Headstone of Private R. H. Stuckey, East Kent Regiment (the Buffs), died May 5, 1917 age 29 years. Buried at Cabaret Rouge British Cemetery. © 2013 by John M. Shea
Image text: The Buffs20820 PrivateR. H. StuckeyE. Kent Regt. (The Buffs)5th May 1917 Age 29A Beloved Life for Home and Country
Italy's armed forces at the ready in a 1915 postcard. In the foreground the artillery, infantry, an Alpine soldier (in feathered hat), and a Bersaglieri (in plumed headgear). Behind them are a bugler and lancer; in the distance marines and colonial troops. The Italian navy is off shore, an airship and planes overhead. On the reverse are the lyrics of a patriotic Italian March by Angelo Balladori, lyrics by Enrico Mercatali. It ends with a call to the brothers of Trento and Trieste, Austro-Hungarian territory with large ethnic Italian populations.
Image text: Reverse:Marcia ItalicaD'Italia flammeggin le sante bandiereBaciate dal sole, baciate dal vento,Su l'aspro sentier di Bezzecca e di TrentoDe l'alma Trieste, sul cerulo mar.. . . Fratelli di Trento, Triestini fratelli,La patria s'è desta alla grande riscossa!Dell'aquila ingorda la barbara possaDai liberi petti domata sarà!Parole di Enrico MercataliMusica di Angelo Balladori.Casa Editrice Sonzogno - Milano. 1915.
Re-elect President Woodrow Wilson! An October 18, 1916 cartoon from the British magazine Punch. The German sinking of ships that killed American citizens and sabotage such as the July 30, 1916 attack that destroyed the Black Tom munitions plant in Jersey City, New Jersey, were not enough to make Wilson call for a declaration of war on Germany, much to the distress of Great Britain and the other Entente allies. The date on Wilson's desk calendar is October 8, 1916, a day on which German submarine U-53 sank five vessels — three British, one Dutch, and one Norwegian — off Nantucket, Massachusetts. One of the British ships was a passenger liner traveling between New York and Newfoundland.
Image text: Re-elect President Woodrow Wilson! An October 18, 1916 cartoon from the British magazine Punch. The German sinking of ships that killed American citizens and sabotage such as the July 30, 1916 attack that destroyed the Black Tom munitions plant in Jersey City, New Jersey, were not enough to make Wilson call for a declaration of war on Germany, much to the distress of Great Britain and the other Entente allies.Text:Bringing it home.President Wilson. 'What's that? U-boat blockading New York? Tut! Tut! Very inopportune!'Vote for Wilson who kept you out of the War![Calendar date:] October 8, 1916
An Italian postcard of the Industry of War. Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany squeezes gold from France and Belgium, filling sacks of money he provides to his ally Emperor Franz Josef of Austria-Hungary who feeds his guns to fire at Tsar Nicholas of Russia who vomits up troops. On the bottom right, Serbia, Montenegro, and Japan join the battle against Germany and Austria-Hungary. To the left, Great Britain flees to its ships. King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy surveys it all, serenely neutral until May 1915. Germany taxed Belgium and occupied France heavily during its occupation, in money, in food and other necessities, and in human life and labor. Austria-Hungary borrowed heavily from Germany to support its war effort. The enormous manpower of Russia was a source of consolation for its allies, and of trepidation to its enemies. Some suspected Great Britain would take its small army and return to its ships, home, and empire.
