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
British troops drawing water. A Susini tobacco / cigarette card.
Image text: Tropas Inglesas sacando aguaBritish troops drawing waterReverse:No. 1264La Guerra EuropeaPostal para la colección Del NuevoAlbum UniversalObsequio de SusiniNo. 1264The European WarPostcard for the new collectionUniversal AlbumGift from Susini
Christmas on the front, Vaucelles, France, 1916. A watercolor of the village gate. A separate photograph shows two German soldiers posing before the gate.
Image text: Weihnachten im Felde, Vaucelles 1916.Christmas at the front, Vaucelles, 1916.Reverse:Penciled note: 'Entrance gate of the village Vaucelles December 18, 1916 – France-' [NOTE: The reverse of the postcard may end with "Frankreich", but Vaucelles, France is near Caen, on the coast. Vaucelles, Belgium is southwest of Dinant on the French border. The blue would presumably be the Meuse in that case.] (translation courtesy Thomas Faust, ebay's Urfaust.
Peace on Earth, and Good Will toward Men. A French poilu seeks shelter in a soldier's home. A YMCA postcard by Geo. Dorival, 1918.
Image text: Paix sur la Terreaux Hommede Bonne VolontéLes Foyers du SoldatUnion Franco-Américaine
"I will never forget this Christmas night. Under moonlight as bright as day, and with the frost hard enough to split the stones, we were going up around 10.00 pm in the evening to carry timber into the trenches. You can imagine how astonished we were to hear the Boches singing hymns in their trenches and the French in theirs; then the Boches sang their national anthem and cheered. The French responded with the Chant du départ. All this singing from thousands of men right out in the countryside was truly magical." ((1), more)
"Private Wilkerson was killed on Christmas Day. A shell fragment severed the femoral artery. Stretcher-bearers attempted to deal with this mortal wound by using a tourniquet but this caused the poor chap pain, and the MO told us on the field telephone to remove it and let him die in peace. Only immediate surgical intervention could have saved him and that was impossible. All the same, the MO was about to risk his own life by coming to us across the open — there were no communication trenches left — but the C.O. ordered him to stay where he was at battalion HQ. It was just as well. We couldn't afford to lose a Medical Officer in a fruitless effort to save life. He couldn't possibly have arrived in time." ((2), more)
"Now winter, throwing aside his sleep and drowse, came out fierce and determined: first there was a heavy snow, then the steel-blue sky of a hard frost. To our pleasure, we were back in a camp in the woods by Elverdighe to celebrate Christmas. The snow was crystal-clean, the trees filigreed and golden. It was a place that retained its boorish loneliness, though hundreds invaded it: its odd buildings had the suggestion of Teniers." ((3), more)
"This was the fourth bloodstained Christmas spent far from home and hearth, far from the hometown church tower and the familiar ringing of the bells.On the night of December 24–25, yesteryear's joyous night of parties, a violent snowstorm struck, whipped up into a blizzard by a big, glacial wind.In our billet, this was a sad Christmas Eve, as you can well imagine. To defend ourselves from the cold, we all went to bed early, rolled up in our meager blankets, packed tightly against each other. . . .The next day, as if by the wave of a magic wand, the wind calmed down completely, but a nice layer of snow brightened the landscape. Upon awakening, I was duly warned that I had to carry out, on this day consecrated to the birth of the Savior, the annoying functions of corporal-of-the-day." ((4), more)
(1) From a letter by François Guilhem of the French 296th Infantry writing to his wife from his position near La Bassée, France. (The Chant du départ was the anthem of the French First Empire.) In Picardy, French and German soldiers left their trenches and exchanged newspapers and cigarettes. British Commander Sir John French reported that 'fraternization of a limited kind took place during the day. It appeared that a little feasting went on.' Men buried some of the dead lying in No Man's Land, sang Christmas carols and soldier songs in their own language, and ended with 'Auld Lang Syne.' Princess Mary of the United Kingdom delivered a gift box of cigarettes or a pipe and tobacco to every officer and man of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) which Sir John French divided into a First (under Douglas Haig) and Second Army. The British bombed the Zeppelin sheds at Cuxhaven.
They Shall Not Pass: The French Army on the Western Front 1914-1918 by Ian Sumner, page 43, copyright © Ian Sumner 2012, publisher: Pen and Sword, publication date: 2012
(2) 2nd Lieutenant W. Cushing, 9th (Service) Battalion, Norfolk Regiment writing about the death of Private Wilkerson, killed on Christmas Day, 1915.
1915, The Death of Innocence by Lyn Macdonald, page 593, copyright © 1993 by Lyn Macdonald, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1993 (Great Britain); 199
(3) Edmund Blunden, English writer, recipient of the Military Cross, second lieutenant and adjutant in the Royal Sussex Regiment, writing of Christmas day, 1916. Generations of David Teniers were painters: the Elder, the Younger, David Teniers III, and David Teniers IV. Blunden may be thinking of David Teniers the Younger, who is represented be a number of paintings at the National Gallery in London. Elverdighe is a village in Ypres, Belgium.
Undertones of War by Edmund Blunden, page 152, copyright © the Estate of Edmund Blunden, 1928, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: November 1928
(4) Excerpt from the notebooks of French Infantry Corporal Louis Barthas. He had been in the 296th Regiment which had been implicated in the army mutinies of the spring and early summer. The regiment had been dissolved and its men assigned to other units, Barthas to a regiment from Breton. On December 23, 1917 they went into two weeks of rest.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, pp. 350, 351, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
