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
French folding postcard map of Verdun and the Meuse River, number 9 from the series Les Cartes du Front. Montfaucon is in the upper left and St. Mihiel at the bottom.
Image text: Les Cartes du FrontVerdun et Côtes de MeuseEchelle 1:32,000RoutesChemin de ferCanauxMaps of the FrontVerdun and the Hills of the MeuseScale: 1:32,000RoadsRailwaysCanals1. - Les Flandres2. - Artois, Picardie3. - Aisne, Champagne4. - Argonne et Meuse5. - Lorraine6. - Vosges et Alsace7. - Route des Dame et Plateau de Craonne8. - Région de Perthes9. - Verdun10. - Somme et Santerre11. - Plateau d'Artois12. - Belgique - FlandresA. Hatier. Editeur.8.Rue d'Assas, Paris.Outer front:Correspondence of the ArmiesMilitary Franchise
A British encampment at Zeitelik on the Salonica Front. Colorized version of a black and white postcard.
Image text: Salonicco - Accampamento Inglese a ZeitelikSalonique - Campement Anglais à ZeitelikSalonica - An English Encampment at ZeitelikReverse:Editeur Hananei Naar - SaloniqueProprieté réservéeProduzione ItalianIPA CT Autocromo
A mass of German troops bear an enormous egg striped in the black, white, and red of the german flag. Atop the egg, a cannon is fired by troops with a Hungarian flag. The target, diminutive in the distance, is Paris, Eiffel Tower gray against the brown city.The watercolor is labeled,Husvét . Páris piros tojása . 1918Easter . Red eggs for Paris . 1918The front of the card is postmarked 1918-04-05 from Melököveso.The card is a Feldpostkarte, a field postcard, from Asbach Uralt, old German cognac. Above the brand name, two German soldiers wheel a field stove past a crate containing a bottle of the brandy under the title Gute Verpflegung, Good Food. Above the addressee is written Einschreiben, enroll, and Nach Ungarn, to Hungary. The card is addressed to Franz Moritos, and is postmarked Hamburg, 1918-03-30. A Hamburg stamp also decorates the card.A hand-painted postcard by Schima Martos. , Germany on registered fieldpost card, 1918, message: Red Egg for Paris, Easter, 1918.The German advance in Operation Michael in the March, 1918 nearly broke the Allied line, and threatened Paris, putting it once again in range of a new German supergun capable of hitting the city from 70 miles away.
Image text: Husvét . Páris piros tojása . 1918Easter . Red eggs for Paris . 1918The front of the card is postmarked 1918-04-05 from Melököveso
"Oddly, the thing that gave me the greatest fear was not bullet or bomb but Turkish planes flying over and dropping metal darts on us. They were about six inches long, very sharply pointed, and spun as they descended. I hated the thought of a dart dropping on my head. They seemed worse than bullets. You couldn't see bullets; they're past you even before you know they're coming. You could see shells arriving. You could see a four-inch shell coming over like a black cricket ball and you never knew exactly where it was going to land. You just hoped it was going to land somewhere you weren't. Big shells were best in that respect. What they called 'whiz bang' shrapnel was more treacherous. You couldn't see it coming. It burst and either got you or missed you. We were never free of shrapnel and shell, or of casualties." ((1), more)
"How long is this going to last? Anguish makes me wonder when and how this gigantic, unprecedented struggle will end. There's no resolution in view. I wonder if it won't just finish for lack of men left to fight. It's no longer one nation fighting another. It's two great blocs fighting, two civilizations colliding. The peoples have been touched by the madness of death and destruction. Certainly humanity has gone mad! It must be mad to do what it's doing. Such slaughter! Such scenes of horror and carnage! I can't find the words to convey them. Hell could not be worse. Men are mad!" ((2), more)
"The Army of the Orient had captured a few outposts at Doiran, on the Struma and at the foot of the Dobropolje. And for these pitiable acquisitions, 14,000 Allied soldiers—more men than Montgomery was to lose in the twelve victorious days of Alamein—had died, or been incapacitated, or taken prisoner. In any other war Sarrail's offensive would have been written off as a major failure and its author discredited for all time. But by the grim standards of 1917 these casualties were not exceptional. In that same month on the Western front eleven times as many died in front of Arras alone, with no gain of any strategic significant; and the French losses on the Aisne were even greater." ((3), more)
