100 Years Ago Today

[Jimbuna]

9th May 1916

Western Front

Battle of Verdun: French success north-west of Thiaumont Farm.

Southern Front

General Milne succeeds General Mahon at Salonika.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theatres

Turks defeat Russians near Bashkeui (Armenia).

General Mahon to command western force, Egypt.

Political, etc.

Winston Churchill returns to London and politics after his battalion at the front was absorbed by another unit.

All married British men living abroad, but who ordinarily are residents of Britain, must return and report for military duty.

Appeal of Irish Nationalists to Ireland to support the constitutional movement.

Duma members received by King George.

Berlin’s supply of meat is nearly gone, causing butcher shops to close. A pound of meat is $1.60 a pound (about $35 today).

President Wilson orders 9000 more troops to strengthen the U.S.-Mexican border, mobilizing militias in Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico.

Ship Losses:

Roanoke (United States) The cargo ship owned by the North Pacific Steamship Company had left San Francisco bound for Valparaíso, Chile with a cargo of explosives, wheat, oil and gasoline. It foundered in heavy seas in the Pacific Ocean off Point Buchon, California at about 3 p.m. 47 people died and three crew members were rescued from a lifeboat that beached near San Luis Obispo, California.

[Sailor Steve]

May 9, 1916

Adriatic Sea:
French submarine Archimede torpedoes Italian coaster SS Dubrovnik, 481 tons.

[Jimbuna]

10th May 1916

Western Front

Battle of Verdun: French success at Mort Homme and Hill 287.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theatres

Russians occupy Kasr-i-Shirin on road to Baghdad.

Sir J. Nixon's despatch of 17 January 1916 (October 1915 to 13 January 1916), published.

Naval and Overseas Operations

German attack repulsed near Kondoa Irangi (German East Africa).

Germany admits it sunk the Channel steamer Sussex and offers to pay the U.S. an indemnity.

Russian Som-class submarine accidentally collides with the Swedish ship Angermanland and sinks. 18 crewmen are killed.

Political, etc.

Commission appointed to enquire into causes of the Irish rebellion.

Lord Wimborne resigns Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland due to the Easter Rising (he is later reappointed).


Mr. Hughes speaks in London.

Herbert Samuel, Sec. for Home Affairs, reveals that authorities found a German saloon in the heart of London & interned the men involved.

German casualties since the beginning of the war are now 2,822,079 men killed, wounded, captured, or missing.

Ship Losses:

Dolcoath (United Kingdom) The cargo ship struck a mine laid by UC 7 (Georg Haag) and sank in the North Sea 3.25 nautical miles (6.02 km) north north east of North Foreland, Kent with the loss of a crew member.
Panther (United Kingdom) The ketch was driven ashore at Hunstanton, Norfolk and was wrecked. Her crew were rescued.
Pursuit (United Kingdom) The schooner sprang a leak in The Wash and was beached at Hunstanton. Her crew were rescued by the Hunstanton Lifeboat.
Som (Imperial Russian Navy) The Som-class submarine accidentally collided with Ångermanland ( Sweden) and sank in the Sea of Åland, in the area between the island of Arholma and Svartklubben lighthouse. 18 crew were killed in the incident. The discovery of a submarine wreck off the coast of Sweden in 2015, was confirmed by the Swedish Armed Forces in July of that year to in all likelihood be that of Som.

[Sailor Steve]

May 10, 1916

North Sea:
British freighter SS Dolcoath, 1,706 tons, bound from Tyne for Cette, on the south coast of France, hits a mine laid by George Haag in UC-7. Haag's score is now 22 ships and 30,808 tons.

[Jimbuna]

11th May 1916

Western Front

Battle of Verdun: German attack west of Vaux Pond repulsed.

Germans take British trenches north-east of Vermelles (La Bassee).

Political, etc.

Debate in Parliament on Irish administration.

Ireland: Easter Rising casualties: 794 civilians, 521 police and troops killed and wounded.

German Reichstag votes 229 to 111, refusing to free Liebknecht, a Socialist leader, who participated in an antiwar demonstration.

German physicist and astronomer Karl Schwarzschild dies due to pemphigus he developed on the Eastern Front.


