100 Years Ago Today

[Sailor Steve]

May 21:

"Here I am, going strong at our advanced base, only five miles behind the firing line. I was up yesterday morning at four, but did not get away in the Avro until five, as it was very misty. I arrived here in due course. We have a ripping little villa at _____. It is a most interesting place; the King of the Belgians lives here. We were shelled the night before last, and a Taube came over this morning and dropped a bomb at the end of the aerodrome."
-Lt. Harold Rosher, letter to his father, May 21, 1915

Celtic Sea: Bernd Wegener, commanding U-27, sinks British freighter SS Glenholm, 1,968 tons, at the end of a long voyage from Iquique, Chile to Falmouth, carrying a cargo of nitrate. This will be his last sinking on this patrol. His score now stands at 6 ships and 22,191 tons.

[Catfish]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

21st May 1915
...

Political, etc.

U.S.A. publishes Note to Great Britain on the blockade.

...

Yes, a very interesting note. Seldom quoted.

[Jimbuna]

http://net.lib.byu.edu/estu/wwi/comm...app/Clapp2.htm

[Catfish]

^ Thank you, only have the german translation

[MGR1]

22nd of May, 1915:

The Quintinshill rail disaster occurred on 22 May 1915 near Gretna Green, Dumfriesshire, Scotland at Quintinshill, an intermediate signal box with passing loops on each side on the Caledonian Railway Main Line linking Glasgow and Carlisle (now part of the West Coast Main Line).

The crash, which involved five trains, killed a probable 226 and injured 246 and remains the worst rail crash in the United Kingdom in terms of loss of life.Those killed were mainly Territorial soldiers from the 1/7th (Leith) Battalion, the Royal Scots heading for Gallipoli. The precise death toll was never established with confidence as the roll list of the regiment was destroyed by the fire.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quintinshill_rail_disaster

http://www.theroyalscots.co.uk/page/...sh-22-may-1915

http://www.bbc.co.uk/timelines/z9w9d2p

http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/eve...php?eventID=85

http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/doc...T_Quin1915.pdf

"CALEDONIAN:
May 22nd.- Double collision between passenger trains at Quintinshill, by which 224 passengers and three servants were killed, and 242 passengers and four servants injured.
This collision was found to be due to neglect of rules on the part of two signalmen at the Quintinshill signalbox...

This disastrous collision was thus due to want of discipline on the part of the signalmen, first by changing duty at an unauthorised hour, which caused Tinsley to be preoccupied in writing up the Train Register Book, and so diverted his attention from his proper work; secondly by Meakin handing over the duty in a very lax manner; and, thirdly, by both signalmen neglecting to carry out various rules specially framed for preventing accidents due to forgetfulness on the part of signalmen."

West Coast Joint Stock Sleeper carriage from the London Express on fire, wagons from both goods trains are visible either side of the mainline occupying the passing loops:


The Pilot, or Assisting Engine, of the Express, Dunalistair IV "Superheated" No. 140 after the accident. In the foreground can be seen the tender of the local train engine. The driver of this engine eventually died of his injuries a few years later.


The engine of the Troop Train, Dunalistair IV "Superheated" No.121. This locomotive was so badly damaged during the collision it was subsequently scrapped. Both enginemen were killed on impact.




Mike.

[Oberon]

Quintishill was the train crash that should never have happened. There were safety regulations in place that should have prevented it from taking place, but due to a catalogue of errors at least 226 died, and 246 were wounded in what remains Britains worst railway disaster.

The accident occurred owing to poor working practices on the part of the two signalmen involved; George Meakin, who had worked the night shift, and James Tinsley, who was to work the early day shift. If they had been working according to regulations, then Tinsley would have taken over from Meakin at 6.00 am. The two men, though, had developed an informal arrangement allowing whoever was working the early shift to arrive later. If the local passenger train from Carlisle to Beattock was due to be shunted at Quintinshill then the signalman at Gretna would advise whoever was working the early shift of this and the day signalman would hitch a ride on the local train to Quintinshill, thus saving himself the 1.5 miles (2.4 km) walk from Gretna. To avoid their malpractice being detected by company management, whoever was working the night shift would record all train movements after 6.00 am on a piece of paper rather than record them in the train register. When the day man arrived, he would copy the entries from the paper into the train register, making it appear that the shift change had occurred at the correct time.
On the morning of 22 May the night expresses were both running late so the local train had to be shunted at Quintinshill, and therefore Tinsley took advantage of the free ride on the local train to arrive there at about 6.30 am.

