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Map of Syria, Palestine, Turkey, and Mesopotamia from the Baedeker 1912 travel guide Palestine and Syria with Routes through Mesopotamia and Babylonia and with the Island of Cyprus.
Map of Romania and the Allied and Central Power campaign plans for 1917. 'Romanian Territories under Foreign Rule' include Transylvania, Austria-Hungary, northwest of the Carpathian Mountains, and Bessarabia, Russia, to the east between the Prut and Nistru Rivers, regions with large ethnic Romanian populations. From Romania in World War I, a Synopsis of Military History by Colonel Dr. Vasile Alexandrescu.
A crazed Great Britain urges a broken Russia, a nose-picking, dozing Italy, and a sullen France to continued offensives in a German postcard imagining the November 6, 1917 Entente Ally Conference of Rapallo after the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo. The Battle, also known as the Battle of Caporetto, was a disastrous defeat for Italy and the first Austro-Hungarian offensive on the Isonzo Front. The Austrians had significant German support.
Panorama of Jerusalem from Palestine and Syria with Routes through Mesopotamia and Babylonia and with the Island of Cyprus by Karl Baedeker, a 1912 guide book.
Two Venetian fishing ships meet, brilliant sails spread. On one, beneath Venice's Lion of St. Mark, the words "Adriaticus mare nostrum — the Adriatic, our sea." On the further blue sail, the cross and words "Pax tibi Marce [Evangelista meus] — Peace to you, Mark, my Evangelist."Postcard promoting Italy's VI National Loan for the war, with a quotation from Gabriele D'Annunzio's "La canzone di Mario Bianco":"E' questo, Italia,é questo il tuo fermento e il tuo cemento"And this, Italy,This is your ferment and your foundation.G. d'Annunzio
"On the morning of December 8th [1917] large numbers of the inhabitants, with the remaining religious chiefs, were personally warned by the police to be ready to leave at once. The extent to which the Turks were prepared to clear the city is shown by the fact that out of the Armenian community of 1,400 souls 300 received this notice. The tyrannical Djemal Pasha, when warned that vehicles were unavailable for the transport of the unhappy exiles to Shechem or Jericho, telegraphed curtly that they and theirs must walk. The fate of countless Armenians and many Greeks has shown that a population of all ages suddenly turned out to walk indefinite distances under Turkish escort is exposed to outrage and hardship which prove fatal to most of them; but the delay in telegraphing had saved the population, and the sun had risen for the last time on the Ottoman domination of Jerusalem, and the Turks' power to destroy faded with the day." ((1), more)
"The Romanian government was making huge efforts to find a way out and save the country from catastrophe. Under those particularly critical circumstances, the sole alternative which prevented the crushing of the army and dissolution of the State was to carry negotiations, which had to be protracted as much as possible. The Western Allies realized Romania's extremely difficult situation, her impossibility to pursue the fight. Military hostilities between the Romanian troops and German and Austro-Hungarian ones were suspended on December 9, 1917, when negotiations were started at Focşani with a view to concluding the armistice. After the armistice had been signed, von Mackensen delivered an ultimatum to the Romanian government, demanding her to conclude a separate peace with the Central Powers as quickly as possible." ((2), more)
"General Pétain is not satisfied with the general situation; it has never been worse.He believes the Italians will not hold if strong pressure is brought to bear on their left flank.He declares that the British Army is very tired; that the British Command will not agree to relieving the Third French Army; that the French armies drawn out on a 360-mile front run the risk of being broken if they are suddenly subjected to a large-scale attack. The depots are bare—except for the new class and a few men who are reported fit again. The morale of the troops is good, but they are incapable of large and sustained effort....The General deplores the inefficiency of the British Command. The troops are excellent but they have been clumsily used.The Americans lack discipline and experience. Their baptism of fire will probably cost them dear.In conclusion, the General considers that the moment is not ripe for making peace, but if the enemy in a few months' time makes any proposals he thinks that they should be carefully examined." ((3), more)