Ship Losses:

Tategami Maru (Japan) The cargo ship collided with Omi Maru ( Japan) in the Inland Sea of Japan and was consequently beached.



"To Wait And See" (Western Mail cartoon)

[Sailor Steve]

May 11, 1916

Durban, South Africa:
After 29 days in drydock, HMS Severn is floated out to a pier, where refitting work continues.



United States:
American barge Ivie, 1,168 tons, carrying a load of coal from Newport News, Virginia to Beverly, Massachussetts, sinks following a collision in Hampton roads.

[Jimbuna]

12th May 1916

Western Front

Battle of Verdun: French extend position south-east of Haucourt and repulse attacks on centre.

3rd Bavarian Division attack “The Kink” salient near Loos, held by the 15th Scottish Division, and successfully captures it.

Political, etc.

Premier Asquith leaves for Dublin, as sympathy in Ireland for the participants of the Easter Rising grows.

Two more Easter Rising leaders are executed. They are Seán Mac Diarmada and James Connolly.

British government gives permission for U.S. aid to pass through the blockade to feed civilians in German-occupied Poland.

German Reichstag votes down a proposed tax on tobacco, which would have funded the war effort.

Secretary MacNamara states 37 British unarmed ships and 22 neutral ship were sunk by the Germans without warning since last year.

[Sailor Steve]

May 12, 1916

Air War:
0745 German pilot Julius Schmidt is credited with his first kill, only listed as an "Enemy Aircraft". It is unknown what type of plane Schmidt was flying, or whether he was pilot or observer.

French pilot Georges d'Oisy, flying a Nieuport 11, claims a Fokker eindecker for victory number 2. The claim is awarded despite the fact that the Germans record no losses that day. It has been more than a year since d'Oisy's first victory.

[Jimbuna]

13th May 1915

Western Front

Battle of Verdun: German attack north-east of Mort Homme repulsed.

Germans attack on British at Ploegsteert (north of Armentieres) repulsed.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theatres

Russians defeated at Ashkale (Armenia).

Aviation

Vosges: The "Escadrille Americaine", equipped with Nieuport fighter planes- worthy rivals of the Fokker planes flown by the Germans- makes its first patrol flight over the Western Front.

Naval

U.S. Navy threatens Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic with naval bombardment unless Desiderio Arias relinquishes power.

U.S. places six battleships—the Connecticut, Louisiana, New Jersey, Virginia, Rhode Island, and Nebraska—on reserve due to a lack of men.

Political, etc.

Clemens von Delbrük, German Minister of the Interior and Vice-Chancellor, resigns, as he was blamed for food riots.

Inventor Thomas Edison endorses former President Theodore Roosevelt for a third term as President.

U.S. War Department announces it is withdrawing U.S. troops in Mexico to Colonial Dublan, Mexico, located 100 miles from the border.

Ship Losses:

Eretria (United Kingdom) The cargo ship struck a mine and sank in the Bay of Biscay 15 nautical miles (28 km) south south west of the Île d'Yeu, Vendée, France.

[Sailor Steve]

May 13, 1916

Austro-Hungarian submarine U-6, 273 tons, becomes fouled in nets set by Italian drifter Calistoga. Her captain, Hugo von Falkhausan, surfaces in an attempt to cut the u-boat free, but one of his propellers becomes entangled, rendering the boat unable to submerge again. Calistoga is soon joined by two other drifters, Dulcie Doris and Evening Star II. Von Falkhausen orders the code books thrown overboard and scuttles his boat. He and his crew all survive, and spend the rest of the war as prisoners of the Italians.

[Jimbuna]

14th May 1916

Western Front

Fighting on Loos salient round Hohenzollern Redoubt and Hulluch.

Southern Front

Austrian offensive on Trentino front begins: "Battle of the Treintino".

Naval and Overseas Operations

Germany announces that German and Austro-Hungarian submarines sunk 96 Allied ships in April.

"M.30", British monitor, sunk by Turks in Mediterranean.

Political, etc.

Speech by M. Poincare at Nancy “…so long as our enemies will not recognize themselves as vanquished, we will not cease to fight.”