As the goods loop was occupied with the 4.50 am goods train from Carlisle, Meakin decided to shunt the local passenger train onto the Up main line Although not a preferred method of operation, this was not a dangerous thing to do if the proper precautions were taken. Out of the previous 21 occasions that the local train had been shunted at Quintinshill, on four occasions it had been shunted onto the Up line.

On this occasion neither of the important safety precautions were taken. Firstly, Kirkpatrick signal box (the preceding box in the Up direction) was not sent the "blocking back" signal which would have informed the Kirkpatrick signalman that the line was occupied and warned him not to send any more trains towards Quintinshill.

Secondly, the signalman at Quintinshill should have placed a signal lever collar over the relevant signal lever to stop himself from clearing the signal and allowing another train to proceed from Kirkpatrick.
The laxity of the fireman of the local train, George Hutchinson, in carrying out his duties under Rule 55 meant that Tinsley's and Meakin's failures went unobserved. Had Hutchinson carried out his duty correctly, he would have reminded the signalman that his train was standing on the Up main line and would have checked that a lever collar was in place before returning to his train. He did neither, and merely signed the train register, using a pen which Tinsley, who was intent on filling in the train register, handed over his shoulder without looking up, and left the signal box at 6.46 am. Also in the signal box, against the rules, were two other railwaymen (brakesmen from the two goods trains) whose presence may have distracted Tinsley and Meakin who was discussing the war with the two brakesmen.


At 6.34 am one of the signalmen (it was never established who) gave the "train out of section" bell to Kirkpatrick for the coal train which now stood in the up goods loop. After giving train out of section, this was the point at which the "blocking back" signal should have been given to Kirkpatrick but neither man did this.

At 6.38 am the first of the expresses from Carlisle passed Quintinshill heading north.

At 6.42 am Kirkpatrick "offered" the troop train to Tinsley. Tinsley immediately accepted this and four minutes later was offered the second northbound express from Gretna Junction. At 6.47 am Tinsley received the "train entering section" signal from Kirkpatrick for the troop train and offered it forward to Gretna Junction, having forgotten all about the local passenger train which was occupying the Up line. It was immediately accepted by Gretna Junction so Tinsley pulled "off" his Up home signal to allow the troop train forward. Had he placed a lever collar on this signal as he should have done (and as Hutchinson should have checked) then Tinsley would not have been able to pull the signal lever.
The troop train collided head on with the stationary local train on the up line at 6.49 am. Just over a minute later, the second of the express trains ran into the wreckage. The wreckage also included the goods train in the down loop and a train of empty coal trucks in the up loop. At 6.53 Tinsley sent the "Obstruction Danger" bell signal to both Gretna and Kirkpatrick, stopping all traffic and alerting others to the disaster.

The results were horrific, many on the trains were killed outright by the high speed collision, and those that survived faced an inferno that would take a day to put out. Exacerbating the problem was the elderly design of the carriages involved, with obsolete Great Central Railway coaching stock being used to ferry the troops due to a rolling stock shortage brought on by the demands of the war. These carriages were lit by gas lamps, the gas for which was supplied from reservoirs underneath the carriage and had recently been topped up at Larbert station. This gas system, coupled with the poor survivability of the carriages meant that what stock didn't crumple up in the impact were totally incinerated.



So hot were the flames that some bodies were never recovered, having been burnt into ashes, and since the roll call of the regiment was destroyed in the fire, no one was completely sure how many of the Scots Guards had been killed. Casualties in the other trains were relatively light, with only two killed in the local train and seven in the express, however two hundred and fifteen soldiers, at least, were killed in the troop train. Four children, their bodies barely recognisable, were recovered from the wreckage but when no-one came forward to report any missing children, they were buried in Glasgows western necropolis on the 26th.



