The Great War (1914-1918) in real time

Day 517 of the Great War, December 28th 1915

Western Front

French carry trenches in the Vosges.

Artillery activity on whole front.

Departure of Indian Corps for another front.

Eastern Front

Germans routed by Lettish detachments on Aa river (Courland).

Gallipoli campaign

Allied commanders agree to evacuate Cape Helles on Gallipoli, which would end the battle.

United States: Colonel House Dispatched to Europe for Negotiations

Henry Ford’s “Peace Ship” OSCAR II had proven to be an unwanted embarrassment. Henry Ford had left the expedition in Kristiania [Oslo] in the middle of the night, before the ship continued on to Sweden. Even before its arrival there, 4000 pounds of rubber, determined to be bound for Germany, were discovered as part of its mail delivery, and were seized by the British as contraband when they inspected the ship earlier in the month. This discovery, made public on December 28, made the Allies even more circumspect as to the Peace Ship’s aims.

The Wilson administration had made sure to give no official or unofficial sanction to Ford’s quixotic endeavor, and in fact had repeatedly urged him to call it off. Its spectacular failure could only hurt Wilson’s own attempt to broker peace in the form of his trusted advisor, Colonel House, who he dispatched a second time to Europe on December 28. He was bound for London at first, to meet with Foreign Minister Grey. House’s role as irreplaceable counselor had begun to diminish somewhat since the President’s remarriage, and would from this point forward slowly start to deteriorate; it seems that House would not represent Wilson entirely faithfully in his diplomatic work.

Naval operations: Battle of Durazzo

The Serbian army has retreated into Albania to escape destruction at the hands of the German, Bulgarian and Austro-Hungarian invaders of their country. Many of the Serbian soldiers and the civilians fleeing with them have died crossing the Albanian mountains, mostly from exposure and the effects of hunger but some at the hands of Albanian raiders; many Albanians are less than pleased at the Serbs bringing the war into their country.

The Serbs are making their way to the coast, where they hope to be brought to safety by Allied ships. To interfere with this evacuation an Austro-Hungarian naval force headed by the new light cruiser (nine 4-inch main guns)SMS HELGOLAND sails down into the Adriatic to attack the Albanian port of Durazzo, now under Italian occupation (and renamed from the Albanian Durrës). On their way they spot and sink a French submarine. Then they bombard Durazzo and sunk some Greek ships that may have been planning to assist the Serbs. Then their luck runs out as they blunder into a minefield. One Austro-Hungarian ships is sunk, another, the TRIGLAV severely damaged.

The Austro-Hungarians now decide that discretion is the better part of valour and begin to retreat back to base, towing the crippled Triglav. But there is danger ahead for the slow-moving flotilla. British, French and Italian ships are converging, intent on destroying the Austro-Hungarian squadron. They race northwards hoping to catch the enemy ships before they reach safety.

Naval operations: Celtic Sea

Rudolf Schneider, commanding U-24, damages British freighter SS HURONIAN, 8,755 tons, bound from Galveston to Liverpool with a general cargo; and sinks tanker El ZORRO, 5,989 tons, carrying oil from Port Arthur to Dartsmouth. At the end of his sixth war patrol his score is 26 ships and 89,147 tons.

Naval operations: Portugal

Portuguese schooner SV SEIXAS, 1,118 tons, travelling from New Orleans to Lisbon, is wrecked off Peniche, Portugal.

Day 519 of the Great War, December 30th 1915

Western Front

Five German mines explode north of Loos, causing some British casualties.

Eastern Front: Falkenhayn plans Armageddon

Earlier this month Allied military leaders met at Chantilly to work out a common strategy for the coming year. They agreed simultaneous offensives next summer in the hope of overwhelming Germany and Austria-Hungary.

But what of their enemies? Germany and Austria-Hungary are now developing their own plans for next year but due to a breakdown in communication between Falkenhayn & Conrad, the two countries’ army commanders, they are preparing strategies in isolation. Conrad is planning a counter-offensive against the Italians, which he hopes will knock them out of the war.

Falkenhayn is planning an assault on the French. He has outlined his thinking in a memorandum to the Kaiser. He sees Britain as Germany’s main enemy in the war; indeed, he sees the war as resulting from a plot by the British to destroy Germany. The war will only end when the British realise that they cannot defeat Germany. But how to make them realise this?

British naval superiority means that Britain itself cannot be directly attacked. Falkenhayn also argues against attacking British forces on the Western Front, as the terrain in the positions they defend is unsuitable (he may be remembering his unsuccessful assaults on the British at the Battle of Ypres). As far as Falkenhayn is concerned, the way to defeat Britain is to knock her allies out of the war; they are the tools of Britain’s anti-German policy.

