The Great War (1914-1918) in real time

Day 682 of the Great War, June 11th 1916

Western Front

Battle of Verdun: Three German attacks on Hill 304 are repulsed by French forces after hand-to-hand combat.

Germans bombard Ypres heavily.

Eastern Front

Russians reach suburbs of Czernowitz; repel attacks near Dvinsk and Vilna; are checked at Lutsk and lose ground on Strypa; 7,000 prisoners reported.

Russian forces recapture the fortress of Dubno on the Ivka River. Russia claims to have captured 107,000 prisoners in the Brusilov offensive.

United Kingdom

Photo: The 15th Battalion, London Regiment (Civil Service Rifles), 47th Division, marching past the Lord Mayor of London, Colonel Sir Charles Wakefield, 11th June 1916



Sinai and Palestine campaign

Skirmishes at Katiya; Turks bomb El Kantara (Egypt).

Caucasus campaign

Russians repulse Turks at Platina (west of Trebizond).

Naval operations: Baltic Sea

Swedish coaster SS EMMY, 496 tons, bound from Soraker for Raa with a load of iron pyrite, hits a mine near Falsterborev.

Day 684 of the Great War, June 13th 1916

Western Front: Canadians Retake Ground at Mount Sorrel

The German attack on the Canadians at Mount Sorrel nearly two weeks earlier was aimed to divert the British from their upcoming Somme offensive. For the most part, this did not succeed. Although Haig wanted to retake the lost trenches, he only diverted one brigade for the purpose–along with artillery and shells, which at this point he had plenty of.

On June 12, the British and Canadian artillery shelled the German lines for over ten hours. On the thirteenth, they began again but continued only for 45 minutes, after which the Canadians advanced behind a smokescreen. The German positions were captured easily, along with 200 men. Within an hour, almost all of the original Canadian trenches had been retaken.

Eastern Front

Russians repulsed at Baranovichi (75 miles north of Pinsk); take Torchin and reach the Stokhod (near Lutsk); gain ground near Czernowitz; 6,000 prisoners reported.

Aerial operations: Perim Island

Following yesterday’s bomb attacks on Turkish positions, the HMS BEN-MY-CHREE sailed to nearby Perim island to carry out further attacks on Turkish positions. On arrival early this morning a Short 184 seaplane (850) was hoisted out and bombed the camps at Jebel Malu and Jebel Akrabi.

At the same time the BEN-MY-CHREE’S guns fired against these objectives aided by spotting from a wireless-fitted Sopwith Schneider (B3).

Once the bombing was completed, the BEN-MY-CHREE sailed for Jidda around midday to join the naval force assisting the Arab revolt.

Naval operations: Tyrrhenian Sea

Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière, commanding U-35, begins his third war patrol in the area around Ustica, a small island north of Sicily.
Italian sailing vessel MARIA C, 77 tons.
Italian coaster MOTIA, 500 tons.
Italian sailing vessel SAN FRANCESCODi PAOLA, 43 tons.
Von Arnauld's score is now 11 ships and 51,056 tons.

Day 686 of the Great War, June 15th 1916

Western Front

Battle of Verdun: French take a trench on Mort Homme and repulse heavy counter-attacks at Caillette Wood.

Photo: Gunners of the 7th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery preparing a 6 inch field gun (Mark VII) for action at Reninghelst, 15th June 1916



Photo: British BL 6 inch Gun Mk 7 on Mk. 2 carriage, and 3 shell types, Reningelst, Flanders, June 15th 1916



Eastern Front

Russians advance north-west of Czernowitz; heavy fighting in the centre.

Macedonian Front

Artillery activity at Salonika.

