Wasted efforts. The Triple Alliance in action. Kaisers Wilhelm of Germany and Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary try to drag their partner Italy into war. Italy declared its neutrality on August 3, 1914 after concluding it was not bound to join Austria-Hungary in its war against Serbia because it was not defensive.
Image text: Sforzi sprecatiItaliaWasted effortsItalyReverse:2763-4
A British ship sunk under its own flag, John Bull, personification of Great Britain, calls for a false flag with which to disguise his ships even as he is being dragged beneath the surface by German mermen — submariners with armbands in the colors of the German flag. Personifications of neutral nations holding their flags include Uncle Sam of the USA, a Nederlander, and representatives of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. In the distance, the British Isles have been hit, bombed by a Zeppelin or shelled by a sea battery.
Image text: A flag! A flag! A kingdom for a flag! 1915Rule, Britannia, Rule the Waves!Logo: A tree behind a picket fence(?); 1915Reverse:Union Postale Universelle.Carte PostaleWeltpostverein - Postkarte.
Postcard map of Galicia, one of the Austro-Hungarian theaters of war, from Cracow to Tarnopol along the north of the Carpathian Mountains. The region includes the fortress city of Przemyśl.
Image text: Östl. Kriegsschauplatz. 3. Galizien - Lublin - WarschauMaßst[ab]. 1:4500000 Festungen, Forts.; EisenbahnenEastern Front. 3. Galicia - Lublin - WarsawScale 1:4500000Fortresses, Forts; RailroadsReverse:Sammlung J. Thomas, Sachrang/Obb.Adolf Brandstätter, Postkarten-VerlagBeilitz (Oesterr., Schles.)Postkarten des östlichen Kriegschauplatzes Nr. 3. Import.Collection of J. Thomas, Sachrang / Bavaria.Adolf Brandstätter, postcard publisherBeilitz (Austrian, Schleswig.)Postcards of the eastern theater of war No. 3 Imports.Message date and field postmark, September 29, 1915
Alexander Kerensky, leader of Russia's Cadet party and a member of the Provisional government in 1917 as Minister of Justice, War, and Prime Minister. From 'The War of the Nations Portfolio in Rotogravure Etchings Compiled from the Mid-Week Pictorial Published by the New York Times Co. New York City N.Y.' © Copyrighted 1919 by the New York Times Company 1914 - 1919
Image text: Alexander Kerensky, who was head of the Russian Government when the Russian front collapsed.
Postwar postcard map of the Balkans including Albania, newly-created Yugoslavia, expanded Romania, and diminished former Central Powers Bulgaria and Turkey. The first acquisitions of Greece in its war against Turkey are seen in Europe where it advanced almost to Constantinople, in the Aegean Islands from Samos to Rhodes, and on the Turkish mainland from its base in Smyrna. The Greco-Turkish war was fought from May 1919 to 1922. The positions shown held from the war's beginning to the summer of 1920 when Greece advanced eastward. Newly independent Hungary and Ukraine appear in the northwest and northeast.
Image text: Péninsule des BalkansÉchelle 1:12.000.000Petit Atlas de Poche Universel25 Édition Jeheber GenèveReverse:No. 20 Édition Jeheber, Genève (Suisse)BalkansRoumanie(Royaume.)Superficie . . . 290 000 sq. km.Population . . . 16 000 000 hab. (50 par sq. km.Capitale: Bucarest . . . 338 000 hab.Bulgarie(Royaume.)Superficie . . . 100 000 sq. km.Population . . . 4 000 000 hab. (40 par sq. km.)Capitale: Sofia . . . 103 000 hab.Grèce(Royaume. Capitale: Athènes.)En Europe (y compris la Crète et les iles) 200 000 sq. km. 6 000 000 hab. 30 p. sq. km.En Asie mineure . . . 30 000 sq. km 1 300 000 hab. 43 p. sq. km.Total 230 000 sq. km. 7 300 000 hab. 32 p. sq. km.Ville de plus de 50 000 habitants:Smyrne (Asie) . . . 350 000 hab.Athènes . . . 175 000 hab.Salonique . . . 150 000Andrinople . . . 70 000 hab.Pirée . . . 70 000 hab.Turquie d'Europe(Empire Ottoman.)Superficie . . . 2 000 sq. km.Population . . . 1 100 000 550 par sq. km.Capitale: Constantinople 1 000 000 hab.AlbanieSuperficie . . . 30 000 sq. km.Population . . . 800 000 hab. (27 par sq. km.)Villes: Scutari . . . 30 000 hab.Durazzo . . . 5 000 hab.YougoslavieVoir le tableau des statisques de ce pays, ainsi que la carte de la partie occidentale de la Yougoslavie, sur la carte d'Italie.Inst. Géog. Kummerly & Frey, Berne.Balkan PeninsulaScale 1: 12,000,000Little Univeral Pocket AtlasRoyaume - KingdomSuperficie - AreaEn Europe (y compris la Crète et les iles) - In Europe (including Crete and the islands)En Asie mineure - In Asia MinorYugoslaviaSee the table of statistics of this country, as well as the map of the western part of Yugoslavia, on the map of Italy.
