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Italian soldiers huddled in their mountain trenches trying to sleep while a sentry stands guard. From a painting by R. Salvadori, a card to benefit soldiers maimed in the war.
When will the war end? November 11! A 1915 German postcard using the dates of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 (a Prussian victory that led to German unification) to predict the end of the current 1914-1915 war. It accurately the predicts the month and day on which the Armistice was signed, November 11, 1918, missing the year by three years.
Map showing the territorial gains (darker shades) of Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece, primarily at the expense of Turkey, agreed in the Treaty of Bucharest following the Second Balkan War. Despite its gains, Bulgaria also lost territory to both Romania and Turkey.
A German Zeppelin visits Sofia, capital of Bulgaria on November 10, 1915. Less than a month earlier Bulgaria had joined the Central Powers.
A Senussi column near the site of an attack on the British in Egypt. The Senussi first rebelled against Italian forces in Libya after Italy seized the territory from the Ottoman Empire. Supported by Turkey in Libya and later by Germany, the Senussi began a guerrilla campaign against the British in Egypt in late 1915, tying down 20,000 troops for over a year.
"The Third Battle [of the Isonzo] was suspended on the evening of 4 November, but Cadorna was unreasonably convinced that Boroević's army teetered on the edge of collapse. Knowing that 24 fresh battalions were due to arrive within a week or two, he felt sure that Gorizia could still be taken. After a week's pause, the Fourth Battle was launched with a short bombardment. The infantry did their best to charge up the open slopes of Mrzli, Podgora, Sabotino and San Michele, swept by machine-gun fire. The rain pelted down, the temperature sank, and then — on 16 November — heavy snow fell. There would not be a proper thaw until spring 1917, when corpses were revealed after a year and a half." ((1), more)
"How long will the war last? Until November 11 1915!18 | 7018 | 7136 | 141Adds to the checksum of 36, so 3 + 6 = 9 | the 9th dayAdds to the checksum of 141, so 1 + 4 + 1 = 6 | of the 6th monthThe 9th day of the 6th month was June 9 and peace in the year 187119 | 1419 | 1538 | 29Adds to the checksum of 38, so 3 + 8 = 11 | the 11th dayAdds to the checksum of 29, so 2 + 9 = 11 | of the 11th monthThe 11th day of the 11th month is November 11 and peace in the year 1915" ((2), more)
"Friday, November 12, 1915Under the double pressure of the Austro-Germans on the north, and the Bulgarians on the east, the unfortunate Serbians have been crushed, despite a heroic resistance.On November 7, the town of Nish, Serbia's ancient metropolis and the birthplace of Constantine the Great, fell into the hands of the Bulgarians. Between Kralievo and Krujevatz, the Austro-Germans have crossed the Western Morava, capturing masses of booty at every step.Yesterday the Anglo-French advance guard established contact with the Bulgarians in the Vardar valley, near Karasu. But the intervention of the Allies in Macedonia has come to late. Before long there will be no more Serbia!" ((3), more)
"The main Serbian forces, by this time, had been rolled back upon the great Kossove Plain, 40 miles long, where they were joined by a hundred thousand Serbian refugees. Here they decided to risk all upon a final decisive battle at Pristina, on the same battleground that saw the defeat of the Serbian Czar Lazar by the Turks in 1389.The battle of Pristina was fought November 13th amidst a ceaseless downpour of rain, with thunder reverberating and lightning flashing. It was reciprocal slaughter, not warfare. Whole regiments were blotted out in a trice. Along that battle line of 40 miles, quarter was neither asked nor given....The Serbians were overwhelmed by the numbers of their enemy and retreated toward Prisrend, leaving 50,000 dead and 50,000 prisoners behind them." ((4), more)
"On November 14 a new war zone was opened, one of the least remembered of the war. On that day, in the deserts of Italian Libya, which before 1912 had been part of the Ottoman Empire, the Senussi tribesmen rose up in revolt against the Allies. Supported by the Turks, the Senussi opened fire at a British-Egyptian border post at Sollum. Two days later, three hundred tribesmen occupied the Zaura monastery at Sidi Barrani. British troops were sent into action, but the tribesmen, with the desert as their hiding place, continued to cause considerable aggravation." ((5), more)
(1) Italian Commander-in-Chief Luigi Cadorna had launched the Third Battle of the Isonzo River on October 18, 1915, with artillery inadequate to the tasks of cutting barbed wire and destroying entrenched troops. Repeating the attempt to begin the Fourth Battle on November 10 with even less artillery preparation proved deadly to Cadorna's men.
The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919 by Mark Thompson, page 132, copyright © 2008 Mark Thompson, publisher: Basic Books, publication date: 2009
(2) A numerology postcard predicts peace on November 11, 1915, three years to the day before the armistice of 1918. The prediction is based on comparable dates for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871. No doubt further calculations could be used retrospectively to account for the three years. Other postcards provide comparable predictions.
How long will the War last?, face of postcard, publisher: Otto Schloß, publication date: 1915
(3) Entry for November 12, 1915 from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia. The Allied (primarily French) troops under General Maurice Sarrail that had landed at Salonika, Greece at the beginning of October, 1915 were not able to break through the Bulgarian forces barring their route to Serbia. The Serbian army's only route of retreat was westward, out of the country through Albania.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. II by Maurice Paléologue, page 103, publisher: George H. Doran Company
(4) Isolated, cut off from potential Allied reinforcements in Greece, Serbia's army had only one route of retreat, westward, out of the country through Albania to the Adriatic Sea. They fought a final pitched battle against the combined invasion force of German, Austro-Hungarian, and Bulgarian troops.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 191, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
(5) Italy had seized Libya in the Italo-Turkish War of 1911-12. Encouraged by the defeated Turks, the Senussi rebelled against the Italians, and later attacked the British forces in Egypt. The Senussi attack on Sollum failed, but the British evacuated it on November 23. After having strengthened their position, the British re-occupied Sollum in March, 1916. The Senussi managed to tie down as many as 20,000 British Empire troops for much of 1916.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 210, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
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