Falkenhayn considers an attack on the Italians to be a waste of time, as they are too marginal to the Allied war effort. Russia is vulnerable but the lesson of this year is that she always has space to retreat into and can always find more men to replace those lost in battles. In any case, he predicts that Russia’s internal problems could soon force her out of the war without further German military action.

That leaves France, described by Falkenhayn as “England’s best sword”. He proposes an offensive against France that will knock her out of the war, not by the kind of Napoleonic war of manoeuvre attempted in 1914 but by inflicting unsustainable casualties. He proposes to attack a prestige target that the French will throw in every man to defend; superior German artillery can then be brought to bear so that, in Falkenhayn’s words, “the forces of France will bleed to death”. With the French defeated, the British will hopefully realise that they cannot defeat Germany and agree to peace.

Falkenhayn proposes the fortified town of Verdun as the target for his offensive. The Kaiser agrees. The local commander of the offensive will the Kaiser’s son, the Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, guided by his chief of staff, General Schmidt von Knobelsdorf (unlike the Crown Prince, Knobelsdorf is a professional soldier).

Detailed planning begins, but under the greatest secrecy as the element of surprise is to be maximised. The assault will begin in mid February.

Air operations: First Zeppelin Raid on Salonika

With the defeat of Serbia, the British and French forces that had attempted to help them had mostly withdrawn back to Salonika and entrenched themselves around the city. The Germans were unwilling to commit any resources to defeating them, and had moved most of their troops in the Balkans back to the Western Front. Besides, a land attack on Salonika came with the possibility of forcing Greece into the Allied camp, further stretching German resources. Nevertheless, such a large Allied force could not go entirely unharassed, and on December 30 a German Zeppelin attacked the Allies there. The attack only inflicted minor damage and casualties, but one of these was a Greek shepherd. Greece, however, did not protest to Berlin at the killing of one of its own civilians on its own soil. On the same day, General Sarrail, commanding the forces at Salonika, arrested and exported the consular staff of the Central Powers in the (officially neutral) city. This added violation of Greek neutrality brought only limited additional protest.

Naval operations: Mediterranean Sea

Max Valentiner in U-38, British freighter SS CLAN MACFARLANE, 4,823 tons, carrying a general cargo from Liverpool to Bombay. SS PERSIA is also torpedoed by U-38 off Crete, resulting in the deaths of 343 people, including U.S.A. Consul at Aden. Because the captain of U-38, Max Valentiner torpedoed the ship without warning, breaking both the Rules of Prize Warfare and The Arabic Pledge, Germany's own restriction on attacking passenger ships, the Allies will declare him a war criminal.

Claus Rücker, commanding U-34, sinks British freighter MV ABELIA, 3,650 tons, bound from Bombay to Hull with a load of manganese ore and cottonseed. He now has 18 ships and 56,298 tons to his credit.

Postcard: Postcard of SS PERSIA at Aden, c.1900



Naval operations: North Sea

Dutch freighter SS ELLEWOUTSDIJK , 2,229 tons, travelling in ballast from Rotterdam to Portland, Maine, hits a mine laid by Alfred Nitsche in UC-10.

Armoured cruiser HMS NATAL, 10,850 tons, suffers an internal explosion while moored at Cromarty Firth. Original estimates place the losses at 390, but a later revision makes it 421, including women and children visiting that day. Rumors run wild, with people suggesting sabotage and u-boats. The official inquiry states the most likely explanation as bad cordite spontaneously igniting.

Photo: The upturned hull of NATAL in Cromarty Firth



Naval operations: Adriatic Sea

French Submarine MONGE is rammed by Austro-Hungarian destroyer HELGOLAND, and then shelled by cruiser BALATON Balaton off Durrës (Durazzo to the Italians). The submarine is then scuttled by her captain.

Photo: French submarine MONGE



Naval operations: German East Africa

Monitor HMS SEVERN is patrolling the mouth of the Rufiji River when the lookouts spot a dugout canoe. The native occupant tells Severn's officers of his escape from his German captors with another native. They managed to break their chains and run, but the other man was killed. He took the canoe and was trying to reach Mafia Island, and that he has information vital to the British. His information turns out to be worthless.

Day 521 of the Great War, January 1st 1916

Eastern Front

Russian Offensive on the Strypa and the Styr (Galicia).

Macedonia Front

King Peter of Serbia reaches Salonika.

