The poet, novelist, and political activist Gabriele d'Annunzio speaking in favor of Italy's entry into the war on the side of the Entente Allies, and against 'Giolittismo' at the Costanzi Theater in Rome, May, 1915. Giovanni Giolitti was five-time Prime Minister of Italy, and opposed intervention in the Great War. Illustration by Achille Beltrame.
Image text: The great demonstrations against the 'Giolittism'; Gabriele d'Annunzio speaks to the people of Rome, in Theatro Costanzi.
A view of Sackville Street (now O'Connell), Dublin, Ireland and the bridge over the Liffey River framed by a spray of shamrocks. The card was postmarked Dublin, August 30, 1911.
Image text: Sackville Street, DublinReverse:Valentine's SeriesKnown throughout the WorldValentine, DublinPrinted in Scotland
A call to Italians to buy war bonds to help fund the powerful weapons needed for the last push to Trieste, a mere 25 kilometers from the Italian front lines. It pays 5%, after all, tax free, for an effective rate of 5.55%!
Image text: La Banca d'ItaliaRiceve e agevola le sottoscrizionial Prestito Consolidato 5% nettoEsente da imposte presenti & futureReddito Effettivo 5,55 per centoItaliani!I nostri avamposti sono a 25 Km da Trieste — date loro armi potenti per l'ultimo sbalzo, sottoscrivendo al Prestito Nazionale Consolidato 5%.The Bank of ItalyReceives and facilitates subscriptionsBorrowing 5% Consolidated NetExempt from present and future taxes5.55 percent effective incomeItalians!Our outposts are 25 Km from Trieste - give them powerful weapons for the last rush, by subscribing to the National 5% Loan Consolidation.
An Austro-Hungarian soldier posing for the camera, leaning on his rifle, bayonet at his waist. He is from the k.u.k (kaiserlich und königlich/imperial and royal) Landsturm Battalion No. 83, a reserve militia of men 34 to 55, some of whom saw active duty.
Image text: Reverse:k.u.k (kaiserlich und königlich/imperial and royal) Landsturm Bataillon No. 83k.u.k (kaiserlich und königlich/imperial and royal) Landsturm Battalion No. 83Emil Lorenz, Photograph. Böhm Leipa Herrengasse 243
"Gabriele D'Annunzio, poet and demagogue, returned from his 'exile' in France, arriving in Rome on 12 May [1915] to be welcomed by a massive crowd of nearly 100,000. In his first address, from his hotel balcony, he told them: 'For three days a stink of treason has been suffocating us. . . . Romans, sweep away all the filth, chuck all the garbage back into the sewer. . . . Friends, it is no longer time for talk but for action.' The next day he declared: 'If it is a crime to incite citizens to violence, I shall boast of this crime. . . . Form platoons, form citizens patrols.' A thousand students, led by some professors, tried to storm the parliament building and then searched the streets 'for friends of Giolitti to assault.' Troops were called out to protect persons and property. The demagogues quickly termed these le radiose giornate — 'the Radiant Days' — pointing to these events as evidence of 'massive' support for intervention." ((1), more)
"But believing as I do that any action would be justified which would put a stop to this colossal crime now being perpetrated, I feel compelled to express the hope that ere long we may read of the paralysing of the internal transport service on the continent, even should the act of paralysing necessitate the erection of Socialist barricades and acts of rioting by Socialist soldiers and sailors, as happened in Russia in 1905.Even an unsuccessful attempt at social revolution by force of arms, following the paralysis of the economic life of militarism, would be less disastrous to the Socialist cause than the act of Socialists in allowing themselves to be used in the slaughter of their brothers in the causes." ((2), more)
"The initial bombardment, when it started on 12 May [1917], was more intense than anything the Austrians had seen before. With more than 3,000 guns, it was on a scale familiar in France and Flanders, and it built to a fearsome climax. Crossing into the Isonzo valley at dawn on the 14th, the Scottish Quaker volunteer George Barbour was struck by the contrast between the serenity of the Bainsizza plateau, stretching away in front of him, and 'this extraordinary strip of hell, right down 2,000 feet below like a volcanic rift in the ground, full of noise and black smoke with the silver stream of the river waggling like a snake in the underbrush.'" ((3), more)
