The Great War (1914-1918) in real time

Day 667 of the Great War, May 27th 1916

Western Front

Battle of Verdun: French take trenches south-west of Mort Homme.

Italian Front

Austrians take Monte Moschicce (north of Asiago) by storm.

Mesopotamian campaign

Russian troops repel an Ottoman attack from Mosul, Iraq with the use of bayonets and a cavalry charge.

East African campaign: Portuguese Attack into East Africa Fails

After their recent entry into the war, Portuguese forces swiftly “liberated” Kiongo on the border between Mozambique and German East Africa. Following this up, the Governor-General of Mozambique personally took charge of the efforts to push into German East Africa proper, by seizing the north bank of the Rovuma. On May 21, marines burnt a German sugar factory in a raid, and on the 27th they attempted a landing of their main force. Despite having lost a quarter of their force to disease over the last month, they had a huge numerical superiority over the defending Germans, who only had 100 men and 2 machine guns.

The Germans waited until a substantial number of Portuguese troops had been offloaded before opening fire, but when they did quickly forced the Portuguese back onto their boats. Charging the riverbank, they were even able to capture two Portuguese gunboats, killing 33 men and capturing eight. British Intelligence described the affair as “a smaller and worse edition of the Tanga fiasco.” The Portuguese government ignored the disaster, and the continuing epidemics of dysentery and malaria among the men, and dispatched 5000 more troops from Portugal two days later.

Naval operations: North Sea

British freighter SS LINCAIRN, 3,638 tons, bound from Tyne for Gibraltar with a load of coal, runs on a mine laid by Alfred Nitzsche in UC-10. His score is now 15 ships and 29,036 tons.

UC-3 (Günther Kreysern) hits a mine off Zeebrugge. All 18 crew are lost.

Naval operations: Gulf of Riga (Baltic Sea)

Russian minesweeper N-5, 509 tons, hits a mine and sinks in the Irbenskij Strait.

Naval operations: Mediterranean Sea

Walter Forstmann, commanding U-39, sinks Italian freighter SS MAR TERSO, 3,778 tons, carrying a load of coal from Newport to Savona; and British freighter SS TRUNKBY, 2,635 tons, heading from Newport to Cette, also with a cargo of coal. His score is now 66 ships and 151,005 tons.

Day 669 of the Great War, May 29th 1916

Western Front

Battle of Verdun: Germans gain a footing in trench north-west of Cumeires, but are repulsed on Hill 304.

Italian Front

Italians evacuate Asiago; Austrians cross Posina, west of Arsiero.

Naval operations: Mediterranean Sea

Walter Forstmann, commanding U-39, sinks three British freighters:
SS BARON VERNON, 1,779 tons, travelling in ballast from Savona to Seville;
SS ELMGROVE, 3,018 tons, travelling in ballast from Toulon to Huelva;
SS SOUTHGARTH, 2,414 tons, travelling in ballast from Marseille to Benisaf.

Forstmann's score is now 70 ships and 162,513 tons.

Naval operations: German U-Boat Lays Fateful Mines Near the Orkneys

Since the end of submarine attacks on shipping last month, Admiral Scheer had been hoping to use his U-boats for something closer to their original specification–attacking the British fleet. He had in mind a bombardment of Sunderland by Hipper’s battlecruisers; these would draw out British battlecruisers, which would hopefully follow Hipper right into the waiting U-boats. Although the plans for Hipper had had to change into a sortie into the Skagerrak by May 28 due to repairs and poor weather, the plans for the U-boats remained essentially the same.

In the meantime, other, minelaying U-boats had been sent to lay new minefields outside of important harbors, hoping to sink a few British ships as they sortied against Hipper. These had mixed success; two were lost and another had to turn back early due to an oil leak. The final one, U-75, was on a more unusual mission. On May 26, a Norwegian national named Lange, working for German Naval Intelligence intercepted and deciphered a message from a destroyer off the Orkneys directly to the Admiralty, saying that a particular passage had been cleared of mines. This was a relatively underused sea route, and the message was repeated several times. Lange’s superior also thought this was odd, and suspected an important ship would be using the passage. U-75 was ordered to lay mines there, and deployed 22 of them in the area that the British had just reported to have been swept.

Lange’s intuition was right; the sea route in question was to be used in a few days by a ship carrying Lord Kitchener to Russia.

Day 671 of the Great War, May 31st 1916

Western Front

Battle of Verdun: Fierce fighting between Mort Homme and Cumieres; French take a work south-west of Mort Homme.

Much artillery activity on Vimy Ridge.

Italian Front

Austro-Hungarian troops capture the towns of Asiago & Arsiero from the Italians. 30,388 Italians were captured in the last 2 weeks.

