September 2, 1919. Meyers to Placerville on the Motor Transport Convoy. More Trouble on the Border. Storm brewing in the Gulf. The End of Summer.

On this day the 1919 Motor Transport Convoy resumed their travels towards the Bay with a trip from Meyers to Placerville.  Roads were improving.

Closer to home, Wyoming's oil fortunes were improving, while the situation on the border remained tense and violent.

The crisis on the border naturally got first place on a lot of newspapers, but the Lance Creek oil strikes were a big deal in Wyoming. The area still is a major petroleum province in the state.

Railroad bills were also big news, as Congress struggled with an industry that had proved problematic during the war. 

And the victorious Allies informed Germany that Austria was not to be admitted as a German state, now that the Austrian Empire had ceased to exist.  In fact, as we'll shortly see, this would be a provision of the treaty with Austria which was soon to be signed.

And school was starting up, which was an occasion for cartoons.

The Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger made note of Labor Day being the unofficial American end of summer, with Tuesday, which September 2 was, being the end of the vacation season.

A cartoon of this type shows how long certain American traditions of modern life have been around, with an American vacationer (showing that vacations were common then), labeled as "Everybody", has a wrecked bank account due to going over the waterfall of Vacation.

The Gasoline Alley gang was at work, or at least Walt was, with the gang urging him to take the day off and go golfing.

It was also hurricane season, with the 1919 Florida Keys Hurricane forming to the south of the peninsula.  In those days, there was considerably less warning than there is now.

Countdown on the Great War, October 29,1918: Austria announces it wants to quit, the birth of Yugoslavia and the mutiny in the German navy spreads.

Headlines in Cheyenne informing readers that the Austrians were seeking to quit the war.

1.  Austria seeks an armistice from the Italians, and also with the Allies in general. 

The Casper Daily Press, no doubt under pressure from its other Casper competitors, announced that it was gong to a weekly in this same issue in which it spoke of Autro Hungaria's desire to get out of the war and the continued ravages of the Spanish Flu.

2.  The Allies occupied Vittorio Veneto, Italy.

3.  The German Navy abandoned its plans for final offensive operations.  Mutinous sailors would soon return to their ships and demonstrate their loyalty, at first.  Before that, however, the mutiny spread to Wilhelmshaven.

4. The State of the Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs proclaimed its independence from Austro Hungaria.  Czechoslovakia was also declared as a state on this date.

5.  The Ottomans held their positions at the Battle of Sharqat, the first time that they had done so for weeks.

Countdown on the Great War: October 28, 1918. The German Navy rebels and scuttles, the Hungarians quit Austria and the German army continues to take to the air.

1.  Having received orders to set sail to engage the British fleet, German sailors at Schillig Roads mutiny and refuse to prepare to get underway and refuse to weigh anchor  The crews of two of the ships, battleships, commit sabotage on their vessels.  What would become the Kiel Mutiny had commenced.

2.  The Germans scuttle seven submarines based at Pula, Austro Hungaria.  Another was scuttled at Trieste, Italy.

3.  Czechoslovakia declares independence from Austro Hungaria.

4.  Revolution breaks out in Hungary as the Hungarian National Council proclaims its independance from Austria.

Hungarian revolutionaries, including soldiers, with Aster flowers.  The flowers gave their name tot he rebellion, the Aster Revolution.

5.  The Austro Hungarian high command ordered a general retreat from all northern Italian positions.

6.  The Allies capture Makri and Evros in Macedonia.

7. The Germans established nine new air squadrons.

The Italians advance at high altitude. The Battle of San Mateo. August 13, 1918.

On this date in 1918, the Italian Army launched a small scale, but very high altitude, assault on Austrian positions in the Italian Alps.

Italian mountain troops, Alpini, launched a company sized attack on Austrian Jägers at San Mateo, taking the 3678 meter high peak (the Austrians would take it back a few weeks later on September 3). In doing this, they managed to seize a position that was used for artillery to control nearby passes.

The battle was the highest battle on record until a 1999 conflict between India and Pakistan would surpass it. 

The battle is interesting for a variety of reasons, including the use of specialized troops on both sides, and featuring an Italian assault that is a monument to mountaineering.  While it was a small scale battle, the loss of face to Austria was significant and they dedicated an inordinate amount of forces to take it back, even though the Italians regarded holding the position as impossible and didn't really attempt to do so.  The September 3, 1918 recapture of the peak is regarded as the last successful Austrian operation of the war, but it was a Pyrrhic one both because Austrian fortunes in the war, now that the 1918 German Spring Offensive had failed, were becoming increasingly and obviously rather poor, and because the Italian counter bombardment was so bloody that losses to the Austrian forces were excessive.

The battle serves as a grim reminder of the war to this day. As recently as 2004 the bodies of a few Austrian soldiers were recovered from a nearby glacier.

Poster Saturday: Subscribe to the War Loan!

