Orient's Erwachen — The East Awakens. The sun rises on a red fez, and the army of Turkey streams out, weapons at the ready. A beautiful design by Heinz Keune.
Image text: Orient's Erwachen — The East Awakenssigned: Heinz Keune
A Swiss postcard of 'The European War' in 1914. The Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary face enemies to the east, west, and south. Germany is fighting the war it tried to avoid, battling Russia to the east and France to the west. Germany had also hoped to avoid fighting England which came to the aid of neutral (and prostrate) Belgium, and straddles the Channel. Austria-Hungary also fights on two fronts, against Russia to the east and Serbia and Montenegro to the south. Italy, the third member of the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary, declared neutrality, and looks on. Other neutral nations include Spain, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania. Japan enters from the east to battle Germany. The German Fleet stays close to port in the North and Baltic Seas while a German Zeppelin targets England. The Austro-Hungarian Fleet keeps watch in the Adriatic. Turkey is not represented, and entered the war at the end of October, 1914; Italy in late May, 1915.
Image text: Der Europäische KriegThe European WarReverse:Kriegskarte No. 61. Verlag K. Essig, BaselKunstanstalt (Art Institute) Frobenius A.G. Basel
Under her commander Captain Koenig, the German merchant submarine "Deutschland", largest in the world, ran the British blockade of Germany and British ships off the US coast to reach the neutral United States, arriving in Baltimore Harbor July 10, 1916.Postcard of the Deutschland of Bremen, and the tugboat Thomas F. Timmins of Baltimore.
Image text: The German U Boat "Deutschland"Largest in the WorldAnd her commander - Captain KoenigArriving Baltimore Harbor - July 10th, 1916
I've killed many Germans, but never women or children. Original French watercolor by John on blank field postcard. In the background are indolent Russian soldiers and Vladimir Lenin, in the foreground stands what may be a Romanian soldier who is telling the Russians, 'You call me savage. I killed a lot of Boches [Germans], but never women or children!'
Image text: T'appelles moi sauvage !. Moi, tuer Boches beaucoup, mais jamais li femmes et li s'enfants !You call me wild. I killed a lot of Boches [Germans], but never women or children!
The Allied tortoise climbs the victory podium ahead of the German hare. A postcard by F. Sancha from between March 1916 when Portugal entered the war, and April 1917, when the United States (not included) did. The card was printed in England for a Portuguese audience. Sancha produced other war postcards based on Aesop's fables. The German officer bears containers including poison (veneno) and inflammables. The Allied tortoise bears carries conventional weapons for Japan, Belgium, England, France, Russia, Italy, Serbia, and Portugal. Allied productive capacity, including that of poison gas, would eventually far outpace that of the Central Powers. © London
Image text: Reverse:A tartaruga e o lebreO lebre e a tartaruga que competem na corrida; o lebre leva a dianteira no principio, rindo-se do seu adversario ronceiro; mas afinal das contas é a laboriosa tartaruga que ganha a corrida;Mercê dos preparativos organisados annos antes da guerra, a Alemanha levou a dianteira aos Aliados, no principio; mas tendo hoje os Aliados munições a fartar, sāo elles que já divisam o triunfo.As Fabulas de Æsopo Modernisadas.Copyright LondonPrinted in England.The tortoise and the hareThe hare and the tortoise competing in the race; the hare takes the lead in the beginning, laughing at his stubborn adversary; but after all it is the laborious turtle that wins the race;Throughout the preparatory years before the war, Germany led the Allies in the beginning; but now the Allies have plenty of ammunition, they are the ones who already see triumph.Modernised Aesop's Fables
"At three o'clock this morning two Turkish destroyers entered the port of Odessa, sank a Russian gunboat, and fired on the French mail boat Portugal doing considerable damage. Then they fled at top speed, pursued by a Russian destroyer." ((1), more)
"On the 6th October the Austro-German forces opened their carefully prepared campaign against Serbia, beginning the passage of the Danube and the Save the next day. On the 7th October, King Constantine of Greece definitely refused to intervene on behalf of Serbia, and M. Venizelos resigned and was replaced by M. Zaimis. On the 14th October, Bulgaria declared war on Serbia and advanced into Macedonia. On the 15th, Great Britain and, on the 16th, France declared war on Bulgaria.In consequence of these events, M. Delcassé, the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, resigned and brought about, on the 29th, the fall of the Viviani Cabinet. M. Briand succeeded to the Presidency of the Council, with General Galliéni as Minister of War." ((2), more)
"Did we really have such a good life in peacetime? Even if it might seem as if we did, we weren't really satisfied. I remember that many of us hoped for war so that things would get better for us. Whenever I remember how we used to worry about getting a job, about pay disputes and the length of the working day, it makes the thought of peace less attractive. But at the moment it seems like paradise, a time when you could buy all the bread, all the sausage, all the clothes we wanted. Not that that was much help to all the poor buggers with no money to buy anything! Perhaps the real crisis will come when we are all lucky enough to be at peace again." ((3), more)
