History tells us that the Dardanelles campaign turned into a disaster with another quarter of a million men killed, wounded or evacuated sick. In the Eastern Front, to save the Austrian Army, General Falkenhayn (chief of the general staff of the German Army) received the Kaiser’s permission to send the German Eleventh Army, under Field Marshall von Mackensen to the Carpathians for a counter offensive which proved so successful that the whole Russian Front in the West collapsed so that by the end of the year German-Austrian armies had driven the Russians from Galicia, Poland and Lithuania
Horatio Herbert, Earl Kitchener of Khartoum was Secretary of State for War in 1914 when Britain went to war with Germany. He was the only man to have appreciated that the war would last three years at least, and that more than a million men would be needed to fight on the British side. He called for volunteers and, in a splendidly managed publicity campaign raised nearly three million men in two years. At the height of the war, on June 5th 1916, he was drowned in H.M.S. ‘Hampshire’ a cruiser which was taking him on an urgent visit to Russia, when it struck a mine and sank off the Orkney Islands. It was critical blow to the British and his death was regarded as a calamity of the first magnitude.
On June 13th 1916, the ILN published its
‘Lord Kitchener Memorial Number’
(Appendix list no. 72) . The issue contains W. Douglas Newton’s ‘A Study and a Memoir’ and a full pictorial biography of the Earl’s career from his childhood. We see how he avenged General Gordon’s death at Khartoum by smashing the Mahdi’s power at the battle of Omdurman in September 1898, how he cleared up the Boer resistance in the South African War (1899- l902) and how he reorganised the Indian Army when he was Commander in Chief in India from 1902 to 1909. Other pages show his visit to Australia and New Zealand where he advised on bringing their armies up to date, his reorganisation of the Egyptian army and his successes as War Minister.
The cover of this issue has, on a white background, a circular sepia photograph of Lord Kitchener surrounded by a purple mourning wreath. Below are his family Coat of Arms and the symbols of his office and authority on a cushion, also in purple.
This issue (number 4025A) consists of 32 pages, measures 30 x 42 cm and cost one shilling.
