World War I Day by Day
Page 7
4
War at sea: Off the Irish coast the liner Hesperian is torpedoed: she later sinks with the loss of 32 lives.
5
Eastern Front: Czar Nicholas II of Russia becomes Commander-in-Chief of the Russian armies replacing Grand Duke Nicholas whose command is transferred to the Caucasus. General Alexeiev becomes Commander in the South and General Russki takes over the Northern Army.
Western Front: Continuous heavy artillery action along the Western Front, especially in the Arras region.
6
Africa: In German East Africa fighting betweenGermans and Belgians near Saisa on the Rhodesian frontier.
Italian Front: Fighting between Austrians and Italians.
War at sea: In the Sea of Marmora Turkish destroyer Yar Hissar sunk by submarine.
Western Front: Saarbrücken is bombed by 40 French planes.
The British assess a prototype tank for suitability for use on the Western Front.
7
Eastern Front: Austrian troops take Dubno and control the railroad from Riga to Lemberg (Lvov).
Great Britain: Zeppelin raid on the east coast of England kills 7 and injures 50.
War at sea: British and French fleets bombard the Belgian coast at Ostend and Westeinde.
Supply column following up the German advance on the road to Brest-Litowsk in Poland.
8
Eastern Front: Russian victory at Tarnopol and Trembovla: they take 8,000 prisoners.
War at sea: In the eastern Mediterranean off the island of Rhodes, the French auxiliary cruiser Indien torpedoed.
Great Britain: Zeppelins raid London and the east coast of England: 20 killed and 86 wounded.
Western Front: German offensive in the Argonne renewed.
9
Mesopotamia: In Shiraz, Persia, the British Vice-Consul is wounded and dies. German conspiracy is suspected.
Western Front: Heavy fighting continues in the Vosges.
12
Eastern Front: The Vilna-Dvinsk railroad is cut near Svyentsyani by Austro-German troops.
General: Following poor Austrian leadership Germany assumes ultimate control of Austro-Hungarian forces.
War at sea: The Belgian Relief Ship Pomona is sunk.
Western Front: Heavy bombardments on the French front.
Struggle for the possession of Kut in September 1915.
German wiring party.
Romania, showing the opening stages of the campaigns. The country was threatened by Austrians to the north and west, and by Germans, Turks and Bulgars in the south-east.
13
Politics: Bulgarian and Macedonian men are called up.
United States: Newspaper reports in the U.S. press talk of German sabotage in factories and political intrigue.
17
Eastern Front: Russians are beaten back and Russian army withdraws to positions between the rivers Vilna and Pripet.
18
Eastern Front: Vilna falls to the Germans and the Russians retreat towards Minsk.
War at sea: British fleet and French artillery bombard the Belgian coast.
19
War at sea: In the Aegean the British transport ship Ramazan sunk by submariine with the loss of 300 Indian troops.
21
Balkans: Anglo-French forces attack in Macedonia.
Bulgarian army ordered to mobilize for a situatiion of ‘armed neutrality.’.
Eastern Front: Fierce fighting around Dvinsk.
Politics: Dutch politicians reaffirm their neutrality.
Western Front: French successes in the Vosges at Hartmannsweilerkopf and along the Aisne-Marne canal.
Tsar Nicholas and his cousin (right) the Grand Duke Nicholas.
22
Eastern Front: Russian forces successful everywhere on the Eastern Front except in the center.
Gallipoli: Anzac casualties in the Dardanelles listed as 4,604 dead and 19,183 injured.
War at sea: In the English Channel the Dutch liner Koningin Emma is mined. She is successfully towed up the Thames and 250 passengers saved.
Western Front: Second Battle of Champagne begins.
23
Eastern Front: In Minsk the Russians capture Vileika.
Russians take Lutsk and capture almost 12,000 prisoners.
Western Front: Entire front sees artillery activity.
25
Eastern Front: Germans take heavy losses attacking Dvinsk and withdraw.
War at sea: On Gulf of Riga Russian Fleet bombards German positions.
Western Front: Anglo-French offensive at Artois-Loos, begins the Battle of Loos. British deploy chlorine gas against the Germans but the wind changes and blows it over their own men.
Successful French attack in Champagne between Suippe and the Aisne.
26
Balkans: All Greeks are reported to have been expelled from Smyrna.
Western Front: French successes in Champagne capture16,000 German prisoners.
German submarines U.35 and U.42 on the surface in the Mediterranean. The German authorities claimed that the former sank more tonnage of shipping than any other submarine.
This British B.E. plane managed to get back behind Allied lines before attempting a forced landing. The pilot, observer and plane were all undamaged.
A British observer loading a machine-gun magazine onto his plane. His pilot controlled a fixed double gun that fired through the propeller.
27
Western Front: British Guards regiment successful on Hill 70 at Loos.
