100 Years Ago Today

[Jimbuna]

20th October 1914

Western Front

Still hoping to score a quick victory in the West, the Germans launch a major attack on Ypres in Belgium. Despite heavy losses, British, French and Belgian troops fend off the attack and the Germans do not break through. During the battle, the Germans send waves of inexperienced 17 to 20-year-old volunteer soldiers, some fresh out of school. They advance shoulder-to-shoulder while singing patriotic songs only to be systematically gunned down in what the Germans themselves later call the "massacre of the innocents." By November, overall casualties will total 250,000 men, including nearly half of the British Regular Army.

Battle round Arras: fierce German attack repulsed.

Poelcapelle captured by the Germans.

Indian Expeditionary Force (Cavalry, Meerut and Lahore Division) reaches the front.

Heavy fighting near La Bassee.

Eastern Front

Poland: German attacks in front of Warsaw weakening: Russians begin to take the offensive.

Battle of Ivangorod ends.

Political, etc.

Germans report 149,000 French, 107,000 Russian, 32,000 Belgian, and 9,000 British prisoners.

British losses to date 57,000, including sick.

Naval Operations

First merchant vessel sunk by German submarine U-17 (British S.S. "Glitra").


Belgian Coast
Amazon, Viking, destroyers, F-class, c1,100t, 2-4in/2-18in tt, in company with other 6th DF destroyers and monitors of Dover Patrol, and five French destroyers, in action against German shore targets. A 4in gun on Viking burst and she retired disabled, Amazon (flag, Adm Hood) badly holed by return fire during bombardment of batteries near Lombartzyde just north of Nieuport, put out of action, sent home for repairs; no lives lost.

Ship Losses:

Glitra ( United Kingdom): The cargo ship was stopped in the North Sea 14 nautical miles (26 km) west south west of Skudenes, Rogaland, Norway by U-17. She was searched under prize rules and her crew were allowed to take to the lifeboats before she was scuttled.

[Sailor Steve]

October 20:

"Once we have arrived at our destination, I shall write to you straight away and send you my address. I hope we shall get to England."
- Private Adolf Hitler, letter to his landlord on being sent to the front, October 20, 1914



Johannes Feldkirchner, commanding U-17, is fourteen miles off the Norwegian coast when he spots a lone freighter. He surfaces and orders the steamer's crew to abandon ship. It is SS Glitra, 866 tons, carrying a load of coal, oil and iron plates from Grangemouth to Stavanger. After the crew are safely away a boarding party scuttles the ship. Glitra is the first merchant ever to be sunk by a u-boat.



In the Indian Ocean, at about 0100, lookouts aboard SMS Emden spot the lights of a ship in the distance. Captain von Müller decides to ignore it, as his crew are completely exhausted from the previous day's work. At 0200 another ship is sighted, going the opposite direction at high speed. Again von Müller ignores the vessel, thinking it may be a warship. Sometime later they find out that the British Armed Merchant Cruiser HMS Empress of Russia was patrolling the area. About 0300 a third ship passes by, and again it is avoided.

Sometime during the night Emden loses contact with Buresk, but with the coming of daylight the two are reunited.

Late in the morning SS St. Egbert arrives at Cochin with her load of passengers. Once again word spreads of the gentlemanly treatment shown by Karl von Müller to his captives.

[Oberon]

A German soldier shares his meal with a young girl, date and location unknown.

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

October 20:

"Once we have arrived at our destination, I shall write to you straight away and send you my address. I hope we shall get to England."
- Private Adolf Hitler, letter to his landlord on being sent to the front, October 20, 1914

Probably in the company of: his war comrades of the Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment 16. From left to right: standing: Sperl (Munich), lithographer (?), Max Mund (Munich), gilder, sitting: Georg Wimmer (Munich), tram worker, Josef Inkofer (Munich), Lausamer (killed in action), Adolf Hitler, lying: Balthasar Brandmayer (Bad Aibling), bricklayer.

[Sailor Steve]

A couple of fascinating pictures.

[Jimbuna]

21st October 1914

Western Front

The Yser: Critical day: Dixmude heavily bombarded and assaulted.

Arras also heavily bombarded and attacked.

The Argonne: French recovery begins.

Battle of Langemarck (Ypres) begins.

Indian Expeditionary Force reaches the frontlines. Sikh soldiers in France:


Eastern Front

Poland: Germans begin retreat from Warsaw: Battle of Kasimiryev: Russki annihilates the Germans who had crossed the Vistula.

Political, etc.

State sale of alcohol is abolished in Russia. Vodka and hard liquor has already been banned.

Great Britain: Reply to manifesto of German professors published.

