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Children playing 'In the Dardanelles'. From February 19 to March 18, 1915, a Franco-British fleet tried to force its way through the Dardanelles to Constantinople. The Strait was defended by forts, some with modern German artillery. After a failure to break through on March 18, the Allies decided to invade, and in April, landed on the Gallipoli peninsula. Illustrated postcard by Pauli Ebner.
Detail from the Indian Memorial at Neuve Chapelle: interior. © 2013, John M. Shea
A child soldier guarding the Dardanelles, points to a sinking folded paper boat. He stands on the northern, European side; a Turkish flag flies on the southern, Asian side. He wears a Turkish fez and what may be a German naval blouse. German officers, sailors, and artillery crews supplemented the Turkish defenders of the Dardanelles. On March 18, 1915, the Turks sank or badly damaged some of the French and British warships trying to break through to Constantinople, leading the Allies to end their attempt to force the Dardanelles.
An Italian postcard of the Industry of War. Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany squeezes gold from France and Belgium, filling sacks of money he provides to his ally Emperor Franz Josef of Austria-Hungary who feeds his guns to fire at Tsar Nicholas of Russia who vomits up troops. On the bottom right, Serbia, Montenegro, and Japan join the battle against Germany and Austria-Hungary. To the left, Great Britain flees to its ships. King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy surveys it all, serenely neutral until May 1915. Germany taxed Belgium and occupied France heavily during its occupation, in money, in food and other necessities, and in human life and labor. Austria-Hungary borrowed heavily from Germany to support its war effort. The enormous manpower of Russia was a source of consolation for its allies, and of trepidation to its enemies. Some suspected Great Britain would take its small army and return to its ships, home, and empire.
Weihnachten im Unterstand 1916 (Christmas in the dugout 1916)A well built shelter with stove and chimney, towels drying on a line, a table decorated with greens and three small Christmas trees, two wine bottles.Original Austrian pencil sketch by Karl, 1916. © John M. Shea
"Another collection has been announced at school, for copper, again, but also for tin, lead, zinc, brass and old iron to make gun-barrels, field guns, cartridge cases and so forth. There is a keen competition between the classes. Our class, the fourth, has so far collected the most. I turned the whole house over from top to bottom. Grandma cried, 'The wench will bankrupt me! Why don't you give them your lead soldiers instead of cleaning me out!' So my little army had to meet their deaths." ((1), more)
"Br.-General Pinney hoped to be able to attack at 11.30 P.M. [on March 12, 1915], but the confusion of units was so great that battalion commanders asked for a two-hour postponement. . . . As [zero hour] approached, the men, exhausted after three days and nights continuously under fire, had fallen asleep, and could only be aroused by use of force, a process made very lengthy by the fact that this part of the battlefield was covered with British and German dead, who, in the dark, were indistinguishable from the sleepers." ((2), more)
"Early on the 13th March [1915] Sir John French wired to Lord Kitchener :- 'Cessation of the forward movement is necessitated to-day by the fatigue of the troops, and, above all, by the want of ammunition. The First Army is consolidating and strengthening its new line. Further plans are being matured for a vigorous offensive'. Subsequent enquiries as to the ammunition available showed, however, that if the offensive operations were resumed there would be a risk of depleting the supplies beyond the limits of safety, and on the 15th March Sir John French decided that for the time-being the idea of continuing the offensive must be abandoned." ((3), more)
"In early March, Bedri [Prefect of Police at Constantinople] and Djambolat, who was Director of Public Safety, came to see me. At that time the exodus from the capital had begun; Turkish women and children were being moved to the interior; all the banks had been compelled to send their gold into Asia Minor; the archives of the Sublime Porte had already been carried to Eski-Shehr; and practically all the ambassadors and their suites, as well as most of the government officials, had made their preparations to leave. . . .At the station stood the trains which were to take the Sultan and the Government and the ambassadors to Asia Minor. They had steam up, ready to move at a moment's notice. We were all awaiting the triumphant arrival of the Allied fleet.Chapter XVIIWhen the situation had reached this exciting stage, Enver asked me to visit the Dardanelles. . . ." ((4), more)
"The Russians have burned nearly all the surrounding villages. In one village the inhabitants locked themselves into their huts to keep out the Russians. The Russians boarded up the doors from the outside and set fire to the huts. There is no longer any doubt that we will have to surrender. Betrayal and hunger have exhausted us.As of yesterday, soldiers are getting better food rations to prepare them for the march. They are mere shadows, not people, they are skeletons, not men. The peasants have had everything taken from them, so as not to leave anything for the Russians. This was done ruthlessly, without any compassion. An act unworthy of the civilized Catholic nation that we are. It was cruel to give such an order, but those executing it were crueller still. How generous of them to leave the peasants their lives!" ((5), more)
(1) Entry for March 11, 1915 by Piete Kuhr, a then-twelve-year-old girl from Schneidemühl, East Prussia (now Pila, Poland). Eight months into the war, Schneidemühl had already been crowded with German refugees fleeing the initial advance of the Russians into East Prussia, Russian POWs taken at the Battle of Tannenberg, and German troops moving to the Eastern Front in increasing numbers. Airmen had died in training at the town's airfield. A POW camp had been set up. In November, Piete nearly died from the influenza epidemic which had run through the camp and struck the town. Shortly before her illness, she had stopped playing with dolls and begun playing with toy soldiers.
