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Retouched and marked-up photograph of Austrian Warships, June 9, 1915. A penciled note on the back says, 'Photo by amateur'. The Austro-Hungarian Empire's primary port was Pola on the Adriatic Sea.
A British Mark IV tank advances across the red field, star and crescent moon of a Turkish flag under a chain of grey and yellow clouds. Entitled Entente-török fegyverszünet, Entente-Turkish Armistice, it refers to the British-Turkish Armistice signed on October 30, 1918, that took effect on October 31. Original watercolor postcard by Schima Martos.
A squadron of the German Imperial Navy under the eye of a Zeppelin off the North Sea island and port of Helgoland.
Map of Syria, Palestine, Turkey, and Mesopotamia from the Baedeker 1912 travel guide Palestine and Syria with Routes through Mesopotamia and Babylonia and with the Island of Cyprus.
Austro-Hungarian soldiers, one with goggles around his hat, posing at their dugout in a January, 1917 photograph. The card is dated January 27, 1917, and field postmarked January 31.
"Then the 30th of October dawns.By the order of His Majesty the Emperor and King, the navy is informed in sparse language: the entire navy, the vessels and floating fleet installations, and all construction on land passes into ownership of the new Yugoslavian state. The non-South Slavs are free to continue serving under the new flag. Everyone else is granted permanent leave.In the Bocche we are to continue normal duty until the final surrender order has been accomplished per instructions.Rumor has it that the Yugoslavs took over three war loans in exchange. No one knows whether or not the South Slavs will be a state in the framework of the monarchy.The surrender order is from the Emperor, and so the ships and boats are not sunk." ((1), more)
"— The 31st. Turkey has accepted the armistice conditions proposed by the Entente. Some joyful demonstrations in the streets. The news was brought by the British general, Townshend, lately prisoner of war in Turkey.— The 31st. On the 31st, Professor Vincent was telling me that the influenza epidemic is graver than is admitted by the authorities, who are concealing the truth to bolster up the public morale. He himself would set up a dictatorship of doctors. Close the theatres, cinemas, and large shops. 'Forbid people to spit, cough, or sneeze, except in their handkerchiefs.'— The Catholics are saying that God has sent this influenza to restore the balance, since twice as many women as men have been struck down. The apathy of the masses is indescribable. Last week 1,800 people died of influenza in Paris—that is, nearly 300 people every day ; in other words, as many as have been killed by aeroplanes and super-guns in four years of war." ((2), more)
"[Admiral Hipper's] tragic hesitation at the moment of greatest danger is apparent in his inept handling of the men and his total misjudgment of the situation. Although by November 1 it was obvious that the men were out of control, Hipper informed Scheer at the Seekriegsleitung that he saw no reason why the situation should be viewed pessimistically. Aghast at this calm amidst the disaster that was overtaking the fleet, the Seekriegsleitung curtly replied, 'We cannot concur with this view. It has been established that a military operation has been ruined by the illegal will of [certain] elements within the crews.' . . .Totally lacking in defensive measures, Kiel lay at the mercy of the rebellious sailors and stokers of the Third Squadron who, from the moment they landed in the city, were determined not to allow their recently arrested comrades to be martyred. . . . At a meeting on November 1 at the Trade Union Hall attended by 250 men from the Third Squadron, it was decided to form a committee to negotiate the prisoners' immediate release. At the same time it was agreed to convene another meeting for the following day in the event that those demands were not met." ((3), more)
"After breaking through Ottoman lines at Sharqat on October 28, 1918, Marshall accepted Hakki Bey's surrender, taking 11,322 prisoners, at 7:30 a.m. on October 30—the same day an armistice was signed between Britain and Turkey, effective at noon on the thirty-first. In a painful reminder, for the Turks, of the shady way Churchill and Britain had begun the war in the Persian Gulf prematurely four years before (to the day), Marshall pushed on after the armistice was signed, reaching Mosul on November 2, 1918, in clear violation of the armistice terms. The reason was not hard to grasp: Mosul had been promised to France, but His Majesty's government no longer wished her to have it." ((4), more)
"At this point, early on 3 November, the high command was unaware of an Italian stipulation that the ceasefire should come into effect with a 24-hour delay, so their forward units could be informed. General Weber realised the discrepancy would be disastrous for Austrian troops, but the high command refused to amend the order. In desperation, Weber asked Badoglio to suspend hostilities immediately. His request was brushed aside, and the Italians signed the armistice at 15:20. It would come into force at 15:00 on 4 November.As if bent on confirming, with its last breath, every accusation of haughty negligence towards the common people, the Habsburg élite had bungled the armistice. The Italians had 24 hours to round up unresisting Austrian soldiers who believed the war was over. Some 350,000 prisoners were taken in the last day of the war." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from the memoir of Austro-Hungarian Captain Georg von Trapp, the Empire's most successful submariner. The Emperor, Karl, was also King of Hungary. The Bocche was the Bay of Cattaro, an Austro-Hungarian port and naval base. Yugoslavia, a union of South Slavs incorporating Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, was the dream of Gavrilo Princip and his co-conspirators when he assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophia on June 28, 1914.
To the Last Salute: Memories of an Austrian U-Boat Commander by Georg von Trapp, page 185, copyright © 2007, publisher: University of Nebraska Press, publication date: 2007
(2) The Cabinet of British Prime Minister David Lloyd George authorized Vice-Admiral Sir Somerset Gough-Calthorpe, Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean Fleet, to negotiate an armistice with Turkey rather than a surrender as a way to exclude France from the bargaining table. They held negotiations on HMS Agamemnon, thereby ensuring France representation could be excluded and as a reminder to the Turks of another defeat on their shores. Influenza struck during the spring and summer of 1918 as a three-day fever, but returned in the autumn in a more deadly form. During the war, Paris had been bombed by Zeppelins and Gotha and other bombers, and shelled by a German gun capable of reaching the capital from 80 miles away.
The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, page 383, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934
(3) 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, the 'military operation' referred to in the first paragraph, itself an illegal mutiny by the naval officer corps. The men who 'ruined' the plan were sailors and coal stokers who 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 Seekriegsleitung was the Maritime Warfare Command, formed in August 1918, and headed by Admiral Reinhard Scheer, the Chief of the German Admiralty Staff. He had commanded the German High Seas Fleet in the Battle of Jutland where Rear Admiral Franz Hipper had commanded a smaller battle squadron.
German Naval Mutinies of World War One by Daniel Horn, pp. 226, 236, copyright © 1969 by Rutgers University, The State University of New Jersey, publisher: Rutgers University Press, publication date: 1969
(4) General William Marshall commanded British and Indian forces in Mesopotamia in 1918. Hakki Bey commanded the Ottoman Sixth Army. Sharqat lay on the Tigris River north of Baghdad.
The Ottoman Endgame: War, Revolution, and the Making of the Modern Middle East, 1908–1923 by Sean McMeekin, pp. 401–402, copyright © 2015 by Sean McMeekin, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 2015
(5) Generals Viktor Weber von Weberau and Pietro Badoglio were the armistice negotiators for Austria-Hungary and Italy respectively. General Armando Diaz launched the battle of Battle of Vittorio Veneto on October 24, 1918. After resisting for two days, the Austro-Hungarian defense collapsed as the Empire itself broke apart.
The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919 by Mark Thompson, page 363, copyright © 2008 Mark Thompson, publisher: Basic Books, publication date: 2009
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