Search by or
Search: Quotation Context Tags
Trimmed photograph of a German naval celebration, possibly a wedding. At the center is an Imperial Korvettenkapitän (Lieutenant Commander) with a woman and child to his left, possibly his wife and grandson. A sticker on the front of the card references a sailor at the back, and reads in part, '1917 Fland[ern]'. Although the reference is to 1917 Flanders, the card is postmarked December 23, 1915. Note the flowers many of the sailors wear, and the patch on the left upper arm of the sailor directly behind the commander which may be a naval artillery patch. I am unable to read the ship's name on the sailors' caps.
On May 23, 1915 Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary, its former ally as a member of the Triple Alliance. Clasping the hands of the German and Austro-Hungarian emperors Wilhelm II and Franz Josef, Italy's king Victor Emmanuel III conceals the tattered document behind his back.
A Swiss postcard of 'The European War' in 1914. The Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary face enemies to the east, west, and south. Germany is fighting the war it tried to avoid, battling Russia to the east and France to the west. Germany had also hoped to avoid fighting England which came to the aid of neutral (and prostrate) Belgium, and straddles the Channel. Austria-Hungary also fights on two fronts, against Russia to the east and Serbia and Montenegro to the south. Italy, the third member of the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary, declared neutrality, and looks on. Other neutral nations include Spain, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania. Japan enters from the east to battle Germany. The German Fleet stays close to port in the North and Baltic Seas while a German Zeppelin targets England. The Austro-Hungarian Fleet keeps watch in the Adriatic. Turkey is not represented, and entered the war at the end of October, 1914; Italy in late May, 1915.
Grave and marker for an unknown French soldier at Le Trou Aid Post Cemetery, Fleurbaix, France, a primarily British cemetery. © 2014 John M. Shea
Victory Monument commemorating the Eighth Regiment of the Illinois National Guard, an African-American unit that served in France reorganized as the 370th U.S. Infantry Regiment of the 93rd Division. The bronze sculpture is by Leonard Crunelle and was erected in 1927.The regiment saw action at St. Mihiel, the Argonne Forest, Mont des Singes, and in the Oise-Aisne Offensive. The monument lists the names of the 137 soldiers of the regiment who lost their lives in the war. © 2013, John M. Shea
"On the whole, the demands of the rebellious sailors were extremely modest. On November 7, when their mutiny was already triumphant in Kiel and Wilhelmshaven, and the authority of the navy was shattered beyond redemption, the delegates of the Third Squadron presented their demands to Secretary of the Navy Ritter von Mann in the form of a seven point program. . . .1. Reduction of the punitive powers of the First Officer.2. Since the trust of the crews in their officers has vanished completely, for the immediate future a representative of the crews shall be attached to the Admiral so that the crews can feel that things are being handled correctly . . .3. The men must be granted the right of assembly to speak their minds.4. All newspapers are to be made available.5. Equal rations for enlisted men and officers.6. Freedom not to salute [officers] when off duty.7. For infractions not concerning matters of honor, no imprisonment but money fines." ((1), more)
"Shortly after 7 a.m. on 8 November, Foch's Chief of Staff, Maxime Weygand, noticed a red light moving slowly through the mist. It was all he could see of the train that was carrying the German Armistice Commission . . .On 8 November, as Prince Max tried desperately to hold the country together at the end of telegraph and telephone lines that flickered and failed like the struggles of a dying man, the Social Democrats issued their ultimatum. Unless the Kaiser and the Crown Prince went, they would walk out of the Government. That night Prince Max received word that the revolution was continuing to spread. Brunswick and Munich had already gone. The authorities in Stuttgart had handed over power to Workers' and Soldiers' Councils and Cologne was expected to fall into revolutionary hands that night. It was even rumoured that sailors were marching on Berlin." ((2), more)
"Le 31 de mois d'Août 1914Je partis de Deauville un peu avant minuitDans la petite auto de RouveyreAvec son chauffeur nous étions troisNous dîmes adieu à toute une époqueDes géants furieux se dressaient sur l'EuropeLes aigles quittaient leur aire attendant le soleilLes poissons voraces montaient des abîmesLes peuples accouraient pour se connaître à fondLes morts tremblaient de peur dans leurs sombres demeures" ((3), more)
