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Uniforms of the British Army, 1914, from a series of postcards of uniforms of the combatants in the 1914 European War.
Relief map of Great Britain and Ireland, the North Sea, English Channel, and Atlantic Ocean, with northwestern Europe: France, Belgium, Holland, and Scandinavia. The war-zone outlined on the map was declared on February 4, 1915. On May 7, the Lusitania entered the war zone southwest of Ireland.
Embossed postcard of the flag and coins of Russia, with fixed exchange rates for major currencies including Germany, Austria-Hungary, England, the Latin Monetary Union, Netherlands, and the United States of America. The Russian Ruble equaled 100 Kopeks. Tsar Nicholas II is on the obverse of most of the gold and silver coins; Tsar Alexander III is on the 7 1/2 ruble gold piece.
A Russian Cossack and his mount jump the border into Germany, his lance aimed squarely at Berlin. This French fantasy of its Russian ally sharply contrasted with the slow advance into East Prussia of the Russian First Army and the disastrous offensive of the Russian Second Army that ended in its destruction at Tannenberg. Germany then turned back to the Russian First Army in the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes, and drove it from Russia. Illustration by Kunder (?).
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.
"As he passed from one 1914 man to another he dug his elbow into the C.O.'s ribs and exclaimed, 'You're a lucky fellow.' When it was over he said to the G.O.C., 'That's been a treat. That's the sort we've known for thirty years.' Orderly Room estimated that the Battalion still had 250 originals, mostly in the Transport, Drums, and Signals, and among the N.C.Os. Of the other originals, some 500 had been killed or wounded; some were detached; the balance had gone home sick and become scattered. With comparatively few exceptions the men are Regulars, Reservists, and Special Reserves." ((1), more)
"The Germans lost only four U-boats in the waters around the British Isles in March and April [1916]. One of those losses, U.68 in the southwestern approaches on 22 March, was due to the depth charges of the Q-ship Farnborough. The Farnborough was under the command of Lieutenant Commander Gordon Campbell, considered the most famous of the Q-ship commanders, and the episode was a classic example of Q-ship tactics with the ship blowing off steam and the stokers and spare men pretending to abandon ship in a panic after the submarine had surfaced and fired a shot across the steamer's bow. Once the submarine had closed, Campbell opened fire and finished her off with a depth charge." ((2), more)
"'Take the Emperor, for example,' she continued. 'Isn't he patently predestined to ruin Russia? Aren't you struck by his ill-luck? Could any reign have been richer in miscalculations, failures and calamities? Everything he has undertaken, his best ideas and noblest inspirations, have gone wrong or actually reacted against him. As a matter of logic, what must his end be? As to the Empress, do you know any figure more baleful and accursed even in classical tragedy? And that other, the loathsome ruffian whose name I won't utter! Isn't the brand of Fate on him clearly enough? How can you explain the fact that at such a crisis in history these three incongruous and dull-witted beings hold the destinies of the world's largest empire in their hands? Don't you recognize the action of Fate in that? Come, tell me honestly!'" ((3), more)
"— It is only fair to note that at the Reichstag sitting on the 23rd March [1916] there were some Socialists, like Haase, who made such remarks as 'the massacre of the people'; 'there will be neither conquerors nor conquered' (that remark aroused shouts of execration, according to the reports); 'we Socialists who denounce the war.' Still, that is the first Parliament among the warring nations which has heard the echo of such brave utterances." ((4), more)
"What was the German U-boat strength as they prepared to embark on a second submarine campaign? In March 1916 there were 52 operational boats, compared to 29 to 30 at the start of the first campaign. There were 16 U-boats in the North Sea, 20 in the Flanders Flotilla (8 UB.I, 4 UB.II, and 8 UC.I), 4 in the Baltic, 7 in the Adriatic, and 5 at Constantinople. The Germans could reasonably expect 38 of the U-boats under construction to enter service in the period between April and August of 1916." ((5), more)
(1) Part of the entry for March 21, 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 dozens of his comrades. That day the Corps Commander, Lieut.-General Haking inspected the men, and found many of them had come out in August 1914 — they were part of the old British Army, one of 100,000 men, that had been destroyed in the battles of 1914: the Allied retreat, the Race to the Sea, the Battle of Ypres.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 185, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
(2) The Q-ship was a decoy, typically a steamer with disguised weapons. The depth charge, set to detonate at a predetermined depth, was a new weapon. The submarine U.68 was sunk off the southwest coast of Ireland.
A Naval History of World War I by Paul G. Halpern, page 309, copyright © 1994 by the United States Naval Institute, publisher: UCL Press, publication date: 1994
(3) Excerpt from the entry for March 23, 1916, from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia who hosted, that night, a dinner at the embassy with 'a score or so of Russians, . . . a few Poles, . . . and a few English people.' The quotation is from the Ambassador's private conversation with Princess V——, whom he considered 'very high-minded, quick-witted and clever.' She is downhearted about Russia's prospects, and discusses Fate, which she describes as a mysterious power, intervening at random in the world's affairs, and taking 'a malicious delight in making us the instruments of its own caprices.' Ruling Russia are autocratic Tsar Nicholas II, also supreme commander of the Army, the Empress who encourages his autocracy and urges replacements for high officials upon him, and Rasputin, 'our friend' to the royal couple, who presses the Empress to appoint his favorites to positions in the church, the army, and the government.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. II by Maurice Paléologue, page 219, publisher: George H. Doran Company
(4) Undated entry from late March, 1916 from the diary of Michel Corday, a senior civil servant in the French government. Corday was highly critical of the frequent attacks on French opponents of the war and advocates for peace, who were tarred with the brush of being in the employ of Germany. He would have liked to hear this German Socialist's sentiments spoken in the French Chamber of Deputies.
The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, page 153, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934
(5) The UC submarines were smaller, mine-laying vessels.
A Naval History of World War I by Paul G. Halpern, page 306, copyright © 1994 by the United States Naval Institute, publisher: UCL Press, publication date: 1994
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