Ottoman Empire

Photo: Aerial view of İstinye navy base. There is YAVUZ (ex-GOEBEN) on the top, MIDILLI (ex-BRESLAU) on the left and a German ship in the floating dock. In the upper right, a group of torpedo boats is moored. The photograph was taken by the German SL-10 zeppelin on June 15, 1916



Italian Front: Fierce Fighting on Italian Front as Austrian Trentino Offensive Stalls, Italian Government Replaced

The Austro-Hungarian Trentino Offensive, also known as the Battle of Asiago, had made major gains since beginning at the end of May. Disregarding strongly worded advice from his German counterpart, Austrian Chief-of-Staff Conrad von Hotzendorf had mustered Austrian forces for a break though on the Italian front, but his original success was ruined by the Russian Brusilov Offensive, which began in June on the Eastern Front. Launched early to help the Italians, the Russian attack had smashed through Austria’s weak forces on the Eastern Front, forcing Conrad to consider halting the Asiago battle just as he seemed to be breaking through. Scouts reported that only three fortified mountains stood in the way of the Austro-Hungarian Army and Milan.

Over 200,000 Austrian soldiers and 400 guns had been captured on the Eastern Front by Brusilov’s advancing armies, forcing Conrad to transfer badly needed reserves from Italy to Russia, to check an even worse defeat. But he could not resist trying to carry though to victory in Italy, now that it seemed so close.

On June 15, Conrad sent a full corps of 20 battalions crashing into the final Italian positions on Mt Lemerle, but the Italian defenders, located at the narrowest point of the Asiago forest, decimated the Austrian attack with well-directed artillery fire. Using the railways, Italian Chief-of-Staff Luigi Cadorna had transferred half a million men to Trentino, assuring Italy could withstand the assault in time. Austria’s last bid crumpled in the face of Italian resistance, and with it waned the entire Trentino Offensive.

The battle had cost the Austrians 150,000 casualties, the Italians just under that. And although the Austro-Hungarians had captured Asiago itself,and come achingly close to Milan, their commander Archduke Eugen was forced to withdraw by Italian counter-attacks until he stood only 5 km from where he had started. The surprisingly sudden and vicious Austrian offensive did cause the collapse of Italy’s government, with Prime Minister Antonio Salandra replaced by Paolo Boselli. Finally, Austria’s heavy toll of losses, combined with those being suffered in the East, meant that Austria never again launched such an attack without German help for the rest of the world war.

Mesopotamia campaign

British cavalry raid an Arab tribe (Mesopotamia).

Persia campaign

Heavy fighting at Saripul (Persia).

East Africa campaign

British secure bridge at Korogwe (west of Tanga, German East Africa), and occupy an island in Lake Victoria.

Aerial operations: Haig wants more squadrons

The British Commander Douglas Haig, despite his early dismissal of the air services is now fully supportive of the assistance they provide to his forces. In conjunction with his plans for further expansion of the Army, he also wants to expand the Royal Flying Corps to provide additional support.

Obviously there is a long lead in time to provide pilots, aircraft and engines in sufficient numbers to meet demand.

Currently there are 59 Squadrons in existence, of which 28 are serving in France, 5 in other theatres, 7 on Home defence duties and the remaining 19 in training for deployment. Supporting these are an additional 26 training squadrons. War Office approval has been given for a total of 70 operational squadrons including 10 Long-range bombing squadrons.

Today, Haig submitted plans to the Air Board for the expansion of the Royal Flying Corps. He wants to double the number of operational squadrons on the Western Front to 56 by spring 1917 ‘at the latest, and sooner, if possible’.

This will increase the total number of service squadrons sanctioned to 86, including 10 home defence, 10 in other theatres and 10 long range bombing squadrons. To support the expansion, Haig also plans to increase the number of training squadrons to 56, not including the Central Flying School.

Day 688 of the Great War, June 17th 1916

Western Front

Battle of Verdun: Heavy German attacks repulsed on Mort Homme; French take some trenches on Hill 321; Germans checked at Thiaumont.

Eastern Front: Brusilov Captures Czernowitz

Brusilov’s armies on the Eastern Front continued their relentless advance, taking Czernowitz on June 17, the easternmost city of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and a key Russian objective since January. It was a commanding triumph for Russia after months of disaster, and an unmitigated debacle for the Hapsburg Empire. Caught in an unending retreat, the Austro-Hungarian Seventh Army had been almost completely destroyed by mid-June, and only the transfer of four German divisions from Verdun to Galicia staved off an even worse result. Brusilov’s troops readied themselves to push into the Carpathian foothills and further into the Dual Monarchy’s territory.

