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French sappers (mining engineers) discover and invade a German mine tunnel. A grim illustration of the battle underground. The sappers tunneling to lay mines beneath enemy positions could sometimes hear each other or come upon opposing tunnels.
Serbian and Montenegrin uniforms, from a 1910 advertising card. From left to right: a soldier of the guard, an infantryman, a cavalryman, an artilleryman, and a general, all of the Serbian army, and three Montenegrin soldiers.
Embossed postcard of the flag and coins of Bulgaria, with fixed exchange rates for major European currencies including Germany, Austria-Hungary, Great Britain, France, and Russia, and the United States.King Ferdinand appears in profile on the silver 5 Lew and gold 100 Lew pieces, and on the 1 Lew and 1/2 Lew (50 Stotinki). The most recent date on the coins is 1894 (on the reverse of the 20 Lewa gold piece).From a series of of similar cards. Reverse: "M.H. Berlin Oranienburg-Eden Made in Germany"
Beneath the crown of England, Britannia with her shield and Neptune's trident sits, flanked by the flag of the United Kingdom, and the Royal Standard. Behind her, illuminated by the British crown, is a map of the world with the British Empire in pink: Canada and Newfoundland, the United Kingdom, the Union of South Africa and British East Africa, India, Australia, and New Zealand.
Italy's armed forces at the ready in a 1915 postcard. In the foreground the artillery, infantry, an Alpine soldier (in feathered hat), and a Bersaglieri (in plumed headgear). Behind them are a bugler and lancer; in the distance marines and colonial troops. The Italian navy is off shore, an airship and planes overhead. On the reverse are the lyrics of a patriotic Italian March by Angelo Balladori, lyrics by Enrico Mercatali. It ends with a call to the brothers of Trento and Trieste, Austro-Hungarian territory with large ethnic Italian populations.
". . . a single shelter for all of us. It had been dug by the Germans, who started digging a mine there. Unfortunately our advance had interrupted their work, and all that was left was a staircase with about forty steps dug into the earth. At the bottom was a shallow, narrow corridor, where, because so little air got down that far, candles wouldn't stay lit.There was so little room that we had to leave our weapons, rifles, and packs outside on the firing step, at the mercy of the rains and any larcenous souls.Those who find their bedrooms not spacious or comfortable enough should consider whether forty men were comfortable on this narrow, muddy, slippery staircase, where every moment someone was either going up or coming down, and there wasn't room for two slightly overweight men to pass each other. Luckily we were all pretty thin." ((1), more)
"They tried the man with the aid of an interpreter and heard the principal witnesses. It seems that, in spite of repeated warnings from his fellow villagers, he was firing viciously on our soldiers. As he surveys the crowd gather there, he looks half savage, dropped from another world.The sentence is soon passed; the guerrilla must hang.. . .The komidatschi is brought up by two soldiers. He shows no particular emotion but looks around with a truculent stare as if he were insane. They put the sling around his neck and pull the platform from under his feet. The rope is not hung high enough, and, with a supplementary powerful tug, the butcher adjusts it. The man's face is slowly distorted. Long jerking convulsions shake his body, dying. The tongue twists out of his mouth as he swings with stiffening limbs." ((2), more)
" — During the last few years a prominent manufacturer in the Rue d'Avron has been loudly complaining of German competition declaring that it could not last, that we must have a war without delay. He had four sons. The war broke out. Three sons were killed, the fourth was carefully posted ten miles behind the line. But even there a shell reached him and killed him. His father and mother have committed suicide. — An echo of the attack of the 25th September. A colonel received the order to attack. He noticed that the artillery had not made adequate preparations, that his regiment would simply be massacred. He telephoned to H.Q., which replied : 'It is not your business to argue about your orders, but to carry them out.' The colonel went over the top alone and was killed." ((3), more)
"The French had troops along along the Vardar from Strumica Station to Krivolak, and on November 2 Sarrail began preparations for an offensive by ordering his northern division, the 57th, to advance to the Tcherna and seize crossing points. The next day he order the division to cross the Tcherna and hit the Bulgarians in their flank. When a brigade of France's third division, the 122nd, arrived in Salonika in early November, Sarrail moved it north to participate in the attack.Notions of a bold and easy maneuver, however, soon fell victim to the realities of the enemy and the terrain." ((4), more)
"3rd November[, 1915] Countries like France and Belgium, which have been dragged into the conflict in spite of themselves and against their wishes, have everything to lose in being chained to an indestructible power like the British Empire. They take all the blows which are not intended for them. The struggle between England and Germany will last for centuries and will have the universe for theatre." ((5), more)
(1) Extract from the notebooks of French Corporal Louis Barthas serving with a reserve unit near Neuville-Saint-Vaast, in Artois, France, on October 30, 1915, an area that was mined extensively by both sides. The men had taken part in the Third Battle of Artois, part of the great autumn Anglo-French offensive of 1915.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, page 131, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
(2) Account from the journal of Pál Kelemen, an Hungarian cavalryman with German, Austro-Hungarian, and Bulgarian forces invading and occupying Serbia in October and November, 1915.
The Beauty and the Sorrow: An Intimate History of the First World War by Peter Englund, pp. 175, 176, copyright © 2009 by Peter England, publisher: Vintage Books, publication date: 2012
(3) Entries for November 7, 1915 from the diary of Michel Corday, a senior civil servant in the French government. The attack of September 25, 1915 was the Champagne-Artois Offensive, French Commander Joseph Joffre's great offensive in the autumn of 1915. The offensive failed.
The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, page 116, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934
(4) French General Maurice Sarrail commanded the French forces that had landed at Salonika, Greece, at the beginning of October, 1915, in an attempt to reinforce Serbia. With German and Austro-Hungarian forces to the north, and a Bulgarian army to the east, Serbia was further isolated by Bulgarian forces moving to the south to prevent the French from reaching their ally.
Pyrrhic Victory; French Strategy and Operations in the Great War by Robert A. Doughty, page 225, copyright © 2005 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College, publisher: Harvard University Press, publication date: 2005
(5) A somewhat ungrateful diary entry for November 3, 1915 by Albert, King of the Belgians, whose country, like France, was invaded by Germany in August, 1914. In response, Belgium ask the guarantors of its neutrality, including France and Great Britain, for support in its defense. Britain, which had hesitated coming to France's aid, declared war on Germany after it failed to respond to a demand to leave Belgium. German Commander-in-Chief Erich von Falkenhayn, shared King Albert's view that Great Britain was Germany's primary rival.
The War Diaries of Albert I King of the Belgians by Albert I, page 72, copyright © 1954, publisher: William Kimber
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