A Swiss postcard of 'The European War' in 1914. The Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary face enemies to the east, west, and south. Germany is fighting the war it tried to avoid, battling Russia to the east and France to the west. Germany had also hoped to avoid fighting England which came to the aid of neutral (and prostrate) Belgium, and straddles the Channel. Austria-Hungary also fights on two fronts, against Russia to the east and Serbia and Montenegro to the south. Italy, the third member of the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary, declared neutrality, and looks on. Other neutral nations include Spain, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania. Japan enters from the east to battle Germany. The German Fleet stays close to port in the North and Baltic Seas while a German Zeppelin targets England. The Austro-Hungarian Fleet keeps watch in the Adriatic. Turkey is not represented, and entered the war at the end of October, 1914; Italy in late May, 1915.
Image text: Der Europäische KriegThe European WarReverse:Kriegskarte No. 61. Verlag K. Essig, BaselKunstanstalt (Art Institute) Frobenius A.G. Basel
A panorama of Loretto Heights including part of Vimy Ridge. Notre Dame de Lorette, a pilgrimage site in 1914, stood on the Heights, and was, with Vimy Ridge, part of the high ground seized by German troops in the Race to the Sea after the Battle of the Marne. French commander Joffre hoped to capture Loretto Heights and Carency, a village the Germans had fortified, in the First Battle of Artois in December, 1914.
Image text: Panorama der LorettohöhePanorama of Loretto HeightsReverse:Message dated June 25, 1916, and field postmarked the next day by the Fourteenth Reserve Corps.
Vote Yes pin for Australian conscription, October 28, 1916, with the flags of Australia and Great Britain. A tin badge or tie-back pin in support of the Australian referendum on conscription, October 28, 1916. Australia voted no on this occasion and again, by a wider margin, in December, 1917.
Image text: Oct 28, 1916Vote Yes
'The first tread-way bridge built across the Isonzo river' is in the background, a destroyed bridge in the foreground, and another under construction. Austrian and German soldiers watch POWs — most likely Italian — draw carts, and cut and trim logs. 'In the background our trenches', and dozens of horse-drawn wagons waiting to cross the tread-way bridge. (The quotations are from a handwritten note on the reverse; translation Thomas Faust.)
Image text: M556
Postcard celebrating the independence of Czechoslovakia from Austria-Hungary, proclaimed in its capital Prague on October 28, 1918. The lion, a symbol of Bohemia dating to the 12th or 13th century, became part of the coat of arms of, and a symbol for, Czechoslovakia. The lion holds in its mouth remnants of a Habsburg banner, while looking at part of the Prague skyline.
Image text: Ať ŽijeČeskoslovenska Republika!28. Rijna 1918Long liveThe Republic of Czechoslovakia!October 28, 1918
"For the Jews of Poland and Lithuania the war is one of the greatest disasters they have ever known. Hundreds of thousands of them have had to leave their homes in Lodz, Kielce, Petrokov, Ivangorod, Skiernewice, Suvalki, Grodno, Bielostock, etc. Almost everywhere the prelude to their lamentable exodus has been the looting of their shops, synagogues, and houses. Thousands of families have taken refuge in Warsaw and Vilna; the majority are wandering aimlessly like a flock of sheep. It's a miracle that there have been no pogroms — organized massacres. But not a day passes in the zone of the armies without a number of Jews being hanged on a trumped-up charge of spying." ((1), more)
"Cursing, grumbling, complaining, each one of us marched along, dragging himself forward as best he could. To arrive where? In gloomy boyaux, full of mud, where we argued with each other over half-collapsed holes which our predecessors had dug. Only the officers had halfway decent shelters at their disposal.A few slabs of sheet metal, some planks placed across the top of the trench and covered with earth, would have been enough to give us a shelter, if not comfortable, at least sufficient to protect us from the glacial wind and the downpours. But no. There, like practically everywhere else, nothing had been planned for, nothing had been ordered, by some colonel or other or by Generalissimo Joffre, to shelter the human cattle against the bad weather." ((2), more)
"The British decision [to implement conscription] set a precedent for the Dominions, New Zealand introducing compulsory military service in July 1916. Yet Canada did not follow suit until the last year of the war, and in Australia the government lost two referendums on the issue in October 1916 and December 1917, the first narrowly but the second by a wider margin. Opposition came partly from radicals and socialists but also from a portion of the Irish community and the Catholic hierarchy, antagonized by the suppression of the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916. Even in Britain itself conscription failed to solve the 'manpower' problem (a term that entered the political lexicon at this time). Fewer soldiers were recruited in 1916 with conscription than in 1915 without it." ((3), more)
"At the Battle of Caporetto, within the space of four days, the forces of the Central Powers had virtually destroyed the Italian Second Army and had then pursued the retreating Italians nearly 80 miles to the Piave river. They were now at the gates of Venice. . . .Around 280,000 Italians were taken prisoner and a further 250,000 deserted. Some 30,000 were wounded, with the comparatively small number of 10,000 killed. In material terms the Italians lost 3,150 artillery pieces, 1,700 mortars and 3,000 machine-guns. Wrecked trucks, ambulances, weapons and dead horses littered the battlefields. And the effects of the defeat were not confined to the military as some 400,000 civilian refugees took to the roads." ((4), more)
