Search by or
Search: Quotation Context Tags
From The Great War magazine, Part 34: Map of the Turkish invasion of Russia in the Caucasus at the end of 1914, ending in defeat at the Battle of Sarikamish.
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.
Postcard of a German soldier guarding French POWs, most of them colonial troops, the colorful uniforms of a Zouave, Spahi, Senegalese, and metropolitan French soldier contrasting with the field gray German uniform. A 1915 postcard by Emil Huber.
An Austro-Hungarian artillery train advancing against Montenegro watched by two civilians. A 1915 postcard.
A Zeppelin shot down in Salonica, Greece, on May 5, 1916. Of the incident, Alan Palmer in 'The Gardeners of Salonika' wrote, 'The destruction of a Zeppelin by naval gunners on May 5 in full view of the people of Salonika also raised the spirits of the troops, especially among the British contingent, for their families at home had already been subjected to raids of this type and it was to be another four months before the first Zeppelin was shot down on English soil.' (page 62)
"Sunday, January 30, 1916The army of the Grand Duke Nicholas Nicolaïevitch is doing wonders in Northern Armenia. Across a chaos of rugged and icebound mountains it is driving the Turks before it, and swiftly approaching Erzerum." ((1), more)
"In the air, Germany retained the ascendancy. . . . For the British public, it was German air activity that still created alarm. On January 31 [1916], nine Zeppelins flew across the North Sea to Britain: 389 bombs were dropped in the Midlands. One of the Zeppelins crashed into the sea on its return, and all sixteen of its crewmen were killed." ((2), more)
"It was round about then [February 1, 1916] too that an NCO with the 6th, whom I knew well, and whose brother had fallen only days before, was fatally injured by a 'toffee-apple' that he had found. He had unscrewed the fuse, and, noticing that the greenish powder he tipped out was highly inflammable, he put a lit cigarette in at the opening. The mortar of course blew up, and he received fifty separate wounds. We suffered many casualties from the over-familiarity engendered by daily encounters with gunpowder." ((3), more)
"General Headquarters is being moved. As the railway bridge is not yet repaired, the provisioning service between the two stations is carried on by motor truck. But is spite of the very inadequate facilities for transporting the general food supply, all the vehicles have been requisitioned to help move Headquarters.Columns of trucks wind over the mountains, packed with cases of champagne, wire-spring beds, floor lamps, special kitchen equipment, and various crates of delicacies. The troops receive a third of their normal rations. The infantry at the front has had only a morsel of bread for four days, but the staff officers' mess serves the usual four-course dinners." ((4), more)
"By the end of January 1916 the entrenched camp already contained a remarkable concentration of Allied military and naval power. Rather more than 160,000 men were confined in an area about twice the size of the Isle of Wight, four-fifths of the force within a twenty-mile radius of the port. The nearest Bulgarian posts were twenty-five miles from the fortified line, along the old Greco-Serbian frontier. Beyond the Bulgars and the Allies lay a no man's land which, apart from the Vardar valley and the wooded slopes around Lake Doiran, was bare and mountainous. Occasionally there would be cavalry skirmish between reconnaissance groups or an exchange of artillery fire, but for days on end there was no contact with the enemy—only the monotony of digging and filling sandbags or the tedium of training exercises." ((5), more)
(1) Entry for January 30, 1916 from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia. Grand Duke Nicholas had been commander in chief of the Russian Army until its 1915 collapse and Great Retreat before the German-Austro-Hungarian Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive. Tsar Nicholas had taken command command of the army in the summer and dispatched the Grand Duke to the Caucusus Front, where General Nikolai Yudenich led the fight against the Turks. Throughout the day on January 31, the Russians bombarded the outer forts that protected Erzerum. The Turkish defenders poured water down the slopes to turn their strongholds into mountains of ice.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. II by Maurice Paléologue, page 162, publisher: George H. Doran Company
(2)
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 230, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(3) Ensign Ernst Jünger's unit was stationed in Monchy-le-Preux, France, a dozen kilometers east of the city of Arras, facing the British lines.
Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger, page 60, copyright © 1920, 1961, Translation © Michael Hoffman, 2003, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 2003
(4) February, 1916, excerpt from the journal of Pál Kelemen, an Hungarian cavalryman in Montenegro, which, after the defeat of Serbia in October and November, 1915, had surrendered in January.
The Beauty and the Sorrow: An Intimate History of the First World War by Peter Englund, pp. 216, 217, copyright © 2009 by Peter England, publisher: Vintage Books, publication date: 2012
(5) The Entente Allies had been too late in their attempt to save Serbia from being overrun by the German-Austro-Hungarian-Bulgarian invasion in October and November, 1915. France and Britain had landed troops at Salonica, Greece and moved north, but had been prevented from providing any relief by Bulgarian forces. Having failed, the British were eager to abandon the new front, as they were soon to evacuate Gallipoli, the French argued for staying, getting the better of the argument. By late January 1916, Gallipoli had been abandoned, and Salonica reinforced.
The Gardeners of Salonika by Alan Palmer, page 52, copyright © 1965 by A. W. Palmer, publisher: Simon and Schuster, publication date: 1965
1 2 Next