Macedonian Front

French occupy Poro (Salonika front).

Caucasus campaign

Mamakhatun retaken by Turks.

Aerial operations: Rutland of Jutland

The Germans have been concocting a plan to draw the British fleet into battle by bombarding Sunderland and then attacking them with submarines.

Bad weather caused the abandonment of this plan, primarily because no airship reconnaissance was possible. The German Admiral wanted to guard against a surprise attack by the British having airships patrol the area.

Instead a secondary plan was adopted whereby the fleet would advance into Skaggerak. Unfortunately, the British had incepted German radio traffic and knew that something was afoot and put the fleet to sea.

The fleet was supposed to be supported by two seaplane and balloon carriers the CAMPANIA and the ENDGANDINE.

Photo: British seaplane carrier HMS ENGADINE at anchor



Unfortunately the CAMPANIA did not receive the signal to depart from Admiral Jellicoe, the Commander of the Grand Fleet, and was left behind. Her captain eventually realised this and set off in pursuit of the fleet two hours 15 minutes late at 1.15am, but was ordered to return by Jellicoe due to the threat of submarines if unaccompanied and arrived back in port at 9.15am. Jellicoe also beleived that the CAMPANIA could not catch up, though she was in fact gaining on the fleet.

The ENDGANDINE was attached Battlecruiser Squadron commanded by Vice Admiral David Beatty. At 2.15pm, of the cruisers the HMS GALATEA reported “Enemy in Sight”. Shortly after at 2.40, Beatty ordered a seaplane to set off from the ENDGANDINE and scout the area where the enemy had been spotted.

To get a machine on the water when the ship was rolling in a swell was no easy matter. The unwieldy doors of the hangar was opened, the seaplane drawn out, the wings spread, the engine run up, and the machine hoisted into the sea for take off. Within 28 minutes a Shorts 184, with Flight Lieutenant Frederick Joseph Rutland as pilot and Assistant Paymaster G. S. Trewin as observer, was in the air.

Wireless messages from the seaplane were received in ENDGANDINE as follows:

3.30 p.m. Three enemy cruisers and five destroyers, distance from me 10 miles bearing 90°, steering course to the N.

3.33 p.m. Enemy’s course is south.

3.45 p.m. Three enemy cruisers and 10 destroyers
steering south

The observer further reported at 3.48pm that Enemy ships were turning. At this point the aircraft suffered a broken petrol pipe and was forced to land in the sea. Rutland made some running repairs and the seaplane returned to the ENDGANDINE again. The messages were only of marginal interest as the same information had been exported by ship. The ENDGANDINE played no further role in the battle.

On the German side, three Zeppelins finally got underway at around 11.00am, but due to poor visibility saw little of the battle.

The ENDGANDINE’S day was not yet over though as she ended up towing the damaged cruiser HMS WARRIOR. After 100 miles it was clear that the WARRIOR was sinking and so the crew were transferred to the ENDGANDINE. During this process a wounded rating fell into the sea between the ships. Rutland jumped into the water with a line to try and save him, and although he managed to rescue the body, the sailor was found to have been crushed between the ships, a fate which Rutland only narrowly avoided.

Naval operations: Battle of Jutland

Both the British and German navies had sent their battle cruiser forces steaming across the North Sea in the late night of May 31. Germany’s plan was for Franz von Hipper, commanding the lighter, faster battle cruisers, was to lure his British counterpart, Admiral David Beatty’s battle cruisers, into a battle off the Norwegian Coast, and then lure it south where the rest of Germany’s Imperial High Seas Fleet, commanded by Admiral Reinhard Scheer, would destroy it in detail before the rest of the Royal Navy’s might arrived.

Unfortunately for the Germans, however, British intelligence had picked up and decoded German radio messages, so the Royal Navy already knew the German plan. Admiral John Jellicoe, commanding the Grand Fleet, wanted to spring the trap, forcing the Germans into a decisive naval battle where they would be outnumbered and outgunned. Hipper’s squadron left in the early hours of May 31. The British, in fact, had already departed five hours earlier, with Beatty’s battle cruisers leaving from their base in the Firth of Forth, and the rest of the Grand Fleet from its home in Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands.

Photo: HMS WARSPITE and MALAYA, seen from HMS VALIANT at around 14:00 hrs



Photo: Imperial German Navy's battle ship SMS SCHESWIG-HOLSTEIN fires a salvo during the Battle of Jutland on May 31, 1916 in the North Sea



The smaller warships screening the movements of the fleets made contact in the North Sea off Denmark shortly after 2 PM on May 31, beginning a battle that would ultimately involve some 250 ships and 100,000 men. The sighting came as a surprise to both Hipper, who did not know that the British had intercepted German radio transmissions, and to Beatty, who had been mistakenly informed that the Germans were still in harbor at Wilhelmshaven.