Intimate Voices from the First World War by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, pp. 61, 62, copyright © 2003 by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, publisher: Harper Collins Publishers, publication date: 2003
(2) The Battle of Neuve Chapelle began on March 10, 1915 with a thirty-five minute bombardment by British and Indian artillery. By 10:00 AM British and Indian infantry in the center of the line had reached their day's objective, breaking through the German line to see open country before them. But on either flank the advance had been stymied, and they held their ground the night of the 10th. Overnight, German defenders moved in, dug in, and were in position to halt a renewed offensive on March 11. March 12 began with a German counter-attack, one the British stopped before resuming their own offensive. The Germans stopped this in turn. Based on an overly optimistic understanding of the situation, the British planned a renewed attack for the night of March 12, but this was called off as it became clear the troops were disorganized and in no condition to attack. The British suspended their offensive. In the battle, each side suffered about 12,000 casualties. The Indian Corps Meerut and Lahore Divisions accounted for 4,047 of the British total.
Military Operations France and Belgium, 1915, Vol. I, Winter 1914-15: Battle of Neuve Chappelle : Battle of Ypres [Second] by J. E. Edmonds, page 146, copyright © asserted, publisher: Macmillan and Co., Limited, publication date: 1927
(3) On the night of March 12, 1915, Sir John French, commander of the British Expeditionary Force, expected to resume the offensive and continue the three-day Battle of Neuve Chapelle, but the demands of the battle on men and materiel forbade it. On the first day of the battle, when the British and Indian troops had broken through the German front line, the 18-pound guns had fired 129 rounds per gun. Britain was producing 7.5 rounds per 18-pounder per day, and the production rates for other caliber guns were comparable. No nation had been prepared for the rate at which artillery shells and other weapons and ordnance were being consumed in the war, but both France and Germany had responded more quickly. The shell shortage was particularly acute in Britain and Russia. Herbert Lord Kitchener was British Secretary of State for War.
Military Operations France and Belgium, 1915, Vol. I, Winter 1914-15: Battle of Neuve Chappelle : Battle of Ypres [Second] by J. E. Edmonds, pp. 149, 150, copyright © asserted, publisher: Macmillan and Co., Limited, publication date: 1927
(4) Excerpt from the memoir of Henry Morgenthau, American Ambassador to Turkey from 1913 to 1916. As the Allied naval attempt to force the Dardanelles continued, many in the government and Constantinople expected the Anglo-French fleet to succeed. Turkish War Minister Enver was one of the few who did not, and he invited Ambassador Morgenthau to join him on a visit to the Dardanelles where he would explain his conviction. The morning of March 15, Morgenthau, Enver, the Turkish Minister of Justice, and others sailed across the Sea of Marmora to Gallipoli. 'The sublime porte' is a reference to the gate leading to the government buildings in Constantinople and a metonym for the Turkish government.
Ambassador Morgenthau's Story by Henry Morgenthau, pp. 199 through 202, copyright © 1918, by Doubleday, Page & Company, publisher: Doubleday, Page & Company, publication date: 1918
(5) Entry for March 15, 1915 by Helena Jabłońska, a Polish Austro-Hungarian who was in the besieged fortress city of Przemyśl. A widow, she rented rooms to garrison soldiers. The Russians had first besieged the city after their victory in the Galician battles in August and September, 1914, a siege that was briefly broken, but not lifted. By March 1915, the Austro-Hungarian defense was nearing its end. The 'march' is the one the defeated soldiers will make to prisoner-of-war camps in Russia after the city falls.
Intimate Voices from the First World War by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, page 81, copyright © 2003 by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, publisher: Harper Collins Publishers, publication date: 2003
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