Photo: Russian soldiers enter the city



Mesopotamia campaign

British within 200 yards of Sanna-i-Yat and five miles east of Kut (Mesopotamia).

Aerial operations: New RE8 flies

The new Royal Aircraft Factory RE8 took its first flight today. Two prototypes have been constructed (7996 and 7997) and the former was flown by test pilot Frank Gooden.

The aircraft has been in development since late 1915 as a replacement for the BE2 types which are currently the mainstay of British reconnaissance aircraft. Despite that its development has been contemporaneous with the BE12 and BE2e.

This has led to an aircraft that is conceptually very similar to the BE2 types and in fact shares many of the same parts. It’s probably best considered more of an evolution and the cynical might suggest that the RE8 name is about distancing the design from the much criticised BE2s, as it bears little resemblance to previous aircraft in the RE series

For example, the single bay, unequal span wings are identical to those of the BE2e, although the span (and thus the wing area) was increased slightly by the use of a wider upper centre section, and lower stub wings to match. The tailplane was also the same as the B.E.2e. The entirely new parts of the design are confined to the fuselage aft of the engine firewall, and the vertical fin and rudder.

The installation of the 150 hp (112 kW) Royal Aircraft Factory 4a air-cooled V12 engine closely resembles that of the BE12, with the same large air scoop and similar vertically mounted exhausts protruding over the upper wing to carry the fumes clear of the crew.

It is however a more powerful motor intended to the feeble speed and climb of the B.E.2, and in to allow a better payload which will allow the aircraft to operate as a true two-seater – without having to leave the observer behind when bombs or a full fuel load are carried.

The increased power also allows the observer to be seated directly behind the pilot for better communication and in the proper position to operate a defensive machine gun. It also allows for the pilot to have a forward firing gun, although the short supply of sychronsiing gears means that the prototype does not have one.

Other new features include a wheel to adjust the tailplane incidence in flight, and a form of primitive rudder trim is provided to alleviate the constant pressure necessary to counteract the torque of the propeller. Very basic flight controls are installed in the observer’s cockpit –folded out of the way when not in use – to give the observer a fighting chance of landing the aircraft if the pilot was killed or incapacitated.

Photo: Early R.E.8 with initial small tailfin



United States

Photo: The U.S. Navy fleet oiler USS CUYAMA (AO-3) off the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, California (USA), following her launching on 17 June 1916



Naval operations: Mediterranean Sea

Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière, commanding U-35, has moved westward from Corsica, where he sinks Italian freighter SS POVIGA, 3,360 tons, bound from Norfolk for Genoa with a load of coal. His score is now 26 ships and 62,588 tons.

Day 690 of the Great War, June 19th 1916

Eastern Front

Germans penetrate Russian lines at Smorgon (Vilna), but are driven out; Russians cross Sereth (south of Czernowitz).

Italian Front

Slight Italian advance on Asiago plateau.

Arab Revolt

Capture of Mecca, Jeddah and most of Taif, and siege of Medina, by Sherif of Mecca, reported.

East Africa campaign: British Imperial Forces Capture Handeni, German East Africa

Britain’s advance southwards into German East Africa continued as the town of Handeni fell into their hands on June 19, 1916. South African General Jan Smut’s Imperial forces had made decent progress since his command was reinforced in the spring of 1916, but again, the German askari army of General Paul Lettow von Vorbeck escaped using German East Africa’s central railway system. Smut’s force of British, Indian, Rhodesian, South Africa, Belgian, Portuguese and other soldiers had won almost every skirmish with the enemy, but their inability to halt Vorbeck or bring him to battle was frustrating, particularity as disease continued to wrack Smuts’ troops; one unit of South African infantry had started the campaign in February with 1,135 men, but October it was down to just over 100, almost entirely from sickness. As the campaign continued more and more of the Entente forces were composed of native African soldiers.