"I entered [Jerusalem] officially at noon, December 11th [1917], with a few of my staff, the commanders of the French and Italian detachments, the heads of the political missions, and the Military Attachés of France, Italy, and America.The procession was all afoot, and at Jaffa gate I was received by the guards representing England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Australia, New Zealand, India, France, and Italy. The population received me well.Guards have been placed over the holy places. My Military Governor is in contact with the acting custodians and the Latin and Greek representatives. The Governor has detailed an officer to supervise the holy places. The Mosque of Omar and the area around it have been placed under Moslem control, and a military cordon of Mohammedan officers and soldiers has been established around the mosque. Orders have been issued that no non-Moslem is to pass within the cordon without permission of the Military Governor and the Moslem in charge." ((4), more)
"The Austro-Hungarians were not aware of the dramatic change in Italian morale. Their front-line soldiers wanted the opportunity to break through before winter snows brought the offensive to a halt. Yet the very success of their rapid advance had put a tremendous strain on their logistical support. Thus it was 12 December [1917] before the offensive could be relaunched by General Conrad. He sent a message to his troops saying they would attend Christmas Mass in Venice. The battle opened with some success for the Austro-Hungarians, but they sustained severe losses against a resolute defence, and then the heavy snow began. Both sides realised that the campaign was over until the spring, and it was the Italians who would be celebrating Christmas Mass in Venice. The armies settled down to prepare for the following year's campaigns." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from the account of 'an eye-witness within Jerusalem' of events in the city on December 8, 1917. After capturing the city of Gaza on November 6, in their third attempt, British forces had steadily progressed north through Palestine. During the war, Greeks and other ethnic and religious minorities of the Ottoman Empire had been roughly treated by government forces, but not with the genocidal frenzy unleashed on Turkish Armenians. Forced marches into hostile populations and the dessert were one of the government tools of genocide. The triumvirate of War Minister Enver Pasha, Minister of the Interior Mehmed Talaat, and Naval Minister Ahmed Djemal Pasha ruled Turkey and the Empire throughout the war. Talaat was the most implacable against the Armenians.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. V, 1917, pp. 405–406, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
(2) Romania entered the war on the side of the Entente Allies on August 27, 1916, and was overrun by Central Power forces by the end of the year, driven out of Wallachia and Dobruja and back to Moldavia where the Russians held the Allied line. After rebuilding with support, training, and weapons from France, the Romanian army returned to battle in July, 1917, in joint Russian-Romanian offensives. On July 25 Russian Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky ordered Russian troops to stop any offensive action. In November he was overthrown in the Bolshevik Revolution that brought Vladimir Lenin to power, in part because of Lenin's consistent and adamant demand for an end to the war. Romania was unable to stand alone. German General August von Mackensen had commanded a Central Power army that invaded Romania from Bulgaria in 1916, and would remain in command of occupation forces in Romania through the end of the war.
Romania in World War I, a Synopsis of Military History by Vasile Alexandrescu, page 73, copyright © 1985, publisher: Military Publishing House, publication date: 1985
(3) Excerpt from the entry for December 10, 1917 from the diary of Albert, King of the Belgians, recording the thoughts of French Commander-in-chief Henri Pétain. The Nivelle Offensive, the Third Battle of Ypres, and the Battle of Caparetto had nearly broken the morale of the Entente Allies, leading to mutinies in the French Army and revolution in Russia. The United States was building an army in France, but had not yet seen its 'baptism of fire.'
The War Diaries of Albert I King of the Belgians by Albert I, pp. 182–183, copyright © 1954, publisher: William Kimber
(4) Excerpt from the account by British General Edmund Allenby of his entry into Jerusalem on December 11, 1917. Turkish forces had evacuated the city during the night of December 8–9.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. V, 1917, pp. 408–409, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
(5) German and Austro-Hungarian forces destroyed the Italian Second Army in the Battle of Caporetto launched on October 21, 1917, and drove the Italians back 70 miles along the Isonzo Front before suspending their attack on November 11. The offensive threatened not only Venice, but the collapse of Italy as a combatant in the war. Austro-Hungarian General Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf had been Austro-Hungarian Commander in Chief until replaced by Kaiser Karl on March 1, 1917.
Caporetto and the Isonzo Campaign: The Italian Front 1915–1918 by John MacDonald with Željko Cimprić, pp. 175–176, copyright © John MacDonald, 2011, 2015, publisher: Pen and Sword Books, publication date: 2011
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