A look at the other side today, an Austrian poster urging subscription to a war loan.

These farming folks look like they don't have much to donate to any war loans. The farm wife is in her bare feet, an old man is plowing.

Sometimes these posters say more than they mean to.

The Wyoming Tribune. April 3, 1917: War Action Blocked

"Battling Bob" LaFollette used a procedural move to keep the vote on Wilson's request for a Declaration of War from occurring. The vote would of course occur. Something like that was a mere delay.

Governor Houx was pleading that the state a "contingent of rough riders" to the war.  Of course, given the way the war news was reading, a person might debate if that was to fight Germany or Mexico.  But anyhow, Wyoming was looking to supply cavalry.

West Point was going to follow the Navy's lead and graduate the 1917 class of officers early.

The start of what came to be known as White Friday (although it apparently was a Wednesday), 1916

 Mount Marmolata vom Sellajoch, in the Dolomites before World War One.  The disaster commenced on this mountain where Austrian troops were garrisoned on the summit.  A local officer, Rudolf Schmid, had asked for permission to withdraw prior to the disaster, recognizing the danger, but had been denied.  He survived the disaster.

On this day in 1916 nature and war combined to eventually kill over 10,000 Italian and Austrian soldiers in the Italian Dolomites.  The day featured a catastrophic series of avalanches which would continue to carry on the rest of the week.  The majority of the casualties were Austrian with only 300 Italians loosing their lives in the disaster, if "only" is an appropriate word for death on such a colossal scale.

Austrian recruiting poster omitting, curiously, death.

An oddity of this event is that it is recalled as "White Friday", but it didn't solely or even principally occur on a Friday. The disaster was the start of a series of such events that would apparently culminate in some fashion on Friday.  Given this, it's often reported as if the full disaster occurred on a single day and a significant number of deaths occurred on the first day, but they did not end that day, and the day they first occurred on did not lend itself to the title of the day in history.

By any measure, however, it was a horrific event.

Friedrich Alder shot and killed Austrian Minister President Count Karl von Stürgkh

Socialist revolutionary Friedrich Alder shot and killed Austrian Minister President Count Karl von Stürgkh on this day in 1916.

 von Stürgk

Alder was a Socialist radical who took his extreme beliefs to the extreme of killing the Austrian Minister President, an act disavowed by other Austrian Socialist.  His death sentence was commuted and he lived until 1960.  He lived in the United States during World War Two, having left Austria after its incorporation into Nazi Germany but returned to Europe to live in Switzerland after the war, having retired from politics.

Is Saudi Arabia out of its mind?

Monarchies haven't fared well in recent decades and some have ended very badly.

Among those that ended badly are those that got their nations into big spats.  Anyone recall Kaiser Wilhelm II, for example?  Took his country into war in support of the Hapsburg's.  He didn't have to do that, but it ended up getting him retired to Holland.  What about the Hapsburg's, who felt that they had to pick that fight as their archduke was gunned down by a pathetic?

Or what about Czar Nicholas II.  Nicky was an absolute autocrat, and took his nation into World War One, which resulted in the Romanov's falling and his entire immediate family getting gunned down.

This past week, the Saudi's executed a prominent Sunni cleric.  The Saudis are Sunni Arabs and allied with Wannabism.  The Iranians are Persian Shiias.  The didn't like each other to start with.

What on earth were the Saudis thinking?

Now protests in Iran have broken out and diplomatic relations have been severed.

Last week, at a New Year's Party, I heard form somebody employed in the oil industry, as a joke (he was not serious), what we need is a war.

Well, we may be getting one.

Movies In History: The Grand Budapest Hotel

It may seem odd to some to see this film listed here, but it shouldn't.

The Grand Budapest Hotel is an Academy Award nominated film that was a bit of a surprise hit last year.  At least its a surprise to me, as it's the sort of unusual "small" story that we don't see get much attention anymore. The film itself almost recalls movies of the 1930s, during which it is set, more than contemporary movies.  And perhaps its a bit of a tribute to those films really.

It's masterfully done as well. Set in a fictional Eastern European country that we're lead to believe must have been part of the defunct Austro Hungarian Empire prior to its World War One collapse, the movies does a surprisingly good job of capturing the feel of those countries which had only lately entered into independence.  The Austro Hungarian Empire being multinational in nature, the mixed culture of those countries and those in its influence and orbit, such as Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and so on, is very well captured.  The film features a fair amount of the use of the German language. French shows up as well.  Last names are Slavic, German and perhaps Turkish.  The depiction of the cities is appropriately ornate.  The uniformed services shown in the film are also appropriately late Austrian in appearance. 

This film is in many ways truly odd, and very well done.  It is funny, but some of the humor is really off color and not appropriate for younger audiences. That comment would also apply to some of the things depicted in the film. But an American film pitched at a modern audience which features an Eastern European theme, set in the very early 1930s, is a real surprise, and that it did well is an even bigger surprise.