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Photograph of four First World War Italian soldiers. The one on the far right wears a monocle.
To the Dardanelles! The Entente Allies successfully capture their objective and plant their flags in this boy's 1915 war game, as they did not in life, neither in the naval campaign, nor in the invasion of the Gallipoli peninsula.
Amputees at a hospital in Budapest, Austria-Hungary in the summer of 1915. Some had lost their feet to freezing in the Carpathian Mountains in the winter. From 'Antwerp to Gallipoli' by Arthur Ruhl.
Zeppelin Kommt! Children play a Zeppelin raid on London. Holding his bomb in the gondola is a doll of the airship's inventor, Count Zeppelin. The other children, playing the English, cower, and the British fleet — folded paper boats — remains in port. Prewar postcards celebrated the imposing airships and the excitement they generated with the same expression, 'Zeppelin Kommt!'. Postcard by P.O. Engelhard (P.O.E.). The message on the reverse is dated May 28, 1915.
The problem children of a housewife, 1914-1916: token money, banknotes and ration cards from 1916 including cards for potatoes, flour, cooking fat, dried vegetables, potatoes, and whole milk. The items that can be identified are from Dresden, Germany, where the card was printed, and are dated February and March, 1916.
"At 03:00 on 14 August, the artillery opens up. Under cover of the darkness and thundering guns, the Bersaglieri crawl up the trackless hillside. More than once, Bonamore slithers back 20 or 30 metres. They stop some 200 metres below the enemy line and huddle for warmth. Bonamore sleeps 'for an hour or so leaning on the knees of Sergeant Meda who in turn was leaning against a tree trunk so as not to fall'. The climbing sun reveals them to the Austrians, who rake the mountainside with shrapnel. The Italians press themselves against the rocks, and wait. The wire-cutting detail is highest up the slope." ((1), more)
"The English and Indian troops, operating from Suvla Bay, meanwhile, had advanced on the flank of Sari Bahr. The Irish troops stormed and captured Chocolate Hill on the night of August 8th, but failed to make connections with the Australians who were being pressed on the opposite slopes.Three days passed before the Suvla Bay forces succeeded in coming to the aid of the Australians. The delay was fatal, for the Turks had rallied in great force and driven back the Australians from all the positions they had gained on Sari Bahr. Had the Suvla Bay troops been moved more quickly, the Turkish stronghold might have been taken and the way opened to the forts on the Dardanelles.On August 15th, the same Irish troops that had taken Chocolate Hill succeeded in rushing Dublin Hill in a hand-to-hand fight with the Turks." ((2), more)
"If I had stayed in London and continued to read the lies of but one side, I should doubtless, by this time, be able to loathe and despise the enemy with an entire lack of doubt, discomfort, or intelligence. But having been in all the countries and read all the lies, the problem is less simple. . . . Be joyful if you can, when you know what war is, and, knowing it, know also that it is the only way to do your necessary work. The absurd and disgusting thing is the ignorance and cowardice of those who can slaughter an army corps every day for lunch, with words, and would not be able to make so trivial a start toward the 'crushing' they are forever talking about as to fire into another man's open eyes or jam a bayonet into a single man's stomach. Among the Utopian steps which one would most gladly support would be an attempt to send the editors and politicians of all belligerent countries to serve a week in the enemy's hospitals." ((3), more)
"On August 17 [1915] four more Zeppelins were sent out with definite orders to bomb the City of London. Two of these ships had serious mechanical trouble and had to turn back before they reached England. Von Buttlar in LZ.11 produced another dramatic, but totally fictitious, account of how he bombed London, but he was never at any time within forty miles of the British capital. . . .Wenke, aboard LZ.10 was more successful as far as navigation was concerned, for he actually did reach London, the first Naval Airship commander to do so. . . . He thought he bombed the metropolis between Blackfriars and London bridges and reported that great buildings collapsed and big fires were observed, but he hit the Leyton railroad station, damaged a tramcar roundhouse, and destroyed a number of small houses. Ten people were killed and forty-eight wounded." ((4), more)
"Again, in the country districts, anywhere and everywhere, they have only one question : 'When will it end?' But all these desires drift about helplessly. The Censor gags the papers. And the Deputies don't hear and don't want to hear those whom they represent.— If you mention peace, they say you are in the pay of Germany. It is a clever formula." ((5), more)
(1) The Italian attack began 20 minutes after the artillery barrage stopped at 12:15. The artillery had not cut the Austro-Hungarian wire, and the wire-cutters were killed before they could complete their mission. The infantry were slaughtered by the defenders. Those who tried to retreat were cut down. Those who survived were hidden from the Austro-Hungarian defenders, yet too close to the enemy line to call for artillery attacks on it. Some 50 men made it back to their lines after nightfall. The account, in Thompson's The White War, is based on that of Italian infantryman Virgilio Bonamore, who fought the Austro-Hungarians in the Julian Alps. The Bersaglieri were light infantry regiments identifiable by the cockerel feathers that adorned their hats.
The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919 by Mark Thompson, page 110, copyright © 2008 Mark Thompson, publisher: Basic Books, publication date: 2009
(2) The last major Allied offensive to bring the Gallipoli campaign to a victorious conclusion had failed. The opening of a new front at Suvla Bay, the bolstering of the force at Anzac Cove, all in an attempt to drive across the Gallipoli Peninsula to the Dardanelles, the gateway to Constantinople, had come to more death on both sides.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 184, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
(3) Excerpt from 'Cannon Fodder' in Antwerp to Gallipoli by Arthur Ruhl, a journalist from the neutral United States. Having written from Antwerp, Berlin, Gallipoli, and Romania, Ruhl was in Budapest in summer, 1915. Between the two paragraphs quoted, Ruhl has another about those who love the notion of 'flashing sabers.' He describes the grim wound he could fit four fingers in that a saber had made. He had read that the call to 'Sharpen sabers!' was 'joyful.' He demurs.
Antwerp to Gallipoli by Arthur Ruhl, pp. 262, 263, copyright © 1916 by Charles Scribner's Sons, publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons, publication date: 1916
(4) The morning of August 12, 1915, Naval First Lieutenant (Oberleutnant-zur-See) H. von Buttlar had been caught in a violent storm over the North Sea while returning from an aborted raid on England, that lifted his airship dangerously high before driving it towards the sea. He was fortunate to survive. Oberleutnant-zur-See Friedrich Wenke was more successful, but overestimated his success. Ian Castle covers this raid on his website: www.iancastlezeppelin.co.uk/17-august-1915-1.
The Zeppelin Fighters by Arch Whitehouse, page 99, copyright © 1966 by Arch Whitehouse, publisher: New English Library, publication date: 1978
(5) Extract from the diary of Michel Corday, a senior civil servant in the French government. In preceding entries, Corday had written about the attempts to portray any calls for peace, even those by the Pope, as emanating from Germany.
The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, page 101, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934
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