Mounted backwards on an ass, a bellicose Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph is borne away from Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. Austria-Hungary invaded Serbia three times in 1914. At the end of the year, the Serbians had driven them out at great cost to the invaders. Signed MT.
Image text: Via per BelgradoRoute to BelgradeMT.Reverse:LogoDepose
Map showing the territorial gains (darker shades) of Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece, primarily at the expense of Turkey, agreed in the Treaty of Bucharest following the Second Balkan War. Despite its gains, Bulgaria also lost territory to both Romania and Turkey.
Image text: The Balkan States According to the Treaty of Bucharest; Acquisitions of New Territory shown by darker shades
Group of Japanese Red Cross nurses and doctors on their way to Europe. In August, 1918, a Japanese Red Cross Mission arrived in Great Britain to visit the Belgian, French, and Italian fronts. This group? (http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/1410082)
Image text: Group of Japanese Red Cross nurses and doctors on their way to Europe © by the International News Service, N.Y.Reverse:Group of Jap Red Cross Nurses and Doctors on their way to Europe. Sitting left to right: - Miss T. Murata, Miss Y. Katsuta, Miss. S. Kiycoka, Mr. M. Kuwabara, Dr. J. Suzuki, Dr. F. O'Shinna, Mr. N. Otsuka, Miss Y. Yamamato and Miss H. Matsusuo.Standing: - Miss H. Hisayan, Miss S. Myabara, Miss E.M. Hosoia, Miss K. Ogasawara, Miss T. Kando, Miss M Hirose, Miss K. Matsuda, Miss E. Nishyama, Miss M. Kasin, Miss M. Ono, Miss K. Kasai, Miss S.K. Amiyo.W.C.A. Series 146.
Hansa-Brandenburg C.I two-seater armed reconnaissance plane flying over the Alps. The distinctive radiator at the edge of the upper wing and rear-mounted machine gun are clearly visible. Of German origin, the plane was used extensively by the Austro-Hungarian forces.
Image text: Reverse (stamped):Zensiert . . . [illegible]Vervielfältigung verboten(censoredreproduction prohibited)
Postcard view of the county of Kent, England, bounded by the River Thames on the north and the English Channel and Dover Strait to the east. The city and White Cliffs of Dover are in Kent. In November 1914, British naval and military authorities feared Germany was preparing to invade England.
Image text: Kent: the Doorway of England.I had rather be a doorkeeper in the County of Kent than dwell in the Tents of the Huns.'Invicta' - undefeated, the motto of KentCities and towns of KentOn the door: No Germans AdmittedReverse:Postmarked Chatham (Kent) January 25, 1915Designed and Printed in Faversham, Kent, at Voile & Robertson's Library (copyright)
Map of the Northwestern Front from March 21 to August 21, 1918. Despite the caption, the map shows primarily the German offensives against the British sector, Operations Michael and Georgette. From The War of the Nations Portfolio in Rotogravure Etchings. © Copyrighted 1919 by the New York Times Company
Image text: The above map shows the battleline when the German offensive of March 21, 1918 was launched, the furthest point reached in that advance, and the territory recovered up to August 21 by the Allies in Foch's counterattack of July 18.
"Desultory fighting round places as far apart as Obrnovats and Vishegrad continued until August 12th, when the first penetration of Austrian troops into Serbia was signaled from Losnitsa. At that town and at Leshnitsa the Thirteenth Army Corps effected a crossing, while on the same day the Fourth Army Corps crossed the Save to the north of Shabatz, and other troops on the Drina. By the 14th, over a front of about one hundred miles, six great columns had crossed the rivers and were converging on Valyevo." ((1), more)
"... the Austro-Hungarian generals quite abandoned the idea of taking Belgrade by costly frontal attacks, and so they concentrated large forces, 250,000 strong, in the northwest corner of Serbia. They crossed simultaneously the rivers Drina and Save, and spread their army over a front sixty miles long. They advanced proudly into Serbia, confident that the occupation of that country was a matter of two weeks. But already some serious and bitter fighting had taken place round Shabatz, with the troops who were defending that town and the passage of the Save." ((2), more)
"Upon rising the next morning, we found that about 100 versts of our journey still remained to be covered. Our train dragged along at a painful pace, stopping at every station for long, intermediary halts. On one station we made the acquaintance of three Red Cross Sisters who had been in the Retreat from Warsaw. One of them was Japanese, but spoke fluent Russian and was serving in a Russian Red Cross Unit. The elder of her companions described some of their experiences and spoke with horror of the poisonous gas employed by the Germans. In one district near Warsaw, she said, there was a field the memory of which could never be erased. It was heaped with the bodies of soldiers who had been gassed and the terrible positions of the men in death added to the ghastly spectacle: she had heard that over 6,000 men had been forced to vyyte iz stroya [fall out of formation] that day from gas alone." ((3), more)
"August 12, 1916. From: Engineer Klee, Air Force Reserve Unit, Schleissheim, Workshop Company. To: Frau Lily Klee, Munich, Ainmillerstrasse 32, second floor in the garden pavilion. 'What a disappointment that you didn't come. Well, let us hope for Sunday; saw Stubenvoll, promised he'd help. But sleeping outside camp is impossible. Will you find a place? Everything is said to be full to overflowing with pilots. We'll see. They have me varnishing wings. It isn't exactly dangerous. But suddenly to be turned into a factory worker, how adventurous! And the garb! Yours, Paul.'" ((4), more)
