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Prosperity and victory in 1915: an official New Year's postcard of the Bavarian Red Cross, with a message dated December 31, 1914, postmarked January 1, 1915.
Hand-painted miniatures of Mecca and the Ka'abah from the Islamic prayer book 'Prayers to Muhammed,' composed by Muhammed b. Suleyman al-Jazuli.
Socialists Karl Liebknecht and Lededur(?) struggle to restrain Imperial Germany from getting its slice of the world — Togo, Cameroon, East Africa, Southwest Africa — that other world powers carve up. France, Italy, the United States and Britain dig in.
John Bull, symbol of Great Britain and here a bird-catcher, tries to entice the kingdom of Romania, in 1915 a neutral nation, into his trap. He already has Russia by the nose, and the plucked cock of France and an Italian fowl close at hand. Neutral (and wise) Greece rests out of reach, while Bulgaria sings to the Islamic crescent moon of Turkey. In the background Turkish, German, and Austro-Hungarian soldiers meet at a crossroads. Carved into the tree is a heart dated 1915, and the initials 'F A R', perhaps for 'France aime Russie:' France loves Russia.
British infantry, artillery, cavalry, and a tank, likely on the Arras front, 1917. From The Nations at War by Willis J. Abbot 1918 Edition.
"Monday, 13th June, [O.S.; June 26, 1916, N.S.] BuchachThere were two major operations late last night, both stomach wounds; the intestines had been severely perforated and it was by no means easy to cleanse the abdominal cavity of the blood and impurities which had flowed into it. The Surgeons' skilled hands were able to cut away the torn intestinal tubes and join the healthy ends together once again. It would seem a miracle if the patient survived such an intricate operation, but a high percentage did survive and our Surgeons, who kept in touch with many of the Base hospitals, often heard that such and such a soldier was being slowly restored to health. It was a difficult time for us Sisters while these 'stomach' patients were under our care, for they were constantly crying our for water — their thirst must have exceeded their pain — and we knew that nothing must pass through those injured intestines until they had healed. It was even forbidden to allow a drop of water to pass through those parched lips." ((1), more)
"God (blessed and exalted be He) has vouchsafed the land an opportunity to rise in revolt, has enabled her by His power and might to seize her independence and crown her efforts with prosperity and victory, even after she was crushed by the maladministration of the Turkish civil and military officials. She stands quite apart and distinct from countries that still groan under the yoke of the Union and Progress Government. She is independent in the fullest sense of the word, freed from the rule of strangers and purged of every foreign influence. Her principles are to defend the faith of Islam, to elevate the Moslem people, to found their conduct on Holy Law, to build up the code of justice on the same foundation in harmony with the principles of religion, to practice its ceremonies in accordance with modern progress, and make a genuine revolution by sparing no pains in spreading education among all classes according to their station and their needs." ((2), more)
"In Germany, anti-war feeling was growing. Deaths from starvation as a result of the Allied blockade was becoming a daily occurrence. In 1915 some 88,232 deaths had been attributed to the blockade. In 1916 the number rose to 121,114. There were food riots in more than 30 German cities. On June 28 a three-day protest strike began, in which 55,000 German workers took part. The one anti-war member of the Reichstag, Karl Liebknecht, was expelled from the Reichstag and sentenced to two years' hard labour for continuing to urge soldiers not to fight. Two months later his sentence was increased to four years." ((3), more)
"The Russian Galicia army has now reached out to Kolomea, fifty kilometres south of the Dniester; its north-westerly sweep is becoming more marked as it advances on Stanislau.During the month of June it has made 217,000 prisoners, including 4,500 officers; it has also captured two hundred and thirty guns and seven hundred machine-guns.General Alexeïev has just sent a note to General Joffre pointing out the desirablility at the present moment of the Salonica army taking the offensive against the Bulgars: he thinks this offensive would undoubtedly compel Rumania once and for all to throw in her lot with the Entente. . . ." ((4), more)
"30th June [1916]Visit to the sector of the British 9th Division (General Hunter-Weston) at Ypres.The British Army, from its leaders down to the ranks themselves, gives the impression of being a power of the first order. They are excellent troops from the point of view of courage and discipline. They are perhaps a little inexperienced, but that is quickly remedied in wartime. Particularly striking are the order, the ready obedience and the outward gaiety of the men, and the fine physique and the bold and resolute attitude of the officers." ((5), more)
(1) Entry for June 26, 1916 (June 13 Old Style) from the diary of Florence Farmborough, an English nurse serving with the Russian Red Cross behind the front lines of Russia's Brusilov Offensive. The next day, Farmborough and a male nurse could barely restrain one of their 'stomach patients' who was delirious from thirst.
Nurse at the Russian Front, a Diary 1914-18 by Florence Farmborough, page 202, copyright © 1974 by Florence Farmborough, publisher: Constable and Company Limited, publication date: 1974
(2) Excerpt from the June 27, 1916 proclamation of independence by Hussein ibn Ali, the Sherif of Mecca and King of Hijaz. Hussein cites the behavior of the Society of Union and Progress, the party of the Young Turks, as the justification for his declaration. The Party stripped the Sultan of his power, putting command of the Ottoman Empire in the hands of Enver Pasha, Djemal Pasha, and Talaat Bey who were responsible for the loss of the empire's territory and the impoverishment of its people. The crimes Hussein attributes to them include religious offenses, the hanging of 21 'eminent and cultured Moslems and Arabs of distinction,' and the shelling of the Kaaba in Mecca, which set its covering cloth ablaze and nearly struck the Black Stone set into one corner of the structure.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. IV, 1916, p. 237, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
(3) Karl Liebknecht was a leader of the German Social Democratic Party, assassinated, along with Rosa Luxembourg, by right-wing thugs in 1919.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 256, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(4) Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia, writing on June 29, 1916 on the success of Russia's Brusilov Offensive, begun June 4, 1916, into Galicia in Austria-Hungary's northeast, one of the most successful of the war. Both the Triple Entente and the Central Powers had encouraged Romania to join the war. As Romania's chief ambition was to seize the Austro-Hungarian territory of Transylvania with its large ethnically-Romanian population, the Entente was the more obvious partner, and Brusilov's success made the timing opportune, but Romania would continue to dawdle until the Russians had been stopped and the Central Powers could turn their full attention on Romania. The French and British had landed troops in Salonica, Greece, in 1915, in hopes of preventing the overrunning of Serbia. They had failed in their mission, but had over 300,000 troops in Greece, joined by Serbian and Russian troops. General Mikhail Vasiliyevich Alekseyev was Chief of Staff of Stavka, the Russian High Command, from 1915 to 1917.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. II by Maurice Paléologue, page 286, publisher: George H. Doran Company
(5) Entry for June 30, 1916, from the war diary of Albert, King of the Belgians. South of Ypres, the British were preparing to attack the next day, July 1, in their Somme Offensive.
The War Diaries of Albert I King of the Belgians by Albert I, page 111, copyright © 1954, publisher: William Kimber
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