Aerial operations: Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter Bomber arrives

The single seat bomber version of Sopwith’s new 1 1/2 Strutter, the first British aircraft to be factory fitted with a Sychronisation gear has arrived at the front.

The fact that the two seater Sopwith is the fighter and the single seat the bomber may seem like a contradiction, but it reflects the power of the rotary engines which power the lightly built Sopwiths. They simply do not have the power to carry a bomb load and an observer.

As with the 2 seat fighter the aircraft has not been allocated to the RFC but to the RNAS – in this case 3 Wing RNAS.

This is a consequence of the failure to coordinate aircraft production and the differing approaches of the RFC and the RNAS to procurement – the RFC relying primarily on designs from the Royal Aircraft Factory and the RNAS on private businesses.

Aerial operations: French Pilot Drops Leaflets on Berlin

While the Germans had targeted Paris and London multiple times from the air, Berlin, far removed from the front lines, had so far been isolated from any Allied air activity. This changed on the night of June 19, when Lt. Anselme Marchal took off in a specially modified Nieuport monoplane from Nancy in Lorraine. Given the distances involved, an attack on Berlin was impossible, but he brought with him 5000 leaflets, excoriating the Hohenzollerns and the Habsburgs for their role in starting the war, which he dropped onto the surprised population of Berlin in the early hours of June 20. They read, in part:

We could bomb the open city of Berlin and kill women and children, but we will simply make the following proclamation to the people: From the French airmen to the people of Berlin; you are fighting for your bloodthirsty kings, and for your Junkers…We fight for the freedom of all people, against the tyranny of a military caste; we want a massacre like the one we are witnessing to become impossible forever.

Returning back to France was impossible given the winds and limited fuel, but Marchal hoped to make it to the Russian lines, before returning to France via another raid on Vienna. However, a spark plug failure forced him to land near Chelm, in Austrian-occupied Poland, where he was captured by the Austrians. Given Russia’s recent advances in the Brusilov offensive, this was under 100 miles from the Russian lines near Lutsk, after a flight of more than 800 miles. He would remain a prisoner in Austria and Germany until 1918.

Naval operations: Black Sea

Russian freighter SS MERKURY, 762 tons, bound from Otchakov to Odessa, runs on a mine laid by Albrecht von Dewitz in UC-15. His score is now 3 ships and 1,224 tons.

Naval operations: Balearic Sea

Austro-Hungarian freighter SS ADELSBERG, 1,120 tons, travelling from Aplato (Split), Croatia to Fiume (modern Rijeka, Croatia), hits a mine laid by an unknown ship in the Zirona Channel. Three crewmwmbers lost.

Naval operations: Kipling Publishes Short Piece in Praise of UK Submariners

Rudyard Kipling, like many British writers, had taken up his pen in aid of the British war effort. This continued despite the loss of his son in the fighting at Loos the previous fall. One such piece, published in British and American newspapers on June 20, praised the work of British submarines in the Baltic, perhaps in unspoken contrast to the perceived atrocities of German submarine warfare in the Atlantic. This piece, the first of three, is reprinted below.

Let us take, almost at random, an episode in the life of H.M. Submarine E-9. It is true she was commanded by Commander Max Horton, but the utter impersonality of the tale makes it as though the boat herself spoke.

Some time ago the E-9 was in the Baltic, in the depth of Winter, where she used to be taken to her hunting grounds by an ice breaker. Obviously a submarine cannot use her sensitive nose to smash heavy ice with, so a broad-beamed, pushing chaperon comes along to see her clear of the thick harbor and shore ice. In the open sea apparently she is left to her own devices, parting company with the ice breaker.

Then the E-9 “proceeded.” Next day she reports: “As circumstances were favorable I decided to attempt to bag a destroyer.” Her “uncertain position” must have been near a well-used destroyer-run, for shortly afterward she sees three of them, but too far off to attack, and later, as the light is failing, a fourth destroyer, toward which she manoeuvres.

“Depth keeping,” she notes, “is very difficult,” owing to the heavy swell. An observation balloon on a gusty day is almost as stable as a submarine “pumping in a heavy swell,” and since the Baltic is shallow a submarine runs a chance of being let down with a whack on the bottom.

