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
Postcard celebrating the fall of Belgrade, Serbia, to German and Austro-Hungarian forces under the command of Generals von Gallwitz & General Kövess v. Kövesshaza on October 9, 1915. Images of the city include the King's Palace, Terazié Square, the University, the National Theater, King Milan Street, and the city from the Save River.
Image text: Belgrad erobert von den Verbündeten am 9. Oktober 1915General Kövess v. Kövesshaza, General von GallwitzKönigs-Palast, Terazié, Universität, National Theater, König Milan Strasse, Belgrad von der SaveBelgrade conquered by the allies on 9 October 1915General Kövess v. Kövesshaza, General von GallwitzKing's Palace, Terazié, University, National Theater, King Milan Street, Belgrade from the Save5361Reverse:Card postmarked Belgrade, June 6, 1918
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
Map of Syria, Palestine, Turkey, and Mesopotamia from the Baedeker 1912 travel guide Palestine and Syria with Routes through Mesopotamia and Babylonia and with the Island of Cyprus.
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Map of the Allied offensives of 1918, from July 18 and the Second Battle of the Marne to the Armistice on November 11. From The Memoirs of Marshall Foch by Marshall Foch.
"The Russian offensive is general all along the line. There is violent fighting from the confluence of the Bzura, which joins the Vistula 60 kilometres above Warsaw, to the source of the San, i.e., the western chain of the Carpathians. The front of attack thus measures more than four hundred kilometres.The transport movements which have preceded this vast operation have been carried out with the most perfect skill and organization.Simultaneously the Russian troops have gained a brilliant success between Augustov and Suvalki on the frontier of East Prussia." ((1), more)
"[Serbian] General Živković's report of the morning of 8 October read: 'Battle is still under way; there has been no respite at all. Our troops are still attacking the enemy.' The report also states that the enemy had 'silenced our heavy armaments' in the first phase of combat, using 'over 15,000 shells of various calibre, even 30.5cm.' and then the enemy had introduced 'artillery from monitors into the battle'." ((2), more)
"The German submarine, 'U-53,' appeared off Newport, R.I., October 7th [1916], and after the commander had landed and sent a message to Ambassador Bernstorff, the boat left the port. On the next day, when off Nantucket, this submersible raider sank five vessels—three British, one Dutch, and one Norwegian. On one of the British vessels, the Stephano, a passenger liner plying between New York and New Foundland, there were several Americans. Luckily the attack on these vessels had been observed by the commanders and crews of several nearby American destroyers, who rescued all the victims." ((3), more)
"3. The Seventh Army pertaining to Jilderim will be transported to the Sinai front. The troops now on the Sinai Front will be under the Army Group Jilderim as long as the Seventh Army remains on the Sinai front.4. The Army Group Jilderim will conduct its operations independently on the Sinai front and in the separate Sanjak of Jerusalem, but Jilderim will keep the commander in chief in Syria and West Arabia informed." ((4), more)
"On October 8th, Cambrai was taken, the Germans opposite forced back behind the river Selle, and the front cleared from the Sensée in the north to a point east of St. Quentin in the south. Since September 26th, the British had taken nearly fifty thousand prisoners and captured a thousand guns.Prisoners were being captured further south, too, as the Americans gradually sorted out the chaos behind their front and began inexorably to press forward through the Argonne towards Mézières and Sedan." ((5), more)
(1) Entry from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia, for Thursday, October 8, 1914. With Russia fully mobilized, Grand Duke Nicholas, Commander of the Russian Army, had prepared a massive offensive.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. I by Maurice Paléologue, page 164, publisher: George H. Doran Company, publication date: 1925
(2) The joint German and Austro-Hungarian invasion of Serbia began on October 6, 1915, with a heavy bombardment of the Serb capital of Belgrade and other positions along the Danube, Drina, and Save Rivers that shaped Serbia's northern border. Austria-Hungary had struck the first blow of the war on July 29, 1914 by bombarding Belgrade the day after it had declared war on Serbia. The monitors were ships on the rivers taking part in the destruction.
Serbia's Great War 1914-1918 by Andrej Mitrovic, page 145, copyright © Andrej Mitrovic, 2007, publisher: Purdue University Press, publication date: 2007
(3) Declared after Great Britain imposed a blockade of Germany, and suspended after the May 7, 1915 sinking of the passenger liner Lusitania in which 1,195 civilians, 128 of them Americans, Germany suspended, to some extent, its campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare. Accusing Britain of flagging its ships with the flags of neutral nations, German submariners sometimes continued to sink the ships of neutral nations, like Netherlands, Norway, and the United States.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 260, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
(4) Excerpt from the order of Turkish War Minister Ismail Enver to his commanders in October, 1917, quoted by German General and commander of the Germany military mission to Turkey Liman von Sanders. Sanders notes that the Group Jilderim — Turkish for 'lightning' — was organized not with military assistance from German officers as was common during the war, but as a German army group with German officers and a German commander. The army was being collected at Aleppo, whence it could be directed to Mesopotamia and the reconquest of Baghdad or to Palestine for the defense of Gaza and Jerusalem, or for an offensive against Egypt. Enver chose the latter.
Five Years in Turkey by Liman von Sanders, page 180, publisher: The Battery Press with War and Peace Books, publication date: 1928 (originally)
(5) The British, French, and Americans all advanced on October 8, 1918, the French at the southern end of the British line near St. Quentin. The same day, the Americans and French began an attack on German artillery positions on the heights of the Meuse River that threatened the American advance in the Argonne. On October 8, taking part in that Meuse-Argonne Offensive, Corporal Alvin York of Tennessee earned his Medal of Honor by knocking out German machine gun positions, in the process taking 35 of the guns, killing 25 or more soldiers, and capturing another 132.
1918, the Last Act by Barrie Pitt, pp. 258–259, copyright © 1962 by Barrie Pitt, publisher: Ballantine Books, Inc., publication date: 1963
