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Postcard celebrating the independence of Czechoslovakia from Austria-Hungary, proclaimed in its capital Prague on October 28, 1918. The lion, a symbol of Bohemia dating to the 12th or 13th century, became part of the coat of arms of, and a symbol for, Czechoslovakia. The lion holds in its mouth remnants of a Habsburg banner, while looking at part of the Prague skyline.
Irish and German brotherhood. Standing in France, an Irish rebel soldier clasps the hands of a German soldier. The German sun shines upon the scene. In Germany, Irish rebel Roger Casement tried to raise an Irish unit to fight the British from Irish prisoners of war. Field postmarked October 5, 1915.
National Chicle Chewing Gum card of Major Raoul Lufbery, an American Ace who flew with the Lafayette Escadrille. Credited with 18 victories, he was killed on May 19, 1918.
View from Chemin des Dames looking across the valley of the Ailette River towards Laon Cathedral in the city of Laon, France and barely visible in the distance. The Chapelle St. Berthe is down the slope in the near distance. Laon was one of the first-day objectives of French commander-in-chief Robert Nivelle's offensive in the the Second Battle of the Aisne. © 2014 by John M. Shea
Martinpuich British Cemetery seen from Martinpuich Cemetery, Martinpuich, France. © 2013 by John M. Shea
". . . the mutinies spread, and within a few weeks both a Ruthenian battalion, and a Serbian unit in the Austrian army, had mutinied, though both revolts were quickly crushed. On May 17, in Prague, a provocatively named Conference of the Suppressed Nations of Austria-Hungary was held in Prague. A fourth mutiny, by Czech troops, broke out in Rumburg four days later. They refused to go to the front unless they were paid the money due to them when they were prisoners-of-war in Russia. They occupied the town, received some support from the local Czech citizens, and threatened to march on Prague." ((1), more)
"The 'German Plot' arrests, involving the round-up of seventy-three prominent Sinn Féin members in May 1918 on the pretext that a German agent had been arrested off the coast of Clare and that there was a necessity to stamp out pro-German 'intrigues' in Ireland, backfired for Sinn Féin's enemies. Regarding these arrests, a letter to the Chief Secretary's Office insisted, 'You have got to prove your accusation or else your action in arresting these men will be worse than useless . . . if you merely imprison these men, deport them to England and hush the whole thing up — the course of action adopted with the arrested suspects after the 1916 rebellion — you will make things worse.'" ((2), more)
"On Whit-Sunday evening, 19 May [1918], an aircraft was heard circling off the North Foreland on the Kent coast. British observers were puzzled as it hovered in the moonlit sky without flying inland. The mysterious machine left a flare burning brightly over the sea, and its drone faded away. The lull was brief, for German bombers were already winging their way towards England. The flickering light was a signal telling them that the weather to the west was clear.The first warning reached London at 10.42 P.M. From that hour, German aircraft kept coming in at five-minute intervals until long past midnight. Hundreds of observer reports jammed the telephone lines to the defence sub-commands and the Horse Guards. An ominous roar filled the warm night air throughout Kent and Essex. The bomber's courses crossed and recrossed as some passed out to sea, and still more came in." ((3), more)
"Finally, on May 20 the Corps von Conta received orders to take over their sector of the front, and Headquarters moved up to Château Marchais. The divisions also took up their positions. The last stage of the preparations began and was considerably helped by the plentiful cover the district afforded, woods and hills to the north of the Aisne valley screening them from English observation.In the Aisne valley, on the other hand, work could only proceed by night. All possible cover was utilised for the secret concentration of troops. The movement of new divisions and supply work could only be carried out by night. Bivouac fires by night were forbidden. Horses were not allowed out of the woods." ((4), more)
