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A call to Italians to buy war bonds to help fund the powerful weapons needed for the last push to Trieste, a mere 25 kilometers from the Italian front lines. It pays 5%, after all, tax free, for an effective rate of 5.55%!
Postcard map of Galicia, one of the Austro-Hungarian theaters of war, from Cracow to Tarnopol along the north of the Carpathian Mountains. The region includes the fortress city of Przemyśl.
Headstone of Sapper E.M. Des Brisay, 2nd Canadian Signal Company, Attd. Royal Flying Corps, died August 3, 1916, age 23, at Cabaret Rouge British Cemetery, Souchez, France. © 2013 John M. Shea
Re-elect President Woodrow Wilson! An October 18, 1916 cartoon from the British magazine Punch. The German sinking of ships that killed American citizens and sabotage such as the July 30, 1916 attack that destroyed the Black Tom munitions plant in Jersey City, New Jersey, were not enough to make Wilson call for a declaration of war on Germany, much to the distress of Great Britain and the other Entente allies. The date on Wilson's desk calendar is October 8, 1916, a day on which German submarine U-53 sank five vessels — three British, one Dutch, and one Norwegian — off Nantucket, Massachusetts. One of the British ships was a passenger liner traveling between New York and Newfoundland.
Headstones from Martinpuich Cemetery, Martinpuich, France: for J. Reid of the Royal Field Artillery, died October 6, 1916, and R.E. Bullows of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, died November 11, 1916. Martinpuich was in the Somme sector. © 2013 John M. Shea
"With the beginning of November 1st, the Italians once more resumed their drive again against Trieste, and in four days of fighting on high mountain peaks advanced their lines, taking 10,000 prisoner. But their own losses also were heavy, compelling a cessation of hostilities. Excepting for a series of artillery duels during November, neither side undertook any important engagement." ((1), more)
"On the Eastern Front, other shortages were impeding any hope of a renewed Russian success. 'The plain truth is,' wrote Colonel Knox in his diary on November 5, 'that without aeroplanes and far more heavy guns and shell and some knowledge of their use, it is butchery, and useless butchery, to drive Russian infantry against German lines.' In the previous five months, Knox was told by General Dukhonin, the Quarter-Master General, Russian losses 'may well have exceeded a million men' killed and wounded.. . . On November 5 the German-sponsored Kingdom of Poland was proclaimed, with Warsaw as its capital." ((2), more)
"Look here, Kid. Take a tip from me an[d] stop wanting to enlist. You could do nothing but go in the home guards and stay there awhile, and it would be a deuce of a awhile. You hold your horses awhile and go to school every day, and by the time you are seventeen you can get out and enlist.Don't be afraid that the war will be over by then, because if you ask me, it is going to last some time after 1920. So be a good boy and stay on the farm for a while, and go to school every day you possibly can, as that is the best thing you can ever do. I am haveing a pretty good time just now, but I don't know how long it is going to last. Most of the men here are not near as well off as I am by a long sight." ((3), more)
"In New York at the Hotel Astor Mr. Hughes was awakened from his afternoon nap with the news that he would be the next President. The Times searchlight was flashing a Republican victory. A skysign on the roof of the hotel spelled out HUGHES in electric bulbs. Marchers from the Union League Club appeared with a band in Times Square calling on Mr. Hughes to claim election. At Oyster Bay, Theodore Roosevelt was already declaring that the Republican victory was 'a vindication of our national honor.'" ((4), more)
"Why are tired men given no better resting-place than this half-flooded claypit? Why does our Army now leave its dead lying about anyhow? Why does it now leave its wounded in its midst behind, or bring them out only under lethal threats? Why are men being flung against an enemy in these appalling weather conditions?—and with with far less method than our shells are flung. Were we not told a month ago of the German line having been driven in so far that its flanks must be pulled back? — it doesn't look like breaking. Our total casualties these six days are 150." ((5), more)
(1) The curious syntax and redundancy of our author's summary — 'the Italians once more resumed their drive again against Trieste' — may be appropriate for the Ninth of Twelve Battles of the Isonzo, which Italian commander-in-chief Luigi Cadorna launched on November 1, 1916. Although Trieste was roughly 25 kilometers from the Italian front lines, mountains intervened.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 233, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
(2) Russia's Brusilov Offensive, begun brilliantly on June 4, 1916, and one of the great offensives of the war, had broken the Austro-Hungarian front until Germany came (once again) to it's ally's aid. Since September the Russians had done little more than throw men into battle with inadequate support, as Knox notes. The former Kingdom of Poland was divided between Germany, Russia, and Austria-Hungary. In an attempt to rally Polish nationalists to their side, the German declaration was cynical, but more than Russia could muster.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 295, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(3) Better part of a letter from Winnie McClare to his brother Herbert, November 6, 1916. From Nova Scotia, Canada, McClare was writing from a training camp in Upper Dibgate in Kent on England's southeast coast.
Intimate Voices from the First World War by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, pp. 226–227, copyright © 2003 by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, publisher: Harper Collins Publishers, publication date: 2003
(4) Election day November 7, 1916 ended with President Woodrow Wilson apparently having failed in his bid for re-election. Republican Charles Evans Hughes had taken New York, Illinois, and, other than New Hampshire, New England. As the day ended, the results from California were not yet in. Hughes had served as Governor of the state of New York from 1907 to 1910. He left that post to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States, and stepped down from that position to accept the Republican nomination for the presidency.
Mr. Wilson's War by John Dos Passos, page 181, copyright © 1962, 2013 by John Dos Passos, publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
(5) Extract from the entry for November 8, 1916 from the writings — diaries, letters, and memoirs — of Captain J.C. Dunn, Medical Officer of the Second Battalion His Majesty's Twenty-Third Foot, the Royal Welch Fusiliers, and fellow soldiers who served with him. The Battalion was then serving in the Somme sector, on the British right. In the preceding days Dunn's unit had been strafed by airplanes and soaked by rain. Unable to sleep, Dunn dried his clothes, cursed, and asked his questions.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 280, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
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