"After Haig launched his Flanders offensive at the end of July 1917, Kleine was directed by OHL to bomb British ports. . . .Kleine's first chance came on 12 August, when Georgii's forecast seemed to permit a flight. The surprised crews were not notified until early afternoon. Since it was a Sunday, many of the airmen had already left to spend the day in Ghent. Kleine could put up only thirteen bombers, but he had them in the air in less than an hour with Oberleutnant Richard Walter, the Führer of Staffel 15, flying in the lead. The objective, decided well in advance, was the British naval base at Chatham. Southend and Margate-Westgate were assigned as secondary targets." ((5), more)
"Within the space of five days the town of Amiens and the railway centering upon it had been disengaged. Twenty German Divisions had been heavily defeated by thirteen British Infantry Divisions and three Cavalry Divisions, assisted by a regiment of the 33rd American Division and supported by some 400 Tanks. Nearly 22,000 prisoners and over 400 guns had been taken by us, and our line had been pushed forward to a depth of some twelve miles in a vital sector. Further, our deep advance, combined with the attacks of the French Armies on our right, had compelled the enemy to evacuate hurriedly a wide extent of territory to the south of us." ((6), more)
(1) After declaring war on Serbia on July 28, Austria-Hungary bombarded Belgrade the next day and intermittently during the following two weeks. On August 12 she began an invasion of Serbia across the Save and Drina Rivers, 250,000 men under the command of General Potiorek, who, as governor of Bosnia-Herzegovina, had been host to Archduke Franz Ferdinand when he was assassinated. From a description of the Austro-Hungarian invasion and its defeat by the Serbs by the Woislav Petrovitch, Serbia's diplomatic representative in Britain.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. II, 1914, p. 5, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
(2) After declaring war on Serbia on July 28, Austria-Hungary bombarded Belgrade the next day and intermittently during the following two weeks. On August 12 she began an invasion of Serbia across the Save and Drina Rivers, 250,000 men under the command of General Potiorek, who, as governor of Bosnia-Herzegovina, had been host to Archduke Franz Ferdinand when he was assassinated. From a description of the Serbian victory in the Battle of the Jadar River by Vladislav Savic.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. II, 1914, p. 3, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
(3) The great Russian Retreat of 1915 continued, taking Frances Farmborough, an English teacher turned Red Cross nurse serving in a unit of the Russian Army, with it. By August 12, 1915, the joint German-Austro-Hungarian Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive, already over three months old, had removed the Russian threat to Austria-Hungary, overrun the great but antiquated fortresses defending Warsaw, and had captured, on August 5, that greatest city of Polish Russia. Japan was allied with Russia, France, and Great Britain, but had limited military involvement in 1914 and 1915, seizing some of Germany's colonies in Asia, such as the port city of Tsingtao.The Russian verst was 2/3 of a mile. Bracketed translation in the original.
Nurse at the Russian Front, a Diary 1914-18 by Florence Farmborough, pp. 110, 111, copyright © 1974 by Florence Farmborough, publisher: Constable and Company Limited, publication date: 1974
(4) Excerpt from the diary of the Swiss-German painter Paul Klee who had just been transferred from the infantry to the air corps, apparently by his immediate superiors. In Schleissheim he and three others would be put to work painting, starting with the varnishing of wings and fuselages.
The Diaries of Paul Klee 1898-1918, Edited, with an Introduction by Felix Klee by Paul Klee, page 347, copyright © 1964 by the Regents of the University of California, publisher: University of California Press, publication date: 1968
(5) The Gotha bombers that set out to bomb Chatham on August 12, 1917, quickly ran into strong winds that drove them well north of their target. By the time they reached the Thames estuary, the Chatham naval base was still 15 miles away. Fearing British fighter planes, they turned and dropped their bombs on the the resort town of Southend, targeting the railway station where people were going to catch their trains home from a day by the shore. Thirty-two civilians were killed in the raid, another forty-three injured. General Douglas Haig, commander of British forces on the continent, had launched the Third Battle of Ypres on July 31. OHL, Oberste Heeresleitung, was German Supreme Army Command. Captain Rudolf Kleine commanded the German base at Gontrode, Belgium. Lieutenant Walter Georgii was his meteorologist. Ghent, Belgium, is home to van Eyck's Ghent altarpiece, the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb.
The Sky on Fire by Raymond H. Fredette by Raymond H. Fredette, page 95, copyright © 1966, 1976, 1991 by Raymond H. Fredette, publisher: Smithsonian Institution Press, publication date: 1991
(6) British Commander-in-Chief Douglas Haig writing on August 12 of the Battle of Amiens, begun on the 8th. One of Commander-in-Chief Ferdinand Foch's key aims was to free France's primary rail and communication hubs from German control and put them beyond the reach of German guns. Amiens was a critical center from Paris to the north. Over 300 heavy Mark V tanks and nearly 100 faster and lighter Whippet tanks were critical to the British success on the Battle's first day. Until the formation of the First American Army later in the month, American troops fought under French and British command.
The Tank Corps by Clough Williams-Ellis & A. Williams-Ellis, page 212, publisher: The Offices of "Country Life," Ltd. and George Newnes, Ltd., publication date: 1919
