The disparity in the number of nations arrayed against the Central Powers was a common motif, and was updated as the numbers on each side increased. Italy's entry into the war on May 23, 1915 changed the numbers again.

Central Powers (top) Sultan Mohammed V of Turkey, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, Kaiser Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary. Allies (center and bottom rows) Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, King George V of the United Kingdom, President Raymond Poincaré of France, King Nikola of Montenegro, King Peter of Serbia, King Victor Emmanuel of Italy, King Albert I of Belgium, Emperor Taishō of Japan.

In the center, a poem: Drei gegen Acht, Three against Eight.

Drei gegen Acht.



Gebt Acht, Ihr “Acht”, es blitzt und kracht

und schlägt manch’ schwere Lücke.

Jung-Siegfrieds Schwert schlug unversehrt

Den Ambosz einst in Stücke.

Und Treue, Mut und Einigkeit

Geb’ uns zum Siege das Geleit.

- Richard Ott



Three against eight



Take heed, your "night" flashes and crashes

And suggests some serious gap.

Young Siegfried's sword split the anvil

Yet stayed intact.

And loyalty, courage and unity

Will lead us to victory.



Reverse:

Postmarked Frankfurt, July 21, 1915

Other views: Larger, Back

Thursday, October 15, 1914

"As daylight broke over another wet and cold autumn day King Albert departed from Nieuport-Bains at 09:00, this time for the County Town of Furnes. The queen also left the Crombez Mansion but an hour later. This time the small household staff had been able to arrange for the royal couple to stay at the Villa Maskens, which was some 10km further west. In her diary the queen wrote on 15 October: 'We are always the cuckoos that go in someone else's nest.'

Soon after her departure the queen's motorcar ran into a traffic jam near the locks in Nieuport. Refugees with handcarts and wheelbarrows, and hundreds of despondent soldiers once belonging to the Garrison Army crowded the roads. This miserable procession did not end on the road to La Panne. Every poor soul seemed heading for France."

Quotation Context

King Albert commanded what remained of the Belgian Army in the corner of his country that German forces had not conquered. He and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, had been falling back with the army, lodging where they could as the army retreated. Having been driven across Belgium since early August, having lost the fortified cities of Liège and Antwerp and the capital of Brussels, his troops were defeated and demoralized. Albert looked for a haven to let his troops rest and rebuild even as French Commander Joffre urged him to join an Allied offensive. On October 15, 1914, the Belgians held a line south of the Yser Canal, with the North Sea on their left. To close a gap with the British positioning on their right, they were thinly stretched. Albert (and Joffre) requested the support of British ships to act as a naval artillery battery covering their left wing, shelling the German right. German forces were preparing an assault in greater numbers than the Allies anticipated.

Source

In Flanders Flooded Fields: Before Ypres there Was Yser by Paul van Pul, pp. 79, 80, copyright © Paul A.A. van Pul, 2006, publisher: Pen and Sword, publication date: 2006

Tags

1914, October, 1914-10-15, Albert I, King Albert