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An Austro-Hungarian postcard commemorating the first year of the war, begun on July 28, 1914, with Austria-Hungary's declaration of war on Serbia. The sword the standing officer is wearing would have impeded his movement on the battlefield. The card was postmarked in Vienna on December 27, 1915.
A squadron of the German Imperial Navy under the eye of a Zeppelin off the North Sea island and port of Helgoland.
A Liebig bullion card from the series "Colonies of the European Powers" — The German colonies of Togo, Cameroon, and German East Africa, c1910.
Russian troops fleeing a solitary German soldier. The Russian First Army invaded Germany in August 1914, and defeated the Germans in the Battle of Gumbinnen on the 20th. In September the Germans drove them out of Russia in the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes. In September and October, a joint German, Austro-Hungarian offensive drove the Russians back almost to Warsaw. Illustration by E. H. Nunes.
Lithograph postcard of the uniforms of the Belgian military including infantry, cavalry, and bicycle corps beneath a portrait of King Albert I.
"The Germans tempered the cruelty of war by shielding their troops with expensive technology; the Austro-Hungarians economized—before and during the war—and threw their infantry away like trash. 'The Germans expend metal, we expend life,' a Russian general confessed in 1915, and the same could be said of the Austrians. . . . Gorlice-Tarnów was more of a breakthrough for the Germans than the Austrians. Despite the fact that whole Russian artillery regiments were limited to just ten shells a day by this date, Austro-Hungarian battle reports spoke of yet more fruitless and costly attacks and limited gains." ((1), more)
"The Austrians counterattacked in the central Adriatic on 23 July. Cruisers, destroyers, and torpedo boats raided the Tremiti Islands and the Italian coast from Grottamare to Termoli. They repeated the attacks, joined by aircraft, somewhat farther to the north between Fano and Ancona on the 28th. The same day they made an unsuccessful attempt to recapture Pelagosa. The expedition consisted of two cruisers, six destroyers, and a number of torpedo boats, with the submarine UB.14 scouting in advance." ((2), more)
"The Germans and rebel Boers were still holding out in various sections of the Kameruns during 1915, and it was the business of the French, Belgian, and British forces to subdue them. Many small engagements took place, but with the capture of the forts at Garna on June 11th, and that of Ngaundere on July 29th, the Germans were practically dispossessed of their colony, although in the fall of 1915, a considerable force still occupied Yaunds and did not surrender until New Year's Day, 1916." ((3), more)
"Demoralization, surrender, and desertion are assuming huge proportions." ((4), more)
"Half an hour before dawn the trench garrison stood to arms and there was still complete quiet. Then at 3.15 A.M., with dramatic suddenness came the carefully planned German stroke. The site of the stables of the chateau was blown up, whilst a sudden hissing sound was heard by the two companies of the 8/Rifle Brigade on either side of the crater, and a bright crimson glare over the crater turned the whole scene red. Jets of flame as if from a line of powerful fire-hoses, spraying fire instead of water, shot across the front trenches of the Rifle Brigade and a thick black cloud formed. It was the first attack on the British with liquid fire." ((5), more)
(1) July 28, 1915: Austria-Hungary's war is one year old, as is Serbia's. The Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive, a joint German, Austro-Hungarian offensive begun on May 2, 1915, continued to drive Russia back, out of Austro-Hungarian territory, but also out of Polish-Russia with Warsaw itself threatened. But Austria-Hungary was no match for Russia, and its victories were Germany's. After a year of war, Austria-Hungary's casualty toll was approaching two million men, dead, missing, prisoner, wounded.
A Mad Catastrophe by Geoffrey Wawro, pp. 371, 372, copyright © 2014 by Geoffrey Wawro, publisher: Basic Books
(2) Italy had declared war on Austria-Hungary on May 23, 1915. One July 11, Italian troops occupied the Austro-Hungarian island Pelagosa in the Adriatic Sea.
A Naval History of World War I by Paul G. Halpern, page 149, copyright © 1994 by the United States Naval Institute, publisher: UCL Press, publication date: 1994
(3) Germany lost most of its colonies in 1914, but war continued in Africa even after the armistice in 1918. Rebel Boers from the Union of South Africa had also alongside the Germans in German Southwest Africa. In German Kamerun (Cameroons), they faced French and British armies that did not always coordinate their activities.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 167, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
(4) Russian Minister of War, General Poplivanov, to his ministerial colleagues. The Russian front has collapsed before the German-Austro-Hungarian Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive.Quoted in Gilbert, p. 176.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 176, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(5) In July 1915, British and German forces fought three engagements in Hooge, a village near Ypres, with a destroyed chateau held by the Germans, and its stables held by the British. On July 19, the British initiated an attack by setting off a mine that opened a crater 120 feet across, gaining a small amount of ground. A second attack on the 22nd had no mine, no element of surprise, and failed. On the morning of July 30, the Germans attacked with 'liquid-fire', a weapon the French had already faced.
Military Operations France and Belgium, 1915, Vol. II, Battles of Aubers Ridge, Festubert, and Loos by J. E. Edmonds, page 104, copyright © asserted, publisher: Macmillan and Co., Limited, publication date: 1928
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