Kamerun Campaign: British Capture Capital of German Kamerun

For the last two months, British and French forces had been slowly closing in on the remaining Germans in southern Cameroon. The German forces there still had an avenue of escape to Río Muni, a neutral Spanish colony (now part of Equatorial Guinea). After this route was threatened by the French advance, on December 28 the German commander Zimmermann ordered a retreat in that direction before it became too late. He chose not to put up a fight for the capital, Jaunde, as he was short on ammunition and did not wish the city destroyed in case Germany could recover Cameroon after a victory in Europe. The British entered Yaounde on January 1. One officer wrote:

We found nothing in this deserted place either to eat, to drink, or to play with, and by way of adding insult to injury they left it in an unsanitary condition, dangerous to the health of our troops.

Apparently, German askaris defecated in many of the buildings in Jaunde before leaving, perhaps having been encouraged to do so by their officers.

The British were slow to pursue, and by mid-February 15,000 people (1000 Germans, and 6000 mostly Beti askaris, along with their families) had crossed into Río Muni where they were interned. Outnumbering the local Spanish troops by an order of magnitude, they spent much of the rest of the war preparing for a return to Cameroon that, at least for the Germans, would never come.

Aerial operations: Bigger and Bigger

The RFC has continued to expand to meet the needs of the new armies primarily on the Western Front. At the beginning of 1915, the RFC consisted of 2559 personnel of whom 223 were officers. Now it has 16229 personnel including 1341 officers.

The RFC now has a total of 31 Squadrons, 18 of which are serving on the Western Front one in Egypt (30 Squadron), and one on its way to Africa (26 Squadron). The remainder are undergoing combat training.

Naval operations: Mediterranean Sea

Claus Rücker, commanding U-34, sinks British freighter SS GLENYLE, 9,395 tons, bound from Vladivostok and Bombay to Genoa and London with a load of cotton. His score is now 19 ships and 65,693 tons.

Day 523 of the Great War, January 3rd 1916

Western Front

In Artois, Germany detonates a mine below French lines, allowing them to capture the stretch of trenches.

Eastern Front

Development of Russian offensive in Bukovina and eastern Galicia and Poland.

Naval operations: Aegean Sea

Rudolf Singule, commanding Austrian U-4, takes Albanian sailing vessel HALIL as a prize. Two other vessels are sunk in this action.

Naval operations: America and Japan Respond to Mediterranean U-Boat Threat

The Germans had ended their submarine campaign in the Atlantic due to American pressure, but continued the domestically popular effort in the Mediterranean, where it was hoped fewer American vessels and citizens would be found. This was dashed in November, when the ANCONA was sunk with the loss of many American citizens. The submarine in question, U-38, was operating under the Austrian flag, so American diplomatic efforts were directed at Vienna instead, and by late December Austria had agreed to all of America’s diplomatic demands.

However, essentially simultaneously with Austria’s reply, U-38 sunk another liner, the PERSIA, on December 30, off the Cretan coast. 343 of the 519 on board were killed, including the model for the Rolls Royce hood ornament, Eleanor Thornton. Only two of the dead were Americans, but one of them was the American consul to Aden. In her cargo were a large number of gems belonging to the Maharaja of Kapurthala. In order to deal with this new submarine crisis, Wilson cut short his honeymoon in Hot Springs, Virginia on January 3, and returned to Washington.

Another country recently threatend by the German submarine action in the Mediterranean was Japan, who lost the passenger liner YASAKA MARU on December 21 and the freighter KANKOKU MARU on December 29. In response, on January 3, Japan announced it would send a squadron of warships to Suez to address the threat. This was the first Japanese naval deployment outside of Asia during the war.

Day 525 of the Great War, January 5th 1916

Serbian campaign: Montenegrin campaign - Austria begins to settle accounts with Montenegro

After victory over Serbia the Austro-Hungarians now turn their attention to Montenegro. The small mountain kingdom had entered the war on Serbia’s side and is continuing to resist. Austria-Hungary’s Conrad is determined to crush this Slavic nation and then press on to attack Italian-occupied ports in Albania. Today his invasion of Montenegro begins, with Austro-Hungarian armies crossing the border from the west, north and east.

The Montenegrins put up stout resistance but the numbers and equipment of the Austro-Hungarians are overwhelming. Even though the Austro-Hungarians are attacking without the aid of their German allies, the outcome of this campaign looks certain.

Map: Montenegro campaign 1916



United Kingdom: First conscription bill is introduced in British parliament

With the Great War edging into its third calendar year, British Prime Minister Herbert Asquith introduces the first military conscription bill in his country's history to the House of Commons on this day in 1916.

