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Map of the Eastern Front, mid-July, 1915 from The Capture of Novo Georgievsk, Volume 8 of the Reichsarchive history Battles of the World War.
A German Fokker Eindecker flying over the front in the Meuse/Verdun sector.
Easter greetings from your uncle, April 13, 1916. A whimsical Austrian pencil sketch from Cetinje, capital of Montenegro, then occupied by Austro-Hungarian forces. Easter was on April 23 in 1916.
Map of the Trentino, part of "Italia Irredenta," unredeemed Italy: Venezia Tridentina (Trentino and Alto Adige)
A map of the Russian-Turkish front from Der Weltkrieg 1914-1918, a 1930s German history of the war illustrated with hand-pasted cigarette cards, showing the Turkish Empire in Asia Minor and Mesopotamia, the Mediterranean, Black, and Caspian Seas and the Persian Gulf. To the west is Egypt, a British dominion; to the east Persia. Erzerum in Turkey and Kars in Russia were the great fortresses on the frontier.
"The Russian army lost 100,000 men in [the Battle of Lake Narotch]—as well as 12,000 men who died of frostbite. The Germans claimed to have lifted 5,000 corpses from their wire. They themselves lost 20,000 men.Lake Narotch was, despite appearances, one of the decisive battles of the First World War. It condemned most of the Russian army to passivity. Generals supposed that, if 350,000 men and a thousand guns, with 'mountains' of shell to use, had failed, then the task was impossible—unless there were extraordinary quantities of shell." ((1), more)
"April 13th.—This is the first day in two months without a rumour of impending action somewhere on the front. To occupy its typists Division circulated a leg-pull on fly-catching, after Heath Robinson: he was a caricaturist whose burlesques of wartime mechanical contrivances and proposals were sometimes grimly to the point.April 15th.—A route-march—German fliers have dropped notes saying they will be in Béthune on the 22nd. Their visits are few, but well timed; our fliers are much more over their territory." ((2), more)
"Overnight in Corfu the cold wet winter surrendered to a brilliant spring of clear skies and lush green vegetation, with a leaden sea transformed to startling blue—a new season that heralded renewed hope. Most of the Serbs had made a remarkable recovery. Regular food, routine medical treatment and a couple of months' rest, had restored over 100,000 starving, battered soldiers to a disciplined army of fit and healthy men. British uniforms and French rifles had been issued, regular army training and exercises had become routine, and they were now ready to go, 'to resume their endless task of war once more', as Laffan puts it. By mid-April 1916 the first units were standing by ready to embark for Salonika." ((3), more)
"[General Roberto Brusati] again failed to persuade Cadorna that the situation in Trentino was unusual. Then a Czech officer deserted with precise information about the impending attack. By mid-April [1916], accurate estimates of the Austrian build-up (though not of the artillery) were appearing in the Italian and French press. . . .Around this time, reportedly, an officer in the alpini presented himself at the Supreme Command in Udine, with important information about the situation in Trentino. After a long wait, a captain on Cadorna's staff emerged: 'His Excellency the Supreme Commander of the Army has no need of advice from Lieutenant Battisti.' The officer thus dismissed was Cesare Battisti, the legendary patriot from Trento, who knew every tree and rock in the threatened sector." ((4), more)
"New Turkish reinforcements were rushed up from Central Anatolia in a vain effort to stop the Russian advance. That being found impossible, the Turks evacuated Trebizond on April 18th [1916], and the town was occupied by the Russians two days later, after silencing the Turkish guns in the outer forts.The capture of Trebizond gave the Russians possession of a stretch of territory 250 miles in length and 125 miles wide, comprising 31,250 square miles, reaching from the Black Sea to the north to the Turki-Persian frontier on the south, and including the greater part of Armenia." ((5), more)
(1) The Battle of Lake Narotch, which had begun on March 18, ended on April 14, 1916. Russia, which had suffered more than other major combatants from its shell shortage, was finally producing and importing weapons sufficient for its needs. This did not change the fact that its military leadership was not up to the command and control task it faced. Our author, Norman Stone, refers to the Lake Narotch offensive as 'the last real effort by the old Russian army' in which infantry and artillery failed to coordinate their efforts, different armies failed to work together, and those in command demonstrated no tactical ability. The new Russian army, exemplified by Alexsei Brusilov, would take the field in June.
The Eastern Front, 1914-1917 by Norman Stone, page 231, copyright © 1975 Norman Stone, publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons, publication date: 1975
(2) Entries 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. The commentary on Heath Robinson was clearly added at a later date.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 194, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
(3) After being defeated by the combined forces of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Bulgaria, Serbia's army, government, and many civilians retreated through the mountains of Albania to the Adriatic coast. Having failed to aid Serbia with troops that had been landed in Salonica, Greece, her allies struggled to provide food, shelter, and transport to the Serbians who had survived the winter crossing, but eventually delivered the Serbs to the island of Corfu. R.G.D. Laffan, an historian quoted by our author, was attached to a British ambulance unit in Salonica.
The Quality of Mercy: Women at War, Serbia 1915-18 by Monica Krippner, page 179, copyright © Monica Krippner 1980, publisher: David and Charles, publication date: 1980
(4) Having fought a primarily defensive war against Italy on the Isonzo River (five Battles of the Isonzo had already been waged), Austro-Hungarian Chief of Staff Conrad von Hötzendorf prepared an assault to the north and west in the Trentino, hoping to advance to the Adriatic Sea and trap the Italian army in Italy's northeast. Italian Chief of Staff Luigi Cadorna was both unimaginative and skeptical. On May 15, 1916, von Hötzendorf launched his Asiago Offensive. Cesare Battisti, was an Austrio-Hungarian citizen of Italian descent and had been elected a member of the Austrian Reichsrat, the Imperial Council, in 1911, representing Trentino. He joined the Italian army, was captured on the Asiago front on July 10, 1916, and executed two days later.
The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919 by Mark Thompson, pp. 162, 163, copyright © 2008 Mark Thompson, publisher: Basic Books, publication date: 2009
(5) Since the Battle of Sarikamish in January, 1915, the Russians had steadily advanced into eastern Turkey, territory with a large Christian population, much of it Armenian until the genocidal attacks of the Turkish government on the Armenians. Russia was reaching the limits of its advance in the Caucasus Mountains and eastern Turkey, but was also moving into Persia, an independent but weak country on which the Turks also had designs. The Russians also hoped to break through Turkish defenses to reach Mesopotamia to help relieve a British Army besieged at Kut-al-Amara. King's history of the war in eastern Turkey continues: 'During April and May many minor cavalry engagements were fought along a battle front 200 miles long, with varying successes, the campaign finally resolving itself into clashes between outposts.'
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 211, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
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