"I. The German Government to the plenipotentiaries at headquarters of the Allied High Command:The German Government accepts the conditions of the Armistice communicated to it on November 8th. The Imperial Chancellor—3,084.II. The German Supreme Command to the plenipotentiaries at headquarters of the Allied High Command: . . .Your Excellency is authorized to sign the Armistice. You will please, at the same time, have inserted in the record the following:The German Government will do all in its power to fulfil the terms agreed upon. However, the undersigned deems it his duty to point out that the execution of some of the conditions will bring famine to the population of that part of the German Empire which is not to be occupied." ((4), more)
"[Meriden, Connecticut, November 11, 1918] I had just turned four and I remember . . . awaking one morning in November to my mother asking my father to please turn down the record player. It was about six in the morning. My father had put on the 'Star Spangled Banner' and turned up the volume while I and my four siblings were still asleep. It was Armistice Day, November 11th, and World War I was over. Later that morning, my father, older sister and I walked down to the town square where crowds were celebrating. I became fascinated with a cluster of overhead wires with switchboards and electrical components to handle the trains that crossed right through the center of the square. I had never been down there before and the interruptions or invasions of the patch of sky that appeared between buildings seemed very strange and I asked my father if that were the Kaiser. That was a word that I had heard frequently in conversations between my father and mother. He was the bad guy leading the Germans. It was only a word to me. My father said no, but look over there: that's the Kaiser. And suspended from a pole was an effigy in three dimensions so life-life, I became frightened." ((5), more)
(1) At the end of October 1918, with Germany clearly losing the war, German admirals and other naval officers planned a suicidal attack by the High Seas Fleet on the Royal Navy, an illegal mutiny by the naval officer corps. Sailors and coal stokers refused to go ahead with the mission. Many of them were arrested and transported from the North Sea port of Cuxhaven to the Baltic port of Kiel. The sharp distinction between officers and men is reflected in the demand for equal rations, the harassment and punishment of enlisted men in several of the demands. Rebellious sailors, some Bolsheviks, were in control of Lübeck, Cuxhaven, Hanover, and Hamburg.
German Naval Mutinies of World War One by Daniel Horn, pp. 232–233, copyright © 1969 by Rutgers University, The State University of New Jersey, publisher: Rutgers University Press, publication date: 1969
(2) Allied Commander-in-Chief Ferdinand Foch continued attacks along the Western Front even as the Germany requested an armistice. German Chancellor Prince Max von Baden had been saddled with the job of ending a war the German High Command had belated acknowledged was lost. Rebellious sailors, some Bolsheviks, were in control of Kiel, Lübeck, Cuxhaven, Hanover, and Hamburg.
Hundred Days: The Campaign that Ended World War I by Nick Lloyd, pp. 254–255, copyright © 2014 by Nick Lloyd, publisher: Basic Books, publication date: 2014
(3) Beginning of 'La Petite Auto' by French poet, author, and critic Guillaume Apollinaire, an artilleryman, wounded in the head by shrapnel in March 1916. Never fully recovered, he died of influenza November 9, 1918 at the height of the pandemic. The first declaration of war of World War I was that of Austria-Hungary on Serbia on July 28, 1914, a month before Apollinaire and his friend Rouveyre set out for Paris. The poem beginsThe Little CarThe 31st of the month of August 1914I left Deauville a little before midnightIn Rouveyre's little carWith his chauffeur, we were threeWe said goodbye to an entire ageFurious giants stood upright over EuropeEagles abandoned their aeries waiting for the sunVoracious fish rose from the depthsPeoples flocked to understand each other to the coreThe dead trembled from fear in their dark dwellings
Calligrammes: Poems of Peace and War (1913–1916) by Guillaume Apollinaire, page 104, copyright © 1980 by the Regents of the University of California, publisher: University of California Press, publication date: 2004
(4) Between 7:00 and 8:00 PM on November 10, 1918, the German armistice negotiators received two wireless messages from the German Chancellor, Prince Max von Baden. The first appears above in its entirety, the second in part. The armistice was signed at 5:10 the following morning. 3,084 was a code to ensure authenticity.
The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, translated by Col. T. Bentley Mott by Ferdinand Foch, page 476, copyright © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., publisher: Doubleday, Doran & Co., publication date: 1931
(5) John Cavanaugh speaking of his recollections of Armistice Day, November 11, 1918, in Meriden, Connecticut.
John Cavanaugh: Armistice Day, 1918 by John Shea, none, publication date: 2018-11-11
1 2 Next
