The poet, novelist, and political activist Gabriele d'Annunzio speaking in favor of Italy's entry into the war on the side of the Entente Allies, and against 'Giolittismo' at the Costanzi Theater in Rome, May, 1915. Giovanni Giolitti was five-time Prime Minister of Italy, and opposed intervention in the Great War. Illustration by Achille Beltrame.
Image text: The great demonstrations against the 'Giolittism'; Gabriele d'Annunzio speaks to the people of Rome, in Theatro Costanzi.
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
Detail from a 1898 map of St. Petersburg, the Russian capital, from a German atlas. Central St Petersburg, or Petrograd, is on the Neva River. Key landmarks from top to bottom include the Peter and Paul Fortress, which served as a prison, Nevski Prospect, a primary boulevard south of the Fortress, and the Mariyinsky Theater.
Image text: St Petersburg (Petrograd); Neva River, Peter and Paul Fortress; Nevski Prospect, Mariyinsky Theater
Martinpuich British Cemetery seen from Martinpuich Cemetery, Martinpuich, France. © 2013 by John M. Shea
Image text:
"21st May [1915]The Italian Parliament has decided to enter the war, the deputies in favour numbering 407 against 74, while the senators were unanimous. This is the most important and the happiest event since the Battle of the Marne." ((1), more)
"Insolently looking the commandant up and down, from head to toe, [the soldier] lashed him with a stream of scornful phrases: 'You little runt, you little ragamuffin. It's out there, on the front lines, that you should come visit us, and now on the first day of rest we have, you show up and bother us. On Cote 304, you didn't even dare come out of your hole. Now get out of my sight.'. . . 'I'm saying that on Cote 304 we never saw you. Here we don't salute anymore.'" ((2), more)
"'Men and women citizens!' I heard my voice say. 'Our mother is perishing. Our mother is Russia. I want to help to save her. I want women whose hearts are loyal, whose souls are pure, whose aims are high. With such women setting an example of self-sacrifice, you men will realize your duty in this grave hour!'—Before I had time to realize it I was already in a photographer's studio, and there had my portrait taken. The following day this picture appeared at the head of big posters pasted all over the city, announcing my appearance at the Mariyinski Theatre for the purpose of organizing a Women's Battalion of Death—" ((3), more)
"The march was mostly across country. It took us through the new unfinished lines of wired trench on Senlis Ridge, which must need a lot of labour. A halt was made beside Harponville aerodrome, which had been hurriedly deserted. The sun was still below the horizon when we climbed the ridge on which it was built, and it grew upon us. Its austere lines and form fitted the site on top of a bare down. The half-light, the solitude and the stillness gave to its rude simplicity so strange a grandeur that one could forget it was an empty thing of deal and cloth, and colour camouflage; it might have been a relic of a bygone race or of some forgotten rite. At sunrise there was a scene of splendour as a vast expanse of downland, falling to the west, was unfolded from the shroud of mist rolling slowly off the hollows, and the early sunbeams lighted up here a field, there a wood or red roof, until all was colourful." ((4), more)
(1) Diary entry for May 21, 1915 by Belgian King Albert.
The War Diaries of Albert I King of the Belgians by Albert I, page 41, copyright © 1954, publisher: William Kimber
(2) Soldiers returned as changed men from the front lines of the Battle of Verdun and its fearsome bombardments. In the first paragraph a commandant is offended that a soldier continued shaving and showed no respect. In the second, a sentry continued smoking his pipe and failed to salute when his commanding officers passed. French Infantry Corporal Louis Barthas had also been on Cote 304, and further observes of his commanders, 'It was long ago that they had lost the esteem of their men. Now they had earned their scorn.'
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, pp. 215, 216, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
(3) Maria Bochkareva followed Alexander Kerensky, newly appointed Russia's Minister of War, and his wife, in speaking at Petrograd's Mariyinski Theater on May 21, 1917 to raise recruits for a Women's Battalion of Death. When she spoke, Bochkareva had already been serving in the Russian army since November, 1914. After winnowing 2,000 volunteers down to a fighting force of about 300, her battalion of women would fight in the Kerensky Offensive in July, 1917, a battle in which she would be wounded for the third time. By August, 1918, Bochkareva had traveled to the United States, where she dictated her memoir and met with President Woodrow Wilson, and to the United Kingdom, where she met with King George, before returning to Russia. In the Russian Civil War, she opposed the Bolsheviks, who captured and executed her on May 16, 1920.
The Virago Book of Women and the Great War by Joyce Marlow, Editor, page 276, copyright © Joyce Marlow 1998, publisher: Virago Press, publication date: 1999
(4) Excerpt from the entry for May 21, 1918 from the writings — diaries, letters, and memoirs — of Captain J. C. Dunn, Medical Officer of the Second Battalion His Majesty's Twenty-Third Foot, the Royal Welch Fusiliers, and fellow soldiers who served with him. Dunn's unit was northeast of Amiens where they gone at the beginning of April to reinforce the British line against the German Somme Offensive, Operation Michael, which was suspended on the 5th. It was quickly followed by Operation Georgette on April 9, the second of five German Offensives in 1918. The Allies were expecting the next attack any day. Harponville is north of the Somme River, the apex of a pyramid with the base following the river from Amiens to Péronne.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, pp. 482–483, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