None the less the E-9 works her way to within 600 yards of the quarry. She fires and waits just long enough to be sure her torpedo is running straight and the destroyer holding her course, then she “dips to avoid detection.” The rest is deadly simple. "At the correct moment after firing, 45 to 50 seconds, I heard the unmistakable noise of the torpedo detonating.“

Four minutes later she rose and "found the destroyer had disappeared.” Then, for reasons probably connected with the other destroyers, who, too, may have heard that unmistakable sound, she goes to bed below in the chill dark till it is time to turn homeward.

When she rose she met a storm from the north, and logged it accordingly. In the senior service two words, “as requisite,” cover everything that need not be talked about. The E-9 next day “proceeded as requisite” through a series of snowstorms and recurring deposits of ice on the bridge till she got in touch with her friend, the ice breaker, and in her company plowed and rooted her way back.

We know that was in Winter. In Summer it is quite the other way. The E-9 had to go to bed by day very often under the long-lasting northern light, when the Baltic is as smooth as a carpet and one cannot get within a mile and a half of anything with eyes in its head without being put down. There was one time when the E-9, evidently on information received, took up “a certain position” and reported the sea “glassy.” She had to suffer in silence while three heavily laden German ships when by, for an attack would have given away her position. Her reward came next day when she sighted–the words run like Marryatt’s–“an enemy squadrun coming up fast from eastward and proceeding inshore of us.”

They were two heavy battleships, with an escort of destroyers, and the E-9 turned to attack. She does not say how she crept up in that smooth sea within a quarter of a mile of the leading ship, “a three-funnel ship of either the Deutschland or Braunschweig class,” but she managed it and fired both bow torpedoes at her.

“The torpedo was seen and heard to strike her just before the foremost funnel. The smoke and debris appeared to go as high as the masthead.”

That much this E-9 saw before one of the guardian destroyers ran at her.

“So,” says whe, “observing her, I took my periscope off the battleship.”

This was excusable, as the destroyer was coming up with intent to kill, and the E-9 had to flood her tanks and get down quickly. Even so, the destroyer only just missed her, and she struck bottom in forty-three feet.

“But,” says the E-9, who, if she could not see, kept her ears open, “at the correct interval, 45 or 50 seconds, mentoined in the previous case, the second torpedo was heard to explode, though not actually seen.”

The E-9 came up twenty minutes later to make sure. The destroyer was waiting for her a couple of hundred yards away, and again the E-9 dipped for her life, but “just had time to see one large vessel approximately four or five miles away.”

The D-1, also a Baltic boat–her commander is F. N. Laurence–had her experiences too. She went out one Summer day, and late–too late–in the evening sighted three transports. The first she hit. While she was arranging for the second the third inconsiderately tried to ram her before her sights were on, so it was necessary to go down at once and waste whole minutes of precious, scanting light. When she rose the stricken ship was sinking and shortly afterward blew up. The other two were patrolling nearby. It would have been a fair chance in daylight, but darkness defeated her and she had to give up the attack.

It was the E-1 who, during thick weather, came across a squadron of battle cruisers and got in, flanking a ship, probably the Moltke. But the destroyers were very much on the alert and she had to dive at once to avoid one, who only missed her by a few feet. Then the fog shut down and stopped further developments.

Day 692 of the Great War, June 21st 1916

Western Front

Battle of Verdun: Germans repulsed at Mort Homme and west and south of Vaux Fort; German gains in Firmin Wood and Chenois Wood.

Photo: Captured small railroad locomotives in Pozieres



Eastern Front

Russians occupy Radautz (south of Czernowitz); Germans repulsed in areas of Dvinsk, Vilna and Lutsk; Russians take trenches on Strypa.

Italian Front

Further Italian advance on Asiago plateau.

