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A Senussi column near the site of an attack on the British in Egypt. The Senussi first rebelled against Italian forces in Libya after Italy seized the territory from the Ottoman Empire. Supported by Turkey in Libya and later by Germany, the Senussi began a guerrilla campaign against the British in Egypt in late 1915, tying down 20,000 troops for over a year.
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.
Map showing the territorial gains (darker shades) of Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece, primarily at the expense of Turkey, agreed in the Treaty of Bucharest following the Second Balkan War. Despite its gains, Bulgaria also lost territory to both Romania and Turkey.
Illustration of Turkish quarters in the Dardanelles from 'Ambassador Morgenthau's Story' by Henry Morgenthau, American Ambassador to Turkey, 1913 to 1916.
A call to Italians to buy war bonds to help fund the powerful weapons needed for the last push to Trieste, a mere 25 kilometers from the Italian front lines. It pays 5%, after all, tax free, for an effective rate of 5.55%!
"On November 14 a new war zone was opened, one of the least remembered of the war. On that day, in the deserts of Italian Libya, which before 1912 had been part of the Ottoman Empire, the Senussi tribesmen rose up in revolt against the Allies. Supported by the Turks, the Senussi opened fire at a British-Egyptian border post at Sollum. Two days later, three hundred tribesmen occupied the Zaura monastery at Sidi Barrani. British troops were sent into action, but the tribesmen, with the desert as their hiding place, continued to cause considerable aggravation." ((1), more)
"To improve our routine in the trenches a little bit, they gave us hardly anything to eat, back in the rear. Try working or marching all night, and keeping your spirits up, on an empty stomach!And meanwhile, nice and warm, with full bellies, our officers drank, sang, enjoyed themselves in the village. It was revolting—and it ended up leading the men to revolt.. . .Refusing to work, now that was serious. Prison for sure; perhaps a court-martial. Only one, Private X, persisted in claiming to be ill, and went to bed. The rest left, but in a sign of protest they crossed the village singing the 'Internationale,' which will always be the hymn of the oppressed, the unfortunate ones for whom it is an expression of discontent and of hope." ((2), more)
". . . Kitchener left London to see for himself what was happening at the Dardanelles and in the Aegean. By now his colleagues had come to regard Kitchener as an empty legend, an old warhorse needing the peace of green pastures. But as this frail Bucephalus scented battle some of his former energy returned. A couple of days on Gallipoli, a hurried trip to Salonika to consult Sarrail and Mahon, across to Mudros to umpire a contest in policy between the naval and military authorities, and down to the Piraeus to seek out King Constantine in his palace in Athens . . ." ((3), more)
"18.00 hrs. Heavy rain, driven by violent wind, drenches everything. My dugout is leaking. Would love to see those people who say 'soldiering is easy, the military are overpaid!' spend one night sleeping in the mud. Would they say such things ever again? I don't think so. I'm 21 years old. My hair and beard are already grey. My moustache is white. My face is wrinkled and my body is rotting. I can't bear these hardships and privations any more. Being an Ottoman officer just means putting up with shells and bombs." ((4), more)
"Amid the routine slaughter, 18 November [1915] marked a turning point: the Italians shelled Gorizia for three hours. This was the start of 'total war' on the Isonzo. Until now, both sides had mostly refrained from targeting civilians — though Austrian ships and planes had shelled several Adriatic cities in May 1915. . . ." ((5), more)
(1) Italy had seized Libya in the Italo-Turkish War of 1911-12. Encouraged by the defeated Turks, the Senussi rebelled against the Italians, and later attacked the British forces in Egypt. The Senussi attack on Sollum failed, but the British evacuated it on November 23. After having strengthened their position, the British re-occupied Sollum in March, 1916. The Senussi managed to tie down as many as 20,000 British Empire troops for much of 1916.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 210, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(2) Extract from the notebooks of French Corporal Louis Barthas, a socialist whose unit was stationed in Artois in November 1915. In Barthas writings, many of the officers are indifferent to their men, and some of the medical officers are among the worst. On the day, to protest their treatment, the men claim to be sick. Furious that his supper has been interrupted, the medical officer found all of the men fit for duty. Fearful of a court-martial and a punishment that could be death, the men return to their posts, singing in protest.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, pp. 134, 135, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
(3) The Allied invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula was a costly failure for the Allies, and had come to a stalemate after the August invasion at Suvla Bay that only added a third failed front to those opened in April, 1915. Secretary of State for War Lord Kitchener toured the Aegean front in November, the Dardanelles and the newly opened Salonica front in Greece. Greek King Constantine favored Germany, viewed the Allied landing at Salonica as an invasion of his neutral country, and threatened to inter the Allied troops. Maurice Sarrail commanded the French troops trying to break through the Bulgarians to aid Serbia. Bucephalus was the horse of Alexander the Great.
The Gardeners of Salonika by Alan Palmer, page 47, copyright © 1965 by A. W. Palmer, publisher: Simon and Schuster, publication date: 1965
(4) Turkish Second Lieutenant Mehmed Fasih writing on the Gallipoli Peninsula, November 17, 1915. Some French and British Empire troops had been withdrawn from the Peninsula for deployment to Salonica in a failed attempt to aid Serbia. With fewer troops on the ground, Allied ships had shelled the Turkish positions more heavily.
Intimate Voices from the First World War by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, page 141, copyright © 2003 by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, publisher: Harper Collins Publishers, publication date: 2003
(5) Italian Commander-in-Chief Luigi Cadorna's Fourth Battle of the Isonzo followed on the heels of the Third. The Austro-Hungarian border city of Gorizia (Görz) lay on the Isonzo River. Half its population of 31,000 had fled, replaced by thousands of Austro-Hungarian troops. The Fourth and last of 1915's Battles of the Isonzo began on November 10.
The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919 by Mark Thompson, page 133, copyright © 2008 Mark Thompson, publisher: Basic Books, publication date: 2009
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