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
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"
An advertising card of the Greek Army from the series Armées des États Balcaniques, published in 1910.The card shows, from left to right: an artillery detachment, a soldier in battle dress and another in parade dress, a cavalry man, an infantry officer, two hunters of a battalion of evzones, and a mountain artillery officer.
Image text: Armées des États Balcaniques. Greece.Véritable Extrait de Viande Liebig.Voir L’Explication au verso.Reverse:Grèce. - Le service militaire obligatoire est en vigueur en Grèce. L'effectif total, en temps de paix, est d'environ 23,000 hommes; en cas de mobilisation, on compte disposer de 80,000 troupiers, sans compter l'armée territoriale et ses réserves. Sur le recto de cette carte, nous voyons, de gauche à droite: un détachement d'artillerie, un fantassin en tenue de campagne et un autre en grande tenue, un cavalier, un officier d'infanterie, deux chasseurs d'un batallion d'evzones, un officier d'artillerie de montagne.Greece. - Greece has Compulsory military service. The total force, in times of peace, is about 23,000 men; in case of mobilization, one can expect 80,000 soldiers, plus the Territorial Army and its reserves. On the front of this card, we see, from left to right: an artillery detachment, a soldier in battle dress and another in parade dress, a cavalry man, an infantry officer, two hunters of a battalion of evzones, and a mountain artillery officer.
Austrian Mountain Rangers 'resting in the shade of southern flora' on the Italian front. The card was postmarked from Berlin on January 5, 1916.
Image text: Reverse:Vom Italienischen KriegsschauplatzRast im Schallen der südlichen Flora.From the Italian frontRest in the shade of southern flora.
Map of Syria, Palestine, Turkey, and Mesopotamia from the Baedeker 1912 travel guide Palestine and Syria with Routes through Mesopotamia and Babylonia and with the Island of Cyprus.
Image text:
"The Tsar Nicholas has issued a proclamation to his people:Under German command the Turkish fleet has had the treacherous effrontery to attack our Black Sea coasts. We share with all the peoples of Russia the unshakable conviction that the rash intervention of Turkey will only hasten that country's downfall and open Russia's path towards the solution of the historic problem which our ancestors have bequeathed to us on the shores of the Black Sea." ((1), more)
"The French had troops along along the Vardar from Strumica Station to Krivolak, and on November 2 Sarrail began preparations for an offensive by ordering his northern division, the 57th, to advance to the Tcherna and seize crossing points. The next day he order the division to cross the Tcherna and hit the Bulgarians in their flank. When a brigade of France's third division, the 122nd, arrived in Salonika in early November, Sarrail moved it north to participate in the attack.Notions of a bold and easy maneuver, however, soon fell victim to the realities of the enemy and the terrain." ((2), more)
"The first clash between the Greek Revolutionists and the Royalists occurred on November 2, 1916, when a body of Revolutionists marched overland to Katerina, some 25 miles northeast of Larissa, where a garrison of Royalist troops were stationed. In a brief encounter, the Revolutionists ousted the Royalists and occupied the city. King Constantine thereupon decreed that any Royalists who chose to do so might join the forces of the Revolutionists." ((3), more)
"— The 2nd. The Germans have fallen back to a depth of one thousand yards on a front twelve miles in length, surrendering the line of the Ailette. But the outburst of enthusiasm in the Press has been cooled down by a recent Italian retreat (there is mention of 200,000 prisoners, and it is not known whether the Italians will stand firm on the Tagliamento)." ((4), more)
"After breaking through Ottoman lines at Sharqat on October 28, 1918, Marshall accepted Hakki Bey's surrender, taking 11,322 prisoners, at 7:30 a.m. on October 30—the same day an armistice was signed between Britain and Turkey, effective at noon on the thirty-first. In a painful reminder, for the Turks, of the shady way Churchill and Britain had begun the war in the Persian Gulf prematurely four years before (to the day), Marshall pushed on after the armistice was signed, reaching Mosul on November 2, 1918, in clear violation of the armistice terms. The reason was not hard to grasp: Mosul had been promised to France, but His Majesty's government no longer wished her to have it." ((5), more)
(1) Entry from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia, for Monday, November 2, 1914. On October 29 the Turkish destroyers Yavuz Sultan Selim and Midilli sank a Russian gunboat in the Black Sea port of Odessa in Crimea. The next day they shelled two more Russian ports. The ships had entered Turkish waters at the Dardanelles on August 8 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. In response to Paléologue's question about the meaning of the last phrase, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Sazonov responded that, 'We must have tangible guarantees on the Bosphorus. As regards Constantinople, personally I don't want the Turks cleared out. I'd gladly leave them the old Byzantine city with a good-sized kitchen-garden all round. But no more!' As the historical center of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Constantinople held cultural and religious significance for Russia. As the gateway to the Straits leading from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, the city was critical to Russia's commerce and war effort.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. I by Maurice Paléologue, page 178, publisher: George H. Doran Company, publication date: 1925
(2) French General Maurice Sarrail commanded the French forces that had landed at Salonika, Greece, at the beginning of October, 1915, in an attempt to reinforce Serbia. With German and Austro-Hungarian forces to the north, and a Bulgarian army to the east, Serbia was further isolated by Bulgarian forces moving to the south to prevent the French from reaching their ally.
Pyrrhic Victory; French Strategy and Operations in the Great War by Robert A. Doughty, page 225, copyright © 2005 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College, publisher: Harvard University Press, publication date: 2005
(3) Constantine became king of Greece on the assassination of his father in 1913. He had been educated in Germany, was married to a sister of Kaiser Wilhelm II, and was pro-German. Eleftherios Venizelos had been Prime Minister of Greece until March 1915 when he resigned over the King's refusal to support the Allied invasion of Gallipoli. He was re-elected and returned to office in August. As Bulgaria prepared for war against Serbia, Venizelos had invited the Allied landing at Salonica. Constantine dismissed his Prime Minister when the Allies landed 13,000 troops on October 5, 1915. Greece had significantly expanded its territory north and northeast in the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913, against the Ottoman Empire (First Balkan War) and Bulgaria (Second).
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 224, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
(4) Entry for November 2, 1917 from the diary of Michel Corday, French senior civil servant. The French October 23, 1917 Malmaison Offensive, named for an old fort retaken by the French in the attack, ended with a German retreat and the capture of the heights of Chemin des Dames, between Soissons and Reims. The next day, joint German and Austro-Hungarian forces struck the unprepared Italian Second Army, collapsing the Italian Front in northeast Italy, and driving the Italians back across the Isonzo River, the border between the two belligerents, and the Tagliamento River.
The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, page 288, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934
(5) General William Marshall commanded British and Indian forces in Mesopotamia in 1918. Hakki Bey commanded the Ottoman Sixth Army. Sharqat lay on the Tigris River north of Baghdad.
The Ottoman Endgame: War, Revolution, and the Making of the Modern Middle East, 1908–1923 by Sean McMeekin, pp. 401–402, copyright © 2015 by Sean McMeekin, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 2015
