The German defenders of Tsingtao turned back an assault by a combined Japanese and British force on October 6, 1914. The city fell to the Japanese and British on November 7, 1914.
Image text: 6. Oktober 1914. Beim ersten Sturm auf die Infanteriewerke von Tsingtau wurden die vereinigten Japaner und Engländer mit einem Verlust von 2500 Mann zurückgeschlagen.October 6, 1914. During the first attack on the infantry works of Tsingtao, the combined Japanese and English were repulsed with a loss of 2,500 men.Logo: NPG [?]
A squadron of the German Imperial Navy under the eye of a Zeppelin off the North Sea island and port of Helgoland.
Image text: Deutscher Geschwader vor HelgolandGerman squadron off HeligolandLogo, bottom left: M Dieterle, Kielbottom right: PH 125Handwritten: 1915Reverse:Verlag: M Dieterle, Kiel.
Re-elect President Woodrow Wilson! An October 18, 1916 cartoon from the British magazine Punch. The German sinking of ships that killed American citizens and sabotage such as the July 30, 1916 attack that destroyed the Black Tom munitions plant in Jersey City, New Jersey, were not enough to make Wilson call for a declaration of war on Germany, much to the distress of Great Britain and the other Entente allies. The date on Wilson's desk calendar is October 8, 1916, a day on which German submarine U-53 sank five vessels — three British, one Dutch, and one Norwegian — off Nantucket, Massachusetts. One of the British ships was a passenger liner traveling between New York and Newfoundland.
Image text: Re-elect President Woodrow Wilson! An October 18, 1916 cartoon from the British magazine Punch. The German sinking of ships that killed American citizens and sabotage such as the July 30, 1916 attack that destroyed the Black Tom munitions plant in Jersey City, New Jersey, were not enough to make Wilson call for a declaration of war on Germany, much to the distress of Great Britain and the other Entente allies.Text:Bringing it home.President Wilson. 'What's that? U-boat blockading New York? Tut! Tut! Very inopportune!'Vote for Wilson who kept you out of the War![Calendar date:] October 8, 1916
Proclamation by the Military Revolutionary Committee of the fall of the Provisional Government of Russia, issued the night of November 7 (October 25, Old Style), 1917. From the 1967 Signet edition of Ten Days that Shook the World by John Reed.
Image text: [From the Russian]To the Citizens of Russia!The Provisional Government is deposed. The State Power has passed into the hands of the organ of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, the Military Revolutionary Committee, which stands at the head of the Petrograd proletariat and garrison.The cause for which the people were fighting: immediate proposal of a democratic peace, abolition of landlord property-rights over the land, labor control over production, creation of a Soviet Government—that cause is securely achieved.Long live the revolution of workmen, soldiers and peasants!Military Revolutionary CommitteePetrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies.
Trimmed photograph of a German naval celebration, possibly a wedding. At the center is an Imperial Korvettenkapitän (Lieutenant Commander) with a woman and child to his left, possibly his wife and grandson. A sticker on the front of the card references a sailor at the back, and reads in part, '1917 Fland[ern]'. Although the reference is to 1917 Flanders, the card is postmarked December 23, 1915. Note the flowers many of the sailors wear, and the patch on the left upper arm of the sailor directly behind the commander which may be a naval artillery patch. I am unable to read the ship's name on the sailors' caps.