Image text: Le Industrie della GuerraThe Industry of War
Grave and marker for an unknown French soldier at Le Trou Aid Post Cemetery, Fleurbaix, France, a primarily British cemetery. © 2014 John M. Shea
Image text: Français InconnuMort pour la FranceUnknown FrenchmanDied for France
"To add to the distractions of this hard month of November, 1914, an invasion scare took a firm hold of the military and naval authorities. It was argued by the War Office that the lull on the fighting fronts would enable the Germans to spare large numbers of good troops — 250,000 if necessary — for the invasion of Great Britain. Lord Kitchener directed all defensive preparations to be made, and Lord Fisher threw himself into the task with gusto. . . . [we] brought the 2nd Fleet to the Thames, disposed the old Majestic battleships in the various harbours along the East Coast, arranged block ships to be sunk, and laid mines to be exploded, at the proper time in the mouths of our undefended harbours; while the whole coastal watch, military, aerial and marine, throbbed with activity." ((1), more)
"The Third Battle [of the Isonzo] was suspended on the evening of 4 November, but Cadorna was unreasonably convinced that Boroević's army teetered on the edge of collapse. Knowing that 24 fresh battalions were due to arrive within a week or two, he felt sure that Gorizia could still be taken. After a week's pause, the Fourth Battle was launched with a short bombardment. The infantry did their best to charge up the open slopes of Mrzli, Podgora, Sabotino and San Michele, swept by machine-gun fire. The rain pelted down, the temperature sank, and then — on 16 November — heavy snow fell. There would not be a proper thaw until spring 1917, when corpses were revealed after a year and a half." ((2), more)
"A story went through the corridors of the Pulitzer Building that a reporter who tried to get into the Hughes suite early that morning for a statement was told, 'The President can't be disturbed.''Well when he wakes up tell him he's no longer President,' replied the reporter. 'Wilson's re-elected.'" ((3), more)
"The Entente is paying more and more dearly for its mistakes. Will its leaders ever open their eyes? They are faced with a terrible dilemma. The day will come when the exhausted people will see in revolution the only remedy for their ills and the only means of putting a stop to the war." ((4), more)
"I. The German Government to the plenipotentiaries at headquarters of the Allied High Command:The German Government accepts the conditions of the Armistice communicated to it on November 8th. The Imperial Chancellor—3,084.II. The German Supreme Command to the plenipotentiaries at headquarters of the Allied High Command: . . .Your Excellency is authorized to sign the Armistice. You will please, at the same time, have inserted in the record the following:The German Government will do all in its power to fulfil the terms agreed upon. However, the undersigned deems it his duty to point out that the execution of some of the conditions will bring famine to the population of that part of the German Empire which is not to be occupied." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from Winston Churchill's history of World War I. After the Germans suspended trying to break through the Belgian line on the Yser, they turned against the British and French at the Ypres salient in the second phase of the Battle of Flanders. With the Russians having driven back the Germans on the Eastern Front in October, both the French and British thought the Germans had suspended major attacks in Flanders after their assault on October 31 that nearly broke the English line.
The World Crisis 1911-1918 by Winston Churchill, pp. 221, 222, copyright © by Charles Scribner's Sons 1931, renewed by Winston S. Churchill 1959, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 1931, 2007
(2) Italian Commander-in-Chief Luigi Cadorna had launched the Third Battle of the Isonzo River on October 18, 1915, with artillery inadequate to the tasks of cutting barbed wire and destroying entrenched troops. Repeating the attempt to begin the Fourth Battle on November 10 with even less artillery preparation proved deadly to Cadorna's men.
The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919 by Mark Thompson, page 132, copyright © 2008 Mark Thompson, publisher: Basic Books, publication date: 2009
(3) Election day November 7, 1916 ended with President Woodrow Wilson apparently having failed in his bid for re-election. Republican Charles Evans Hughes, former Governor of New York and Supreme Court Justice, had taken the states with the greatest electoral vote prizes: New York (45), Pennsylvania (38), and Illinois (29). But Wilson took Ohio (24), Texas (20), the south, and the west. It wasn't until November 10 that the 13 electoral votes of California were awarded to Wilson, giving him the presidency with 277 electoral votes to Hughes's 254. Thanks to www.270towin.com for the election results and map.
Mr. Wilson's War by John Dos Passos, page 184, copyright © 1962, 2013 by John Dos Passos, publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
(4) End of the entry for November 10, 1917 from the diary of Albert I, King of the Belgians. He was writing specifically about the Italian disaster in the Battle of Caporetto, but the same period saw the end of the charnel house of the Third Battle of Ypres, fought in Belgium. Days before the King wrote, Bolsheviks had seized power in Russia.
The War Diaries of Albert I King of the Belgians by Albert I, pp. 181–182, copyright © 1954, publisher: William Kimber
(5) Between 7:00 and 8:00 PM on November 10, 1918, the German armistice negotiators received two wireless messages from the German Chancellor, Prince Max von Baden. The first appears above in its entirety, the second in part. The armistice was signed at 5:10 the following morning. 3,084 was a code to ensure authenticity.
The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, translated by Col. T. Bentley Mott by Ferdinand Foch, page 476, copyright © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., publisher: Doubleday, Doran & Co., publication date: 1931