The surviving soldiers were evaluated by the medical board at Liverpool on the 23rd and all the enlisted ranks plus one officer were declared unfit for duty and returned to Edinburgh. In one last tragedy, on their return to Edinburgh they were mistaken for Prisoners of War by local children and pelted.
The two signalmen involved in the accident were found guilty of culpable homicide, Tinsley was sentenced to three years penal servitude, and Meakin to eighteen months imprisonment. Both were released from prison in December 1916, Tinsley returning to work on the Caledonian railway as a lampman and Meakin eventually working as a coal merchant near the scene of the crash in Quintishill.

[Jimbuna]

22nd May 1915

Western Front

Battle of Festubert: British advance south of Quinque Rue.

German air raid on Paris.

Naval and Overseas Operations

North Sea
Rifleman, destroyer, H-class, 2nd DF Grand Fleet, with other destroyers carrying out contraband control duties E and SE of Pentland Firth because of a U-boat threat to the usual armed boarding steamers. Grounded in fog, needed docking for repairs.

Gallipoli Campaign
Albion, battleship, Canopus-class, 14,300t, 4-12in/12-6in, providing gunfire support off the Anzac beachhead just south of Anzac Cove. Ran aground off Gabe Tepe on 22nd, under close-range fire by Turkish shore batteries and frequently hit, towed off by sister-ship Canopus on 23rd, left for Malta for repairs; reportedly one man killed and ten wounded, believed from Albion. Kindell only lists two Albion casualties around this time - two men wounded in a shore party on the 22nd who DOW on the 23rd.

Russian battleship "Penteleimon" torpedoed in the Black Sea.


Political, etc.

Britain offers £2500 (£178,900 today) for information leading to the destruction of German submarines in the Mediterranean.

The Daily Mail and The Times attack Lord Kitchener's record, particularly on the ongoing shell shortage crisis.

French Army grants 2.8 grams of tea and 380ml of wine to the daily rations of soldiers at the front.

A delegation of American women meet with von Jagow, German Foreign Secretary, at Berlin to advocate for peace.

Italian mobilisation ordered.

Hungary calls up members of the Landsturm, or militia, from age 18 to 50 for military examination.

Ship Losses:

Minerva ( Norway): The cargo ship was sunk in the North Sea 30 nautical miles (56 km) east by north of the Farne Islands, Northumberland, United Kingdom (55°50′N 0°40′W) by SM U-23 ( Kaiserliche Marine). Her crew survived.

[Sailor Steve]

May 22:

"A Taube came right over the aerodrome this morning at about 7,000 feet. I at once went after it in the Avro, but got nowhere near.

First thing this morning I saw a Maurice (Farman) coming down vertically and spinning hard - lost sight of it behind the housetops - pilot and passenger badly hurt - was surprised to hear they were alive. It was a horrid sight.

Anxiously awaiting arrival of gramophone."
-Harold Rosher, letter to his father, May 22, 1915.

North Sea: Hans Schultheß, commanding U-23, sinks Norwegian freighter SS Minerva, 3,735 tons, bound from New York to Christiania with a general cargo. His score is now 5 ships and 8,495 tons.


Italian Somaliland: The monitors' convoy is now making such slow progress that the tugs don't have enough coal to tow the monitors the rest of the voyage. Captain Fullerton has the liner Trent take HMS Mersey in tow herself. The risky transfer of tow lines in heavy seas is accomplished with no trouble, and the convoy proceeds on their way.

[Oberon]

The first 15 mins of a documentary on Quintishill:

[Sailor Steve]

Thanks MGR1 and Oberon for the insight into an incident I would never have heard of otherwise.

[Jimbuna]

23rd May 1915

Western Front

Battle of Festubert: German attack repulsed.

Southern Front

Austrian attack in the Carnic Alps.

Naval and Overseas Operations

Submarine E11 sinks a gunboat in the Sea of Marmora.

Austria-Hungarian Navy launch attacks against the Italian port city of Ancona; Italian destroyers counterattack but cause little damage.

Political, etc.

Italy declares war against Austria.

Italy currently has around 1.7 million troops under arms or in training and 204 warships of various types.

Italian Note to the ministers of Italy in foreign countries on the denunciation of the Triple Alliance.