Entente/Greece relations: Entente Powers Demand Change of Greek Government

300,000 Allied troops were on the northern Greek frontier in the summer of 1916; British, French, Italians, Serbs, Senegalese, Indians, North Africans, and other contingents from the Entente powers and their colonial empires. On the other side of the border was an equal number of Bulgarian and German soldiers. Neutral Greece, caught in the middle of a war it had wanted no part of, faced a predicament that turned into a national crisis, and almost a civil war, as the conflict dragged on in their homeland.

Greece’s Royalist government wanted to stay neutral, its Liberal opposition favored joining the Allies. In early 1916, the British and French navies began a “peaceful” blockade of Greek ports to strong-arm the nation into supporting the war effort. Although their heavy-handed tactics angered many Greeks, in the later spring public opinion changed when Bulgarian troops seized border fortresses on the Macedonian frontier without any resistance from Greek soldiers. This tacit appeasement of the Central Powers ashamed many Greek citizens and drove them to oppose the King’s neutrality, which looked now like weakness.

On June 21 the Entente Powers went a step further by demanding that Greece replace its government and demobilize its soldiers, allowing Allied troops to secure the rest of the frontier and ensure no further Bulgarian advance. Britain and France couched their demands in the language of the late 19th-century treaties made with Greece, promising that the change of government was no more than “ reaffirmation of the pledges of the protecting Powers” to ensure that Greece had a constitutional, democratic government. Of course, what was most important was that Greece had one that favored the Allies over their enemies.

With little alternative, the Greek government acceded and disbanded, with Prime Minister Alexandros Zaimis forming a new administration. The allies showed their approval by lending Greece more money, and hinting that they would like to see Eleftherios Venizelos, the Liberal Greek leader of the opposition, take charge of the country.

Aerial operations: A very long trip back

Following their role in the capture of El Fasser on 22/23 May, the pilots of C Flight, 17 Squadron RFC have been essentially unemployed.

They were then ordered to return to Egypt, and travelled for 350 miles by camel and lorry to Er Rahad, and then 900 miles by rail to Port Sudan. The embarked there today for the 800 mile sea jour new back to Egypt.

Naval operations: Cartagena, Spain

Photo: SM U-35 entering the port of Cartagena, Spain



Photo: The German submarine SM U-35 rafted up on the merchant ship ROMA, also German, in the port of Cartagena. The visit of the belligerent ship on June 21, 1916 endangered Spanish neutrality



Drawing: A German submarine in Cartagena — The crew of the German submarine "U-35", saluting those of the Spanish cruiser "CATALUNA" when leaving the port of Cartagena, where it was presented on the 21st day of the current month. The commander of the submarine has brought an autograph letter from the Kaiser to H. M. the King



Naval operations: North Sea

2350 Bruno Hoppe, commanding U-22, stops French barque FRANCOISE D’AMBOISE, 1,973 tons, bound from Leith for Valparaiso with a load of coke. Hoppe orders Cpt Tranchant to abandon his ship and row to a Swedish fishing boat several miles away. U-22 then asks the French captain for his ship's papers, which are examined and returned. Hoppe then sinks the barque with a torpedo. The Swedish vessel rescues the French crew. Hoppe's score is now 10 ships and 22,992 tons.

Dutch freighter SS OTIS TARDA, 759 tons, carrying a general cargo from Rotterdam to Goole, hits a mine laid by Otto Ehrentraut in UC-6. His score is now 5 ships and 2,650 tons.

Naval operations: German East Africa

HMS CHALLENGER once again leads an attack, this time on Ulenge Island.
0300 CHALLENGER anchors off Mansa Bay. Lt Lunt leads an armed crew in a cutter towed by steam cutter to cut communication wires between Ulenge Island and the mainland.
0400 CHALLENGER enters Mansa Bay.
0455 CHALLENGER drops anchor.
0500 Lt Lunt and his party return to HMS CHALLENGER.
0650 Light cruiser HMS TALBOT, gunboats ECHO and CHILDERS and SS BARJORA, carrying troops, all anchor in Mansa Bay.
0655 CHALLENGER, TALBOT and the gunboats weigh anchor and begin patrolling the area to cover troop landings as needed.
0900 Troop landings completed.
1750 HMS TALBOT opens fire on Changoliani Village.