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Stamps of occupied Belgium: German stamps overprinted in black with 'Belgien' and denominations in centimes: 3, 5, 8, 10, 15, 25, and 75.
Ink drawing of the German battleship SMS Westfalen off Helsingfors (Helsinki), Russia, April 1918. From Paul to his brother.
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.
"In German-occupied Belgium, it was three years since the first printing and circulation of an illegal patriotic newspaper Libre Belgique. Its network had been wide, its operations vexing for the Germans. At the end of January 1918 most of the paper's distributors, sixty-one in all, had been arrested, the Kaiser sending a telegram of congratulations to the Military Governor, General von Falkenhausen, whom the paper had described as 'a bird of prey sent to live on the palpitating flesh of Belgium'. The Kaiser himself was 'His Satanic Majesty' in the paper's parlance.On May 15 the sixty-one were brought to trial in Brussels. They were sentenced to imprisonment, some for ten to twelve years. After a short interval, the paper appeared once more . . ." ((1), more)
"Both in Vienna and Berlin, the authorities had to keep alert to any danger of revolution, and were responsive to any calls for help against Bolshevism. In southern Russia, the new leader of the Don Cossacks, General Krasnov, appeal to the Germans on May 16 for financial and military help against the Red Army. This was given readily, and included fifteen million roubles and 12,000 rifles. German influence extended across a thousand miles of southern Russia. That day, in Finland, the Finnish national leader, General Mannerheim, entered Helsinki at the head of 16,000 men. More than a century of Tsarist rule, six months of Bolshevik control, and most recently German military occupation, were over." ((2), more)
". . . 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." ((3), 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.'" ((4), 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." ((5), more)
(1) The Belgians of Libre Belgique were imprisoned. Many other Belgians under the occupation were executed for far less. Occupation always and everywhere corrupts the occupier. The occupied always and everywhere have the right to fight for freedom.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 423, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(2) Finland was a region of Russia with significant autonomy, so much that Czarist police, and their revolutionary successors, had limited ability to pursue persons of interest, such as Vladimir Lenin who entered Russia from Finland after the 1918 February Revolution, and fled there after the July Days that summer. After the October Revolution that brought Lenin and the Bolsheviks to power, the Russian government quickly agreed an armistice with the Central Powers, but, in negotiations at Brest-Litovsk, could not reach agreement on a peace treaty. Finland declared its independence from Russia in December, 1917, with Soviet Russia finalizing recognition on January 4, 1918 (December 22, 1917 Old Style).
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
(3) 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.
(4) 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
(5) 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
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