German postcard map of the Western Front in Flanders, looking south and including Lille, Arras, Calais, and Ostend. In the Battle of the Yser in October, 1914, the Belgian Army held the territory south of the Yser Canal, visible between Nieuport, Dixmude, and Ypres (Ypern). Further north is Passchendaele, which British forces took at great cost in 1917.
Image text: Der KanalStraße von CalaisThe English Channel and the Strait of CalaisReverse:Panorama des westlichen Kriegsschauplatzes 1914/15 Von Arras bis Ostende.Die Panorama-Postkartenreihe umfaßt mit ihren 9 Abschnitten Nr. 400 bis 408 den gesamten westlichen Kriegsschauplatz von der Schweizer Grenze bis zur Nordseeküste.Panorama of the western theater of operations 1914/15 from Arras to Ostend. The panoramic postcard series includes nine sections, with their No. 400-408 the entire western battlefield from the Swiss border to the North Sea coast.Nr. 408Wenau-Postkarte Patentamtl. gesch.
Italy's armed forces at the ready in a 1915 postcard. In the foreground the artillery, infantry, an Alpine soldier (in feathered hat), and a Bersaglieri (in plumed headgear). Behind them are a bugler and lancer; in the distance marines and colonial troops. The Italian navy is off shore, an airship and planes overhead. On the reverse are the lyrics of a patriotic Italian March by Angelo Balladori, lyrics by Enrico Mercatali. It ends with a call to the brothers of Trento and Trieste, Austro-Hungarian territory with large ethnic Italian populations.
Image text: Reverse:Marcia ItalicaD'Italia flammeggin le sante bandiereBaciate dal sole, baciate dal vento,Su l'aspro sentier di Bezzecca e di TrentoDe l'alma Trieste, sul cerulo mar.. . . Fratelli di Trento, Triestini fratelli,La patria s'è desta alla grande riscossa!Dell'aquila ingorda la barbara possaDai liberi petti domata sarà!Parole di Enrico MercataliMusica di Angelo Balladori.Casa Editrice Sonzogno - Milano. 1915.
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.
Detail from a 1898 map of St. Petersburg, the Russian capital, from a German atlas. Central St Petersburg, or Petrograd, is on the Neva River. Key landmarks from top to bottom include the Peter and Paul Fortress, which served as a prison, Nevski Prospect, a primary boulevard south of the Fortress, and the Mariyinsky Theater.
Image text: St Petersburg (Petrograd); Neva River, Peter and Paul Fortress; Nevski Prospect, Mariyinsky Theater
Dive Copse British Cemetery in Sailly-le-Sec, France.
Image text:
"On the 4th November [1914] there was a heavy mist all day, turning to rain about 5 P.M. which lasted until nearly 11 P.M. Except for shelling, the day was less eventful than the previous one. . . . The state of the troops was very serious; in a tight place, the British soldier can always be called upon for a final effort, but numbers were now so reduced, that the corps and divisional commanders felt that no plans could be based on the ability of the troops to hold on. . . . the increasing want of gun ammunition could not be supplied by an appeal to morale." ((1), more)
"The last days of the [Third Isonzo] battle, 3 and 4 November, were extremely violent. Brigade diaries reported fears that some units might crack and desert en masse. The attacks on San Michele were weakening under the internal pressures of exhaustion and hopelessness. The Italians had sustained 67,000 losses along the front. On San Michele, the Catanzaro Brigade alone lost almost 2,800 men and 70 officers between 17 and 26 October, nearly half of each category. The Caltanisetta Brigade, deployed alongside the Catanzaro, took even heavier casualties, losing two-thirds of its men and 63 per cent of its officers between 22 October and 3 November. South of Monfalcone, the 16th Division carried out a frontal attack on Hill 121, the nearest point to Trieste that Cadorna's army had yet reached. This one failed attack cost 4,000 Italian casualties." ((2), more)
"With the beginning of November 1st, the Italians once more resumed their drive again against Trieste, and in four days of fighting on high mountain peaks advanced their lines, taking 10,000 prisoner. But their own losses also were heavy, compelling a cessation of hostilities. Excepting for a series of artillery duels during November, neither side undertook any important engagement." ((3), more)
"Sunday, November 4, was in the nature of a dress rehearsal for the clash ahead. The Petrograd Soviet—that is to say, the Bolsheviks—called on their followers to demonstrate in their own districts, not violently, but simply to make a show of strength. There was no serious incident, but the meetings were crammed with soldiers and workers who were clearly only waiting for a signal, and through the course of the day the Bolshevik Military Committee sent messages to the regiments that in future they were to obey no orders but those of their commissars." ((4), more)
"Anthem for Doomed YouthWhat passing-bells for these who die as cattle? Only the monstrous anger of the guns. Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattleCan patter out their hasty orisons.No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells, Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,—The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; And bugles calling for them from sad shires.What candles may be held to speed them all? Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyesShall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes. The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds." ((5), more)
(1) The British had been subjected to repeated German attacks since mid-October, and had needed support from the French in the most violent attack on October 31. Not expecting a long war, no nation had at hand the enormous quantities of ammunition the war demanded.
Military Operations France and Belgium, 1914, Vol. II, October-November by J. E. Edmonds, page 379, copyright © asserted, publisher: MacMillan and Co., Limited, publication date: 1925
(2) Italian Commander-in-Chief Luigi Cadorna launched the Third Battle of the Isonzo River on October 18, 1915 on a 50-kilometer front with 1,300 guns, most of them 75 mm. field guns that neither cut barbed wire nor destroyed entrenchments. The Adriatic port of Trieste, Austria-Hungary, with a large ethnic Italian population, was one of Italy's war aims.
The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919 by Mark Thompson, page 130, copyright © 2008 Mark Thompson, publisher: Basic Books, publication date: 2009
(3) The curious syntax and redundancy of our author's summary — 'the Italians once more resumed their drive again against Trieste' — may be appropriate for the Ninth of Twelve Battles of the Isonzo, which Italian commander-in-chief Luigi Cadorna launched on November 1, 1916. Although Trieste was roughly 25 kilometers from the Italian front lines, mountains intervened.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 233, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
(4) Some of the events of November 4 (October 22, Old Style), 1917 in Petrograd, capital of Russia. Although the Bolsheviks were in the majority in the Petrograd Soviet and the Military Revolutionary Committee, other socialist parties were also represented.
The Russian Revolution by Alan Moorehead, page 238, copyright © 1958 by Time, Inc., publisher: Carroll and Graf, publication date: 1989
(5) Anthem for Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen, Second Lieutenant, Manchester Regiment, killed in action November 4, 1918, leading his men in attempting to cross the Sambre Canal. Owen was posthumously awarded the Military Cross for his actions on October 1, 1918 near the village of Joncourt.
The Collected Poems of Wilfred Owen by Wilfred Owen, page 44, copyright © Chatto & Windus Ltd, 1963, publisher: New Directions, publication date: 1963