Map: (1) 15:22 hrs, Hipper sights Beatty. (2) 15:48 hrs, First shots fired by Hipper's squadron. (3) 16:00 hrs-16:05 hrs, INDEFATIGABLE explodes, leaving two survivors. (4) 16:25 hrs, QUEEN MARY explodes, nine survive. (5) 16:45 hrs, Beatty's battlecruisers move out of range of Hipper. (6) 16:54 hrs, Evan-Thomas's battleships turn north behind Beatty



At a quarter to 4 PM, a running gun battle started between the battle cruisers squadrons of Beatty and Hipper, as Hipper tried to draw the British south towards the bulk of the High Seas Fleet, and Beatty gave chase. However, Beatty’s signals by flag and searchlight had not been picked up the rest of the British fleet, resulting in the dreadnought squadrons being too far behind and unable to catch up to the battle for some time, shriveling the advantage in ships and firepower Britain could have had in the action’s first hour. Beatty has also received some criticism for his preparation, as his ships were still maneuvering when the battle started. Although Beatty’s battle cruisers outranged their German foes, they were unable to bring this advantage to bear before the Germans closed for battle.

Things went south for the British almost immediately. Whereas the Royal Navy ships struggled to find their range, Hipper’s battle crusiers started scoring hits with their first shots as the two columns of war ships began to trade fire. Only 15 minutes into the engagement, the British battle cruiser HMS INDEFATIGABLE was hit and exploded tremendously, leaving only two survivors. HMS LION was saved from a similar fate when a mortally wounded Royal Marine officer managed to close and flood the ship’s magazine after being hit by a German salvo.

Photo: On the horizon the battlecruiser HMS LION, flagship of Vice Admiral Sir David Beatty, can be seen after being hit on 'Q' turret. This was the most serious of thirteen hits by the 12 inch guns of the German battlecruiser LUTZOW and started a fire in "Q" turret which was only prevented from blowing up the magazine by the quick thinking of a mortally wounded Royal Marine who ordered the magazine to be flooded



Photo: In the distance the British battlecruiser HMS INDEFATIGABLE sinking after being struck by shells from the German battlecruiser SMS VON DER TANN first in "X" magazine and then once she had limped out of the line she was hit by another salvo on the foredeck, the resulting explosion then destroying her. All but two of Indefatigable's crew of 1,119 were killed in the blast



The Germans continued to have the best of the artillery duel. Adverse conditions and poor gunnery practices meant that the British ships were struggling to hit their targets, while the German battle cruisers started doubling up on theirs. The British sailors, however, continued to fight back ferociously under a hail of German fire, as the first gunnery officer onboard the battle cruiser SMS DERFFLINGER noted:

“The enemy was shooting superbly. Twice the DERFFLINGER came under their infernal hail and each time she was hit. But the QUEEN MARY was having a bad time; engaged by the SEYDLITZ as well as the DERFFLINGER, she met her doom at 1626. A vivid red flame shot up from her forepart; then came an explosion forward, followed by a much heavier explosion amidships. Immediately afterwards, she blew up with a terrific explosion, the masts collapsing inwards and the smoke hiding everything.”

QUEEN MARY disintegrated as German shells struck both her forward ammunition magazines, leaving only nine survivors out of a crew of 1,275. The surviving British ships also continued to take hits. When Princess Royal disappeared in smoke and spray after a German volley landed close by, a signalman on Beatty’s flagship Lion mistakenly reported that “PRINCESS ROYAL'S blown up, Sir,” prompting the British admiral to turn to LION’S captain and grumble “ "Chatfield, there seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today.”

Photo: QUEEN MARY is surrounded by the explosion and smoke. To the left is HMS LION, surrounded by waterspouts from enemy shots falling short



Photo: HMS QUEEN MARY blowing up



Hipper’s “run to the south” continued until 4:40 PM, when Beatty sighted the dreadnoughts of the High Seas Fleet lurking menacingly in the distance. The British sailor ordered a reversal of 180 degrees to the safety of Jellicoe’s battle squadrons, starting the phase of the battle known as the “run to the north.”

Photo: INVINCIBLE blowing up after being struck by shells from LUTZUW and DERFFILINGER



This time, Beatty prepared to lead the whole German fleet into the jaws of the Grand Fleet, rapidly approaching from the northwest under Jellicoe. Caught up in the chase and overjoyed by the destruction of three British ships, Hipper and Scheer failed to realize they were being led to the slaughter, until shells from Jellicoe’s dreadnoughts started flying overhead. The main fleet action, and the only major battleship fight of the First World War, began.