German offensive in the Argonne is driven back.
28
Eastern Front: Battles in the Pripet Marshes: Germans sustain heavy losses.
Russian troops withdraw from Lutsk.
Middle East: Around the Tigris important British victory at Kut-el-Amara.
War at sea: Italian battleship Benedetto Brin catches fire and explodes.
Western Front: French victories in the Champagne region.
29
Eastern Front: In Galicia fierce fighting on the Strypa River and southeast of Russian-held Dvinsk.
Western Front: Allied success as the French capture Vimy Ridge; as they advance through Champagne they take 23,000 prisoners.
30
Eastern Front: On the Eastern Front the German advance grinds to a halt.
Western Front: French continuing to be successful in Champagne region.
German U-boat in mid-Atlantic takes on a torpedo and other supplies from its ‘parent ship’.
OCTOBER
Allies land in Salonika; Serbia invaded
October 1915
The Balkan Front sees the main action of the month as Austrian and German troops invade Serbia.
1
Balkans: Austrian and German troops gather all along the border with Serbia.
Western Front: British monitors bombard Lombaertzyde and Middelkerke in Belgium.
3
Balkans: Bulgarian forces concentrate along their border.
Politics: Russia sends an ultimatum to Bulgaria to pull back from the Serbian border and stop cooperating with the Germans.
Western Front: French artillery bomb Metz.
5
Balkans: An Anglo-French force lands at Salonika in Greece to offer assistance to support Serbia. Within a couple of days they number 20,000. The Greek government resigns.
Bulgarian forces are being commanded by German officers.
6
Balkans: Triple Alliance – Germany, Bulgaria, Austria – troops attack Serbia from the north.
Politics: In Britain Parliament hears that an estimated 800,000 Armenians have been massacred with German assistance in the last six months.
Ten-days’ leave tickets being waved in the air by happy troops at Poperinghe.
General Luigi Cardona, commander-in-chief of Italian forces in 1915.
On the night of September 23, 1915, 12 zeppelins raided England. L33 was hit, crash-landed in Essex and was then destroyed
by her crew.
7
Balkans: 400,000 Austro-German troops cross the rivers Danube, Drina, and Save.
Politics: New Greek administration announces its benevolent neutrality towards the Allies.
War at sea: Off the Anatolian coast two Russian destroyers sink 19 Turkish supply ships.
8
Balkans: Serbs evacuate Belgrade before Austro-German troops enter the city.
Western Front: Massive German losses as they attack in numbers at Loos.
9
Balkans: The Montenegrin frontier is attacked by Austrian troops.
Eastern Front: Russians are losing ground and taking heavy losses.
10
Balkans: In Belgrade many civilian inhabitants are killed by occupying troops.
War at sea: German metal steamer Lulea sunk by British submarine.
11
Balkans: Bulgarians attack Serbia from Byelogradchik; Belgrade is virtually destroyed.
Eastern Front: On the Strypa in Galicia 2,000 Austrians are captured by Ivanov’s forces.
The Salonika Front opened on October 5, 1915. The French and British fleet is seen here, with Greek soldiers in the foreground.
12
Balkans: Bulgaria declares war on Serbia.
Politics: Greece refuses to help Serbia despite their 1913 treaty. Says terms not triggered by current conflict.
Western Front: English nurse Edith Cavell shot by Germans for helping British prisoners to escape from Belgium to Holland. World opinion is outraged.
13
Great Britain: A Zeppelin raid on London kills 55 and injures a further 114.
14
United States: Congress agrees an increase in the size of the U.S. Army.
15
Balkans: Bulgarians occupy Vranya in Serbia.
Mesopotamia: In Persia Germans evacuate Kermanshah.
Politics: Great Britain declares war on Bulgaria.
16
Eastern Front: Heavy fighting in the Riga region.
Politics: France declares war on Bulgaria.
War at sea: In the Baltic a British submarine sinks five German transport ships.
18
Italian Front: Start of the Third Battle of the Isonzo.
British marines high above one of the Aegean Island strongholds
Area around Loos assaulted by the British towards the end of September, 1915. The map shows the German front and second lines of defence and the positions of the six British divisions involved in the main attack.
28
War at sea: Cruiser HMS Argyll grounded and lost off Dundee, Scotland.
29
Politics: The French Prime Minister M. Vivani is succeeded by M. Briand.
NOVEMBER
Sebia collapses; British held in Mesopotamia at Ctesiphon
November 1915
As the cold weather sets in the Western Front becomes largely static and remains so for the winter. The British advance in Mesopotamia is halted. The Serbian Army is forced to retreat as the more powerful central Powers armies push into Serbia.
5
Balkans: The Serbian capital of Nish is captured by Bulgarian troops after three days of fighting.
