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A folding postcard from a pencil sketch of an unsuccessful Allied gas attack in Flanders.
An advertising card of the Greek Army from the series Armées des États Balcaniques, published in 1910.The card shows, from left to right: an artillery detachment, a soldier in battle dress and another in parade dress, a cavalry man, an infantry officer, two hunters of a battalion of evzones, and a mountain artillery officer.
Postwar postcard map of the Balkans including Albania, newly-created Yugoslavia, expanded Romania, and diminished former Central Powers Bulgaria and Turkey. The first acquisitions of Greece in its war against Turkey are seen in Europe where it advanced almost to Constantinople, in the Aegean Islands from Samos to Rhodes, and on the Turkish mainland from its base in Smyrna. The Greco-Turkish war was fought from May 1919 to 1922. The positions shown held from the war's beginning to the summer of 1920 when Greece advanced eastward. Newly independent Hungary and Ukraine appear in the northwest and northeast.
Turkish infantry from 'Four Years Beneath the Crescent' by Rafael De Nogales, Inspector-General of the Turkish Forces in Armenia and Military Governor of Egyptian Sinai during the World War.
Chosen Boy, a 1918 watercolor by Paul Klee. From Paul Klee: Early and Late Years: 1894-1940. © 2013 Moeller Fine Art
"If a whiff of gas you smell,Bang your gong like bloody hell,On with your googly, up with your gun—Ready to meet the bloody Hun." ((1), more)
"At this time there was also some concern over the neutrality of Greece and the potential threat to the Allied troops at Salonika. So on 20 November [1915] a special squad was constituted in Malta, under admiral Le Bris, comprising three French battleships, three British battleships and an Italian and Russian cruiser. The squadron then headed for the island of Milos, some 90 miles away from Athens, arriving there on 25 November, in a show of force to the Greeks. This proved to be effective, so that by 11 December the Greeks agreed to remove all but one of their divisions from Salonika." ((2), more)
"To the Bulgarian army and nation, December 12, 1915, will always be a memorable date. On that day our army occupied the last three Macedonian towns still in the enemy's hands—Doiran, Guevgheli and Sturga. The last combats with the French, English and Serbians took place on the shores of Lake Doiran and near Ochrida. The enemy has been driven back at all points: Macedonia is free; there is not a single enemy soldier on her soil." ((3), more)
"10.00 hrs. Go to see how my men are doing. Each time I pass by the olive grove I am profoundly affected by the memory of all our martyrs buried there. My heart keeps telling me that at the end of the war they will come back to life. Oh my God! Show mercy to those of us who are still living! And guide us!18.00 hrs. My men are singing their traditional songs. They tell of deep sadness and a sense of mourning. They were singing these same sad songs when we left Mersin. But most of the men who were singing then now lie covered with earth." ((4), more)
"The year 1915 ended with the Third and Fourth Battles of the Isonzo, fought between 18 October and 14 December. Winter came early. Snow between 6 and 8 yards deep covered up natural caves and trenches hacked into the rough rocks with the result that troops on both sides sought 'safety' in defensive works of ice and snow. Life at the front became a living hell. Snow and ice storms as well as almost unbearable cold ravaged soldiers huddled in makeshift shelters at 2000 to 3000 yards altitude — only to be offset by warm Mediterranean winds that turned valleys and roads into raging streams and rampaging mud slides. Avalanches were a constant danger. Pack animals hauled 37 million cartridges, 706 000 artillery shells, and 76 000 hand-grenades up to the front. By the time the fighting was ended by total exhaustion on both sides, Boroević's Fifth Army had suffered 71 691 casualties, the Italians 116 000." ((5), more)
(1) Trench wisdom found by C. S. Owen, commander of a Royal West Kent battalion, at one of his unit's sentry posts. Owen copied and sent it to his commanding officers, recommending it as a 'model of concise Order that men could understand and remember.' The doggerel is recorded in the entry for December 10, 1915 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. A gas attack indicated an infantry attack was imminent. On the sounding of the gong, men put on their gas masks — their googlies — and prepared to meet the attack.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 171, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
(2) As neutral Bulgaria mobilized for war, signalling its intention to join the Central Powers, Eleftherios Venizelos, Prime Minister of neutral Greece, discussed inviting forces of the Entente Allies to land at Salonika with the French and British ambassadors, and with his King, Constantine. Venizelos favored the Allies; Constantine the Central Powers. On October 3, 1915, Venizelos received the backing of the Greek Parliament, but on the 5th, as an Allied fleet entered the Gulf of Salonika, the King refused to back the Prime Minister who resigned. In the coming weeks, Constantine threatened to intern the British troops in Greece, and the French, retreating from the Bulgarians, feared they would need to fight their way through a Greek army to return to Salonika.
Gallipoli — Attack from the Sea by Victor Rudenno, page 212, copyright © 2008 Victor Rudenno, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2008
(3) December 12, 1915 communiqué of the Bulgarian General Staff quoted in the entry for the following day from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia. Bulgaria had cast off its neutrality by invading Serbia with one army and sending a second to prevent Allied (primarily French) troops trying to advance from Greece to aid Serbia.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. II by Maurice Paléologue, page 125, publisher: George H. Doran Company
(4) Excerpt from the diary of Turkish Second Lieutenant Mehmed Fasih writing on December 13, 1915 on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Fasih did not know that the enemy he and his men had faced and had fought since April had begun evacuating two of their three positions.
Intimate Voices from the First World War by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, page 143, copyright © 2003 by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, publisher: Harper Collins Publishers, publication date: 2003
(5) Italian Commander-in-Chief Luigi Cadorna had launched his Fourth Battle of the Isonzo on November 10 on the heels of the Third. Rescued by Germany on the Russian Front, and by Germany and Bulgaria on the Serbian Front, Italy held its own on the Isonzo Front, where it mostly held higher ground than the Italians.
The First World War: Germany and Austria Hungary 1914-1918 by Holger H. Herwig, page 172, copyright © 1997 Holger H. Herwig, publisher: Arnold, publication date: 1997
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