British Foreign Secretary Edward Grey as both Medusa and Dorian Gray. Pointed ears and a quill pen behind his left.
Image text: Das Bildniss des Edward GreyNach dem Originalgemälde des Münchner Malers Jos. Felix Falkenbach.After the original painting by the Munich painter Jos. Felix Falkenbach.Reverse:Kriegs Postkarte; Kriegspostkarte Nr. 67.Logo:CA & Co. (m.)
Uncle Sam weighs the lives lost in the German sinking of the Lusitania (and other ships, as seen on the horizon) to his cash flow from selling weapons and other supplies to the combatants, particularly the allies. The moneybags have tipped the scales. A 1916 postcard by Em. Dupuis.
Image text: A l'ombre, de la LibertéIn the Shadow of LivertyOn the coffin and the ship in the distance, 'Lusitania'
Monument in Pozières, France to the officers, non-commissioned officers, and men of the First Australian Division who fought in France and Belgium 1916, 1917, and 1918. © 2013 John M. Shea
Image text: To the officers non-commissioned officers, and men of the First Australian Division who fought in France and Belgium 1916, 1917, 1918. Pozieres, Mouquet Farm, La Barque, Thilloy, Boursies, Demicourt, Hermies, Lagnicourt, Bullecourt, 3rd Battle of Ypres, Menin Road, Broodseinde Ridge, Passchendaele, Battle of the Lys, Second Battle of the Somme, Lihons, Chuignolles, Hindenburg LineÀ la mémoire des officiers sous-officiers et soldat de la Prèmiere Division Australienne qui ont combattu en France et en Belgique 1916, 1917, 1918
Map showing the territorial gains (darker shades) of Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece, primarily at the expense of Turkey, agreed in the Treaty of Bucharest following the Second Balkan War. Despite its gains, Bulgaria also lost territory to both Romania and Turkey.
Image text: The Balkan States According to the Treaty of Bucharest; Acquisitions of New Territory shown by darker shades
Entrenched German soldiers behind sniper plates at Slota Gora, September 26, 1916. Slota (or Zlota) Gora was in Polish Russia, west of a line running from Warsaw to Cracow. An original watercolor (over pencil) by O. Oettel, 12th company of Landwehr, IR 32 in the field. A sketch in pencil and red crayon is on the reverse.
Image text: Slota Gora26.9.16O.Oettel 12L.32.I. FeldeZlota GoraSeptember 26, 1916O. Oettel, 12th Landwehr 32nd RegimentIn the Field
"The danger of a European war, should Austria invade Serbian territory, would become immediate. The results of such a war between four nations — he expressly emphasised the number four, and meant by it Russia, Austria-Hungary, Germany, and France — would be absolutely incalculable. However the affair might come out, one thing would be certain: that would be total exhaustion and impoverishment; industry and trade would be ruined, and the power of capital destroyed. Revolutionary movements, like those of the year 1848, due to the collapse of industrial activities would be the result." ((1), more)
"The train ground to a stop at the Fiftieth Street Station, jerking Albert from his nap. Abruptly awake, he saw that the doors were open and this was his stop. He hurried from the train. In his groggy haste, he left the bulging briefcase on the adjacent seat.Burke stared at it. He had no intimation that it contained anything of consequence. For all Burke knew, it held the man's lunch. He simply saw the briefcase lying there and, in an instant, made up his mind. He took it because he could. With the briefcase tucked under his arm like a football, he started to make his way to the rear door of the train." ((2), more)
"The class of fighting on the Somme is an eye-opener to all of our men. The intense artillery on both sides tend to unnerve the very best. Curtain or barrage fire was entirely new to oldest of our soldiers. The idea is to establish an impassable wall of steel and shrapnel either in front of our men advancing or behind the country attacked so as to prevent reinforcements coming up. We know from personal experience what German barrage is like. Our own must be terrible as I believe we fire three to the German one." ((3), more)
"On July 24, 1917, at dawn, after a strong artillery preparation which scattered the enemy positions, the divisions within the first echelon of the Romanian Second Army embarked upon the attack. The fighting was grim. In some places, the Romanian soldiers, piercing the enemy positions, attacked the enemy with the bayonet, thus compelling it to a hasty retreat. However, in other places the resistance put up by the German and Austro-Hungarian troops was extremely stubborn. The Romanians mounted the strongest attack for the liberation of the village of Mărăşti. . . . By the evening the Romanian troops had taken hold of the first position. The same day the Russian VIII Corps which attacked on the left of the Romanian Second Army scored a similar victory." ((4), more)