Jellicoe deployed his battleships in a single line to port, hoping to “cross the T” of Scheer’s ships, which meant crossing in front of their column, allowing the British ships to bring all their guns to bear on the Germans, like the Japanese had done to the Russians at Tsushima in 1905. Jellicoe’s dreadnoughts crossed the German T twice, pounding the German ships dreadfully. The British battleships scored 70 hits, the Germans only two.

Map: (1) 18:00 Scouting forces rejoin their respective fleets. (2) 18:15 British fleet deploys into battle line (3) 18:30 German fleet under fire turns away (4) 19:00 German fleet turns back (5) 19:15 German fleet turns away for second time (6) 20:00 (7) 21:00 Nightfall: Jellicoe assumes night cruising formation



As light began to fade towards 6 o’clock, Scheer avoided the complete destruction of his fleet only by conducting two expert reversals under British fire. Scheer also gambled desperately by sending his small destroyers in a mad torpedo attack on the British line, which prompted Jellicoe, perhaps over-cautiously, to turn away. Scheer’s ships slipped away beyond the range of British guns as night began to fall.

The main fleet action convinced Scheer to avoid a resumption of battle at all costs. He struck a course back to the Imperial Fleet’s home ports. Jellicoe, whose ships ended the battle to the south of the Germans, suspected their intentions and veered due south to cut them off, but darkness shielded the Germans and allowed them to pass astern of Jellicoe’s battleships, avoiding the lottery of a night action. By 10 o’clock, the Battle of Jutland had ended, with British losses amounting to 6,784 men and 111,000 tons, and German losses to 3,058 men and 62,000 tons.

YouTube (The Battle of Jutland Animation)

Day 673 of the Great War, June 2nd 1916

YouTube (The Battle of Jutland - Royal Navy vs. German Imperial Navy)



Western Front: Germans Attack Canadians at Ypres

The British preparations for their upcoming offensive on the Somme had not gone unnoticed by the Germans. In an attempt to distract and divert them, the Germans decided to attack at Ypres, targeting a section of the line near Mount Sorrel occupied by the Canadians. The Canadian Corps had just been assigned a new commander, General Julian Byng (replacing General Alderson). Byng was concerned about the vulnerability of his position to the German artillery which overlooked them, and began preparations for an attack.

Before the attack could be launched, however, the Germans struck on June 2. An exceptionally heavy bombardment took the Canadians by surprise. Two generals were inspecting the front lines at the time; one was killed and the other taken prisoner. After the bombardment, mines were detonated beneath the Canadian trenches. The German infantry then attacked, taking a 3000-yard stretch of the line with only minimal resistance. They pushed forward around a kilometer until they stopped to consolidate their position; although there was essentially no one between them and Ypres (and what little resistance there was was leaderless), they chose not to take the initiative and possibly overextend themselves in the process.

Photo: Mount Sorrel with Armagh House in the foreground. Post-battle image of the June 1916 Mount Sorrel battlefield. The debris is all that remains of a dugout and shelter destroyed by artillery fire. Prior to the war, most of the terrain here was heavily wooded



Italian Front

Austrian attacks from Posina to Astico (Trentino) repulsed.

Macedonian Front

Bulgarians fire on Greeks at Demirhissar.

Caucasus campaign

Russians repulse Turks between Erzerum and Erzingan. Turks retire 25 miles.

Mesopotamian campaign

Turks retire after three days' fighting west of Rowanduz (east of Mosul).

Sinai and Palestine campaign

British drive Turks out of Katiya (northern Sinai).

Day 675 of the Great War, June 4th 1916

Western Front

Battle of Verdun: French forces charge toward Fort Vaux but are fought off by the Germans. Inside the fort, Germans use flamethrowers in an attempt to dislodge the French within. It fails. At night, 300 French soldiers make it out of the fort, but most of them will be killed or captured.

Photo: Telegraph wires damaged by shell fire; Armentieres, June 1916



Eastern Front: The Brusilov Offensive

Russian offensives in the last year had met with very limited success. The March attacks around Lake Naroch, in particular, gained no ground and resulted in heavy casualties despite a massive concentration of heavy artillery. Many Russian commanders despaired after Lake Naroch, believing that any breakthrough was thus impossible.

