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Happy New Year 1915! Bonne année! The New Year shoots down the Old over Paris. 1914 is represented by a German Taube, the New Year is loosely based on a French Blériot.
Color postcard map of Belgium, its provinces, railroad lines (?), major towns and cities, and North Sea coast and borders with the Netherlands, Germany, Luxemburg, and France. Insets show City Hall in the capital of Brussels, a view from the water of the port of Antwerp, and the Remy factory.
The battlefield near Verdun, the Meuse River (Maas), and the Argonne Forest, viewed from the German line looking southwest. During the 1916 Seige of Verdun, the road and a light rail line from Bar-le-Duc were the sole source of supply for the besieged city.
A Swiss postcard of 'The European War' in 1914. The Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary face enemies to the east, west, and south. Germany is fighting the war it tried to avoid, battling Russia to the east and France to the west. Germany had also hoped to avoid fighting England which came to the aid of neutral (and prostrate) Belgium, and straddles the Channel. Austria-Hungary also fights on two fronts, against Russia to the east and Serbia and Montenegro to the south. Italy, the third member of the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary, declared neutrality, and looks on. Other neutral nations include Spain, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania. Japan enters from the east to battle Germany. The German Fleet stays close to port in the North and Baltic Seas while a German Zeppelin targets England. The Austro-Hungarian Fleet keeps watch in the Adriatic. Turkey is not represented, and entered the war at the end of October, 1914; Italy in late May, 1915.
Red Cross postcard of Turkish cavalry routing a Russian patrol in the Caucasus. 1914 illustration.
"In an hour's time 1914 will be over. . . .This afternoon, however, I had a long and frank talk with the Swiss Minister, Odier. . . . We came to the conclusion that Germany made a serious mistake in thinking she could finish the war straight off; that it will be a very, very long struggle and that victory will ultimately rest with the most tenacious of the combatants.The war will thus become a war of attrition and the attrition, alas, must be complete, involving the exhaustion of food supplies, industrial machinery and products, man power and moral forces! And it is plain that it is the moral forces which will bring about the decision in the last desperate hour." ((1), more)
"Brussels, December 31, 1914 — Here is the end of the vile old year. We could see it out with rejoicing, if there were any prospect of 1915 bringing us anything better. But it doesn't look very bright for Belgium." ((2), more)
"Cursed be those whose pride, ambition or squalid self-interest have unleashed such a plague upon Europe, plunging us into such terrible suffering, and ruining so many of the towns and villages of our beautiful country, perhaps forever! . . . But today you too, my dear friends, have your duty laid out before you. Consider this — you are the hope of tomorrow. Yours is the young generation which will have to replace those killed on the field of honour . . . Whatever the outcome of the terrible conflict, the genius of the French people must live on. Those of us who have willingly sacrificed our lives and who tomorrow will perhaps be dead . . . confidently leave this task to you." ((3), more)
"I suppose we must now recognize that the French army cannot make a sufficient break through the German lines of defence to bring about the retreat of the German forces from northern France. If that is so, then the German lines in France may be looked upon as a fortress that cannot be carried by assault, and also cannot be completely invested." ((4), more)
". . . Bethmann Hollweg, like Ludendorff convinced that Falkenhayn's conduct of the war would not lead to total victory, was more than ready to exploit the divisions within the OHL for his own political gain. The Chancellor immediately recruited two influential Bavarian politicians . . .On 3 January [1915] Bethmann Hollweg petitioned Wilhelm II to replace Falkenhayn with Ludendorff." ((5), more)
(1) Entry from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia, for Thursday, December 31, 1914. Paléologue and Odier agree that Germany made a serious mistake in thinking it could end the war quickly. But Paléologue worried that his Russian ally did not have the 'moral force' to see the war through to a successful conclusion. He concludes by quoting Russian physician and writer Anton Chekhov: 'Why do we tire so soon? How is it that after squandering so much fervour, passion, and faith we almost always go to ruin before the age of thirty? And when we fall how is it that we never try to rise again?'
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. I by Maurice Paléologue, pp. 231, 232, publisher: George H. Doran Company, publication date: 1925
(2) The December 31, 1914 entry from the journal of Hugh Gibson, Secretary to the American Legation in Brussels, Belgium.
A Journal from our Legation in Belgium by Hugh Gibson, page 344, copyright © Copyright, 1917, by Doubleday, Page & Company, publisher: Doubleday, Page & Company, publication date: 1917
(3) Excerpt from a letter from Adjutant Henri Boulle of the French 76th Infantry who was killed in the Argonne on January 1, 1915. A teacher before the war, he wrote the letter to his students the prior day, December 31, 1914.
They Shall Not Pass: The French Army on the Western Front 1914-1918 by Ian Sumner, pp. 44, 45, copyright © Ian Sumner 2012, publisher: Pen and Sword, publication date: 2012
(4) Secretary of State for War Herbert Lord Kitchener writing to Sir John French, commander of the British Expeditionary Force on January 2, 1915. From the very beginning of the war, Kitchener had predicted it would be long, and began to raise a volunteer army of a million men. Future Prime Minister David Lloyd George compared Kitchener's mind to a lighthouse, emitting an illuminating beam before moving on and leaving all in darkness.
The First World War, an Illustrated History by A.J.P. Taylor, p. 67 (and Lloyd George p. 53), copyright © George Rainbird Ltd., 1963, publisher: Berkley Publishing Group, publication date: Perigee edition: 1972 (or
(5) After his predecessor's defeat at the Marne, the end of the Race to the Sea, and his own failure to achieve victory in the Battle of Flanders, German Chief of the General Staff Erich von Falkenhayn told the German Chancellor von Bethmann Hollweg that victory could not be achieved, and argued for a separate peace with Russia to encourage peace with France and Britain. Bethmann Hollweg refused and supported Generals Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff in their campaigns not only for additional troops being diverted to the eastern front for campaigns against Russia, but also to replace Falkenhayn as head of OHL (Oberste Heeresleitung), the German High Command.
The First World War: Germany and Austria Hungary 1914-1918 by Holger H. Herwig, pp. 131, 132, copyright © 1997 Holger H. Herwig, publisher: Arnold, publication date: 1997
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