"[In May, 1918] national aspirations began to emerge in the Austrian army. On May 12 there was a mutiny in the heart of Austria, at the Styrian town of Judenburg, when an infantry platoon captured the barracks and munition stores, looted the food stores, and destroyed the telephone and telegraph lines. The platoon was largely Slovene. Their cry was: 'Let us go home comrades, this is not only for us but also for our friends on the fronts. The war must be ended now, whoever is a Slovene, join us. We are going home; they should give us more to eat and end the war; up with the Bolsheviks, long live bread, down with the war.'" ((4), more)
(1) On April 26, 1915, the Italian Ambassador to the United Kingdom signed the Pact of London committing Italy to enter the war on the side of the Entente Allies one month later. Prime Minister Antonio Salandra and Foreign Minister Sidney Sonnino were strong supporters of war against Austria-Hungary, Within Italy there was significant irredentist support for seizing ethnically Italian territory from Austria-Hungary, particularly Trentino and the port city of Trieste. There was also significant sentiment to remain neutral. Former (and future) Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti, who had held office during the Italo-Turkish War of 1911 and 1912, recognized that Italy was unprepared for war.
The Origins of World War I by Richard F. Hamilton and Holger H. Herwig, page 384, copyright © Cambridge University Press 2003, publisher: Cambridge University Press, publication date: 2003
(2) James Connolly in the magazine Forward, August 15, 1914 as war spread across Europe. Connolly was a labor leader who had founded the Irish Citizens Army to defend workers against assaults by the police, such as those that had occurred during the Dublin Lockout of 1913, which left four workers dead, hundreds injured, and 400 imprisoned. Connolly was one of the leaders of the Easter Rising, a signer of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic read from the steps of the rebels headquarters at the General Post Office on Sackville Street, and Commandant General and Commander Dublin Division Irish Volunteers. Connolly was badly wounded in the leg on April 27, a wound that led to gangrene, and was carried from the G.P.O. in a stretcher. British Commander John Maxwell was determined to execute all signers of the proclamation of the Republic despite efforts by British Prime Minister Asquith to halt further executions after the first seven. Unable to stand, Connolly was shot seated in a chair on May 12, 1916. Sèan MacDermott was executed the same day, the last of the Dublin executions for the insurrection.
Revolution in Ireland by Conor Kostick, pp. 22, 23, copyright © Conor Kostick 1996, publisher: Pluto Press, publication date: 1996
(3) Italian commander in chief Luigi Cadorna launched his Tenth Battle of the Isonzo on May 12, 1917. Italian deserters had given the Austro-Hungarians notice of the impending attack and, with the Russian front quiet after the February Revolution, the Austrians could transfer reinforcements from the east. The defenders held the peaks; the attackers fought to drive them off. Even when the Italians did so, the Austro-Hungarians could fall back to comparable positions.
The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919 by Mark Thompson, page 251, copyright © 2008 Mark Thompson, publisher: Basic Books, publication date: 2009
(4) As the war dragged on, the Austro-Hungarian Empire increasingly fractured along ethnic lines. Austria's food shortages and subsequent riots had been exacerbated in January 1918 by Hungary's refusal to send food to its imperial partner. In the same month of May as the Slovene mutiny, Czech and other Slavik nationals met in Prague and held anti-Hapsburg demonstrations. The March 1918 peace that followed the Bolshevik Revolution saw the ostensible birth or rebirth of nations (even if dominated by Germany) holding out the promise not only of peace, but of the achievement of national aspirations.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, pp. 421–422, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
