[Sailor Steve]

August 24:

With the French retreating from Charleroi and the Ardennes and the British falling back from Mons, victory seems to be on the side of the Germans. As will become evident later, the Allied withdrawal is orderly, with much rearguard fighting, and is being done under the orders of superiors who are trying to reorganize a more effective defense. The troops are tired, but not demoralized, and the Germans are in much the same condition, so pursuit is slow and careful.

With the Japanese declaration of war on Germany Berlin restaurants start refusing to serve Japanese customers. Within a week Japanese civilians in Germany are being interred at the camp at Ruhleben, outside Berlin.

In an early "friendly fire" incident, the French airship Dupuy-de-Lôme is shot down by French ground troops.

Captain H.C. Jackson and Lieutenant E.L. Conran of No.3 Squadron make the first British bombing attack on three German aircraft parked near Lessines. As with many of these early attempts, they missed.

SMS Dresden captures SS Holmwood, a British cargo ship of 4223 tons, off the southern coast of Brazil.

SMS Karlsruhe departs Maracá Island for a rendezvous with the collier Stadt Schleswig at São João.

SMS Emden travels slowly southward through the Molucca Sea, planning to rendesvous with a collier at Timor in the morning hours of the 25th, when the cool morning air will make the work easier for the crew. Coaling usually involved loading bags of coal from one ship to another (done by hoist), breaking the bags open and dumping them down the coal chutes to the bunkers and then cleaning the coal dust from everywhere, a back-breaking all-day job. In this case Emden was carrying extra coal in bags tied down to the weather deck, so all that was needed was to get them on board and secure; still several hours of hard labor best done before the extreme heat of the day sets in.