Lord Horatio Herbert Kitchener, Britain's secretary of state for war, had warned from the beginning that the war would be decided by Britain's last 1 million men. All the regular divisions of the British army went into action in the summer of 1914 and the campaign for volunteers based around the slogan "Your King and Country Need You! Began in earnest in August of that year. New volunteers were rapidly enlisted and trained, many of them joining what were known as Pals battalions, or regiments of men from the same town or from similar professional backgrounds.

Though the volunteer response was undoubtedly impressive — almost 500,000 men enlisted in the first six weeks of the war alone — some doubted the quality of these so-called Kitchener armies. British General Henry Wilson, a career military man, wrote in his diary of his country's "ridiculous and preposterous army" and compared it unfavorably to that of Germany, which, with the help of conscription, had been steadily building and improving its armed forces for the past 40 years.

By the end of 1915, as the war proved to be far longer and bloodier than expected and the army shrank — Britain had lost 60,000 officers by late summer — it had become clear to Kitchener that military conscription would be necessary to win the war. Asquith, though he feared conscription would be a politically unattractive proposition, finally submitted. On January 5, 1916, he introduced the first conscription bill to Parliament. It was passed into law as the Military Service Act later that month and went into effect on February 10.

Britain had entered the war believing that its primary role would be to provide industrial and economic support to its allies, but by war's end the country had enlisted 49 percent of its men between the ages of 15 and 49 for military service, a clear testament to the immense human sacrifice the conflict demanded.

Poster: 1916 poster publicising the Act



Naval operations: North Sea

Norwegian freighter SS FRIDTJOF NANSEN, 3,275 tons, carrying a load of superphosphate from Bône to Rotterdam, runs on a mine laid by Alfred Nitzsche and UC-10.

Naval operations: German East Africa

HMS MERSEY reports that two native spies have arrived and are to be dropped near the German-held coastline.

Day 527 of the Great War, January 7th 1916

YouTube (Prelude to Verdun And The Road To the Somme)



Eastern Front

The Russians assault Chartoysk in a blizzard, losing heavily.

Gallipoli campaign

The final evacuation of Gallipoli from Seddul-Bahr begins this evening. At Cape Helles the defenses are manned from left to right by: 13th Division; 29th Division; 52nd Division; and in the old French sector, the Royal Naval Division. At this moment the Turks launch their last attack of the campaign. This comes under the cover of the heaviest bombardment of the campaign, directed primarily upon the British left flank. The attack fails almost before it begins, as it is met by steady British fire, and many Turks simply refuse to advance, as if, after months of heroism, their will has finally given out. This last Turkish attack costs the British one hundred sixty-four casualties, almost all among the North Staffordshire Regiment of 29th Brigade (13th Division), whose trenches are heavily shelled.

Photo: W Beach, Helles, on 7 January 1916



Ottoman troops under Liman von Sanders launch an attack against British troops at Gallipoli, but suffer heavy casualties.

Mesopotamia campaign: Battle of Sheikh Sa'ad

The first attempt to relieve the besieged British Indian force at Kut ran into problems at Sheikh Saad today. The British, although they realized they did not have a numerical advantage over the Turks, discounted the quality of the Turkish troops (despite their defeat at Ctesiphon) and pushed ahead anyway.

Photo: 'Monitor bombarding Sheik Saad from Hibsh with 4" gun', 6 January 1916



The British advanced on both sides of the Tigris, hoping to use the advance on one side to infiltrate the other. However, the British were tired after a 25-mile march on the 6th and had to advance on a perfectly flat (and, uncharacteristically for January, muddy) plain against the Turkish lines, rendering them extremely vulnerable, especially without adequate artillery support. One officer recalled:

No time was given for the issue of orders, no frontage or direction was given, no signal communications arranged, and to all inquiries the one answer was ‘Advance where the bullets are thickest.’…The staff did not think that the Turks would put up a serious fight here and therefore only expected some 300 casualties. No definite plan seems to have been made and we simply marched up and made a frontal attack expecting them to retire.

On the 7th, the British took the Turkish trenches after a series of determined charges, but only at the cost of over 4,000 men. The Turks then withdrew, but the British were too exhausted to pursue and were, regardless, mired in mud, as “the wounded are dying of exposure and some even of hunger.”

Photo: Hospital Ship NO. 1, one of the few available, on the Tigris River in 1916 carrying British and Indian wounded back to the British clearing hospital at Falahiyah during the relief force's attempt to rescue the Kut garrison



Naval operations: North Sea

Norwegian freighter SS Bonheur, 1,158 tons, bound from Frederikstad to Garston with a load of boards, hits a mine laid by SMS Möwe. This is Möwe's second victim.