"An Anglo-French squadron has bombarded the advanced forts of the Dardanelles.In Armenia the Russians have carried by storm the fortress of Bayazid which commands the road to Van. They began their campaigns of 1828 and 1877 in the same way.England is annexing the Island of Cyprus, which she has occupied since 1878 in accordance with the terms of her alliance with Turkey.In northern France and Belgium the Germans are exhausting themselves in frantic and furious efforts to force their way through to Calais." ((1), more)
". . . the logs and code-books recovered from the captured Turquoise provided the German and Ottoman navies with details of the rendezvous locations and of the times of meeting with the other British submarines. On 5 November, Oberleutnant zur See Hugo von Heimburg, commanding UB14, set out from Constantinople to one of the rendezvous positions and at 4 p.m. sighted a conning tower, 5 miles to the north. At 5.10 p.m., and at a distance of 550 yards, he fired one torpedo which hit and sank E20. . . . At 5.20, UB14 surfaced and rescued two officers, including Warren, and six sailors from E20's crew." ((2), more)
"On the Eastern Front, other shortages were impeding any hope of a renewed Russian success. 'The plain truth is,' wrote Colonel Knox in his diary on November 5, 'that without aeroplanes and far more heavy guns and shell and some knowledge of their use, it is butchery, and useless butchery, to drive Russian infantry against German lines.' In the previous five months, Knox was told by General Dukhonin, the Quarter-Master General, Russian losses 'may well have exceeded a million men' killed and wounded.. . . On November 5 the German-sponsored Kingdom of Poland was proclaimed, with Warsaw as its capital." ((3), more)
"Now at last the government began to take serious action. Kerensky called a cabinet meeting late in the evening of November 5, and an emergency was declared. Polkovnikov was put in command of all forces in the city, with orders to take drastic action against disturbances. The Soviet Military Revolutionary Committee was declared illegal, and an order was sent out for the arrest of Trotsky and other Bolshevik leaders. Bolshevik newspapers were banned. Kerensky continued to be confident; he said he knew all about the Bolshevik plans. He would be glad if they did attempt a rising; he had ample forces to deal with it. Even now loyal troops were being summoned from outside the city. Yet Polkovnikov took no action on this night. He sent off a Women's Battalion to strengthen the guard inside the Winter Palace, but he made no attempt at all to attack the real center of the trouble, Smolny. And in fact the government had already suffered a major reverse on this day without a single shot being fired." ((4), more)
"The population of the Yugoslav areas was at this time also calling on the Serbian army to protect its national territory and maintain law and order there. On 4 November, a delegation of the National Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina transmitted a request to Vojvoda Stepanović for Serbian troops to enter its territory, whereupon units of the 2nd Army arrived in Sarajevo on 6 November. Envoys from Zermun, Pančevo and Osijek also arrived in Belgrade on 5 November with a request for military assistance. The National Council in Zagreb, in line with its previous decision to request Allied troops, sent a delegation to Serbia on 5 November, which arrived in Belgrade on 8 November. And, at the same time, Serb prisoners of war who had returned home from camps in Austria and Germany were in some places assuming the role that was actually expected of their comrades in the battle units." ((5), more)
(1) Entry from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia, for Thursday, November 5, 1914 relating the latest war news. France and Great Britain declared war on Turkey the same day, and the first three paragraphs record actions by the Entente Allies against Turkey. In France and Belgium, German troops were trying to break the Allied line in the Battle of Flanders, the battle for Calais and the other ports on the English Channel.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. I by Maurice Paléologue, 180, 181, publisher: George H. Doran Company, publication date: 1925
(2) During the Allied Gallipoi campaign, French and British submarines made the hazardous journey through the Dardanelles to attack Turkish shipping in the Sea of Marmara. On October 20, 1915, the French submarine Turquoise made its way through the Dardanelles. The ship was plagued with problems that included electric motors that caused short circuits and fires, a leaking periscope, a malfunctioning gyrocompass, and faulty forward hydroplanes. Returning through the Dardanelles on October 30, it surfaced, was seen and fired on by shore batteries, dove, struck bottom, resurfaced, and surrendered. Turquoise was taken with its logs and code-books. Using these windfall, UB14 set out to a rendezvous point, and found the British submarine E20 under Lieutenant Commander C. H. Warren.
Gallipoli — Attack from the Sea by Victor Rudenno, page 244, copyright © 2008 Victor Rudenno, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2008
(3) Russia's Brusilov Offensive, begun brilliantly on June 4, 1916, and one of the great offensives of the war, had broken the Austro-Hungarian front until Germany came (once again) to it's ally's aid. Since September the Russians had done little more than throw men into battle with inadequate support, as Knox notes. The former Kingdom of Poland was divided between Germany, Russia, and Austria-Hungary. In an attempt to rally Polish nationalists to their side, the German declaration was cynical, but more than Russia could muster.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 295, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(4) Alexander Kerensky, head of the Provisional Government of Russia, responded to the formation of the Military Revolutionary Committee, led by Leon Trotsky and the Bolsheviks and formed to defend the Revolution, but to do so by seizing power. Kerensky may have thought he had command of the situation on November 5 (October 23 Old Style), 1917, but he had lost control of the army. General Polkovnikov was in command in the Petrograd Military District. The Winter Palace was the seat of the Provisional Government, the Smolny that of the Bolsheviks.
The Russian Revolution by Alan Moorehead, page 239, copyright © 1958 by Time, Inc., publisher: Carroll and Graf, publication date: 1989
(5) Yugoslavia, the union of South Slavs, was the dream of Gavrilo Princip and his co-conspirators when he assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophia in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. It would include the Allied nations of Serbia and Montenegro and, in whole or in part, the Austro-Hungarian regions of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Dalmatia, Slavonia, and Carniola. Vojvoda Stepa Stepanović commanded the Serbian Second Army in the advance that began on September 14. Mitrović writes, 'The rank of Vojvoda is the highest in the Serbian Army, approximately equivalent to field-marshal' (p. 347, note 128). Belgrade was, and is again (November 4, 2018), the capital of Serbia.
Serbia's Great War 1914-1918 by Andrej Mitrovic, pp. 323–324, copyright © Andrej Mitrovic, 2007, publisher: Purdue University Press, publication date: 2007