Ship Losses:

Cormorant ( United Kingdom): The cargo ship struck a mine and sank in the Thames Estuary 4 nautical miles (7.4 km) east of the West Gabbard Lightship ( United Kingdom).
Svithiod ( Sweden): The passenger ship collided with Mimosa ( United Kingdom) at Stockholm and sank with the loss of two lives.
PEROLA (Sweden): The schooner was on voyage in ballast from Fredrikshavn to Ystad, stranded and wrecked about 100 meter NO Udbyhöj båk.



The conflict, called the Great War by those involved, was the first large-scale example of modern warfare - technologies still use in battle today were introduced in large scale forms then, some (like chemical attacks) were outlawed and later viewed as war crimes. The newly-invented aeroplane took its place as an observation platform, a bomber, and an anti-personnel weapon, even as an anti-aircraft defense, shooting down enemy aircraft. Here, French soldiers gather around a priest as he blesses an aircraft on the Western Front, in 1915.

[Sailor Steve]

October 21:

"In my opinion the enemy are vigorously playing their last card and I am confident they will fail."
- Sir John French, telegram to Lord Kitchener, October 21, 1914

"We pull forward, get our first glimpse of this battlefield, and have to get used to the terrible scenes and impressions: corpses, corpses and more corpses, rubble, and the remains of villages. The bodies of friend and foe lie tumbled together. Heavy infantry fire drives us out of the position which we had taken up, and this is added to by increasingly heavy British artillery fire. We are now in an area of meadowland, covered with dead cattle and a few surviving, ownerless cows. The ruins of the village taken by assault are still smoking, trenches hastily dug by the British are full of bodies."
- Herbert Sulzbach, German artilleryman, diary entry on his first day in battle, October 21, 1914

British and French cavalry fall back from Passchendaele. They are not under fire, but seek the security of the area near Ypres. There they begin digging trenches. The Germans see this and reply in kind. It will be only a matter of weeks before these are connected to the trenches in the south.



Indian Ocean: Sometime before noon SMS Emden's little convoy stops. Engineering Officer Haas is sent to SS Exford to check her engines and boilers, which are in need of an overhaul. Captain von Müller takes this opportunity to again rearrange the disposition of his officers in the various ships, and to better sort out the captured supplies and equipment. Exford is then dispatched to a rendezvous point, with orders to stay there until Emden shows up or her supplies are exhausted. If the latter happens they are to take the ship to the nearest neutral port.

[Jimbuna]

22nd October 1914

Western Front

The Yser: Struggle for Dixmude continued.

Battle round La Bassee: Beginning of a severe ten-days' effort of the Germans to break through.

Battle of Ypres: Germans capture Langemarck.
In a bitter two-day stretch of hand-to-hand fighting, German forces capture the Flemish town of Langemarck from its Belgian and British defenders during the First Battle of Ypres.
The trench lines built in the fall of 1914 between the town of Ypres, on the British side, and Menin and Roulers, on the German side—known as the Ypres salient—became the site of some of the fiercest battles of World War I.
The battle was a vigorous attempt by the Germans to drive the British out of the salient altogether, thus clearing the way for the German army to access the all-important Belgian coastline with its access to the English Channel and, beyond, to the North Sea.
The German forces advancing against Ypres had a numerical advantage over the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), as General Erich von Falkenhayn was able to send the entire German 4th and 6th Armies against the BEF’s seven infantry divisions (one was held in reserve) and three cavalry divisions. For reinforcements, Sir John French, commander of the BEF, had only a few divisions of Indian troops already en route to Flanders; in the days to come, however, these replacement troops would distinguish themselves with excellent performances in both offensive and defensive operations.

Eastern Front

Czernowitz (Bukovina) reoccupied by Austrian forces.

Naval and Overseas Operations

German minefields - minelayer/auxiliary cruiser Berlin, carrying 2,000 moored contact mines laid large field about 19 miles E of N of Tory Island, off N Ireland on night of 22nd/23rd.

"Emden's" third list of captures announced.

Egypt: UK orders all foreign vessels out of the Suez Canal.

South Africa: Rebels routed at Keimoes.

Political etc.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, assistant Secretary of the Navy, states 18,000 more men are needed for the navy if the U.S. enters a war.

United States Government issue Circular Note to belligerent Governments stating that they will insist on existing rules of International Law.

Prussian Diet passes a war bill granting a credit of 1.5 billion marks or $375 million ($8.9 billion today).

PRINCE MAX OF HESSE LEFT DEAD ON FIELD; Wounds in Back Start Rumor that Kaiser's Nephew Was Shot by His Own Men.

