A hold-to-light postcard of the German and Austro-Hungarian victory (shortlived) over the Russians in the Uzroker Pass in the Carpathians on January 28, 1915. Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, Chief of the Austro-Hungarian General Staff, launched an offensive with three armies on January 23, including the new Austro-Hungarian Seventh Army under General Karl von Pflanzer-Baltin.
Image text: KarpathenSiegreiche Kämpfe am Uzroker-Paß28. Januar 1915 The CarpathiansVictorious fighting at the Uzroker PassJanuary 28, 1915Reverse:Message dated and field postmarked September 7, 1916, 29th Infantry Division.
Headstone of an unknown soldier of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, Delville Wood Cemetery. Union of South Africa troops began the assault at Delville Wood on July 15, 1916. It was finally taken in September. On the headstone is superimposed the poem 'To My Daughter Betty, the Gift of God' by Lieutenant Tom Kettle of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, killed in action on September 9, 1916 at Guillemont, France, in the Battle of the Somme. He has no known grave. © 2013 John M. Shea
Image text: To My Daughter Betty, the Gift of GodIn wiser days, my darling rosebud, blownTo beauty proud as was your mother's prime,In that desired, delayed, incredible time,You'll ask why I abandoned you, my own,And the dear heart that was your baby throne,To dice with death. And oh! they'll give you rhymeAnd reason: some will call the thing sublime,And some decry it in a knowing tone.So here, while the mad guns curse overhead,And tired men sigh with mud and couch and floor,Know that we fools, now with the foolish dead,Died not for flag, nor King, nor Emperor,But for a dream, born in a herdsman's shed,And for the secret Scripture of the poor.— Tom KettleIn the field, before Guillemont, Somme, 4 September 1916
Having stopped unrestricted submarine warfare after sinking the Lusitania in 1915, Germany resumed the policy on January 31, 1917. The campaign peaked in April 1917, and helped bring the United States into the war.
Image text: U-Bootswirkung im Mittelmeer.12 Monate uneingeschränktenU-Bootskrieges auf dem Mittelmeer-KriegsschauplatzAlle durch Minen und vor dem 1. Februar 1917 vernichteten Schiffe sind in dieser Karte nicht enthalten.[symbol] bedeutet ein durch die Tätigkeit unserer U-Boote versenktes Schiff ohne Berücksichtigung seiner Größe.Die Eintragungen der Schiffe entsprechen dem Versenkungsort."Die wichtigste unmitteilbare militärische Ursache der Italienischen Niederlage wird unwidersprchen in dem Mangel an Munition und schweren Kanonen erblickt: den die Unterseeboote haben die Erz- und Kohlenzufuhr unterbunden." - (New York Times, 4.11.17)Monatsergebnisse der GesamtversenkungenFebruar, 1917, 785,000 Br.-Reg.-T.Marz, 890,000April, 1,100,000Mai, 870,000Juni, 1,020,000 Br.-Reg.-T.Juli, 815,000August, 810,000September, 675,000Oktober, 675,000 Br.-Reg.-T.November, 610,000Dezember, 705,000Januar, 635,000Insgesamt 9,590,000 Br.-Reg.-T.Submarine action in the Mediterranean.Full 12 monthsU-Boat War in the Mediterranean theater of warAll ships destroyed by mines or before February 1, 1917 are not included in this map.[symbol] indicates a ship sunk by the activity of our submarines regardless of its size.The entries of the vessels meet the Versenkungsort."The most important cause of the indescribable Italian military defeat is indisputably due to the lack of ammunition and heavy guns. The submarines have prevented the supply of ore and coal." - (New York Times, 4:11:17)Monthly breakdown of the total sinkings:February, 1917, 785,000 imperial tonsMarch, 890,000April, 1,100,000May, 870,000June, 1,020,000 imperial tonsJuly, 815,000August, 810,000September, 675,000October, 675,000 imperial tonnesNovember, 610,000December, 705,000January, 635,000A total of 9,590,000 imperial tonnesReverse:Auf Anregung Sr. Majestät des Kaisersi. Auftr. des Admiralstabes d. Rais. Marine zu Gunsten der S
French (and one British) soldiers in what appears to be a hastily-improvised line. An official photograph on the British Front in France taken May 3, 1918. French reserves came to the aid of the British during the German Offensives of 1918. Operation Michael on the Somme had been fought from March 21 to April 5, and Operation Georgette on the Lys River from April 9 to 29.
Image text: Reverse:Official photograph taken on the British Western Front in France. British and French alongside each other waiting for the Boches. 5/3/18.
