Talaat Pasha, Turkish Minister of the Interior, from the memoir 'Ambassador Morgenthau's Story' by Henry Morgenthau, American Ambassador to Turkey from 1913 to 1916.
Image text: Talaat Pasha, ex-Grand Vizier of TurkeyIn 1914, when the war broke out, Talaat was Minister of the Interior and the most influential leader in the Committee of Union and Progress, the secret organization which controlled the Turkish Empire. A few years ago Talaat was a letter-carrier, and afterward a telegraph operator in Adrianople. His talents are those of a great political boss. He represented Turkey in the peace negotiations with Russia and his signature appears on the Brest-Litovsk treaty.
Portrait postcard of Admiral Sir John Jellicoe of the Royal Navy. Appointed Commander of the British Home Fleets on August 2, 1914, Jellicoe was criticized for his leadership of the British fleet during the May 31, 1916 Battle of Jutland in which he failed to decisively defeat the German High Seas Fleet. He was made First Sea Lord later that year. The card was postmarked from Glasgow, Scotland, on January 7, 1915.
Image text: Admiral Sir John Jellicoe
Watercolor of Royal Navy motor launch ML148, by LHS, 1918. The motor launch was a small vessel designed for harbor defense and anti-submarine work. The Elco company built 580 between 1915 and 1918 in three series of different lengths: 1 to 50 (75 ft.), 51 to 550 (86 ft.), and 551 to 580 (80 ft.). The original armament of a 13 pound cannon was later replaced by three depth charges. Signed: L.H.S. 18
Image text: Signed: L.H.S. 18On the launch bow: ML148
Map of the Marne salient showing the battle line of June 2, 1918. From The History of The A.E.F. by Shipley Thomas.
Image text: The Marne SalientShowing Battle Line of June 2, 1918, when the 2nd and 3rd American Divisions entered the line.
"From the documents that do exist, we know that the official government deportation decision was made on 27 May 1915 and published in Takvîm Vekâyi, the official government gazette, on 1 June 1915 as the 'temporary law on military measures against opponents of government policy in time of war.' Before this temporary law, other documents confirm the deportation decision, such as two memoranda from the General Staff to the Interior Ministry dated 2 and 26 May; and an inquiry from the Interior Ministry to the cabinet dated 26 May 1915 regarding the need for a temporary law. Again on 30 May, the cabinet passed a regulation regarding the rules of deportation that was subsequently published. These official documents give no sense of the course of events. As we have seen, the expulsions had begun long before the date on which the decrees came into force (1 June)." ((1), more)
"During the night the British heavy ships were not attacked, but the Fourth, Eleventh and Twelfth Flotillas, under Commodore Hawksley and Captains Charles J. Wintour and Anselan J. B. Sterling, delivered a series of very gallant and successful attacks on the enemy, causing him heavy losses.It was during these attacks that severe losses in the Fourth Flotilla occurred, including that of Tipperary, with the gallant leader of the Flotilla, Captain Wintour. He had brought his flotilla to a high pitch of perfection, and although suffering severely from the fire of the enemy, a heavy toll of enemy vessels was taken, and many gallant actions were performed by the flotilla. . . .At daylight, June 1st [1916], the battle fleet, being then to the southward and westward of the Horn Reef, turned to the northward in search of enemy vessels and for the purpose of collecting our own cruisers and torpedo-boat destroyers . . . I was reluctantly compelled to the conclusion that the High Sea Fleet had returned to port." ((2), more)
"The French and Italians had by far the preponderance in capital ships, but the real action in the Mediterranean by this date was the antisubmarine war, and here the balance had quietly swung decisively toward the British. In May 1917 the total of patrol vessels of all sorts in the Mediterranean, from destroyers to sloops, from trawlers to small torpedo boats, was: British, 429; French, 302; Italian, 119; and Japanese, 8. The British had really learned that the Mediterranean was too important to be left to the French. British interests, whether they were shipping or overseas expeditions, were extensive, and they could not rely on others who, with the best will in the world, were apt to lack the resources to do the job. The British were forced to assume the leading part in the antisubmarine war." ((3), more)
". . . our casualties were increasing alarmingly; ammunition was running short and the problem of supply, in view of the large demands, became more and more difficult. It became all too clear that actions so stubbornly contested and involving us in such formidable losses would never enable us to capture Paris. In truth the brilliant offensive had petered out. This unpleasant fact was quickly realised by the High Command and the order came from General Ludendorff for us to consolidate the positions we had reached." ((4), more)
(1) The attacks by the Government of Turkey on its Armenian citizens had begun by April 15, 1915 around Lake Van, in the Armenian region of eastern Turkey, when as many as 24,000 Armenian men were murdered in three days. On April 20, Turkish troops began a siege of Van which was successfully defended by the Armenians until Russian troops arrived to lift the siege. On April 24, the government began rounding up Armenian intellectuals and political, religious, and business leaders, and began the deportation of the Armenian population to the Syrian dessert. Trying to defend the Armenians, American Ambassador to Turkey Henry Morgenthau spoke to Government leaders including War Minister Enver Pasha and Interior Minister Talaat Pasha. He found Talaat the most implacable of the leaders against the Armenians.
A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility by Taner Akçam, pp. 194, 195, copyright © 2006 by Taner Akçam, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 2006
(2) Excerpt from the June 24, 1916 official report of Admiral John Jellicoe to the British Admiralty on the May 31st Battle of Jutland between the British Grand Fleet and German High Sea Fleet. Although battle squadrons had first exchanged fire at 3:48 PM on the 31st, the battle fleets were not engaged until 6:00 PM. Dusk and smoke concealed ships on both sides, but allowed the smaller German fleet to slip away and return to port, dashing Jellicoe's hopes to re-engage on June 1. Flotillas of destroyers used their small-caliber guns and torpedoes to damage the fleeing Germans through the night, but at the cost of several destroyers including Tipperary.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. IV, 1916, pp. 176-177, 178, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
(3) Pre-war planning had called for France to move its fleet to the Mediterranean Sea to protect shipping while Great Britain protected France's Atlantic coast. After Italy entered the war in 1915, France, Britain, and Italy struggled to coordinate coverage of the Mediterranean. Britain's empire required maintaining passage through the Suez Canal to transport oil from Persia, and to support the war effort in Palestine and Mesopotamia.
A Naval History of World War I by Paul G. Halpern, pp. 392–393, copyright © 1994 by the United States Naval Institute, publisher: UCL Press, publication date: 1994
(4) Excerpt from 'Day 6. June 1.' the brief closing section of the account of the Aisne Offensive, the Third German Drive of 1918, by Major-General A. D. von Unruh, Chief of the General Staff, 4th Reserve Corps (Corps von Conta). German commander Erich Ludendorff made his bid for victory with repeated offensives in 1918. Unruh had faced four British divisions that had been devastated in Operations Michael and Georgette in March and April had been moved into what was expected to be a quiet sector, one held by the French. The offensive, successful in its advance, and in ground gained, created a salient that reached the Marne River from a base between Soissons and Reims. The Corps von Conta faced the Americans and French Colonial troops who held Château Thierry, a town that straddled the Marne.
The Last of the Ebb: the Battle of the Aisne, 1918 by Sidney Rogerson, page 146, copyright © Sidney Rogerson, 1937, publisher: Frontline Books, publication date: 2011
