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Austro-Hungarian soldiers marching through a city, their officers bawling orders. Women and a child watch and talk, possibly shouting to be heard over the marching feet. An original watercolor on blue paper, signed W. Rittermann or Pittermann, December 26, 1915.
Neutral Sweden labeling barrels of grease and oil as neutral. The barrels form a line to ships on the Baltic Sea from which they could reach Germany and Russia. One of a series of postcards on neutral nations by Em. Dupuis.
Front cover of La Domenica del Corriere of August 22–29, 1915, an illustrated weekly supplement to Corriere della Sera, published in Milan, Italy. The front and back covers are full-page illustrations by the great Italian illustrator Achille Beltrame. The front cover is an illustration of contemporary trench warfare, with soldiers throwing both ball and stick grenades to turn back an enemy attack. The back cover is an illustration of Italian author, pilot, soldier, and self-promoter Gabriele d'Annunzio dropping streamers in the colors of the Italian flag and bearing patriotic massages over the city of Trieste, Austria-Hungary.
Uncle Sam weighs the lives lost in the German sinking of the Lusitania (and other ships, as seen on the horizon) to his cash flow from selling weapons and other supplies to the combatants, particularly the allies. The moneybags have tipped the scales. A 1916 postcard by Em. Dupuis.
French General Maurice Sarrail decorating officers near the frame of German Zeppelin shot down on May 5, 1916 by naval gunners in view of the citizens of Salonica, Greece. General Sarrail commanded the Allied troops at the front that included French, British, Serbian, Russian, and Italian troops, as well as a battalion of Montenegrin soldiers. The Zeppelin's frame is in the background, and civilians are among the observers of the ceremony.
"On 27 July the Field Marshal [Hindenburg] was given supreme command over the northern part of the Eastern Front: Army Group Leopold of Bavaria, the mixed Austro-German Army Group Linsingen, and the Habsburg Second Army (Böhm-Ermolli). That same day, the Russians crushed Puhallo's First Army; 24 hours later they caved in Tersztyánsky's Fourth Army. The arrival of German units alone prompted Brusilov to call off his attack." ((1), more)
"A total of twenty-nine ships managed to escape from the Baltic by July 1916 before the Swedish government (under German pressure and as a result of friction with the British over the blockade) announced on 28 July that the Swedish navy had laid a new minefield in the Kogrund Channel at the entrance to the Sound and that only Swedish vessels would be taken by pilots through it. This had the effect of forcing vessels beyond the very shallowest draft out of Swedish waters into German minefields. The Allies protested hotly and the question became a matter of considerable discussion, but it was not until May 1917 that the Allies reached an agreement with the Swedes that permitted a total of 90,000 net tons of British and Allied shipping to leave the Baltic through the Kogrund passage in return for the release of a specific number of Swedish ships and cargoes detained by the British." ((2), more)
"In quick time, we had crept up to the enemy barrier. Just before it, we came across a pretty stout and well-insulated wire in some long grass. I was of the opinion that information was important here, and instructed Wohlgemut to cut off a piece and take it with him. While he was sawing away at it with — for want of more appropriate tools — a cigar clipper, we heard something jingling the wire; a few British soldiers appeared and started working without noticing us, pressed as we were in the long grass." ((3), more)
"On Sunday, July 30, 1916, at 12:24 a.m., the first fire started at the terminal. Two hours later, Black Tom had become a great white light illuminating the night sky. Stockpiled shells exploded, and stored bullets flew about wildly. There was a tremendous, awful, sustained boom . . .Far across the river in Manhattan the windows at the library at Forty-Second Street were blown out, water mains broke, downtown streets flooded, and people, certain the world was coming to an end, rushed from their apartments and hotel rooms and into the street. By the end of the week, newspapers estimated the damage to New York and New Jersey warehouses, railroads, and businesses at a staggering $20 million. And the bodies of five victims were recovered." ((4), more)
"Around 127,000 Serb soldiers were concentrated at the end of June in camps prepared by the French on the Halkidiki peninsula. In July their numbers grew to 152,000. They received additional armaments and a certain period of extra training, after which they returned to the battlefield during June and July, mainly taking up positions in the area from Mount Kozuf to Lerin (Florina) in the central section of the Allied front north of Salonika. French and British troops formed the bulk of the Allied forces on the Salonika front, but there were also strong Russian and Italian units for a short time, compared to one Montenegrin battalion under French command." ((5), more)
(1) Russia's Brusilov Offensive, begun June 4, 1916, overwhelmed the Austro-Hungarian armies attempting to stop it. Despite ending his Asiago Offensive against Italy and transferring troops from his Italian to his Russian front, Austro-Hungarian Commander in Chief Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf had to appeal, as he had before, to Germany for aid. Neither Vienna nor Berlin had faith in Conrad, 300 miles behind the front with his mistress. Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg was not yet Commander in Chief of the German Armies, a position he would soon hold. Russian General Alexsei Brusilov would continue his offensive at great cost to his troops. On September 6, Kaiser Wilhelm 'assumed leadership of an overall "United Supreme Command" in the east,' (Herwig, p. 215) entirely subordinating the Austro-Hungarian forces to German command.
