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An Italian Alpini soldier slinking away from his erstwhile allies Austria-Hungary and Germany. The Entente Allies welcome him, France with open arms, Great Britain with a sack of money, and Russia. Italy was part of the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary, but declared neutrality on August 3, 1914. With promises of territorial gains, and a loan, it joined the Allies, declaring war on Austria-Hungary on May 23, 1915. The poem notes that although one comrade has fallen away, the other two hold a steadfast bond.
Kaiser Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary starts in dismay at the approach of an Italian Army. Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary on May 23, 1915. The agreement the Emperor refers to was the Triple Alliance between Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Italy.
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.
The Dardanelles and the Gallipoli Peninsula, an inset from Collier's War Maps of the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmora, and the Bosphorus.
The Cripple Entente: Great Britain, Russia, and France. Their flags behind them, King George V, Tsar Nicholas II, and President Poincaré show the effects of the initial German victories in 1914.
"21st May [1915]The Italian Parliament has decided to enter the war, the deputies in favour numbering 407 against 74, while the senators were unanimous. This is the most important and the happiest event since the Battle of the Marne." ((1), more)
"Oddly, the thing that gave me the greatest fear was not bullet or bomb but Turkish planes flying over and dropping metal darts on us. They were about six inches long, very sharply pointed, and spun as they descended. I hated the thought of a dart dropping on my head. They seemed worse than bullets. You couldn't see bullets; they're past you even before you know they're coming. You could see shells arriving. You could see a four-inch shell coming over like a black cricket ball and you never knew exactly where it was going to land. You just hoped it was going to land somewhere you weren't. Big shells were best in that respect. What they called 'whiz bang' shrapnel was more treacherous. You couldn't see it coming. It burst and either got you or missed you. We were never free of shrapnel and shell, or of casualties." ((2), more)
"With unexampled treachery and greed the King of Italy has forgotten the fraternal obligations which were binding on him as an ally of our Monarchy. From the outbreak of the war, when he should have stood at the side of our brave armies, the treacherous king played the role of a masked trickster, acting with duplicity and all along maintaining secret contacts with our enemies. This treachery culminated on the night of 22/3 May in his declaration of war on our Monarchy. Our supreme commander is convinced that our ever valiant and glorious armies will answer this contemptible treachery of a faithless enemy with such a blow that the traitor will come to recognize that by starting war against us in this shameless and treacherous fashion he has encompassed his own destruction. We firmly believe that with the help of God the day will soon dawn when the plains of Italy will see once more the victors of Santa Lucia, Vicenza, Novarra and Custozza. We want to win, we must win and win we certainly shall!" ((3), more)
"On May the twenty-fourth there was an armistice. I was involved in that as an observer, nothing else. I wasn't among the burial parties. My job was to look out for Otago bodies. Actually I only found one. The rest were either buried before I got there or on the Turk side of the line. They put a line of pegs halfway between the two lines, each peg with a little strip of white calico. We buried all the men on our side of the armistice line and they buried all the men on their side. But that wasn't the first idea. The first idea was that we would pick up the Turks on our side of the line and carry them over the centre line. The Turks were to do the same with our fellows on their side. This turned out to be impossible. You couldn't move the bodies." ((4), more)
"Scared? Sometimes you were too scared to be scared. I would laugh at any individual who says he wasn't afraid. Those who say they were devoid of fear talk absolute phooey. I was paralysed with fear. I was so paralysed with fear on Chunuk Bair and in other placed on Gallipoli that I was sometimes incapable of action, but lucky enough to get away. Strange to say, though, at no point did I ever think that I wouldn't get home. I was wounded but I did get home. I was torpedoed in the Triumph but I still got home. That fortune-teller in Cairo had it right." ((5), more)
(1) Diary entry for May 21, 1915 by Belgian King Albert.
The War Diaries of Albert I King of the Belgians by Albert I, page 41, copyright © 1954, publisher: William Kimber
(2) From the account of New Zealander Sergeant John Skinner of his time on Gallipoli. Within a week of the April 25, 1915 invasion, Skinner's Otago Battalion had lost 800 of its 1,000 men. Darts or fléchettes were used by both sides, and could simply be dropped from a plane. Vanes on the tail ensured they fell vertically and could spin as Skinner describes. They were particularly effective before the widespread introduction of metal helmets.
Voices of Gallipoli by Maurice Shadbolt, pp. 72, 73, copyright © 1988 Maurice Shadbolt, publisher: Hodder and Stoughton, publication date: 1988
(3) Excerpt from Jaroslav Hašek's novel The Good Soldier Švejk. Švejk (or Schweik) was a foot soldier in an Austro-Hungarian Czech battalion on its way to the Russian front lines when his battalion learned that Italy had declared war on Austria-Hungary. The men are assembled, and their captain, 'in an unusually exalted voice,' reads them the order above. The speaker is Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph, who is affronted not only by Italy, but by Italian King Victor Emmanuel. With Austria-Hungary and Germany, Italy was a member of the Triple Alliance, but had declared neutrality at the beginning of the war. The battles the Emperor refers to were Austrian victories over the Italians in the First Italian War of Independence in 1848.
The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek, pp. 512, 513, copyright © Cecil Parrott, 1973 (translation), publisher: Penguin
(4) Description by George Skerret of the New Zealand Otago Battalion of the May 24, 1915 armistice to bury the dead. After the Turkish attack at Ari Burnu — Anzac Cove — on May 18 and 19, bodies lay between the Turkish and Allied lines in a no-man's land that was, in places, only tens of yards wide, and decayed rapidly in the heat. Fearful of disease, wanting to bury their dead, the two sides arranged a truce. As Skerret says, the men originally planned to bury their own, moving enemy dead across the armistice line. The bodies were so badly decomposed moving them was impossible. This was the only such truce of the Gallipoli campaign.
Voices of Gallipoli by Maurice Shadbolt, page 52, copyright © 1988 Maurice Shadbolt, publisher: Hodder and Stoughton, publication date: 1988
(5) From the recollections of veteran Vic Nicholson of the New Zealand Wellington Infantry Battalion of his service in the Gallipoli campaign. The British battleship Triumph was sunk on May 25, 1915 by German submarine U-21 newly arrived at the Dardanelles with the loss of 78 men. Nicholson and two of his mates had their fortunes accurately foretold on the street in Cairo before they went to Gallipoli, Nicholson would be wounded but go home, the second would be badly injured but go home. The third would 'be in a fight,' but the fortune teller knew nothing further. This man died in the August 8 Battle of Chunuk Bair.
Voices of Gallipoli by Maurice Shadbolt, page 95, copyright © 1988 Maurice Shadbolt, publisher: Hodder and Stoughton, publication date: 1988
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