10th May 1915
Western Front
French take cemetery of Neuville St. Vaast and part of Carency (north of Arras).
British repulsed on Aubers ridge.
Eastern Front
German retreat in Baltic Provinces.
Naval and Overseas Operations
North Sea
Dominion, battleship, King Edward VII-class, returning to Rosyth after cruise in northern North Sea with rest of 3rd BS, also 3rd CS, all Grand Fleet, divisions in line ahead, zigzagging at 15kts, had not yet met screening destroyers. (ge - 8th; Cn - May 1916) - unsuccessfully attacked by
U.39 about 100 miles ENE of Firth of Forth, two torpedoes missed.
Submarine E14 sinks a transport in the Sea or Marmora.
Naval Convention signed between Great Britain, France, and Italy.
North Sea
Swedish steamer
Björn 1,241 tons enroute to the UK from Göteborg with a cargo of timber was taken as a prize by
U 36 (Ernst Graeff).
The same fate befell the Dutch steamer
Niobe 654 tons to the same submarine that day.
Danish steamer
Olga 798 tons was taken as a prize by
U 39 (Walter Forstmann).
Aviation
Four German zeppelins raid Britain, dropping bombs on Southend, Westcliff-on-Sea, and Leigh.
Political, etc.
President Wilson on the "Lusitania". "There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight," etc.
German government: “The German government desires to express its deepest sympathy at the loss of lives on board the Lusitania. The responsibility rests, however, with the British government, which…has forced Germany to resort to retaliatory measures.”
Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, is questioned in the House of Commons over the Lusitania sinking.
Italy gives the Austro-Hungarian government until midnight to accede to territorial demands or else negotiations will be terminated.
Stories appear of a Canadian soldier supposedly crucified by Germans; it is later used as Allied propaganda.