"— A raid on Tuesday the 21st [May 1918] from 10.45 p.m. to 1.30 in the morning. I was visiting Victor Margueritte, with Jacques Richepin, and the Weylers. The men in the party lay down on cushions on the drawing room carpet and went to sleep. It was a beautiful night. Bombs fell at Versailles and Saint-Cyr.— On Wednesday the 22nd there was an air raid from 11.30 p.m. until a quarter past midnight, and a further raid from 1.30 to 3.30 a.m., that is, until dawn. A stormy sky with a bright moon. Barrage of fire of unusual violence. Bombs dropped on the Gare d'Austerlitz, the Boulevard de l'Hôpital, the School of Arts and Crafts, the Rue Legendre, and also at Juvisy.— You are no longer allowed hot water for washing in hotels, except on Saturdays and Sundays." ((4), more)
(1) From the account of New Zealander Sergeant John Skinner of his time on Gallipoli. Within a week of the April 25, 1915 invasion, Skinner's Otago Battalion had lost 800 of its 1,000 men. Darts or fléchettes were used by both sides, and could simply be dropped from a plane. Vanes on the tail ensured they fell vertically and could spin as Skinner describes. They were particularly effective before the widespread introduction of metal helmets.
Voices of Gallipoli by Maurice Shadbolt, pp. 72, 73, copyright © 1988 Maurice Shadbolt, publisher: Hodder and Stoughton, publication date: 1988
(2) Excerpt from the diary of French Second Lieutenant Alfred Joubaire writing on May 22, 1916, the first day of French General Mangin's attempt to retake Fort Douaumont, captured by the Germans on February 25, in the first days of the Battle of Verdun. Joubaire had arrived in the Verdun sector on May 17, having learned of his deployment the previous day: 'There's no longer any doubt of the position we're going to take up . . . It's Verdun, it's the big one, real carnage, real slaughter. Everybody is very calm and very happy.' Joubaire was killed on June 2 on his second rotation into the Verdun front lines.
The Road to Verdun by Ian Ousby, page 304, copyright © 2002 by The Estate of Ian Ousby, publisher: Anchor Books, publication date: 2003
(3) French General Maurice Sarrail commanded an Allied Army of French, British, Serbian, Russian, and Italian units opposing a Bulgarian army supported by German troops on the Salonica Front extending across northern Greece and into Serbia. Sarrail's spring 1917 offensive began May 8 with British troops attacking on the eastern end of the line, with the other national forces attacking on the 9th. The battle continued for 12 days with little success, and when the Serbs prepared an attack for May 22 they found Sarrail had already canceled the offensive. The attacks in France — the British in the Battle of Arras and the French in the Second Battle of the Aisne — were failures. The Struma River flows from Bulgaria through Greece to the Aegean Sea; Lake Doiran and the peak of Dobro Pole are both on the border of Greece and, in 1917, Serbia. During World War II British General Bernard Montgomery led Allied forces to victory in the Battle of El Alamein in North Africa against German and Italian forces at the end of October to the beginning of November, 1942.
The Gardeners of Salonika by Alan Palmer, page 131, copyright © 1965 by A. W. Palmer, publisher: Simon and Schuster, publication date: 1965
(4) Entries from the diary of Michel Corday, a senior civil servant in the French government writing in Paris. The French capital had been struck in March by Gotha bombers and by 'the Paris gun,' a new weapon that the German advance in Operation Michael put Paris within range of. Corday wrote further that the newspapers of May 23 reported the arrest and imprisonment for two weeks of a chauffeur who observed that, 'the damage was tremendous,' referring to a bombed house. The court found this statement both provided information about military operations and would adversely affect morale. Versailles and Saint Cyr, home to the leading French military academy, are south-southwest of Paris.
The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, page 346, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934
