Map of Alsace and the Franco-German border from Switzerland north along the Vosges Mountains to Strasbourg. The postcard celebrates the German victory at Mulhouse on August 11, 1914, retaking the city from the French.
Image text: Der Sieg bei Mülhausen 11.8.1914Der Große Generalstab veröffentlicht folgende Meldung: Von Belfort in das Oberelsass nach Mülhausen vor gedrungener Feind, anscheinend das VII, französische Armeekorps und eine Infanterie-Division der Besatzung von Belfort, sind heute von unseren Truppen aus einer verstärkten Stellung westlich Mülhausen in südlicher Richtung zurückgeworfen worden. Verluste unserer Truppen nicht erheblich, die der Franzosen groß.The victory at Mulhouse 08/11/1914The Great General Staff issued the following message: From Belfort in Upper Alsace to Mulhouse, our troops have thrown back strong enemy forces – apparently the VII French army corps and one infantry division of the garrison of Belfort – from their reinforced position west of Mulhouse to the south. Losses to our troops are not significant, and comparable to those of the French.W.I.B. (4)Reverse:B.Z. KriegskarteVerlag der B.Z. am Mittag, Berlin (Publishing the B.Z. at noon, Berlin)
Photograph of a village on Lake Van, an area of Turkey populated largely by ethnic Armenians. The area was one of the first targeted on a large scale when Turkey turned on its Armenian citizens. Photo from Ambassador Morgenthau's Story by Henry Morgenthau, American Ambassador to Turkey from 1913 to 1916.
Image text: Fishing village on Lake VanIn this district about 55,000 Armenians were massacred
Postwar postcard map of the Balkans including Albania, newly-created Yugoslavia, expanded Romania, and diminished former Central Powers Bulgaria and Turkey. The first acquisitions of Greece in its war against Turkey are seen in Europe where it advanced almost to Constantinople, in the Aegean Islands from Samos to Rhodes, and on the Turkish mainland from its base in Smyrna. The Greco-Turkish war was fought from May 1919 to 1922. The positions shown held from the war's beginning to the summer of 1920 when Greece advanced eastward. Newly independent Hungary and Ukraine appear in the northwest and northeast.
Image text: Péninsule des BalkansÉchelle 1:12.000.000Petit Atlas de Poche Universel25 Édition Jeheber GenèveReverse:No. 20 Édition Jeheber, Genève (Suisse)BalkansRoumanie(Royaume.)Superficie . . . 290 000 sq. km.Population . . . 16 000 000 hab. (50 par sq. km.Capitale: Bucarest . . . 338 000 hab.Bulgarie(Royaume.)Superficie . . . 100 000 sq. km.Population . . . 4 000 000 hab. (40 par sq. km.)Capitale: Sofia . . . 103 000 hab.Grèce(Royaume. Capitale: Athènes.)En Europe (y compris la Crète et les iles) 200 000 sq. km. 6 000 000 hab. 30 p. sq. km.En Asie mineure . . . 30 000 sq. km 1 300 000 hab. 43 p. sq. km.Total 230 000 sq. km. 7 300 000 hab. 32 p. sq. km.Ville de plus de 50 000 habitants:Smyrne (Asie) . . . 350 000 hab.Athènes . . . 175 000 hab.Salonique . . . 150 000Andrinople . . . 70 000 hab.Pirée . . . 70 000 hab.Turquie d'Europe(Empire Ottoman.)Superficie . . . 2 000 sq. km.Population . . . 1 100 000 550 par sq. km.Capitale: Constantinople 1 000 000 hab.AlbanieSuperficie . . . 30 000 sq. km.Population . . . 800 000 hab. (27 par sq. km.)Villes: Scutari . . . 30 000 hab.Durazzo . . . 5 000 hab.YougoslavieVoir le tableau des statisques de ce pays, ainsi que la carte de la partie occidentale de la Yougoslavie, sur la carte d'Italie.Inst. Géog. Kummerly & Frey, Berne.Balkan PeninsulaScale 1: 12,000,000Little Univeral Pocket AtlasRoyaume - KingdomSuperficie - AreaEn Europe (y compris la Crète et les iles) - In Europe (including Crete and the islands)En Asie mineure - In Asia MinorYugoslaviaSee the table of statistics of this country, as well as the map of the western part of Yugoslavia, on the map of Italy.
Photograph from overhead of bomber, likely an Italian Caproni Ca.1, a two-engined biplane.
Image text:
Mark V tanks: One with a smokescreen and semaphore, the second moving up in the Battle of Amiens. In the latter, note the German prisoners on the left carrying a casualty to the rear on a stretcher. From The Tank Corps by Major Clough Williams-Ellis & A. Williams-Ellis.
