French postcard celebrating the Allied victory at the Battle of the Marne with the Kaiser tumbling in the river, Germans (in green) fleeing. The French in blue and red advance and tend to German wounded. The British, France's ally, advance in the distance.
Image text: Caption:Dans un élan magnifique, les armées allemandes on passé deux fois la Marne. Tout va bien. Les troupes sont fraîches. (Agence Wolff)With magnificent élan, the German armies have crossed the Marne twice. All is well. The troops are fresh. (Wolff Agency)Signs and text:On demande couturière pour recoudre les bochesVoulez vous que j’écrive a vos parents?Poudres sèches pour la guerre future 1873Sucre pastilles caramelleBaton provisoire de maréchalWe need a seamstress to mend the BocheYou want me to write to your parents?Dry powder for future war 1873Caramel sugar lozengesMarshal’s provisional batonReverse:"Artistic Caricatures" (1re Série de 6 cartes)
Serbia's wartime capital, Niš or Nisch, was taken by Bulgarian forces on November 5, 1915 in the combined Central Power invasion and conquest of Serbia. The postcard portrait is of Bulgaria's Tsar Ferdinand beneath the Imperial Bulgarian flag, and shows street scenes in Nisch.
Image text: Strasse u. Moschee in NischKirche in NischVolksleben in NischErobert am 5. November 1915NischStreet and Mosque in NischChurch in NischPeople living in NischCaptured on 5 November 1915Border of oak leavesLogo, bottom left, illegible and "5383"
The Western Front, 1914 and 15. The Imperial German eagle is a crow feeding on carrion, perched on a cross bearing scenes of the destruction of its advance and retreat through France and Belgium: the shelled and burned cathedral of Reims, the ruination of the city of Arras, a destroyed town, deaths both military and civilian in Belgium. France held its territory along the border with Germany, and turned back the German advance in the Battle of the Marne, but Belgium and northern France remained occupied through the war.Accused of war crimes, Germany, labeled on the map by "Kulturland?", defended itself by speaking of its superior culture.Spain, Holland, and Switzerland remained neutral during the war, and are show in green. Italy joined the Allies in May, 1915, possibly shortly before the card was printed, which may explain the use of red for its name and border.
Image text: [On the cross:] Reims, Après le Passage des Allemands, Arras!, Belgique[On the map, the countries of] Angleterre, Hollande, Espagne, Suisse, Italie, Belgique, France, Kulturland? [Germany, and the cities of] Douvres, Calais, Paris, Arras, Reims, Maubeuge, Verdun, Nancy, Epinal, and BelfortReverse:M. Mantel édit., Lyon, 3, Rue Mulet
Haidar-Pasha, or Haydarpaşa, train station in Constantinople, on the Sea of Marmora at the southeastern end of the Bosphorus. The station was the site of an explosion on September 6, 1917, as the Turks were preparing the Jildirim campaign. Two or three hundred cars of munitions and explosives were destroyed, losses the Turks could ill afford. From Jildirim: Deutsche Streiter auf heiligem Boden, Yildirim: German Soldiers on Holy Ground edited by Dr. Steuber, Chief General Physician, Retired, 1912/18 Army Physician in Palestine.
Image text: Bahnhof von Haidar PaschaRailway station of Haidar Pascha
Five British S.E. 5a biplanes in flight.
