Real time Discusion thread

German progress at Verdun had slowed over the last month. Impatient, Falkenhayn ordered an a direct attack to be made on the Mort Homme, one of the two important hills on the west bank at Verdun. The attack was to be conducted by the XXII Reserve Corps, under the command of Falkenhayn’s older brother, Eugene.

“Awful battle raging at Verdun,” read the New York times in April 1916. “Germans using liquid fire in savage battle for hill of Le Mort-Homme.” The fiercest stage yet of the battle for the crucial Left Bank position began on April 9, when the Germans staged a massive assault on Mort Homme, the biggest attack of the battle since February 21. Commanded by Falkenhayn’s younger brother, the German attackers spent seventeen trainload of artillery ammunition in the preliminary bombardment alone. The attack, however, failed to carry the crest of the hill, which remained firmly in French hands. “[The Germans] ran forward a few metres, then under the tac-tac of our machine gun, collapsed. Not a single German got to his trench,” reported a French sergeant, who added that many of the Germans tried to play dead, but sooner or later lost their nerve and tried to bound back to their own lines. The French troops picked them off one-by-one and enjoyed it immensely.

The evacuation of Gallipoli and the new importance of Egypt led also to a reorganization of commands in the Mediterranean. Lieutenant-General Sir Archibald J. Murray, who had been Chief of the Imperial General Staff from September to December 191 5, was appointed to the command of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force with instructions to move his head-quarters from Mudros to Egypt to take control of the large forces assembling for the defence of the Suez Canal, leaving Sir John Maxwell in general command in Egypt with specific responsibility for the defence of the Western Frontier. This double control had disadvantages and, on the loth of March 19 16, Sir Archibald Murray was informed that the Government had decided to amalgamate 2504-5

Japanese troops break through the British defenses and cut the road from Minhia, on the Irrawaddy River, North to Yenangyaung in several places. Allies retreat using British 7th Armoured Division tanks to break the Japanese roadblocks. At 1 PM, British General Slim orders the demolition of oilfields and the refinery at Yenangyaung. 1 million gallons of crude oil are ignited and oilwells are plugged with cement (Japanese will access the oil by simply redrilling the wells).

Photo: the electricity and generating plant at the Yenangyaung oilfields in flame and smoke as Japanese forces closed in. The plant produced power for 85 percent of the oil production in Burma. So successful was the demolition work that the Japanese will be unable to extract the oil for at least a year. The picture shows:- million-gallon oil tanks ablaze, setting up a smokescreen that hid Yenangyaung from the air and raised the temperature several degrees

Battle of the Atlantic

300 miles Southeast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, U-575 sinks American SS Robin Hood (14 dead, 24 survivors in 1 lifeboat picked up a week later by US destroyer USS Greer).

Raimund Weisbach, Commanding U-19, sinks British freighters SS PARISIANA, 4,763 tons, bound from London to Newport News with a load of manure; and RIBSTON, 3,048 tons, carrying a load of coal from Cardiff to an unnamed destination. His score is now 5 ships and 17,440 tons.