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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.
Headstone of Corporal P. Cotter of the Royal Irish Regiment, died September 3, 1916 at the age of 32, and buried in Delville Wood Cemetery, France. © 2013 John M. Shea
England's Distress: Postcard map of England and Ireland with the restricted zone Germany proclaimed around the islands, showing the ships destroyed by submarine in the 12 months beginning February 1, 1917.
Beneath high clouds, a crane suspends a capstone advising Italians to direct their savings to the war effort over the Italian peninsula. The crane stands on the Adriatic Sea's northeast coast, site of Trieste, an Austro-Hungarian Mediterranean port with a large ethnic Italian population, and one of Italy's principle objectives in the war.
Battle on the Somme, by Oskar Martin Amorbach, showing the blue Hessen (Infantry Regiment Lieb, 'Grand Duchess') in combat against British troops.
"As I was firing I noticed her begin to go red inside like an enormous Chinese lantern and then a flame shot out of the front part of her and I realized she was on fire. She then shot up about 200 feet, paused, and came roaring straight down on me before I had time to get out of the way. I nose-dived for all I was worth, with the Zepp tearing after me, and expected every minute to be engulfed in the flames. I put my machine into a spin and just managed to corkscrew out of the way as she shot past me, roaring like a furnace. I righted my machine and watched her hit the ground with a shower of sparks. I then proceeded to fire off dozens of Very lights in the exuberance of my feelings." ((1), more)
"October 1st.—The officers assembled in the school to meet the new G.O.C. 'Seems a pleasant, human man: not too old.' After compliments, he told us that we will be 'for it' in a week. Another wood awaits attack. The subalterns adapted the refrain of a popular music-hall song, and sang, 'And another little wood October 3rd.—won't do us any harm.' A guest night, the Drums playing: this was the only event of the kind in my time. And October 4th.—they played Welsh airs in Doullens Grande Place. The French audience increased at each subsequent performance." ((2), more)
"In the distant Mediterranean, the war of torpedo against liner continued. On October 4 a German submarine struck twice, each time with success, sinking first the Cunard liner Franconia, on which twelve died, and then the French troop transport Gallia, on which six hundred men were drowned." ((3), more)
"— The second Loan, opened on the 5th October, has been supported by much more forcible and insidious methods than the first. A stronger campaign is directed against the masses. The newspapers harp on the theme that to invest gold is to shorten the war. For the first time they are mentioning the losses of life, assuring the public that they will diminish them by subscribing to the Loan. I notice the bold argument: 'Nearly six per cent! Just think what a high rate of interest that would be in normal times!'" ((4), more)
"Every evening we could witness the tragic show which the front lines of the Battle of the Somme put on for us. The sky was crisscrossed with flashes, illuminated, lit up with meteoric bolts, sudden bursts of light, all accompanied by a deafening, continuous rumbling. We felt like we were watching a gigantic volcano, seeing the sinister reflections of hell itself.'It's just like Verdun,' said the veterans, worried, 'but there will also be cold, rain, and mud!' The young ones were terrified before this frightful tableau, just right for inspiring horror of war and filling the soul with terror." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from the official report of British Second Lieutenant W. J. Tempest who shot down Zeppelin LZ.31 around midnight the night of October 1/2, 1916. The Zeppelin was piloted by Kapitänleutnant (lieutenant commander) Heinrich Mathy of the German Naval Airship Service, the most successful Zeppelin commander, who jumped to his death from LZ.31 on his fifteenth raid over England. With ten other Zeppelins, Mathy had set out to bomb London on a night that brought squalls, heavy clouds, rain, and snow. At least two other Zeppelin commanders saw the last moments of Mathy's airship through breaks in the clouds.
The Zeppelin Fighters by Arch Whitehouse, page 156, copyright © 1966 by Arch Whitehouse, publisher: New English Library, publication date: 1978
(2) Entries for October 1 through 4, 1916 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. The Battalion was then serving in the Somme sector. Doullens is 36 kilometers west of Arras, which was on the front line. Composed by American Nat D. Ayer with lyrics by Britisher Glifford Grey, 'Another Little Drink Wouldn't Do Us any Harm' was included in The Bing Boys Are Here, a revue that opened in London's West End in April, 1916.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 263, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
(3) Declared after Great Britain imposed a blockade of Germany, and suspended after the May 7, 1915 sinking of the passenger liner Lusitania in which 1,195 civilians, 128 of them Americans, Germany decided in September, 1916 to resume unrestricted submarine warfare in January. German U-boats continued their campaign, and were particularly successful in the Mediterranean Sea.
A Naval History of World War I by Paul G. Halpern, pp. 291–292, copyright © 1994 by the United States Naval Institute, publisher: UCL Press, publication date: 1994
(4) Entry from October, 1916 from the diary of Michel Corday, French senior civil servant.
The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, page 204, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934
(5) Excerpt from the notebooks of French Infantry Corporal Louis Barthas, writing on October 6, 1916, when his unit moved toward the front lines in the Battle of the Somme.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, page 256, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
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