"Storm and rain had uncovered the torn shreds of Austrian uniforms lying on the edge of shell craters.Behind Nová Čabyna entangled in the branches of an old burnt-out pine there was hanging the boot of an Austrian infantryman with a piece of shin-bone.Where the artillery fire had raged one could see forests without leaves or cones, trees without crowns and shot-up farmsteads.The train went slowly over the freshly-built embankments so that the whole battalion could take in and thoroughly savour the delights of war. At the sight of the army cemeteries with their white crosses gleaming on the plains and on the slopes of the devastated hills all could prepare themselves slowly but surely for the field of glory which ended with a mud-bespattered Austrian cap fluttering on a white cross." ((1), more)
"The real Battle of Dublin began on Wednesday morning, April 26th, the third day of the Rebellion. British troops had been arriving hourly in great numbers during the preceding night and a naval gunboat, the Helga, had pushed up the Liffey River, opposite the custom House, ready to co-operate with the infantry forces. A circle of steel now encompassed the rebels." ((2), more)
"I am getting impatient. The Mediterranean beckons with her transport steamers, so much the more inviting since now there are no more restrictions. And I want to arrive in good time for the final effort.Then I am asked 'affectionately' if my boat will be ready soon, especially by those who have been moored for years.But the work is actually delayed It is quite similar to Penelope's tapestry: mysterious forces impede the construction. The crew is suspicious.There are many Czechs in the arsenal known to be capable of sabotage. In the mess they sit together and speak Czech and every time a setback occurs on the front, their faces beam. At the American declaration of war, they supposedly really celebrated, but you can't pin anything on them." ((3), more)
"On the 26th [April 1918], four tanks of the 1st Brigade had an interesting experience.The Allied forces on this part of the line consisted of a most curious mixture of arms and races.The scene, for example, in a neighboring wood about ten days before is thus described by the historian of the 1st Battalion:'The Bois d'Abbé presented a most picturesque spectacle, and any one taking the trouble to walk through it could have had the unique experience of seeing practically every branch of both the British and French Armies represented. In this wood were to be found Tanks of all descriptions, Mark IV.'s, V.'s, Whippets and French Rénaults, heavy and light infantry, British infantry, Australians, French cavalry and infantry, Moroccans, and lastly a detachment of the Legion of Frontiersmen mounted on little Arab ponies, which presented a strange contract to the heavy Percherons of the artillery.'On April 26, it was in company with the Moroccan Division that the 1st Battalion fought." ((4), more)
(1) Excerpt from Jaroslav Hašek's novel The Good Soldier Švejk. Švejk (or Schweik) was a foot soldier in an Austro-Hungarian Czech battalion on its way to the front lines on the Russian Front. Nová Čabyna is on the southwestern side of the Carpathian Mountains which the Russians had been trying to battle through since the beginning of the year, but with inadequate munitions to do so. By April, 1915, when Švejk was approaching the front, Austria-Hungary had suffered nearly 800,000 casualties in the mountains since the beginning of the year.
The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek, page 592, copyright © Cecil Parrott, 1973 (translation), publisher: Penguin
(2) Writing of the third day of the Irish Easter Rising, Wednesday, April 26, 1915, Irish poet and novelist James Stephens tried to determine where citizens stood on support for or opposition to the rebels. 'Men met and talked volubly, but they said nothing that indicated a personal desire or belief.' Women were more forthcoming and 'actively and visciously hostile to the rising.' (The Insurrection in Dublin, pp. 35 and 36.) Fighting went on at Mount Street Bridge, Ringsend, and the Canal that encircles Dublin. The gunboat Helga shelled Liberty Hall, home to the Irish Citizen Army. Buildings along Sackville Street were bombarded and machine-gunned. Realizing the rebels could move from one building to the next, and that the British would find each ruin empty and turn to destroying the next, Stephens realized that Sackville Street, Dublin's main street and site of the rebels' headquarters at the General Post Office, 'was doomed.'
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 246, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
(3) Excerpt from the memoir of Austro-Hungarian Captain Georg von Trapp, whose U-boat was being repaired in Pola, one of Austria-Hungary's ports on the Adriatic Sea. In April, 1917, he had been awaiting a refurbished ship since late 1915. His boat, U-14, had been the French submarine Curie, captured in December, 1914 and already refurbished once. Earlier in his book, von Trapp had complained of a Czech crewman not following protocol: responding 'yes' to an order rather than repeating the order. On at least one occasion the result may have been the firing of an unarmed torpedo. The 'restrictions' he references had been lifted on February 1, 1917 when Germany (and Austria-Hungary) began its expansion of unrestricted submarine warfare which led to the United States' declaring war on Germany, but not on Austria-Hungary, on April 6, 1917. Von Trapp was Austria-Hungary's most successful submariner, later famous as the father of the Von Trapp Family Singers, portrayed on stage and screen in The Sound of Music. Penelope was the loyal and ingenious wife of Ulysses.
To the Last Salute: Memories of an Austrian U-Boat Commander by Georg von Trapp, pp. 92–93, copyright © 2007, publisher: University of Nebraska Press, publication date: 2007
(4) Excerpt from The Tank Corps by Major Clough Williams-Ellis & A. Williams-Ellis. The Moroccan Division fought at Hangard Wood on April 26, 1918. Percheron is a breed of draft horse that originated in western France and that has been used as a war horse, in agriculture, for pulling stage coaches, and hauling goods.
The Tank Corps by Clough Williams-Ellis & A. Williams-Ellis, pp. 174–175, publisher: The Offices of "Country Life," Ltd. and George Newnes, Ltd., publication date: 1919