General Brusilov, the new commander of the Southwest Front, disagreed with this assessment. He believed that the entire strategy of concentrating heavy artillery to force a breakthrough at one point was intrinsically flawed. Any breakthrough, if made, would by necessity be made only at one small point on the line, which would then be vulnerable to attack from three sides. Any meticulous bombardment plans would be largely useless against incoming reserves, which would be quick to come because the enemy could easily tell that an attack was coming due to the required preparations.

Brusilov advocated a completely different approach. Attacks must be made along a broad a front as possible and in as many places as possible, to prevent the enemy from outflanking the advance or concentrating reserves. By having preparations conducted all along the front, some element of surprise could be kept, as well. Russian reserves must be kept close to the front line, in prepared and hidden trenches, ready to rush in as soon as the first wave reached the enemy line. Artillery and infantry needed to coordinate with each other, living in the same trenches if necessary. Good communications trenches needed to be built, and sappers should bring their lines as close to the enemy’s as possible ahead of time. Many other commanders were skeptical of Brusilov’s approach, believing any such attacks would be doomed due to the lack of heavy artillery; Alekseyev himself begged Brusilov to reduce the amount of front he was planning to attack by over 80%.

Nonetheless, Alekseyev was won over by Italy’s pleas for aid, and launched his offensive on June 4. Attacks were made in four separate places, each along fronts nearly twenty miles in width. They only outnumbered the Austrians by a ratio of around 6 to 5, but the Austrians had a number of disadvantages. They were supremely overconfident in the strength of their lines after previous failed Russian offensives, and refused to do anything about the obvious Russian preparations in May. They were distracted by the offensive in the Trentino, and had no support from the Germans, who were busy at Verdun. The Austrians had few reserves to deploy, and the multiple attacks resulted in much confusion. Their command was also lacking, especially in the Fourth Army, headed by the incompetent Archduke Joseph Ferdinand, the Emperor’s cousin.

The first day was mainly dedicated to the bombardment. Despite the lack of heavy artillery, the Russians still did considerable damage to the Austrian barbed wire, quickly silenced the Austrian guns (over which they had a considerable superiority in shell), and prevented reserves from coming in. Most of the Austrian troops huddled in reinforced strongpoints along the front line, and when the Russian infantry took the first line of trenches, these were isolated and forced to surrender. In the first two days, the Russians achieved breakthroughs at multiple points all along the front, capturing 40,000 Austrian prisoners, and the Austrians showed no signs of recovery.

Arab Revolt

Sheriff of Mecca starts revolt against Turks.

Naval operations: Adriatic Sea

Italian submarine ATROPO torpedoes Austro-Hungarian freighter SS ALBANIEN, 1,120 tons, off Quarnerolo (Kvarneric), Croatia.

Day 677 of the Great War, June 6th 1916

Western Front

Battle of Ypres: Germans again attack, gaining some ground at Hooge. German troops detonate four mines underneath British lines north of Hooge and follow it up with infantry assaults.

Eastern Front

Russians take Lutsk (Volhynia); cross the Ikva and Styr in Lutsk area and make progress south of Dniester: 15,000 prisoners reported.

Macedonian Front

"Pacific blockade" of Greece by Entente Powers begins.

Caucus campaign

Russians checked at Diarbekr.

East African campaign

Rhodesian troops drive Germans towards Iringa, north-east of Lake Nyassa; Belgians advance north-west of Lake Tanganyika.

Aerial operations: Indiscriminate bombing is useless

5 Squadron RNAS, currently attached to the Royal Navy’s Dover Patrol have been engaged in a tit-for-tat exchange with German air forces along the Belgian coast. The RNAS has been bombing aerodromes and Zeppelin sheds to prevent the attacks on the English coast and on Belgian towns. The Germans in turn have been bombing Dunkirk and other Belgian towns.

On 1 June 1916, the commander of 5 Squadron, Charles Lambe had written to Admiral Reginald Bacon with his assessment of the situation:

“Although at present there appears to be no means for successfully combating night bombing attacks by enemy aircraft, the lesson learnt during the past two months is that it is inadvisable to carry out offensive operations unless you have sufficient pilots and machines to continue it by day and night, and also a sufficiency of fast fighting machines to prevent retaliation by day.”

Admiral Bacon responded today, indicating a change in bombing policy:

“The chief lesson learned by our airmen in Flanders during the last two months, I hope, is one which the Military have known for some time, namely, that indiscriminate bombing is useless. The point they will eventually appreciate is not only that it is useless, but absolutely harmful to well thought out military operations … I intend to limit day bombing to such occasions of general attack or a general advance or to the attack of submarines and other vessels at sea. Night bombing may be useful against vessels in a harbour when present in sufficient numbers to make success probable, but otherwise bomb-dropping leads merely to the strengthening of anti-aircraft defences without adequate compensation.”