The First World War: Germany and Austria Hungary 1914-1918 by Holger H. Herwig, page 215, copyright © 1997 Holger H. Herwig, publisher: Arnold, publication date: 1997
(2) Neutral Sweden was important to the Entente Allies as it allowed access to a Russia in need of arms and other supplies, and to Germany as an important source of iron ore and other raw materials. The Swedes implemented a convoy system that could guide ships safely through the dangerous waters — mined and patrolled by submarines on both sides — of the Baltic Sea. The Kalmar Sound lies between the east coast of Sweden and the island of Öland. The Kattegat and Skaggerak are the straits separating the Danish peninsula from Norway and Sweden. The British blockade very effectively denied Germany means of sailing out of the North Sea, and gave it a means to apply pressure to Sweden and other neutral nations.
A Naval History of World War I by Paul G. Halpern, page 211, copyright © 1994 by the United States Naval Institute, publisher: UCL Press, publication date: 1994
(3) Sebastian Jünger writing of a patrol that started about midnight the night of July 28–29, 1916. Jünger orders one of him men to throw a grenade among the British. In the following moments Jünger tries to seize prisoners, comes face to face with a British soldier pressed against the wire, loses the magazine of his pistol, and flees with his men as a machine gun begins firing. Seeking safety, his lands on barbed wire stretched across a water-filled mine crater, and hangs there for half an hour till the frenzy of firing dies away. Although he is shaken by the encounter, he concludes that, 'These short expeditions, where a man takes his life in his hands, were a good means of testing our mettle and interrupting the monotony of trench life. There's nothing worse for a soldier than boredom.'
Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger, pp. 87 (and 88–89), copyright © 1920, 1961, Translation © Michael Hoffman, 2003, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 2003
(4) On July 30, 1916, saboteurs detonated a railroad car filled with dynamite, setting off further explosions at the Black Tom munitions plant in Jersey City, New Jersey, the largest munitions and gunpowder shipping facility in the United States. The saboteurs included Paul Hilken, son of the head of the Baltimore office of the North German Lloyd shipping fleet and local honorary German consul, and Captain Frederick Hinsch, commander of the North German Lloyd cargo ship Neckar. The United States, neutral until April, 1917, supplied the Entente Allies with arms, raw materials, and financing. The British blockade was effective in minimizing the country's ability to do the same for the Central Powers.
Dark Invasion; 1915; Germany's Secret War and the Hunt for the First Terrorist Cell in America by Howard Blum, page 412, copyright © 2014 by Howard Blum, publisher: Harper Collins Publishers, publication date: 2014
(5) From their base in the port of Salonica, Allied forces had expanded their footprint in Greece to the frontier where they skirmished with Bulgarian and German troops. The French and British were joined by Russian troops that had sailed from Archangel on the White Sea, by Serbia's army, recovered from its defeat and forced retreat to the Adriatic coast, and by the Italian troops. The French had supplied and aided Montenegro in 1914 and –15, before its surrender on January 17, 1916.
Serbia's Great War 1914-1918 by Andrej Mitrovic, page 164, copyright © Andrej Mitrovic, 2007, publisher: Purdue University Press, publication date: 2007
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