"The Committee met again at 13 Bolotnaya Street in the Vyborg district on 16 October, this time with representatives from Moscow, and a Military Revolutionary Committee was formed. Once again the cautious Kamenev and Zinoviev demonstrated how unsure they were that Lenin's plans could work but again the vote went his way, with 4 members abstaining, 19 in favour and 2 against. All that remained now was the planning and the selection of the right moment.There was no doubt that the workers had rushed to the Bolshevik cause — the party had steadfastly refused to sully itself by any collaboration with Kerensky's government. When Lenin had arrived back in Petrograd in April the Bolsheviks, with a membership of just 10,000, could not have hoped to control anything, but following the failure of Kornilov's plans, the party's membership had soared to 300,000. At the time of the February revolution, there were 300 Soviets — by October there were 900." ((4), more)
"— The 29th. Since last evening there has been a rumour that Austria is begging for a separate and unconditional peace. This time, people are displaying a certain lively satisfaction. No doubt the idea of Austria throwing herself on our mercy has carried people away. And likewise the reflection that Germany will be isolated. Officers in billets are drinking champagne. The troops wear a permanent grin ; the delight of waking up in the morning with the thought that they will not be killed within six months. . . . A headline of the Œuvre for the 29th : 'Ah ! If they had made only half the efforts to prevent war that they are now making to delay peace !'— The 29th. Some people refuse to recognize the prevalence of influenza. To hear them, you would think that they applied the term influenza to any disease which proves fatal. They also declare : 'It is not so severe as the influenza of 1889.' This attitude is regarded as heroic.— In Paris, during the present crisis, burials are conducted as late as midnight." ((5), more)
(1) Entry from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia, for Thursday, October 29, 1914. The Turkish destroyers were the Yavuz Sultan Selim and the Midilli. On August 8 they had entered Turkish waters at the Dardanelles as the German battleships Goeben and Breslau. Trying to draw Turkey into the war on the side of the Central Powers, Germany had turned the ships and their crews over to the Turkish Navy.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. I by Maurice Paléologue, page 177, publisher: George H. Doran Company, publication date: 1925
(2) October 1915 extended the Entente Allies' disastrous year that included disappointments for the French in the Second and Third Battles of Artois and the First and Second Battles of Champagne, for the British at Neuve Chapelle and Loos, for both countries in the Dardanelles, for Russia in the long months of retreat after the May 2nd launch of the Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive, for their new ally Italy in the First, Second, and Third Battles of the Isonzo. The Franco-British landing at Salonica bordered on being an invasion of Greece, opened a new battle front, and did nothing to stop the German, Austro-Hungarian, and Bulgarian overrunning of Serbia. The military, governments, the press, and the public looked for change and identification of those responsible.
Military Operations France and Belgium, 1915, Vol. II, Battles of Aubers Ridge, Festubert, and Loos by J. E. Edmonds, pp. 405, 406, copyright © asserted, publisher: Macmillan and Co., Limited, publication date: 1928
(3) Richard Stumpf, a German sailor on SMS Helgoland. On October 29, 1916, he watched the return of submarine U-53 which had accompanied the missing merchant submarine Bremen on its maiden voyage. Bremen vanished.
The Beauty and the Sorrow: An Intimate History of the First World War by Peter Englund, pp. 311–312, copyright © 2009 by Peter England, publisher: Vintage Books, publication date: 2012
(4) The Bolshevik Central Committee met on October 29, 1917 (October 16 Old Style) to debate whether to seize power. Vyborg was a working-class district on the north side of the Russian capital of Petrograd. Alexander Kerensky had been in the government since the overthrow of Tsar Nicholas in the February Revolution, as Justice Minister, War Minister, and finally Prime Minister. He supported continuing the war, and had assumed near-dictitorial powers in defending the revolution against General Lavr Kornilov, a defense in which the government armed the Bolsheviks who would soon overthrow them. Soviets, councils of workers and soldiers representing cities, towns, military units, and factories, had been formed on the first day of the revolution following a pattern that dated to the revolution of 1905. Vladimir Lenin consistently supported ending the war, a position he sometimes held virtually alone.
1917: Russia's Year of Revolution by Roy Bainton, page 157, copyright © Roy Bainton 2005, publisher: Carroll and Graf Publishers, publication date: 2005
(5) Entry from the diary of Michel Corday, a senior civil servant in the French government writing in Paris on October 29, 1918. Austria-Hungary had requested an armistice on the 27th. Corday had long supported negotiating peace with Germany, and opposed carrying on the war to victory regardless of cost. Those who would 'delay peace,' such as French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, would not negotiate while the Allied advance of 1918 continued. Influenza struck during the spring and summer of 1918 as a three-day fever, but returned in the autumn in a more deadly form.
The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, page 382, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934
