The WW1 photos trivia thread!

[Altaris]

I'm going to guess the Portugese king, since you're from Portugal and it became a Republic in late 1910. I don't know which one is the Portugese king though!

[Franciscus]

I'm going to guess the Portugese king, since you're from Portugal and it became a Republic in late 1910. I don't know which one is the Portugese king though!

Indeed, poor portuguese King Manuel II (third from left, standing) would be overthrown in October 1910, a mere 5 months after this picture. He had succeded his father, Carlos, assassinated together with his older son Luis Filipe in 1908.

And, do you know how many of these monarchs survived WW1 ?

[Liberty Bell]

[ATTACH]28404[/ATTACH]

[Kensai]

Why did Portugal overthrow its King?
(heading to Wikipedia, but if anyone knows more anecdotal details...)

[Altaris]

Indeed, poor portuguese King Manuel II (third from left, standing) would be overthrown in October 1910, a mere 5 months after this picture. He had succeded his father, Carlos, assassinated together with his older son Luis Filipe in 1908.

And, do you know how many of these monarchs survived WW1 ?

Let's see if I can recall these

Norway (Haakon?)
Sweden (Gustav?)
Britain (George)
Belgium (Albert)
Spain (Alfonso)

The ones no longer in power at end of war:
Germany (Wilhelm)
Bulgaria (Ferdinand)
Portugal (Manuel)
Greece (George?)

[poweraxe]

Gustaf V of Sweden is not in the picture. The one you missed is Frederick VIII of Denmark, who did not lose the throne but died in 1912 (so before the war)

[Altaris]

Rats, so close! At least I mistook him for a Scandanavian!

[Le Ricain]

This picture would be impossible to replicate today as there are only seven European Monarchies left and two of these have Queens.

[Erik Springelkamp]

And here is the future of world monarchy:

http://springelkamp.nl/WebLog/Default.aspx?id=70

14 crown princes/princesses in 2013

[Le Ricain]

It was King Farouk of Saudi Arabia who said 'that in 100 years there will be only 5 kings in the world: the King of England and the four kings in a pack of playing cards'.

[Metatron]

Technically there are not 9 kings on that picture but 8 kings and an emperor (who was also king of prussia so not that wrong...)(the king of bulgaria was technically a Tsar so more of an emperor in translation than king but don't think the other kings on that picture would have agreed on that interpretation lol)

More interestingly the weird fact is that 8 out of 9 on this picture are technically from German nobility houses:

House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (part of the House of Wettin):
- King Ferdinand of Bulgaria
- Manuel II of Portugal
- Albert I of Belgium
- King George V of Britain

House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg:
- Haakon VII of Norway
- George I of Greece
- Frederick VIII of Denmark

House of Hohenzollern:
- Wilhelm II, German Emperor

Leaving only King Alfonso XIII of Spain, from the House of Bourbon.

[Franciscus]

Why did Portugal overthrow its King?
(heading to Wikipedia, but if anyone knows more anecdotal details...)

Without going too much in detail or politics, here is my view:

- Monarchy was in discredit among the urban elite, after the "pink-map" affair in Africa and the financial crisis (bankrupcy) of the end of the XIX century (how history repeats itself... ). Most of the poor, agricultural and analfabet people, however, couldn't care less; on the contrary, being deeply religious, I would say the vast majority of the people were monarchic, but had no say in these matters.
- a strong urban (mainly in Lisbon) republican and anarchist feeling ran in some of the elites. The regicide was a consequence, and the instauration of the republic in 1910 was the end result of the actions of a handful of these.
- there were many fine and beautiful objectives in the first days of the republic. The only one that really happened was a (slight) improvement in alfabetism and schooling. Otherwise, financially it was unmitigated chaos during decades, and the new "regime" had a very low popularity. One of the things the rulers did to try to keep themselves in power (but also to defend our African colonies) was to enter WW1 on the side of the Entente. We managed, with english help, to hold on to Mozambique and Angola, but our troops sent to the european trenches were dizimated in the Battle of La Lys (we lost 35% or more of fighting power), due to very poor training, command, etc. We were pure "meat for the cannons"...and did not play afterwards any more a real part in the european war...