Image text: Handwritten, reverse:S.E.5.a
"On September 6 [1914] we saw the first wounded of the great battle that was then under way and which would become known to history as the Battle of the Marne. . . . Some wounded from colonial units passed us on the road, and we gave them something to drink. We were then deployed in a firing line behind a ditch. We thought we were about to go into action. Tired of doing nothing, the men were pleased but also solemn." ((1), more)
"The German victory at Gorlice-Tarnów and the Allies' failure to force the Turkish Straits encouraged Romania to maintain its neutrality, and Berlin spent the summer of 1915 negotiating Bulgaria's entry into the war. Offers of immediate cession of Turkish lands (Thrace) and future gains at Serbia's and possibly Greece's expense (Macedonia) led Tsar Ferdinand, the "Balkan Richelieu", to conclude a military convention with the OHL on 6 September. Turkey joined the alliance 8 days later." ((2), more)
"Farther north [of Lemberg], the Russian drive against Kovel had resulted in appalling losses to the Czar's troops during September. The Russians threw themselves recklessly against the Austro-German line, but wave upon wave they were annihilated. On September 6th [1916] the Russians attacked on a twelve-mile front west of Lutsk, but could not bend the Austrian line. Again on October 2d, they tried to batter their way through to Kovel, making no less than 17 attacks on one point of the line, but without material gains. The assaults gradually slowed down during November, the Austrians holding their positions firmly." ((3), more)
"the Ottoman calm, however, was somewhat disturbed presently by a series of detonations that shook the city. Two or three hundred cars of munitions and explosives blew up very mysteriously in the railway station of Haidar-Pasha. The accident was due, I am convinced, to the carelessness of the Turkish soldiers entrusted with the unloading of various laden with munitions, that were moored to the wharf. . . .That afternoon and all night the fire blazed devouring what had been the most spacious and modern railway station in Asia Minor and probably in the Balkans also; and reducing to ashes millions of pounds sterling in building and rolling material of war." ((4), more)
"The enemy also endeavors to sow dissension in our ranks by means of leaflets dropped from aëroplanes above our lines. Ten thousand of these are sometimes gathered up in a day. The enemy knows what strength resides in our State and Empire; hence he seeks by his leaflets and false rumors to arouse distrust among us. There have always been some traitors to the Fatherland, a few deliberately false, others unintentionally so. Most of these now reside in neutral countries, having deserted us to escape sharing in our battles and privations, and to escape being executed as traitors.Be on your guard, German soldiers." ((5), more)
(1) From the war memoirs of the great French historian Marc Bloch. On September 6, 1914 French Commander Joffre launched his counterattack that ended the German Advance and Allied retreat. Nearly two million men were engaged: 980,000 French and 100,000 British soldiers faced 750,000 German troops in the Battle of the Marne.
Memoirs of War 1914-15 by Marc Bloch, page 85, copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988, publisher: Cambridge University Press, publication date: 1988
(2) Since May 2, 1915, the German-Austro-Hungarian Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive had driven the Russians back and ultimately out of Poland. The Allied attempt to force the Dardanelles with a naval assault had been abandoned for the Gallipoli invasion, which also failed, dashing hopes of driving Turkey out of the war and reopening the Mediterranean route to Russia. Favoring the Entente Allies, Romania remained neutral in the face of these defeats. More certain of the war's outcome, Bulgaria sided with the Central Powers against Russia, a fellow-Slav empire, with the opportunity to expand at the expense of Greece and Serbia, its allies in the First and enemies in the Second Balkan war. Tsar Ferdinand had ruled over the expansion of Bulgaria in 1885 and its independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1908. OHL was Oberste Heeresleitung, the German High Command.
The First World War: Germany and Austria Hungary 1914-1918 by Holger H. Herwig, page 157, copyright © 1997 Holger H. Herwig, publisher: Arnold, publication date: 1997
(3) Russian General Aleksei Brusilov continued the offensive he had mounted so successfully on June 4, 1916, but with diminishing gains and at increasing cost. He continued to slowly advance in Galicia, the location of Austria-Hungary's fortress city of Lemberg; both Kovel and Lutsk were in Polish Russia.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 230, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
(4) Haidar-Pasha, or Haydarpaşa, is in Constantinople at the southwestern end of the Bosphorus on the Asian shore of the Sea of Marmora. The explosion destroyed, besides the railway station and rolling stock, warehouses and much of the harbor. Turkish forces were assembling at Aleppo in Syria to be prepared to deploy to Mesopotamia for the recapture of Baghdad, or to Palestine where the British were reinforcing their position. Estimates of the dead include hundreds of Turkish, German, and Austro-Hungarian troops, and 1,000 civilians (www.levantineheritage.com/haidarpasha-explosion.html, September 5, 2019). A mahona is a Turkish boat.
Four Years Beneath the Crescent by Rafael De Nogales, pp. 386, 387, copyright © 1926, by Charles Scribner's Sons, publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons, publication date: 1926
(5) Excerpt from address issued September 6, 1918 by Marshal Paul von Hindenburg. Clearly indicating their concern, authorities would pay for propaganda leaflets that were turned in.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. VI, 1918, p. 278, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
