Children playing 'In the Dardanelles'. From February 19 to March 18, 1915, a Franco-British fleet tried to force its way through the Dardanelles to Constantinople. The Strait was defended by forts, some with modern German artillery. After a failure to break through on March 18, the Allies decided to invade, and in April, landed on the Gallipoli peninsula. Illustrated postcard by Pauli Ebner.
Image text: In den DardanellenP. Ebner.Reverse:Nr. 992M. Munk WienGeschützt
The entrance to the collieries, the coal mine and its associated structures, at Loos. It made an excellent observation post for German soldiers. British soldiers referred to this one as "Tower Bridge" for its resemblance to that bridge in London.
Image text: 44. La Grande Guerre 1914-15-16 - Loos (P.-de-C.)L'entrée des Charbonnages.Tower BridgeVisé Paris 44 A.R.44. The Great War 1914-15-16 - Loos (Pas-de-Calais)The entrance to the collieries.Tower BridgeReferred Paris 44 A.R.Reverse:A. Richard, 84, Faub. du Temple - Paris
Map of the Danube River from the guidebook The Danube from Passau to the Black Sea, by The First Imperial Royal Priv. Danube Shipping Co., 1913 edition. It was translated from the German by May O'Callaghan and published in Vienna. Inside the back cover is a booklet General Remarks-Fares; Time-tables, 1914, that includes information about 'ships, cabins, combined tickets, luggage and attendance in general on the Company's steamers, etc.'
Image text: Passenger Steamer Lines of 'Erste k.k. priv. Donau-Dampfschiffarhts-Gesellschaft.' Vienna. (Austria).First Imperial and Royal privileged Danube Steamship Company
A large German bomber, capable of bombing England. The plane is powered by two engines, and holds a crew of three with a pilot and front and rear gunners. The plane is likely a Gotha bomber, originally built by Gothaer Waggonfabrik, then built under license by Siemens-Schukert Werke and Luft-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft (LVG). Note the ground crew pushing on the lower wing and the men holding the tail up as the plane is moved backwards. Sanke postcard number 1040.
Image text: Deutsches Riesen-Flugzeug(Englandflieger)1040Postkartenvertrieb W. SankeBerlin No. 37Nachdruck wird gerichtlich verfolgtGerman giant aircraft(England flyer)1040Postcard distributor W. SankeBerlin No. 37Reproduction will be prosecuted
Map of Damascus from Palestine and Syria with Routes through Mesopotamia and Babylonia and with the Island of Cyprus by Karl Baedeker.
Image text: Damas1:34,000
"The Turkish Government has closed the Straits on the pretext of the presence of an Anglo-French squadron off the entrance to the Dardanelles. This action does incalculable harm to Russia, which is left without maritime communications except by Vladivostok and Archangel. Now it must be remembered that Vladivostok is 10,500 kilometres from Petrograd and that the port of Archangel may be closed by ice any time now until the end of May." ((1), more)
"1st October 1915 We have had a sore time of it within the last few days – just imagine – two charges in three days. I don't know how there are any of us left; as it is, there are very few." ((2), more)
"Consequently, at 10:00 P.M. on 30 September [1916], the 10th [Romanian] Division, which initiated the assault, began marching toward the embarkation points. By 3:00 A.M. its first units began crossing in small boats. They wore summer uniforms and carried only limited ammunition and two days' food in their packs. By 11:30 A.M. the remainder of the 10th ID had been shuttled over, and by 3:00 P.M. most of a second division (the 21st Division) had arrived. The pontoon bridge, the construction of which began at 5:00 A.M., had reached only midstream by noon. This meant that except for the very lightest 53mm guns, all artillery had to await the completion of the bridge that evening. Meeting almost no enemy resistance, the Romanian infantry fanned out, enlarging the bridgehead four to six kilometers in all directions. The nearby Bulgarian villages of Babovo and Rahovo were occupied by 6:00 P.M." ((3), more)
"The attack of 1 October, the sixth in eight nights, brought 'the raids of the Harvest Moon' to a close. Sixty-nine people were killed and 260 wounded, mostly in London. These totals included the barrage casualties. Although losses were far from excessive, the first blitz was a bewildering experience of profound psychological effect." ((4), more)
"At about nine in the morning on Tuesday, 1 October, Lawrence and Stirling drove into Damascus to find scenes of jubilation. Nuri Shaalan and Nasir had already entered the city, and the narrow streets of the old city of Damascus were 'aflame with joy and enthusiasm,' reminisced Stirling in his memoirs, Safety Last. 'Dervishes danced around us. The horses of the Bedouin, curvetting and prancing, gradually cleared a way for us through the dense crowds, while from the balconies and rooftops veiled women pelted us with flowers and—far worse—with attar of roses. It was weeks before I could get the smell of the essence out of my clothing.'" ((5), more)
(1) Entry from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia, for Thursday, October 1, 1914. French and British ships had pursued the German battleships Goeben and Breslau across the Mediterranean to the Dardanelles leading to Constantinople and Russia's warm-water ports on the Black Sea. Germany turned the two ships over to Turkey, which was still neutral. Paléologue well describes the limitations of Russia's other major ports other than those of the Baltic Sea where the German fleet threatened.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. I by Maurice Paléologue, page 151, publisher: George H. Doran Company, publication date: 1925
(2) Excerpt from a 'letter and account by J. Chassar Moir' who lost his brother on September 26, 1915, the second day of the Battle of Loos, the British effort in the Allies Western Front offensive of autumn 1915. The account seems to have been from a companion of the late brother who had written to Moir's parents after the battle. Moir, a student at Glasgow Technical College, had signed up for Kitchener's Army in 1914. Loos was their first time in combat.
The Battle of Loos by Philip Warner, page 53, copyright © Philip Warner 1976, publisher: Wordsworth Editions Limited, publication date: 2000 (originally 1976)
(3) Romania entered the war on August 27, 1916 by crossing the Transylvanian Alps and southern Carpathian Mountains into Transylvania, in Austria-Hungary. Within a month, a German and Austro-Hungarian army was driving the invaders back into Romania, while, across the small country to the east, a combined German, Bulgarian, and Turkish army under German General August von Mackensen had driven the Romanians back in Dobrudja, a region between the Danube River and the Black Sea. With the Flămânda Maneuver, the Romanians crossed the Danube River into Bulgaria to strike Mackensen's army from the rear as Romanian and Russian troops attacked in Dobrudja. Initially panicked, the Central Power forces quickly recovered. By the end of October 1st, German aircraft had bombed the bridge and bad weather and rising water threatened it. By the 2nd, Austro-Hungarian patrol boats released mines to float downriver into the bridge.
The Romanian Battlefront in World War I by Glenn E. Torrey, page 84, copyright © 2011 by the University Press of Kansas, publisher: University Press of Kansas, publication date: 2011
(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, pp. 147 and 148, copyright © 1966, 1976, 1991 by Raymond H. Fredette, publisher: Smithsonian Institution Press, publication date: 1991
(5) Damascus, a city of 300,000 in Syria, fell to the Allies on October 1, 1918, with the Australian Light Horse first passing through the city in pursuit of the retreating Turks, followed by the Arab Army. T. E. Lawrence — Lawrence of Arabia — hoped to see an Arab government in the city. Nuri Shaalan was Sheikh of the north Arabian Rwala Bedu. Sharif Nasir was a supporter of Feisal and a descendant of the Prophet Mohammed. Francis Stirling was a British intelligence officer.
Setting the Desert on Fire by James Barr, page 297, copyright © 2008, 2006 by James Barr, publisher: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., publication date: 2009