Regards

[Le Ricain]

Technically there are not 9 kings on that picture but 8 kings and an emperor (who was also king of prussia so not that wrong...)(the king of bulgaria was technically a Tsar so more of an emperor in translation than king but don't think the other kings on that picture would have agreed on that interpretation lol)

More interestingly the weird fact is that 8 out of 9 on this picture are technically from German nobility houses:

House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (part of the House of Wettin):
- King Ferdinand of Bulgaria
- Manuel II of Portugal
- Albert I of Belgium
- King George V of Britain

House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg:
- Haakon VII of Norway
- George I of Greece
- Frederick VIII of Denmark

House of Hohenzollern:
- Wilhelm II, German Emperor

Leaving only King Alfonso XIII of Spain, from the House of Bourbon.

Of course, George V was also an emperor. He was Emperor of India.

[Metatron]

That was cheating

[Franciscus]

Another one...

Does anyone know to what war machine belonged this rather user-friendly command post ?

[ATTACH]28486[/ATTACH]

[Uawcat]

As the sign behind the large handwheel seems to read "Schnellentlüftungen schließen", I think it is a german or a/h submarine. (Schnellentlüftung = used for quick flooding)

[Franciscus]

Indeed, it's apparently the command post of a UB-110

To me it looks even a bit lovecraftian..., no ?

[Ironclad61]

To be perfect you need add an Alien into the command post of the Alien Queen

[Pocus]

A very good user interface!

Lovecraftian yes, definitively!

[Leibst]

take a look a this strange machine and guess what is it.
[ATTACH]28508[/ATTACH]

[Le Ricain]

take a look a this strange machine and guess what is it.
[ATTACH]28508[/ATTACH]

It is the 'Tsar's Tank', which was designed by Lebedenko and financed by the Tsar. On its test trial in 1915, the small rear wheels became stuck in the mud and the tank was left in place for 8 years, when it was cut up for scrap.

[Ironclad61]

Next station Gallipoli



What do you think about landings in Gallipoli... a good idea or a bad idea??? i think that with the total naval control in Mediterranean could be better try it in other area or not???

I refer to the strategic choice, we all know the value of Gallipoli.

[Shri]

The IDEA in itself was good, problem was in execution.
Knocking out Ottomans and supplying Russia both were excellent goals, but they underestimated the Ottomans and the German Officers and machine gunners/artillery stationed with them.

2 Major problems-
French Navy wanted RN to bear the burden of losing ships though RN was taking on the Hochseeflotte in the North Sea, eventually too few ships committed and the Navies were too cautious, loss of 1/2 ships wouldn't have mattered in the long run.
Army-Navy co-ordination was poor but Army-Army co-ordination between the allies was piss-poor.

[Ironclad61]

Well, i refer that much better than try crack ottomans in an area you know they are going to defend to the last man (they do their best here) try something in Palestine... you know, you cut-off the troops in Sinai, secure a good base for future operations and you can force them send troops to a distant area... maybe if they do this ottomans can crack earlier... at same time than russians... and you open the Balkans, something like in WW2 BUT in WW1 with the intention and necesity to exploit this weak area in central powers.

[Shri]

Well, i refer that much better than try crack ottomans in an area you know they are going to defend to the last man (they do their best here) try something in Palestine... you know, you cut-off the troops in Sinai, secure a good base for future operations and you can force them send troops to a distant area... maybe if they do this ottomans can crack earlier... at same time than russians... and you open the Balkans, something like in WW2 BUT in WW1 with the intention and necesity to exploit this weak area in central powers.

All that said- OTTOMANS fought well despite not having modern weaponry equal to Western Allies and Germany.
At least much better than Austrian, Rumanian and Italian forces and equal to Russians and French. They punched above their weight while fighting on 4 fronts and till 1918 held the enemy to a great extant. All the Allies and most of the CP had written off the Ottomans as useless, but some senior German Officers had belief in the Turks - like old Von Der Goltz Pasha and it was proved right.

[Kensai]

I visited an exhibition here in Freiburg about the city being a frontier town in the First World War, essentially being bombed many times for its size. There was a map showing the movements of the First and Second French Armies as they tried to break into Alsace and possibly Baden. Really nice. Heh, General Dubail was stopped just outside of Mutzig* (warning: photo-heavy thread) with the fortress playing its role.

*shown just West of Strasburg