitting toil, delays, discouragements, disappointments and actual opposition. There were seven pilots who first got their orders and went out to form the original squadron, they were [Billy] Thaw, Bert Hall, [Elliot] Cowdin, Norman Prince, Kiffen Rockwell, [Victor] Chapman and [Jim] McConnell, of whom only Hall is still alive." ((3), more)
"Owing to the heavy floods, the English Army could not renew their operations until April 4th [1916], when a second and successful assault was made upon Umm-el-Hanna. On April 8th, the British attacked Sanna-i-yat, but were repulsed. Turning to the fort of Beit-Aiessa, on April 17th, they captured that position after a heavy bombardment, holding it against several counter-attacks. A two days' assault on Sanna-i-yat followed, April 20-21st, resulting in a victory for the Turks. The Relief Army had fought day and night, for 18 consecutive days, on both banks of the Tigris; had advanced time and again to assault positions of great strength defended by superior forces; had contended against the obstacles of flood, heat, lack of water, and scarcity of food. Utterly exhausted from facing a foe that greatly outnumbered them, they were near to the end of their resources. They could not force the Turkish lines. Consequently, the garrison of Kut-el-Amara could hope for no aid from them." ((4), more)
"On Holy Saturday [April 22, 1916], at three in the morning, methodical raids began at Lille in the Fives quarter, in the Marlière quarter of Tourcoing, and at Roubaix. After a suspension on Easter Sunday, the work went on all the week, ending up in the Saint Maurice quarter of Lille.About three in the morning, troops, with fixed bayonets, barred the streets, machine guns commanded the road, against unarmed people.Soldiers made their way into the houses. The officer pointed out the people who were to go, and, half an hour later, everyone was marched pell-mell into an adjacent factory, and from there into the station, whence the departure took place." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from President Woodrow Wilson's Address to the United States Congress on April 19, 1916. After the sinking of Lusitania on May 7, 1915, Germany had somewhat restricted its submarine warfare, but as Wilson pointed out, 'again and again, no warning has been given, no escape even to the ship's boats allowed to those on board.'
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. IV, 1916, p. 89, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
(2) Russian troops arrived in Marseilles, on France's Mediterranean coast, in April 1916. With the Dardanelles closed to them, as well as their access from the Baltic to the North Sea, their transports journeyed north of Norway and Sweden, then along the Atlantic coast of France, Spain, and Portugal before entering the Mediterranean at Gibraltar. Russian troops fought with Allied forces on the Salonica and Western Fronts.
Russian troops arriving in Marseilles, on France's Mediterranean coast, in April 1916., face of postcard, publisher: ?, publication date: 1916 (?)
(3) The American or later and more famously Lafayette Escadrille was manned by American airmen under French officers. Our quotation if from Edwin Parsons' history of the squadron, first published in 1937. The lives of airmen in World War I were short, often measured in weeks and months.
I Flew with the Lafayette Escadrille by Edwin C. Parsons, page 68, copyright © 1963 by Edwin C. Parsons, publisher: E. C. Seale & Company, Inc., publication date: 1963
(4) Attempting to seize Baghdad in Mesopotamia, the British had captured Kut-el-Amara on the Tigris River along the way, and continued their advance. On November 21, 1915, they were defeated at Ctesiphon, 22 miles short of Baghdad, and forced back to Kut-el-Amara, where they were surrounded by superior Turkish forces. The increasingly beleaguered force under General Townshend, many of them Indian, awaited the Relief Army that was stopped in January, in March, and again in April.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 219, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
(5) Excerpt from an Official Statement of the French Government by Aristide Briand, Prime Minister of France. German authorities seized about 25,000 civilians in April, 1916 from the occupied French cities of Lille, Roubaix, and Tourcoing. Mothers with children under 14 were spared. Girls under 20 were seized if accompanied by a family member. Men were put to work in agriculture, road repair, trench digging, and munitions manufacturing. Women labored as cooks and laundresses for soldiers, and as servants for officers. The order by General von Graevenitz authorizing the deportations claimed they provided a means to provision the population of the occupied territories, which had become 'more and more difficult' because of the 'attitude of England', presumably as evidenced by its blockade of Germany.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. IV, 1916, pp. 105, 106, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
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