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.
Photograph of a French aviator downing a German observation balloon near St. Mihiel on September 16, 1918, the last day of the American St. Mihiel Offensive. That same day American airmen Frank Luke and Joe Wehner downed three balloons in the sector.
Image text: French aviator downing a german observer near St Mihiel on the 16th day of september 1918
Section of a 1906 map of German East Africa from Belgian Congo and Lake Tangayika to the west to the capital of Dar-es-Salaam on the Indian Ocean coast. The German colony faced the British colonies of British East Africa and Rhodesia to the north and southwest, Belgian Congo to the west, and Portuguese Mozambique to the south. From Andree's Allgemeiner Handatlas, published in Leipzig, Germany by Velhagen & Klasing.
Image text: Deutsch Ostafrica, Britische Besitzungen, Kongostaat, Portugiesische BesitzungenGerman East Africa, British possessions, Congo Free State, Portuguese possessions
'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red' — the Tower of London poppies — each of the 888,246 ceramic poppies representing one serviceman of the British Empire killed in World War I. The installation was a collaboration of artist Paul Cummins and stage designer Tom Piper. Since November, 2014 the poppies have been installed in other sites in the United Kingdom. Photographed October 3, 2014. © 2014 by John M. Shea
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A German Zeppelin visits Sofia, capital of Bulgaria on November 10, 1915. Less than a month earlier Bulgaria had joined the Central Powers.
Image text: Balkan Kriegsschauplatz. 10. Nov. 1915: Der Zeppelinbesuch in Sofia. Balkan theater of war, November 10, 1915. The Zeppelin visit in Sofia.Reverse:Kriegshilfe München II, N.W. 11 - War Aid, Munich II, N.W. 11Zum Gloria-Viktoria AlbumSammel. u. Nachschlagewerk des VölkerkriegesFor Gloria Victoria albumCollection and reference book of international war
"In the Galician Carpathians the Austro-Hungarians are putting up a fierce defence of the Uszok Pass which leads into Transylvania.In the east of East Prussia the Germans are making great efforts to cross the Niemen between Kovno and Grodno, at the very points which the Grand Army crossed on June 25, 1812." ((1), more)
"In September 1915, I travelled back to my regiment. . . . Ahead of us, the French autumn offensive was in full swing. The front manifested itself as a long, billowing cloud over open country. Overhead the machine-guns of the air squadron pattered away. Sometimes, when one of the French planes came down very low — their colourful rosettes seeming to scan the ground like big butterflies' eyes — my little troop and I took cover under the poplars that lined the road. The anti-aircraft guns threaded long fleecy lines through the air, and whistling splinters pinged into the tilth." ((2), more)
"My dear General,I learn that after long and tough fighting, our brave African troops have captured Tabora, the citadel of the German East African defences.I would like to take advantage of this brilliant feat of arms to offer you, as well as the officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers under your command, my warmest congratulations on the constant successes won in this far-off campaign which has demanded so much effort to organise." ((3), more)
"'As to your defence of London by this infernal Barrage I do trust you will stop it, as it is a remedy worse than the disease. We have lived under showers of this odious shrapnel (purely home-made) and it is costly in life and property. A woman close to me was killed in bed thereby.'So had seven other people in the past week. Another sixty-seven had been injured. British fire during one raid alone had damaged nearly 300 houses, 'about half of them seriously.' Nineteen French 75-mm. guns, which fired only shrapnel, were moved from London to Birmingham and other places not as likely to be raided. Unlike explosive shells, the cases of shrapnel projectiles came down intact." ((4), more)
". . . . General Franchet d'Esperey's ramshackle coalition of French and British and Italians and Greeks and Serbs and Albanians defeated the Bulgarian Army in the Balkans. Communist orators started haranguing mobs in front of the royal palace in Sofia and gave the selfstyled Czar Ferdinand such a fright that on September 30 he concluded an armistice on terms of unconditional surrender. The Allies couldn't move in soon enough to protect him from a Red uprising. What was left of Mackensen's army had to retreat in a hurry across the Danube, leaving behind great quantities of rolling stock and the imperial hopes for a Berlin to Baghdad railroad and all that it implied.Pro-Allied politicians took over in Bulgaria and a few days later Ferdinand abdicated in favor of his son. The loss of Bulgaria meant that communications between Germany and Turkey were cut off. Food riots and seditious strikes in Prague and Budapest disrupted the Hapsburg empire. Separatist movements came out into the open. In Vienna the Emperor Charles' government hung by a thread." ((5), more)
(1) Entry from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia, for Wednesday, September 30, 1914. After Russian forces defeated the Austro-Hungarians in the battles in Galicia, northeast Austria-Hungary, the victors tried to cross the Carpathian Mountains onto the plains of Hungary, but met with little success. To the north, German forces were stalled in their attempt to invade Russia by the same route that Napoleon had forged 102 years before.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. I by Maurice Paléologue, page 151, publisher: George H. Doran Company, publication date: 1925
(2) Wounded in April, 1915 in the fighting in Les Eparges, southeast of Verdun, France, Ernst Jünger recovered, went on leave, and received training in 'various ways of moving across terrain in small groups.' Promoted to ensign, he returned to his regiment as the allied Champagne-Artios-Loos Offensive was in progress.
Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger, pp. 34, 35, copyright © 1920, 1961, Translation © Michael Hoffman, 2003, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 2003
(3) Beginning of a September 30, 1916 letter from Albert I, King of the Belgians to General Charles Tombeur, senior Belgian officer in Belgian Congo, who had captured Tabora in German East Africa on September 19. Tabora lay on the rail line between Lake Tanganyika to the west and Dar-es-Salaam on the Indian Ocean to the east.
The War Diaries of Albert I King of the Belgians by Albert I, pp. 124–125, copyright © 1954, publisher: William Kimber
(4) From Monday, September 24 to October 1, 1917, ninety-two German Gotha bombers took part in the Autumn Moon Offensive against England. Fifty-five of the two-engine planes reached England with twenty or fewer making it to London. A handful of Staaken Giant bombers also took part in the raids, with one reaching the capital. On six of the eight nights the bombers struck. A total of 69 people were killed and 260 wounded, some by shell casings from the British defensive barrage. Before the raids had ended, over 300,000 people had taken shelter in the London Underground.
The Sky on Fire by Raymond H. Fredette by Raymond H. Fredette, page 147, copyright © 1966, 1976, 1991 by Raymond H. Fredette, publisher: Smithsonian Institution Press, publication date: 1991
(5) French General Louis Franchet d'Esperey commanded Allied forces — French, British, Italian, Greek, and Serbian — on the Balkan Front, where for two years the Bulgarians had kept the Allied forces bottled up. In the two weeks between the opening of d'Esperey's offensive into Serbia on September 15 and the end of the month, the defenders collapsed, the Bulgarian home front rose up, and a new Bulgarian government signed an armistice. The liberation of Serbia would position Allied armies across the Danube River from the plains of Hungary and its capital of Budapest, and cut the rail line to Turkey, isolating another of Germany's allies. Sofia was, and remains, the Bulgarian capital; Ferdinand was the country's ruler. German Field Marshal August von Mackensen had been victorious on the Russian Front and in the conquests of Serbia and Romania. Charles was Emperor of Austria and Apostolic King of Hungary and Austria-Hungary was breaking apart
Mr. Wilson's War by John Dos Passos, pp. 412–413, copyright © 1962, 2013 by John Dos Passos, publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
