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Count Zeppelin, nocturnal bird. Count Zeppelin, inventor of the airship that bears his name, as a night owl over Paris. A 1915 postcard by Gilbert B.
From The Great War magazine, Part 34: Map of the Turkish invasion of Russia in the Caucasus at the end of 1914, ending in defeat at the Battle of Sarikamish.
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.
An Austro-Hungarian artillery train advancing against Montenegro watched by two civilians. A 1915 postcard.
A Zeppelin shot down in Salonica, Greece, on May 5, 1916. Of the incident, Alan Palmer in 'The Gardeners of Salonika' wrote, 'The destruction of a Zeppelin by naval gunners on May 5 in full view of the people of Salonika also raised the spirits of the troops, especially among the British contingent, for their families at home had already been subjected to raids of this type and it was to be another four months before the first Zeppelin was shot down on English soil.' (page 62)
"— On the evening of the 29th there was a Zeppelin raid over Paris. A high bank of haze against which the beams of the searchlights played in vain.— The morning papers were full of last night's raid, which accounted for twenty -six victims. They all denounce the 'abominable crime' . . . 'shame of humanity' . . . 'odious barbarism. . . .' But they all, except two, end up with the cry : 'Let us do the same !'" ((1), more)
"Sunday, January 30, 1916The army of the Grand Duke Nicholas Nicolaïevitch is doing wonders in Northern Armenia. Across a chaos of rugged and icebound mountains it is driving the Turks before it, and swiftly approaching Erzerum." ((2), more)
"In the air, Germany retained the ascendancy. . . . For the British public, it was German air activity that still created alarm. On January 31 [1916], nine Zeppelins flew across the North Sea to Britain: 389 bombs were dropped in the Midlands. One of the Zeppelins crashed into the sea on its return, and all sixteen of its crewmen were killed." ((3), more)
"It was round about then [February 1, 1916] too that an NCO with the 6th, whom I knew well, and whose brother had fallen only days before, was fatally injured by a 'toffee-apple' that he had found. He had unscrewed the fuse, and, noticing that the greenish powder he tipped out was highly inflammable, he put a lit cigarette in at the opening. The mortar of course blew up, and he received fifty separate wounds. We suffered many casualties from the over-familiarity engendered by daily encounters with gunpowder." ((4), more)
"General Headquarters is being moved. As the railway bridge is not yet repaired, the provisioning service between the two stations is carried on by motor truck. But is spite of the very inadequate facilities for transporting the general food supply, all the vehicles have been requisitioned to help move Headquarters.Columns of trucks wind over the mountains, packed with cases of champagne, wire-spring beds, floor lamps, special kitchen equipment, and various crates of delicacies. The troops receive a third of their normal rations. The infantry at the front has had only a morsel of bread for four days, but the staff officers' mess serves the usual four-course dinners." ((5), more)
(1) Entries from the diary of Michel Corday, a senior civil servant in the French government, on the Zeppelin raid over Paris January 29, 1916, and the response in the morning papers.
The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, pp. 138, 139, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934
(2) Entry for January 30, 1916 from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia. Grand Duke Nicholas had been commander in chief of the Russian Army until its 1915 collapse and Great Retreat before the German-Austro-Hungarian Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive. Tsar Nicholas had taken command command of the army in the summer and dispatched the Grand Duke to the Caucusus Front, where General Nikolai Yudenich led the fight against the Turks. Throughout the day on January 31, the Russians bombarded the outer forts that protected Erzerum. The Turkish defenders poured water down the slopes to turn their strongholds into mountains of ice.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. II by Maurice Paléologue, page 162, publisher: George H. Doran Company
(3)
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 230, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(4) Ensign Ernst Jünger's unit was stationed in Monchy-le-Preux, France, a dozen kilometers east of the city of Arras, facing the British lines.
Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger, page 60, copyright © 1920, 1961, Translation © Michael Hoffman, 2003, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 2003
(5) February, 1916, excerpt from the journal of Pál Kelemen, an Hungarian cavalryman in Montenegro, which, after the defeat of Serbia in October and November, 1915, had surrendered in January.
The Beauty and the Sorrow: An Intimate History of the First World War by Peter Englund, pp. 216, 217, copyright © 2009 by Peter England, publisher: Vintage Books, publication date: 2012
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