Image text:
"At dawn [on November 7, 1914] Japanese and British were closing in, and were tensely awaiting the final assault. It was never made. Soon after seven o'clock a welcome sight relaxed the tension of the troops, torn, dirty, and weary, calling forth cheers from the British, and shouts of 'Banzai!' from the Japanese. The campaign was over: Tsing-tau had fallen. White flags were fluttering from the forts." ((1), more)
"The fighting spirit of the crew has sunk so low that we would be delighted to get a torpedo in the belly. It's what we would all like to see happen to our despicable officers. If anyone had been heard wishing any such thing a year and a half ago he would have received a good thrashing. There is an evil spirit loose among us and it is only our good upbringing that stops us imitating what happened in the Russian Baltic fleet.[1] We all recognize that we have more to lose than our chains." ((2), more)
"In New York at the Hotel Astor Mr. Hughes was awakened from his afternoon nap with the news that he would be the next President. The Times searchlight was flashing a Republican victory. A skysign on the roof of the hotel spelled out HUGHES in electric bulbs. Marchers from the Union League Club appeared with a band in Times Square calling on Mr. Hughes to claim election. At Oyster Bay, Theodore Roosevelt was already declaring that the Republican victory was 'a vindication of our national honor.'" ((3), more)
"To the Citizens of Russia!The Provisional Government is deposed. The State Power has passed into the hands of the organ of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, the Military Revolutionary Committee, which stands at the head of the Petrograd proletariat and garrison.The cause for which the people were fighting: immediate proposal of a democratic peace, abolition of landlord property-rights over the land, labor control over production, creation of a Soviet Government—that cause is securely achieved.Long live the revolution of workmen, soldiers and peasants!Military Revolutionary CommitteePetrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies." ((4), more)
"On the whole, the demands of the rebellious sailors were extremely modest. On November 7, when their mutiny was already triumphant in Kiel and Wilhelmshaven, and the authority of the navy was shattered beyond redemption, the delegates of the Third Squadron presented their demands to Secretary of the Navy Ritter von Mann in the form of a seven point program. . . .1. Reduction of the punitive powers of the First Officer.2. Since the trust of the crews in their officers has vanished completely, for the immediate future a representative of the crews shall be attached to the Admiral so that the crews can feel that things are being handled correctly . . .3. The men must be granted the right of assembly to speak their minds.4. All newspapers are to be made available.5. Equal rations for enlisted men and officers.6. Freedom not to salute [officers] when off duty.7. For infractions not concerning matters of honor, no imprisonment but money fines." ((5), more)
(1) After a naval blockade that began on August 27, 1914, a Japanese army (with British support) began advancing on Tsingtao, Germany's Chinese colony, on September 18. The Allies drove the Germans from the strategic highpoint of Prince Heinrich Hill overlooking the city and its forts ten days later. The siege continued through October while the Japanese awaited heavy guns. The Allies made significant advances on November 6, taking 200 prisoners and seizing two German gun batteries and the fort defending the German right. They were preparing a final assault the morning of November 7 when the German garrison surrendered.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. II, 1914, p. 398, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
(2) Journal entry from November 7, 1915 by German Seaman Richart Stumpf on board SMS Helgoland sailing through the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal to the Baltic Sea. Trapped by the British blockade, and fearful of defeat by the British Royal Navy, the German Imperial Navy stayed in port through much of the war, its inactivity damaging the morale of the seamen. Our source, Peter Englund, footnotes Stumpf's entry: '[1] Stumpf's reference is to the mutiny on the Russian battleship Potemkin in 1905. His memory, however, fails him on this: the Potemkin belonged to the Russian Black Sea Fleet not the Baltic fleet.'
The Beauty and the Sorrow: An Intimate History of the First World War by Peter Englund, page 177, copyright © 2009 by Peter England, publisher: Vintage Books, publication date: 2012
(3) Election day November 7, 1916 ended with President Woodrow Wilson apparently having failed in his bid for re-election. Republican Charles Evans Hughes had taken New York, Illinois, and, other than New Hampshire, New England. As the day ended, the results from California were not yet in. Hughes had served as Governor of the state of New York from 1907 to 1910. He left that post to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States, and stepped down from that position to accept the Republican nomination for the presidency.
Mr. Wilson's War by John Dos Passos, page 181, copyright © 1962, 2013 by John Dos Passos, publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
(4) Proclamation by the Military Revolutionary Committee of the fall of the Provisional Government of Russia, issued the night of November 7 (October 25, Old Style), 1917. The Bolsheviks had seized control of Petrograd the night of November 6–7 — telephone and telegraph exchanges, the State Bank, rail stations and bridges. John Reed, author of Ten Days that Shook the World, helped distribute this proclamation after the surrender of the Winter Palace where most of the government ministers were meeting. The Provisional Government supported continuing the war, and had been unable to resolve the demands for the distribution of land to the peasants who worked it.
Ten Days that Shook the World by John Reed, page 102, publisher: Signet Books, publication date: 1967
(5) At the end of October 1918, with Germany clearly losing the war, German admirals and other naval officers planned a suicidal attack by the High Seas Fleet on the Royal Navy, an illegal mutiny by the naval officer corps. Sailors and coal stokers refused to go ahead with the mission. Many of them were arrested and transported from the North Sea port of Cuxhaven to the Baltic port of Kiel. The sharp distinction between officers and men is reflected in the demand for equal rations, the harassment and punishment of enlisted men in several of the demands. Rebellious sailors, some Bolsheviks, were in control of Lübeck, Cuxhaven, Hanover, and Hamburg.
German Naval Mutinies of World War One by Daniel Horn, pp. 232–233, copyright © 1969 by Rutgers University, The State University of New Jersey, publisher: Rutgers University Press, publication date: 1969
