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Zeppelin Kommt! Children play a Zeppelin raid on London. Holding his bomb in the gondola is a doll of the airship's inventor, Count Zeppelin. The other children, playing the English, cower, and the British fleet — folded paper boats — remains in port. Prewar postcards celebrated the imposing airships and the excitement they generated with the same expression, 'Zeppelin Kommt!'. Postcard by P.O. Engelhard (P.O.E.). The message on the reverse is dated May 28, 1915.
Chosen Boy, a 1918 watercolor by Paul Klee. From Paul Klee: Early and Late Years: 1894-1940. © 2013 Moeller Fine Art
Serbia's wartime capital, Niš or Nisch, was taken by Bulgarian forces on November 5, 1915 in the combined Central Power invasion and conquest of Serbia. The postcard portrait is of Bulgaria's Tsar Ferdinand beneath the Imperial Bulgarian flag, and shows street scenes in Nisch.
A New Years postcard, 1917, of Germania wooed while Cupid draws attention to the angels and devils battling overhead. On the wings of the demons are the rondels of the Allies and a Maltese cross of the Germans. The Cannon by the lovers has been spiked and disabled. The card, illustrated by ADE, was from Leutnant Michel Liebhold, an officer on anti-aircraft train 61.
A child soldier, the train station behind him, comes home with his gear and presents, through a city street decorated with German, Austrian, Hungarian, Turkish, and Bulgarian flags. Illustration by Carl Diehl.
"An already bad end to 1916 got even worse when the Naval Airship Division lost three more airships on 28 December. First, SL.12, although damaged, survived a bad landing at the Ahlhorn base, but strong overnight winds destroyed her. Then, at Tondern an equipment failure caused the ground crew to lose control of L.24 as she came in to land, whereupon she smashed against the shed and burst into flames, which also engulfed the neighboring L.17." ((1), more)
". . .the threat of the Zeppelins compelled the British to set up a formidable Home Defence organization that diverted men, guns, and aircraft from other military fronts. For instance, by the end of 1916 no less than 17,341 officers and men were retained in Great Britain for antiaircraft defence. There were twelve Royal Flying Corps squadrons, comprising some 200 officers, 2000 men, and 110 aeroplanes. The antiaircraft guns were manned by 12,000 officers and men who might have been more profitably employed in France." ((2), more)
"Two day after the return of the Empress from her visit to Novgorod, in the earliest hours of December 17 (December 31, Western Calendar) was struck the first blow of the 'bloodless' Russian Revolution, the assassination of Rasputine. On the Afternoon of December 16 (December 30) I was sent by the Empress on an errand, entirely non-political, to Rasputine's lodgings. . . . he expected to pay a late evening visit to the Yusupoff Palace to meet Grand Duchess Irene, wife of Prince Felix Yusupoff. Although I knew that Felix had often visited Rasputine it struck me as odd that he should go to their house for the first time at such an unseemly hour." ((3), more)
"Our future, in short, depended on the observance of the 'Live and Let Live' principle, one of the soundest elements in trench war.Unfortunately it was not invariably observed. The Germans possessed a magnificent minenwerfer, well masked under the wreckage of a place known as Steam Mill. With this weapon they celebrated the new year and demonstrated that enormous explosions could be induced at any moment on Boesinghe Church and the parts adjacent. The crash of their presents was not in keeping with the evergreens that led along to the pretty bridge and winding water. Once or twice the operators amused themselves by lobbing their trench mortar bombs into the area of the Belgians . . ." ((4), more)
"On the third day, January 1, 1917, Rasputin's body was found. In their haste, the murderers had left one of his boots on the ice near the hole. Divers probing beneath the ice in that vicinity brought up the corpse. Incredibly, before he died, Rasputin had struggled with sufficient strength to free one of his hands from the ropes around him. The freed arm was raised above the shoulder; the effect was that Rasputin's last gesture on earth had been a sign of benediction." ((5), more)
(1) Beside the three airships in our quotation, Germany lost six Zeppelins in raids on England from September to December, 1916: one the night of September 2–3, two the night of September 23–24, one the night of October 1–2, and two the night of November 27–28. Most of the losses were Zeppelins, but SL.12 was a Schütte-Lanz with a wooden frame, rather than the Zeppelin's metal inner structure.
The First Blitz: Bombing London in the First World War by Ian Castle, pp. 91–92, copyright © 2015 Osprey Publishing Ltd., publisher: Osprey Publishing, publication date: 2015
(2) Germany lost six Zeppelins in raids on England from September to December, 1916, with limited serious damage to London or other major cities, and a relatively low number of civilian casualties. The German Naval Airship Service argued to keep the attacks going, but only one more airship would bomb London. Attacks in 1917 and 1918 would be by bomber airplanes.
The Zeppelin Fighters by Arch Whitehouse, pp. 162–163, copyright © 1966 by Arch Whitehouse, publisher: New English Library, publication date: 1978
(3) Extract from the memoir of Anna Viroubova, confidant to the Empress Alexandra, and one of the few people, other than Rasputin, the Empress associated with. Other conspirators with Felix Yusupoff were Felix's brother, Grand Duke Dimitry, Vladimir Purishkevich, a monarchist and right-wing member of the Russian Duma, and an army doctor Lazovert. The assassination took place the night of December 30–31, New Style, or December 17–18, Old Style, 1916.
Memories of the Russian Court by Anna Viroubova, page 178, copyright © 1923 by The MacMillan Company, publisher: The MacMillan Company, publication date: 1923
(4) Edmund Blunden, English writer, recipient of the Military Cross, second lieutenant and adjutant in the Royal Sussex Regiment, writing of the period between Christmas, 1916 and New Years, 1917. The German minenwerfer was a trench mortar, Boesinghe a village in Ypres, Belgium. The Belgian army held the line on the British left.
Undertones of War by Edmund Blunden, page 154, copyright © the Estate of Edmund Blunden, 1928, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: November 1928
(5) Grigori Rasputin had been lured to the scene of his murder on the night of December 29–30, 1916, by Prince Felix Yussoupov, one of the wealthiest men in Russia and husband to a neice of Tsar Nicholas II. Yussoupov fed the monk poisoned cake and wine, but after two hours, Rasputin was still alive. Yussoupov then shot him. With his co-conspirators, the bound and dumped the body in the Neva River. Besides his freed hand, Rasputin was found with water in his lungs, indicating he was still breathing when disposed of.
Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie by Robert K. Massie, page 380, copyright © 1967, renewed 1995 by Robert K. Massie, publisher: Random House, publication date: 2011
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