2nd August 1915
Western Front
Fighting in the St. Hubert region (Argonne).
Les Eparges (Verdun) bombarded.
Enemy attacks position on the Linge and Barrenkopf ridge (Vosges).
German success at Hill 213 (Argonne). Germany again deploys flamethrowers.
Eastern Front
Russians retreat east of Ponevyej (Dvinsk).
Germans claim 9,000 prisoners taken near Lomja (east bank of Vistula), and at Ivangorod.
The Leczna-Kholm line, Russians lose 2,000 prisoners and evacuate their positions.
Southern Front
Italian offensive near Mt. Sei Busi (Carso) progresses: beaten back on Polazzo plateau.
Aviation
Building upon 1913 flying-off experiments aboard HMS Hermes, an aircraft takes off from a platform aboard a fully operational British aviation ship for the first time, when a Sopwith Baby equipped with wheeled floats takes off from HMS Campania.
Naval and Overseas Operations
Atlantic off SW England
PORTIA, Admiralty fleet messenger, ex-coaster, 494/1906, Liverpool-reg, South Wales & Liverpool SS, hired c23/7/15, Pennant No.Y4.36, Lt-Cdr Langton Bromwell (Rtd). Captured by
U.28 (Georg-Günther Freiherr von Forstner), sunk by gunfire 70 miles S of Scillies (He – SW of); no lives lost. The third fleet messenger sunk in three days by U.28
The new German Derfflinger class battlecruiser is named the SMS Hindenburg after the Field Marshal.
Political, etc.
At Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa’s funeral, Patrick Pearse, an Irish Nationalist, declares, “Ireland unfree shall never be at peace.”
German War Ministry announces they occupy 29,000 square km in Belgium, 21,000 in France, 130,000 in Russia, and 10,000 in French Alsace.
Ship Losses:
Bencore Head ( United Kingdom): The cargo ship collided with Batiscan ( United Kingdom) off Cape Salmon, Quebec, Canada and was consequently beached.
HMS Portia ( Royal Navy): The fleet messenger was shelled and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean 70 nautical miles (130 km) south of the Isles of Scilly by
SM U-28 ( Kaiserliche Marine). Her crew survived.
