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A postcard of sentry duty on the floodplain of the Yser Canal. In October 1914, the Belgian Army fell back to a position along the Yser River, and struggled to hold the line in a battle that began on October 16. Canals and dykes kept the River and the North Sea from the low-lying countryside. Struggling to hold their position, the Belgians opened the floodgates of the Yser on October 28, flooding the plain, stopping the German advance, and holding the Channel coast.
German postcard of some of the battlefield of Artois, site of the First, Second, and Third Battles of Artois (1914 and 1915), the Battle of Loos (1915), and the Battle of Vimy Ridge (1917). Loos is in the upper right, the road to Vimy on the center right. The world's largest French military cemetery is on the heights of Notre-Dame-de-Lorette.
Detail from Cram's 1903 Railway Map of the Austro-Hungarian Empire showing Transylvania.
The poet, novelist, and political activist Gabriele d'Annunzio speaking in favor of Italy's entry into the war on the side of the Entente Allies, and against 'Giolittismo' at the Costanzi Theater in Rome, May, 1915. Giovanni Giolitti was five-time Prime Minister of Italy, and opposed intervention in the Great War. Illustration by Achille Beltrame.
Examples of mining and countermining a fortress, from the 1915 'Scientific American War Book: The Mechanism and Technique of Warfare.
"The Allied batteries at Ypres opened fire on a zeppelin that was surveying the gun positions early on the morning of April 13th [1915]. The craft was so badly injured it fell a complete wreck, near Thielt.A zeppelin arrived at Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, April 13th, and aimed a dozen bombs at the arsenal and naval workshops, but though several fires were started, no material damage resulted." ((1), more)
"On 14th April at 11.15 P.M., after four days' artillery activity, the [German] enemy fired a mine at St. Eloi (4,000 yards south of Ypres) and began a methodical bombardment. An artillery barrage, in which the XI. Heavy Artillery Brigade, as well as the divisional batteries of the II. Corps, took part, was at once put down, and no infantry attack followed; but the incident attracted attention to that quarter, and was possibly intended to have that result." ((2), more)
"On April 15th [1915], about 500 young Armenian men of Akantz were mustered to hear an order of the Sultan; at sunset they were marched outside the town and every man shot in cold blood. This procedure was repeated in about eighty Armenian villages in the district north of Lake Van, and in three days 24,000 Armenians were murdered in this atrocious fashion." ((3), more)
"In mid-April [1915] Salandra decided to sound out 'the state of public opinion' in the event of Italy's intervention. The vast majority of prefect reports indicated strong neutralist sentiment. One historian concludes that when the king, Salandra, and Sonnino authorized the signature of the Pact of London, there could have been no doubt in their minds that the overwhelming majority of Italians 'would have stayed Imperiali's hand [the actual signer] had a plebiscite been held on the issue of war or peace.' Another adds an important further observation: The prefect reports 'give a general impression of a country with little desire to go to war, but unlikely to offer active opposition.'" ((4), more)
"The 17th April [1915] passed quietly, the weather was fine and sunny, and, as evening approached, there was complete stillness, not a shot being fired by either side. Suddenly at 7.5 P.M. two pairs of mines and one single mine were exploded at 10 seconds interval. As the columns of earth from the explosion of the first pair rose into the air, the crash of bombardment broke the silence and the XV. and XXVII. Field Artillery Brigades and the IX. Heavy Artillery Brigade, the 130th (Howitzer) Battery and the 48th Heavy Battery, with two batteries of French and three of Belgian artillery opened fire on all the approaches to the hill. With the firing of the last mine, the storming party, C Company 1/Royal West Kent and sappers of the 1/2nd Home Counties Field Company R.E., climbed from their trenches and rushed forward. In two minutes they reached the top of the slope and occupied the craters in what remained of the German trenches to the southeast. The surprise was complete . . ." ((5), more)
(1) British and French forces reconfigured their position in the first half of April, 1915, with the British taking over some of the French line on the British left, leaving only two French divisions between the British and Belgian armies. This extended the British line from 19 to 30 miles, and left them primary defenders of the Ypres salient. The departure of the French, who had better anti-aircraft weapons, left the British exposed to Zeppelin and airplane observation which improved German artillery registration. With the arrival of better weather, and the winds that put the Zeppelins at risks, the Germans were also able to expand their attacks on England.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 154, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
(2) With war on the ground static, and many of the strategic high points of Belgium and northern France relatively low, miners and mining units were employed in digging tunnels for the placement of explosives, literally to undermine the enemy positions. A month earlier, on March 14, the Germans had fired two mines at St. Eloi, Belgium, and, immediately attacking the stunned British defenders, had taken 'the Mound', a man-made hill about thirty feet high.
Military Operations France and Belgium, 1915, Vol. I, Winter 1914-15: Battle of Neuve Chappelle : Battle of Ypres [Second] by J. E. Edmonds, page 163, copyright © asserted, publisher: Macmillan and Co., Limited, publication date: 1927
(3) Excerpt from the memoir of Henry Morgenthau, American Ambassador at Constantinople, Turkey, from 1913 to 1916. Although the Young Turks had promised equal rights for non-Turkish citizens, and had allowed them to serve in the army, by 1915 their revolution had turned against minority groups, particularly Armenians. Much of the population of the Russian/Turkish frontier was Armenian Christians. Turkish War Minister Enver Pasha put much of the blame for his disastrous defeat in the Battle of Sarikamish on the Armenians. With the defeat of the Anglo-French naval campaign in the Dardanelles, Enver and Minister of the Interior Talaat felt secure the Allies would neither reach Constantinople nor overthrow their government. Across Turkey, they began a campaign to destroy the Armenian population.
Ambassador Morgenthau's Story by Henry Morgenthau, page 297, copyright © 1918, by Doubleday, Page & Company, publisher: Doubleday, Page & Company, publication date: 1918
(4) The third member, with Germany and Austria-Hungary, of the Triple Alliance, Italy had concluded that Austria-Hungary's war on Serbia was not defensive and did not compel Italy to join the war to defend its Alliance partner. Within Italy there was significant irredentist support for seizing ethnically Italian territory from Austria-Hungary, particularly Trentino and the city of Trieste. Prime Minister Antonio Salandra and Foreign Minister Sidney Sonnino were strong supporters of the war to which King Victor Emmanuel had to agree. On April 26, 1915, the Italian Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Guglielmo Imperiali, signed the Pact of London on behalf of Italy, committing it to enter the war on the side of the Entente Allies a month later.
Decisions for War, 1914-1917 by Richard F. Hamilton and Holger H. Herwig, page 198, copyright © Richard F. Hamilton & Holger H. Herwig 2004, publisher: Cambridge University Press, publication date: 2004
(5) Southeast of Ypres, Belgium, and held by the Germans, Hill 60 was named for its height, a mere 60 meters high, an artificial hill created from the soil of Messines Ridge when a railroad line was cut through the Ridge. The first underground attack of the war took place on December 20, 1914, near Festubert, Belgium against troops of the Indian Corps. Other attacks followed, including those of March 14 and April 14, 1915 at St. Eloi, south of Ypres. In all these cases, the mines were German. At Hill 60, both German and British miners dug. The Germans planned to set off their mines on April 19. On April 17, the British set off theirs.
Military Operations France and Belgium, 1915, Vol. I, Winter 1914-15: Battle of Neuve Chappelle : Battle of Ypres [Second] by J. E. Edmonds, page 168, copyright © asserted, publisher: Macmillan and Co., Limited, publication date: 1927
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