9
War at sea: In the Mediterranean the Italian liner Ancona is shelled and sunk by German submarine, killing 272, some of them American.
10
Italian Front: Start of the Fourth Battle of the Isonzo.
21
Balkans: Fall of Novi-Bazar in Serbia to Austro-German troops.
22
Mesopotamia: In Persia, Allies beat the Turks at the Battle of Ctesiphon, about 25 miles south of Bagdad.
Bulgarians advance into Serbia.
23
Balkans: German, Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian forces push the Serbian army into exile; Serbia falls.
Fall of Mitrovitsa, the temporary capital of Serbia, taking 17,000 prisoners.
24
Balkans: Serbian government transferred to Scutari, Albania. The Serbian people and their army attempt to evacuate the country by fleeing west across the mountains towards Albania. Many Serb soldiers and civilians die on this arduous journey.
25
Balkans: The Allies make Salonika the base of their Southern Front operations – with Greek government approval.
29
War at sea: In the Black Sea German submarine UC13 driven aground during a storm and stranded.
DECEMBER
Siege of Kut; Haig becomes BEF commander
December 1915
The Gallipoli Campaign is an acknowledged disaster and the Allied withdrawal starts. The Allies agree regularly to consult on strategy.
4
Politics: Henry Ford, with large party of peace advocates, sets sail for Europe on steamer Oscar II, with the intention of ending the war.
5
Balkans: General Vassich orders the evacuation of Monastir.
Mesopotamia: Start of the Siege of Kut when four Turkish divisions surround the town.
Salonika area showing the line from the river Struma to Albania held by the British, French, Italian, Russian and Serbian troops.
Djemal Pasha, leader of Turkish forces in Palestine and Sinai, points out locations on a map.
Contingent of Russian troops resting by the roadside while on their way to the front in Salonika in 1915.
6
Western Front: In Paris the first meeting of the Allied War council is held.
8
Gallipoli: Start of the evacuation of the Allies from Gallipoli towards the Greek frontier.
9
Balkans: On the Southern Front the Allies start to retreat from Vardar.
10
Gallipoli: The Allies begin slowly withdrawing from Gallipoli; they complete by January 9 1916.
13
Balkans: Serbia in hands of enemy, Allied forces abandoning last positions and retiring across Greek frontier.
15
Western Front: General Sir Douglas Haig succeeds Field Marshal Sir John French as Commander-in-Chief of British forces in France.
18
Western Front: Battle of Verdun ends with 550,000 French and 450,000 German casualties.
20
Gallipoli: Anzac troops start to secretly withdraw from positions on Suvla Bay and on the Gallipoli Peninsula.
Politics: Central Powers issue the Falkenhayn Memorandum which announces their intention to ‘bleed the French white’ through a war of attrition.
King Peter of Serbia retreats into Greece.
22
War at sea: Japanese liner Yasaka Maru lost.
31
War at sea: Cruiser Natal blows up in Cromarty Firth.
1916
JANUARY
Retreat from Gallipol
January 1916
The Allied withdrawal from the Dardanelles is completed and the Gallipoli Front closes. In the USA popular fears about German sabotage get stronger especially when the suspicions are confirmed about Germany’s attempts to keep the American public anti-war.
1
Africa: In the Cameroons the Allies take Yaounda.
Eastern Front: Major Russian offensive on the rivers Strypa and Styr.
4
Mesopotamia: The Battle of Sheikh Sa’ad is the first Anglo-Indian attempt to relieve the siege of Kut.
5
Balkans: Austria goes on the offensive in Montenegro and invades the country.
8
Gallipoli: Evacuation of Helles. Completed the following day.
Painting showing the sinking of the hospital ship Anglia, November 18, 1915, after it struck a mine in the English Channel.
10
Caucasus: Russia starts the Erzurum Offensive in the Armenian Caucasus.
11
Balkans: The Greek island of Corfu is occupied by the French.
13
Balkans: Cettinje, the capital of Montenegro, is occupied by Austrians.
; Mesopotamia: Battle of Hanna – the second Anglo-Indian attempt to raise the siege of Kut – fails.
15
United States: U.S. German naval attache Von Papen’s papers are published – his check counter-foils show his payments to German agents operating in the U.S.
War at sea: Admiral Reinhardt Scheer is given command of the German High Seas Fleet.
16
Balkans: In Salonika General Sarrail takes command.
Caucasus: The Russians launch a major offensive.
24
General: Conscription is introduced in Britain with the passing of the Military Service Act in Parliament, it becomes law in February.
25
Balkans: Montenegro accepts Austrian surrender terms.
Serbian artillery tries to cover the retreat of the Serbian Army in the face of the Austrians.
27
United States: President Wilson makes three speeches in New York and starts a nationwide whistle-stop campaign to generate support for joining the European war.