"The march was mostly across country. It took us through the new unfinished lines of wired trench on Senlis Ridge, which must need a lot of labour. A halt was made beside Harponville aerodrome, which had been hurriedly deserted. The sun was still below the horizon when we climbed the ridge on which it was built, and it grew upon us. Its austere lines and form fitted the site on top of a bare down. The half-light, the solitude and the stillness gave to its rude simplicity so strange a grandeur that one could forget it was an empty thing of deal and cloth, and colour camouflage; it might have been a relic of a bygone race or of some forgotten rite. At sunrise there was a scene of splendour as a vast expanse of downland, falling to the west, was unfolded from the shroud of mist rolling slowly off the hollows, and the early sunbeams lighted up here a field, there a wood or red roof, until all was colourful." ((5), more)
(1) The predecessor to the spreading mutinies described was one that began on May 12, 1918 when the largely Slovenian 40th Battalion of the 17th Infantry Regiment, with parts of 41st and 42nd Battalions, mutinied in Judenburg. (Thanks to @IndijancTecumse for clarification.) Czechs and representatives of other Slavic national groups staged anti-Hapsburg demonstrations in Prague. Ukraine and Finland had already declared independence from Russia. The ethnic groups of Austria-Hungary were eager for their own nations.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 422, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(2) Letter from James O'Mahony to Edward O'Farrell, May 18, 1918 from the United Kingdom National Archives in Kew quoted in Diarmaid Ferriter's A Nation and Not a Rabble. The arrests followed Britain's April extension of conscription to Ireland, itself coming on the heels of Germany's Operations Michael, begun on March 21, and Georgette, launched April 9, which pushed British forces back and left them desperate for men. Sinn Féin, which called for Irish independence, was preparing for the December general election. After executing leaders of the immediate aftermath of the 1916 Easter Rising, British authorities jailed in England many of those involved. Sir Edward O'Farrell was Assistant to Sir Wm. Byrne, Under-Secretary for Ireland. On-line research shows a James O'Mahony who was an officer (Lieutenant, 1918–1919; Captain 1919–1920) in the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
A Nation and Not a Rabble: The Irish Revolution 1913–1923 by Diarmaid Ferriter, page 177, copyright © Diarmaid Ferriter, 2015, publisher: The Overlook Press
(3) The Whit-Sunday Raid, on London the night of May 19–20, 1918, was the largest raid of the war on London and the last. Thirty-eight Gotha bombers; two small planes, and three Staaken Giants dropped an estimated eleven tons of bombs on London and the counties of Essex and Kent leaving 49 dead and 177 injured. Whit-Sunday is Pentecost, the seventh Sunday after Easter.
The Sky on Fire by Raymond H. Fredette by Raymond H. Fredette, page 208, copyright © 1966, 1976, 1991 by Raymond H. Fredette, publisher: Smithsonian Institution Press, publication date: 1991
(4) Excerpt from an account of the Aisne Offensive, the Third German Drive of 1918, and German preparations for it, by Major-General A. D. von Unruh, Chief of the General Staff, 4th Reserve Corps (the Corps von Conta he refers to). The Aisne River flows south of Chemin des Dames, held by the Allies, but its source was behind the German line, and it is that part of the Valley of the Aisne Unruh refers to. Four British divisions that had been devastated in Operations Michael and Georgette in March and April had been moved into what was expected to be a quiet sector, one held by the French.
The Last of the Ebb: the Battle of the Aisne, 1918 by Sidney Rogerson, page 129, copyright © Sidney Rogerson, 1937, publisher: Frontline Books, publication date: 2011
(5) Excerpt from the entry for May 21, 1918 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. Dunn's unit was northeast of Amiens where they gone at the beginning of April to reinforce the British line against the German Somme Offensive, Operation Michael, which was suspended on the 5th. It was quickly followed by Operation Georgette on April 9, the second of five German Offensives in 1918. The Allies were expecting the next attack any day. Harponville is north of the Somme River, the apex of a pyramid with the base following the river from Amiens to Péronne.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, pp. 482–483, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
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