"At 9 a.m. on the morning of 28 October Field Marshal von Boroević demanded that the AOK conclude an armistice at any price to head off the 'anarchy' that would surely spell 'catastrophe for Monarchy and Army'. Arz followed this advice within 4 hours. At 4:45 p.m. the AOK dispatched a military delegation to Triente to discuss term with the Italians.That same day, 28 October, Prague politicians proclaimed a Czecho-Slovak state; Slovak leaders concurred within 3 days. Austrian Galicia also announced on 28 October that it would join a new Polish state. One day later Croatia, Slovenia, and Dalmatia seceded from the Dual Monarchy. . . .By 28 October, in a last-ditch attempt to save what could be saved by placating the Great Idealist in Washington, they had put the finishing touches on the first major revision of the Bismarckian constitution since 1871. Henceforth, the Chancellor would be responsible to the Reichstag. International treaties, the declaration of war as well as the conclusion of peace, and the appointment, promotion, and dismissal of officers would require the consent of both the Reichstag and the Federal Chamber. The Ministers of War likewise would have to answer to both federal houses. In short, the German parliament gained control over foreign and military affairs." ((5), more)
(1) Entry from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia, for Wednesday, October 28, 1914. Sergei Sazonov was the Russian Foreign Minister and told Paléologue that the Government was considering changes to the 'far too arbitrary and vexatious regulations to which the Russian Jews' were subjected. By the day of their conversation, much of the war on the Eastern Front had been fought in Russian Poland and Galicia, Austria-Hungary. Although Vilna was well behind the front lines, the other cities, including Warsaw, had been threatened if not taken in the Central Power advance of September and October.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. I by Maurice Paléologue, page 173, publisher: George H. Doran Company, publication date: 1925
(2) Extract from the notebooks of French Corporal Louis Barthas whose reserve unit was moving into reserve trenches near Neuville-Saint-Vaast on October 28, 1915. The men had taken part in the Third Battle of Artois, part of the great autumn Anglo-French offensive of 1915 and, since its suspension, had been trained in grenade throwing (much of by throwing rocks) to harass the Germans through the coming winter. Boyaux are communication trenches.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, page 131, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
(3) In January 1916 Great Britain introduced conscription for single men aged 18 to 41 with the Military Service Act, extending it to married men in May, in both cases excluding Ireland outside of northern Ireland. The Dominions and colonies of the British Empire gave it access to a large pool of men including those of India and the Union of South Africa. The Easter Rising took place in April, 1916. Support for it grew enormously after the executions of 16 of its leaders in May and August.
Cataclysm: The First World War as Political Tragedy by David Stevenson, pp. 165–166, copyright © 2004 by David Stevenson, publisher: Basic Books, publication date: 2004
(4) In eleven Battles of the Isonzo from June 23, 1915 to September 12, 1917 the Italian army under the command of Luigi Cadorna had crossed the border into Austria-Hungary, crossed the Isonzo River, and taken plateaus and mountain peaks, only to look on more peaks beyond. The Eleventh Battle nearly broke the Austro-Hungarian defenders. When joint German and Austro-Hungarian forces (the two empires at the core of the Central Powers) attacked on October 24, 1917 in their first offensive of the Isonzo, the Italian Second Army, and then the entire front collapsed. The mountain war that had been fought since 1915, with the Italians perpetually attacking defenders who held higher ground, was suddenly ended and brought to Italy's northeastern plain, within reach of the Adriatic port and prize of Venice.
Caporetto and the Isonzo Campaign: The Italian Front 1915–1918 by John MacDonald with Željko Cimprić, page 172, copyright © John MacDonald, 2011, 2015, publisher: Pen and Sword Books, publication date: 2011
(5) The 'Great Idealist in Washington' was President Woodrow Wilson. Number Ten of his Fourteen Points called for 'Assuring the freest opportunity of autonomous development to the peoples of Austria-Hungary.' (Quoted in King's Complete History of the World War, page 371.) The peoples of Austria-Hungary were taking his advice and breaking the Empire apart. Wilson had grown more implacable towards Germany where politicians in Berlin were hoping a new constitution and government would lead to peace. At the beginning of the war, Austro-Hungarian General Svetozar Boroević served on the Russian Front, where he lifted the first siege of Przemyśl, until Italy entered the war when he was transferred to the Italian Front. There he commanded Austro-Hungarian forces through the eleven Italian offensives on the Isonzo River and in the Austro-Hungarian-German offensive of Twelfth Isonzo, the Battle of Caporetto. AOK — Armee Oberkommando — the Army Higher Command — was the command center for all land and naval forces of Austria-Hungary. General Arthur Arz von Straussenburg was Chief of the General Staff of the Austro-Hungarian Army, appointed by Austro-Hungarian Emperor Karl had appointed in February, 1917, replacing Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf.
The First World War: Germany and Austria Hungary 1914-1918 by Holger H. Herwig, pp. 437, 442–443, copyright © 1997 Holger H. Herwig, publisher: Arnold, publication date: 1997
