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The rescue of the crew of the Italian battleship Amalfi, July 7, 1915, sunk by Austrian submarine U-26. The submarine was German submarine UB-14, but, because Italy and Germany were not at war, sailed under as an Austro-Hungarian vessel. From a painting by Harry Heusser, 1915. The message on the reverse was written March 22, 1916, and the card postmarked from Vienna the same day.
Field Marshall August von Mackensen at the map table. General von Mackensen was promoted to Field Marshall on June 23, 1915 with the fall and occupation of Lemberg, Austria-Hungary during his successful Gorlice-Tarnow offensive.
Postcard of a German soldier guarding French POWs, most of them colonial troops, the colorful uniforms of a Zouave, Spahi, Senegalese, and metropolitan French soldier contrasting with the field gray German uniform. A 1915 postcard by Emil Huber.
French soldier standing next to an unexploded 420mm shell that fell on Verdun. March, 1916. It weighed 2,100 pounds empty.
"The same day [July 7, 1915] the disaster many feared occurred in the northern Adriatic. That morning Cagni sent the large armored cruiser Amalfi, escorted by only two torpedo boats, to support a sweep by Italian destroyers. The Amalfi was torpedoed and sunk by the submarine UB14, the first naval disaster of the war for the Italians. The small submarine had only just been assembled at Pola, and a week after sinking the Amalfi it left for Aegean waters. Her commander, Oberleutnant zur See von Heimburg, and all the officers and men, save for a single Austrian officer embarked as a pilot, were German. Germany and Italy were not yet officially at war, however, and would not be for another year, and the submarine had the Austrian designation U.26." ((1), more)
". . . At Krasnik on July 2nd [1915], the army of Archduke Joseph of Austria, while advancing toward Lublin, was halted by a Russian Army under Gen. Loische. Three days later, the Archduke fell back upon an intrenched position north of the town, losing 15,000 men. The Russian losses were 8,000. The army of Gen. Mackensen also was stopped near Krastnostav on July 7th." ((2), more)
"The rounding up of the straggling bands of Germans throughout the colony occupied the Union forces during the next two months. Finally, on July 9th [1915], at a place called Kilometre 500, the Germans surrendered German Southwest Africa, with 5,000 prisoners of war, to the British. The conquest of this empire cost the Allies 1612 men in killed and wounded, while the Germans and rebel Boers lost 800." ((3), more)
"Our Church Spires To Maurice BarrèsSharp bell-spires, you alone have power to giveIts intonation to our countryside Attuned to life.Through gradual centuries by hedge and grove,Blue sky and river and the careful pride Of human love.If you were once destroyed — the flame gone cold! —Then it would be for forest, ford, and field Death of the soul.Jean-Marc Bernard, translated by Graham Dunstan Martin" ((4), more)
"On Friday I again took down a German wounded — this time a German of the Kaiser's or Crown Prince's Bodyguard (the German Crown Prince is against us here). He was dying. . . . I asked in German if he wanted anything. He just looked at me and then chokingly murmured, 'Catholic.' I asked a soldier to fetch the priest and then two brancardiers (stretcher-bearers) and the doctor — the priest and I knelt down as he was given extreme unction. That is a little picture I shall never forget — all race hatred was forgotten. Romanist and Anglican, we were in that hour just all Catholics and a French priest was officiating for a dying German . . ." ((5), more)
(1) On July 7, 1915, as Italian Vice Admiral Thaon di Revel made plans to occupy Austro-Hungarian islands in the Adriatic, Italian Rear Admiral Umberto Cagni ordered a naval force to clear the sea of enemy ships. Flying the Austrian flag, the German submarine left Pola, Austria-Hungary's primary port, and sank Amalfi with the loss of 67 men of a crew of 685. Sailing to the Aegean would put the Austro-German submarine in position to target Allied transport and naval support for the Gallipoli invasion.
A Naval History of World War I by Paul G. Halpern, page 148, copyright © 1994 by the United States Naval Institute, publisher: UCL Press, publication date: 1994
(2) German Commander in Chief Erich von Falkenhayn approved and General August von Mackensen led the joint German, Austro-Hungarian Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive that broke through the Russian line in the beginning of May, 1915, driving Russian forces from the Carpathian Mountains and Galicia in north-eastern Austria-Hungary, and penetrating into Russian Poland. With severe shortages of artillery, shells, rifles, and ammunition, the Russians could do little more than retreat, dig in, attempt to hold a position, then resume their retreat. But on July 7, they halted, briefly, both the German and Austro-Hungarian armies.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 173, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
(3) The 'Union forces' were those of the Union of South Africa under the command of Prime Minister Louis Botha. Despite the opposition of many Boers who supported Germany in the World War, and subsequently fought for it, Botha supported Great Britain, and acted on its request to seize Germany's colony of Southwest Africa. The Germans surrendered Windhoek, the colony's capital, on May 12, but continued to fight for the following two months.
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) 'Our Church Spires' by French writer Jean-Marc Bernard. He was killed by a shell on July 9, 1915 while carrying rations to the front line at Souchez.
The Lost Voices of World War I, An International Anthology of Writers, Poets and Playwrights by Tim Cross, page 245, copyright © 1989 by The University of Iowa, publisher: University of Iowa Press, publication date: 1989
(5) Excerpt from a letter written July 11, 1915, by Leslie Buswell recounting events of the previous week, including this of a German soldier with holes in both lungs dying on Friday, July 9. Earlier in the week, on July 6, Buswell had been impressed that the French had sent a more-seriously wounded German in his truck rather than less-seriously wounded French soldiers. A German attack on Sunday, July 4, recaptured in a day French territory the French had spent the previous six months regaining. The French retook their lost ground on July 5, 6, and 7. Buswell, a driver with the American Ambulance Field Service, volunteers attached to the French Armies, was stationed at Pont-à-Mousson, France, north of Nancy. Each unit consisted of 20 to 30 ambulances capable of carrying three wounded lying down, and three seated. The Ford trucks could deliver men to a doctor in under an hour, greatly increasing their chances of survival.
Ambulance No. 10; Personal Letters from the Front by Leslie Buswell, pp. 55, 56, copyright © 1915, and 1915, by Houghton Mifflin Company, publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company, publication date: 1916
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