"On 24 July, I went off to reconnoitre the new C section of the line of resistance, which I was to take over the following day. . . . As we were talking away, I was suddenly grabbed and pulled down. The next second, a bullet struck the sand where I had been sitting. By a lucky chance, Gipkens had noticed a rifle barrel slowly being poked through a loophole in the block only forty paces away. His sharp painter's eye had saved my life, because at that range I was a sitting duck. . . . I was told that this harmless-looking place had seen three men of the 9th Company shot in the head; it was a bad place." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from a report from Germany's Ambassador to London Lichnowsky to German Secretary of State Jagow on July 24, 1914, the day after the delivery of Austria-Hungary's ultimatum to Serbia. Lichnowsky is reporting part of what British Foreign Secretary Edward Grey said during their meeting. French, British, and Russian ambassadors and Foreign Secretaries are telling their German and Austro-Hungarian counterparts that the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum means war, particularly given the 48-hour deadline for Serbian acquiescence.In his marginal comments to Lichnowsky's report, German Emperor Wilhelm II observes that Grey 'forgets Italy', with Germany and Austria-Hungary, the third member of the Triple Alliance.
July, 1914; the Outbreak of the First World War; Selected Documents by Imanuel Geiss (Editor), 183, 184, copyright © 1967 Imanuel Geiss, publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons, publication date: 1967
(2) Dr. Heinrich Albert was the German commercial attaché and paymaster to the network of German agents in the United States. Frank Burke was an agent in the Secret Service, which President Woodrow Wilson had recently, in the wake of the May 7, 1915 sinking of the Lusitania by a German submarine, assigned to provide surveillance of German and Austro-Hungarian embassy and consular staff. In the briefcase Burke stole in New York on July 24, 1915 were papers documenting the establishment of shell companies to purchase supplies and raw materials for manufacturing weapons including explosives, shells, and poison gas, and to solicit British purchases of weapons, orders that would never be fulfilled. Other papers documented payments to encourage press reports favorable to German interests, and labor activity contrary to those of the Allies. Because the documents had been stolen from a German diplomat, the United States could not officially use them, but they were leaked to the press. The United States did substantial business with the Allies, but because of the British blockade of Germany, commercial ties with it were limited.
Dark Invasion; 1915; Germany's Secret War and the Hunt for the First Terrorist Cell in America by Howard Blum, page 342, copyright © 2014 by Howard Blum, publisher: Harper Collins Publishers, publication date: 2014
(3) Sapper J. Julin writing in December, 1916 about the July 23, 1916 assault on the village of Pozières, France by the First Australian Division, part of the months-long Battle of the Somme. The Australians had suffered heavily in the July 19 and 20 Battle of Fromelles, and British Commander-in-Chief Douglas Haig had hoped to follow that failed attack by giving the Australians, recently arrived on the Western Front, 'a simple task' (Somme, Lyn Macdonald, p. 166). The Australians took the village on July 23, then suffered through days of the German bombardment Julin describes.
Three Armies on the Somme by William Philpott, page 241, copyright © 2009 by William Philpott, publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, publication date: 2009
(4) The battle of Mărăşti began on July 24, 1917 with an attack by the recovered and newly re-armed Romanian army. Romania entered the war on August 27, 1916, and was overrun by Central Power forces by the end of the year, driven out of Wallachia and Dobruja and back to Moldavia where the Russians held the Allied line. After rebuilding with support, training, and weapons from France, the Romanian army launched its offensive to retake the country's lost territory.
Romania in World War I, a Synopsis of Military History by Vasile Alexandrescu, pp. 48–49, copyright © 1985, publisher: Military Publishing House, publication date: 1985
(5) Excerpt from German Lieutenant Ernst Jünger's memoir Storm of Steel. Jünger was wounded on the third day of Germany's 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.
Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger, page 267, copyright © 1920, 1961, Translation © Michael Hoffman, 2003, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 2003
