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
A German postcard claiming that dum-dum bullets were found in the pockets of French prisoners of war.
Image text: Dum-Dum-Geschosse, die auf maschinellem Wege an der Spitze mit einer fünf Millimeter weiten, sieben Millimeter tiefen Bohrung versehen waren, wurden in den Taschen gefangener Franzosen gefunden.Der Gebrauch solcher Geschosse ist nach völkerrechtlichen Grundsätzen verboten, insbesondere nach Artikel 23, Absatz 1c der Haager Landkriegsordnung.Dum-dum bullets, which were provided with a mechanized way in the lead to make a five-millimeter-wide, seven millimeters deep hole, were found in the pockets of captive Frenchmen.The use of such projectiles is prohibited by principles of international law, in particular Article 23, paragraph 1c of the Hague Convention.Package label (French):Etuis mel 8 M - pouchesPoudre A Vis 19148 Cartouches - 8 cartridgese 78. ND Mle 1906Reverse:Message from France dated February 4, 1915; field postmarked February 5, V Army Corps. ". . . Die besten Grüsse . . ."
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
Stereo card view of wounded Belgian soldiers in an Antwerp hospital attended by a Red Cross nurse. The nurse attends to a severely wounded soldier whose head, face, and hands are swathed in bandages.
Image text: V18817—The Horror of War: Ghastly Glimpse of Belgian Wounded, Antwerp Hospital.
1918 German pen and ink drawing of the road to Cambrai, France. Two smaller trees seem to serve as the good and bad thief on either side of the crucified Jesus Christ.
Image text: Strasse nach CambraiEKIECBJR?
"'St George for merry England!''Harow! Harow! Monseigneur St George, succour us.''Ha! St George! Ha! St George! a long bow and a strong bow.''Heaven's Knight, aid us!'And as the soldier heard these voices he saw before him, beyond the trench, a long line of shapes, with a shining about them. They were like men who drew the bow, and with another shout their cloud of arrows flew singing and tingling through the air towards the German hosts." ((1), more)
"Among the severely wounded, head injuries were the most numerous. At one time I had thought it a most terrible thing to have a man's brains bespattering my hands and white overall; but, as the Retreat continued, I grew accustomed to it. No fewer than three instances of wounds caused by a razryvnaya pulya [dumdum bullet] came to our notice that day — for the first time in our Front-Line work. In two of three cases, several small particles of metal were extracted from the wounds; they proved without doubt that they had belonged to those barbaric explosive bullets. We had heard that other Red Cross Units had found similar cases among their wounded." ((2), more)
"U-Boot 'Deutschland' eingetroffenBremen, 23. August 1916Eigener DrahtberichtDas erste Untersee-handelsschiff 'Deutschland' ist heute vor der Werfer-mündung angekommen und hat dort Anker geworfen. An Bord alles wohl.Submarine 'Deutschland' arrivedBremen, August 23, 1916Private wire reportThe first commercial submarine 'Deutschland' arrived today at the estuary from which it was launched, and has cast anchor there. On board, all is well." ((3), more)
"I've been meaning to write to you again & again—but I've been so vastly bitter that I can produce nothing but gall and wormwood.The war is utter damn nonsense—a vast cancer fed by lies and self seeking malignity on the part of those who don't do the fighting.Of all the things in this world a government is the thing least worth fighting for." ((4), more)
"At eleven o'clock on 23 August, I had just dropped off to sleep when I was woken by loud knocking on the door. An orderly had come with marching orders. All day, the rolling and stamping of unusually heavy artillery fire had blown across the front, and had reminded us on the exercise grounds, over our lunch and over games of cards, not to be too hopeful as far as the further duration of this rest period was concerned. We had coined an onomatopoeic front-line expression for this distant sound of cannons: 'It's whumping.'We hurriedly got packed up and were on the road to Cambrai during a cloudburst." ((5), more)
(1) From 'The Bowmen' by Arthur Machen. On August 23, 1914, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), moving north, collided with the advancing German First Army, the Entente Allies' left wing clashing with the German right in Mons, Belgium in the BEF's first battle of the war. Although heavily outnumbered, the BEF stopped the German advance for the day, before retreating the next. Outnumbered as it was, the BEF's success in holding their position was attributed to divine intervention — St. George's spirit bowmen in Machen's story, or the Angel of Mons who defended the British soldiers in other tellings.