M. Take Jonescu begins propaganda for Romanian intervention.

137,000 people march in New York City to demand a stronger military for the United States.


Ship Losses:

HMS M30 (Royal Navy) The M29-class monitor was shelled and sunk in the Gulf of Smyrna by Ottoman shore-based artillery.

[Sailor Steve]

May 14, 1916

Mid-Atlantic:
Argentinian whaler Fortuna, 164 tons, is wrecked off Hope Point, South Georgia Island.

[Jimbuna]

15th May 1916

Western Front

Fighting on Vimy Ridge.

Southern Front

Austrians force Italians to retreat south of Rovereto (Trentino).

Asiatic and Egyptian Theatres

Russians take Rowanduz (east of Mosul).

Entente blockade Hejaz coast, and assist Sherif of Mecca.

Naval

Russian Red Cross breaks with their German counterparts due to the sinking of the Russian hospital ship Portugal by a German U-boat.

Political, etc.

Statement on war aims by Sir Edward Grey.

Premier Asquith visits Belfast, but is unable to convince representatives of Ulster to accept Irish Home Rule.

Roger Casement, Irish nationalist, is charged with high treason. He was transported to Ireland by the Germans, but was captured.

Sig. Boselli, Italian Premier; Baron Sonnino, Foreign Minister.

100,000 mourners attend the funeral of Yiddish author and playwright Sholem Aleichem in New York City.


Ship Losses:

Mira (France) The cargo ship was shelled and sunk in the Mediterranean Sea east of Sicily, Italy (36°15′N 15°54′E) by SM U-34 ( Kaiserliche Marine).

[Sailor Steve]

May 15, 1916

The Armstrong-Whitworth FK.7 makes its first flight around this time. The best source I could find only says "mid-May". This prototype will go on to become the more famous FK.8.



Alboran Sea:
French freighter SS Harmonie, 624 tons, carrying a load of wine from Oran to Cette, sinks off Cabo de la Gata, Spain, following a collision.



Mediterranean Sea:
Claus Rücker, commanding U-34, Sinks French freighter SS Mira, 3,050 tons, bound from Cardiff for Corfu with a load of coal. Rücker's score is now 29 ships and 101,778 tons.



Durban, South Africa:
While post-dry dock work continues on HMS Mersey, Fleet Auxiliary Trent arrives in preparation to tow the monitor back to Mafia Island.



Japan:
Japanese freighter Yamaguchi Maru, 3,321 tons, is wrecked on the coast of Chima, Japan.

[Jimbuna]

16th May 1916

Western Front

The Lancashire Fusiliers storm 250 yards of German trenches at Vimy Ridge. Limited attacks are ongoing in Verdun.

Last week, Canadian sappers reached a British aeroplane that fell in No Man’s Land by digging a 45 feet tunnel.

Southern Front

Austrian advance checked at Zugna Torta.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theatres

Russian advance on Mosul.

Anzacs storm Turkish camp at Bayud (Sinai).

Naval and Overseas Operations

Dutch steamship SS Batavier V is sunk after hitting a German mine while sailing from London. 4 are killed.


British destroyers and monitors engage German destroyers on Belgian coast.

Russian submarine torpedoes three German ships off Sweden.

Political, etc.

Military Service Bill (extending compulsion to married men) passes the House of Commons.

Germany warns that neutral ships must obey orders of U-boats, or they will face consequences.

Professor Eltzbacher, President of Berlin Commercial University, states the food crisis in Germany is now past due to good crop prospects.

Ship Losses:

Batavier V (Netherlands) The passenger ship struck a mine laid by UC 6 (Matthias Graf von Schmettow) and sank in the North Sea (51°58′00″N 1°57′45″E) with the loss of four lives.
HMS Clifford (Royal Navy) The fleet messenger was sunk in the Mediterranean Sea (34°02′N 27°32′E) by SM U-38 ( Kaiserliche Marine). Her crew survived.
Sant' Andrea (Italy) The brigantine was sunk in the Mediterranea Sea20 nautical miles (37 km) off Port Torres, Majorca, Spain (40°51′N 6°48′E) by SM U-34 ( Kaiserliche Marine).