To the left, caricatures of a fallen King Albert of Belgium, Tsar Nicholas of Russia, President Poincare of France, generic (?) caricatures of an English man and a Japanese soldier, Kings Peter of Serbia, and Nikola of Montenegro engaging in a tug of war, the rope being held on the right by a German (in gray) and an Austro-Hungarian soldier. Between the teams and behind the rope stands the diminutive caped figure of King Victor Emmanuel of Italy, all hat, mustache, and chin.
Das Europaische Gleichgewicht 1914The European Equilibrium, 1914
"The epidemics had started in the second half of December 1914 and reached their peak in February and March 1915, when innumerable corpses were piled up on all sides. The Russian Minister reported: 'The dying lie on straw alongside the dead in outhouses and fields.' . . . It is estimated that over 400,000 people were infected and some 100,000 civilians died, as well as 30,000-35,000 soldiers and 30,000 prisoners of war. . . . Schools closed down, and on 9 March the supreme command banned military and civilian transport for the 16-31 March period except for medical purposes."
Cholera, spotted typhus, and dysentery raged through Serbia and Turkey in the winter of 1914-15, taking a particularly heavy toll in a Serbia that had defeated Austria-Hungary in its three 1914 invasions of Serbia. Although the invader had suffered nearly 275,000 casualties, Serbia had over 163,000 casualties from its army of 250,000, 69,000 of whom had died.
Serbia's Great War 1914-1918 by Andrej Mitrovic, page 111, copyright © Andrej Mitrovic, 2007, publisher: Purdue University Press, publication date: 2007
1915, 1915-03-17, March, Serbia, disease, cholera, typhus, spotted typhus