Germany announces it will stand by Austria-Hungary, but remains neutral towards Italy.

Allies warn Turkey on question of Armenian massacres.

French economist Edmond Thery estimates that the war will cost all belligerent nations $17.4 billion ($404 billion today) for the first year.

President Wilson writes he has never “doubted the loyalty and fidelity to our nation and our flag of the Americans of German derivation…”

Ship Losses:

Cromdale ( United Kingdom): The full-rigged ship ran aground at Bass Point, Cornwall.
SM UB-3 ( Kaiserliche Marine): The Type UB 1 submarine was lost in the Gulf of İzmir (cause unknown) 80 nautical miles (150 km) off İzmir with the loss of all fourteen crew.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Thanks MGR1 and Oberon for the insight into an incident I would never have heard of otherwise.

Aye, great stuff guys

[Sailor Steve]

May 23:

"Turned out soon after five this morning and went up for an hour and a half waiting for Taubes. I chased several Allied machines, but found nothing hostile. had not been down twenty minutes before one came out. Later on in the morning two came right over the aerodrome. I went up in pursuit, but got nowhere near them. Things are pretty lively on the whole. Besides the regular artillery, there is an intermittent cannonade of anti-aircraft guns, either from us at the Taubes or from the Huns at us. The sky becoes absolutley dotted with little puffs of shrapnel, which are visible for half an hour at least.

This evening I went into the town. It's full of life, a band playing and all the shops open.

Babington flew my B.E. yesterday, and the beastly thing nearly caught fire. We are getting a new engine for it from Paris.
-Lt. Harold Rosher, letter to his father, May 23, 1915

Air War: The Nieuport 10 is officially submitted for testing. This apparently is a perfunctory test, as the N.10 is already in service with the Aviation Militaire and the RNAS.*



Turkey: The train carrying Helmuth von Mücke and his men arrives at the station at Haydarpasa Gari, across the bay from Constantinople (Istanbul). There they perform parade maneuvers to show that they have not lost their military bearing. Von Mücke then presents his men and their flag to German Admiral Souchon, the man who had himself delivered the battlecruiser Goeben to the Turks the previous August, and has been the commander of the Turkish Navy ever since.

"I report the landing squad from the Emden: Five officers, seven petty officers, and thirty men strong."**


*Nieuport 10-12 (Windsock Datafile 68, March 1998), by J.M. Bruce

**The story of Hellmuth von Mücke and his crew have been taken from The "Ayesha": Being the Adventures of the landing squad of the "Emden", by Kapitänleutnant Hellmuth von Mücke (English translation by Helene S. White), Ritter & Company, Boston, 1917

[Jimbuna]

24th May 1915

Western Front

Final German attack east of Ypres repulsed. German forces launch a gas attack on British troops near Hooge, a village located east of Ypres.

Ground east of Festubert made good.

French take Les Corneilles (north-west of Angres).

Eastern Front

Austro-Germans occupy Radyno (Galicia).

Southern Front

Italians advance on the Trentino and Carnic fronts, and occupy Caporetto and Cormons on the Isonzo front.

Switzerland sends reinforcements to the Canton of Ticino, which borders both Italy and Austria-Hungary.

Austro-Hungarian aircraft bombs several targets in Italy, including the military arsenal at Venice.

Naval and Overseas Operations

Austro-Hungarian fleet bombards Italian coastal cities in Ancona, inflicting heavy damage and dozens of casualties.


Political etc.

Thomas Edison announces the creation of a “telescribe,” which can record telephone conversations.

Ship Losses:

Claremont ( United States): The coaster came ashore at Coos Bay, Oregon and was a total loss.
Turbine ( Regia Marina): The Nembo-class destroyer was sunk in the Adriatic Sea by SMS Helgoland and two destroyers (all Austro-Hungarian Navy).

[Sailor Steve]

May 24:

Italian Somaliland: Having the liner Trent tow HMS Mersey has increased the day's travel so much that Captain Fullerton decides to have the collier Kendal Castle assist with towing HMS Severn. With the weather improving Fullerton lets the monitors' officers know that their ultimate goal is the Rufiji Delta and Königsberg.