Image text: Smoke-screen and SemaphoreMoving up in the Battle of Amiens
"The Victory at Mulhouse 08/11/1914The Great General Staff issued the following message: From Belfort in Upper Alsace to Mulhouse, our troops have thrown back strong enemy forces — apparently the VII French army corps and one infantry division of the garrison of Belfort — from their reinforced position west of Mulhouse to the south. Losses to our troops are not significant, and comparable to those of the French." ((1), more)
"Under a third measure, [Vice-Governor] Atif and [Police Chief] Behaeddin arrested the city's prominent Armenians, regardless of denomination. And on the night of August 11, 1915, the local military commander and the police chief, having previously taken all 'restrictive,' precautionary measures, arrested all the remaining Armenians. Telling them, 'The police department wants you,' they filled up the prisons and various buildings that had been converted into prisons with Armenians.The prominent prisoners—lawyers, bankers, merchants, and Armenian government officials—were taken out on the road in the first caravan, under the supervision of the police commissioner, the prison warden, police, soldiers, and officers." ((2), more)
"Friday, August 11, 1916.Yesterday the Italians entered Gorizia, where they have made 15,000 prisoners ; they are pressing their attack in an easterly direction.On the right bank of the Sereth the Austro-Germans have been routed once more and the Russians have captured Stanislau.If only the Rumanians had come in a month ago!" ((3), more)
"Throughout July the Austro-Hungarians were aware that the Italians were preparing for another offensive. Towards the end of July and into August increasing numbers of Italian deserters, desperate to escape the coming carnage, brought detailed intelligence of the Italian dispositions. During the same period the bomber squadrons of the Italian air force became much more active and aggressive in attacking rear areas, particularly on the Bainsizza Front. One spectacular raid on 11 August destroyed the main ammunition dump for the plateau front at Grapa. This would weaken the Austrian artillery support to their embattled army in the coming weeks." ((4), more)
"Staff officers sent from G.H.Q. report that the reasons for the defeat of the Second Army are as follows:1. The fact that the troops were surprised by the massed attack of Tanks, and lost their heads when the Tanks suddenly appeared behind them, having broken under cover of natural and artificial fog.2. Lack of organised defences.3. The fact that the artillery allotted to reserve infantry units at the disposal of the Higher Command was wholly insufficient to establish fresh resistance with artillery support against the enemy who had broken through and against his Tanks.Ludendorff, 11.8.18" ((5), more)
(1) Caption from a German postcard celebrating the victory at Mulhouse on August 11, 1914. Following its war Plan XVII, France attacked across its border with Germany into the formerly French territory of Alsace, taking the city of Mulhouse on August 8. In the face of a strong counterattack, the French evacuated the city on August 10.
Map of Alsace and the Franco-German border from Switzerland north along the Vosges Mountains to Strasbourg, Postcard face, publisher: B.Z. am Mittag, publication date: 1914
(2) Excerpt from the account of Grigoris Balakian of the extermination of the Armenians of Ankara, Turkey. Vice-Governor Atif and Police Chief Behaeddin and were sent by Interior Minister Talaat Pasha to replace the prior Governor General of Ankara, Mazhar, who resisted deporting the Armenians and resigned his position. The authorities divided the Armenians into caravans which were individually sent from the city, in some cases the Armenians pulling wagons bearing the weapons that would be used to kill them.
Armenian Golgotha: A Memoir of the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1918 by Grigoris Balakian, pp. 83, 84, copyright © Introduction and Translation 2009 by Peter Balakian, publisher: Vintage Books, publication date: 2009-00-00
(3) Entry for Friday, August 11, 1916, from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia, who rued the failure of Romania to enter the war as an ally of France, Russia, and Italy at a time when Austria-Hungary was being battered to the west and east. The Italian offensive begun on August 6, 1916, the Sixth Battle of the Isonzo, was Italy's most successful to date against the Austro-Hungarians. Russia's Brusilov Offensive, mounted June 4, had broken the Austro-Hungarian front, but, by August 11, was a grinding series of unimaginative attacks that led to Russian losses greater than those of the defenders. Had Romania entered the war as an Entente Ally supporting the Russians in their advance, the Austro-Hungarian front might have been shattered.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. II by Maurice Paléologue, page 315, publisher: George H. Doran Company
(4) Italian commander in chief Luigi Cadorna launched four offensives on the Isonzo River along Italy's northeastern border in 1915 and five in 1916. His Tenth Battle of the Isonzo raged from May 12 through June 8, 1917. At the beginning of August he prepared for the next Battle of the Isonzo, the Eleventh.
Caporetto and the Isonzo Campaign: The Italian Front 1915–1918 by John MacDonald with Željko Cimprić, page 137, copyright © John MacDonald, 2011, 2015, publisher: Pen and Sword Books, publication date: 2011
(5) German commander Erich Ludendorff writing on August 11, 1918 of the defeat of the German Second Army in the Battle of Amiens, launched on the 8th, a day Ludendorff referred to as 'the black day for the German Army.' The British fielded over 300 heavy Mark V tanks, nearly 100 lighter Whippet tanks, and over 100 supply tanks in the battle's first day.
The Tank Corps by Clough Williams-Ellis & A. Williams-Ellis, page 217, publisher: The Offices of "Country Life," Ltd. and George Newnes, Ltd., publication date: 1919