The Penguin Book of First World War Stories by Korte, Barbara and Ann-Marie Einhaus, page 5, copyright © 2007 Barbara Korte and Ann-Marie Einhaus Introduction and editorial material , publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 2007
(2) The great Russian Retreat of 1915 continued, taking Frances Farmborough, an English teacher turned Red Cross nurse serving in a unit of the Russian Army, with it. By August 23, 1915, the joint German-Austro-Hungarian Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive, which had begun on May 2, had removed the Russian threat to Austria-Hungary, overrun the great but antiquated fortresses defending Warsaw, and had captured, on August 5, that greatest city of Polish Russia. Dum-dum bullets were prohibited under the Hague Convention. The prohibited ammunition included elephant bullets with a secondary charge that fired on impact and bullets with soft, typically lead, points, both of which could enter the body with a relatively small entry hole, then expand or explode within the body to leave a large exit wound. The bracketed translation is in the original.
Nurse at the Russian Front, a Diary 1914-18 by Florence Farmborough, page 119, copyright © 1974 by Florence Farmborough, publisher: Constable and Company Limited, publication date: 1974
(3) Evading the English blockade, the German merchant submarine Deutschland surfaced in Chesapeake Bay on July 9, 1916, docked at Norfolk, Virginia, and sailed to Baltimore, Maryland the next day. The large submarine was capable of transporting goods such as rubber, nickel, and materials for explosives that Germany desperately needed. The governments of the Entente Allies jointly protested that the Deutschland was a warship rather than a merchant, and should be interned until the end of the war. The United States disagreed, and the submarine returned to Germany, arriving in Bremen on August 23. Deutschland made a second journey, reaching Long Island Sound and New London, Connecticut on November 1. After returning to Germany a second time, she failed to sail again. Her younger sister ship Bremen left for the United States, but never arrived. By April, 1917 the United States and Germany were are war, leaving few destinations for a merchant submarine.
Short Rations: an American Woman in Germany 1915-1916 by Madeleine Z. Doty, page 160, copyright © 1917, by The Century Co., publisher: A. L. Burt Company, publication date: 1917
(4) John Dos Passos, an American ambulance driver serving with the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps, with the French army at Verdun, writing to his friend Rummy back in the States. The French offensive begun August 20, 1917 was recapturing territory lost to German forces in the 1916 siege of Verdun. Quoted in World War I and America.
World War I and America by A. Scott Berg, page 409, copyright © 2017 by Literary Classics of the United States, publisher: The Library of America, publication date: 2017
(5) Excerpt from German Lieutenant Ernst Jünger's memoir Storm of Steel. Jünger was wounded on the third day of Germany's 1918 Somme Offensive, Operation Michael, in March, 1918. He returned to his regiment on June 4. The last German offensive of the war, the Champagne-Marne Offensive, ended on July 17. The counter-offensive that would end with Allied victory began the next day. In the summer of 1918, 250,000 American soldiers were arriving on the Western Front each month. French and British production of weapons — including tanks and aircraft — supplied the Allied armies, and far outpaced German production. Allied Commander-in-Chief Ferdinand Foch kept up constant attacks on the German line from mid-July on. The 1917 Battle of Cambrai was the first significant tank battle, a British victory, the gains of which were lost to German counter-attacks in subsequent days.
Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger, page 276, copyright © 1920, 1961, Translation © Michael Hoffman, 2003, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 2003