Ship Losses:

Ida ( United Kingdom): The ketch foundered in the English Channel off the Yaverland Battery, Isle of Wight. Her crew were rescued by Magnet ( United Kingdom).
Rochelle ( United States): The cargo ship ran aground at the mouth of the Columbia River and was a total loss.
ALICE (Sweden): The steamship struck a mine and sank in the North Sea on a voyage London – Gothenburg with a cargo of coal.

Military reburials for WW1 soldiers in northern France

A reburial service has been taking place in northern France for 15 British World War One soldiers, exactly one hundred years after they were killed in battle.
Their remains lay undiscovered until 2009, when their bodies were found in a field near the Belgian-French border.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-29724028

THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EVERMORE
~SALUTE~

Henry May (VIctoria Cross)
Henry May VC (29 July 1885 – 26 July 1941) was a Scottish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

On 22 October 1914 in France, May rescued the then Lieutenant, Douglas Alexander Graham. May dragged him 300 yds whilst under fire. Earlier in the same day May had voluntarily attempted a rescue of a heavily wounded man, who died before May could reach him.

The citation was published in a supplement to the London Gazette of 16 April 1915, dated 19 April 1915, and read:

War Office, 19th April, 1915.
His Majesty the KING has been graciously pleased to approve of the grant of the Victoria Cross to the undermentioned Officer, Non-commissioned Officer and Men for their conspicuous acts of bravery and devotion to duty whilst serving with the Expeditionary Force: —
[...]
No. 7504 Private Henry May, 1st Battalion, The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles).
For most conspicuous bravery near La Boutillerie, on 22nd October, 1914, in voluntarily endeavouring to rescue, under very heavy fire, a wounded man, who was killed before he could save him, and subsequently, on the same day, in carrying a wounded Officer a distance of 300 yards into safety whilst exposed to very severe fire.



Prussian guard infantry in new field gray uniforms leave Berlin, Germany, heading for the front lines. Girls and women along the way greet and hand flowers to them.

[Sailor Steve]

October 22:

Port Stanley, Falkland Islands: Admiral Cradock decides he can waste no more time waiting for Canopus. He sends a signal to the Admiralty: "Good Hope left Port Stanley via Cape Horn. Canopus following on 23rd via Magellan Straights with three colliers for west coast of South America."

He leaves a letter with Governor Sir William Allardyce for Admiral Sir Hedworth Meux, with this note "I will give you all the warning I can if the German squadron eludes us; and only in case of my 'disappearance' will you send the letter to Meux. I mean to say, if my squadron disappears - and me too - completely. I have no intention after forty years at sea of being an unheard victim." The letter to Meux is lost, but in an earlier letter Cradock had told his friend "I will take care not to suffer the fate of poor Troubridge."
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...8&postcount=95




Indian Ocean: The crew of SMS Emden put on their dress uniforms and celebrate the birthday of Kaiserin Augusta Victoria, wife of Wilhelm II, with speeches by the captain and first officer. This is followed by a 21-gun salute to Her Majesty. Later in the day they enter the Bay of Bengal, but stay away from the known shipping routes.

[Jimbuna]

23rd October 1914

Western Front

The Yser: Germans take Lombartzyde, but are again repulsed from Dixmude.

Allies lose ground near La Bassee.

Battle of Ypres: Furious attacks near Langemarck.

Eastern Front

Poland: Germans abandon siege of Ivangorod: Russians everywhere advance and harrass the retreat. They retake Jaroslau.

Political etc.

President Wilson signs the War Revenue Bill, which will raise taxes to cover losses in commerce caused by the war.

93 prominent German intellectuals endorse the Manifesto of the Ninety-Three, which declares their support of Germany.

Naval and Overseas Operations

Mesopotamian Campaign - Because of increasing Turkish hostility, British/Indian forces were dispatched to protect British oil interests in the Persian Gulf area, and arrived off Bahrein ready to land.

Ship Losses:

Hurstdale ( United Kingdom): The refrigerated cargo liner was scuttled in the Atlantic Ocean 205 nautical miles (380 km) south west of the St Paul Rocks, Brazil (approximately 1°S 4°W) by SMS Karlsruhe ( Kaiserliche Marine). Her crew were taken as prisoners of war.
TEMES (I) Austrian-Hungarian monitor, sank after hitting a mine in the Save. The ship was salvaged some time later, repaired and re-commissioned at Budapest on April 23, 1917.



Between 1914 and the war's end in 1918, more than 65 million soldiers were mobilized worldwide - requiring mountains of supplies and gear. Here, on a table set up outside a steel helmet factory in Lubeck, Germany, a display is set up, showing the varying stages of the helmet-making process for Stahlhelms for the Imperial German Army.

[Sailor Steve]

October 23:

Falkland Islands: HMS Canopus completes her repairs and sets out to follow Cradock in Good Hope. There is no hope of catching up, as the aging battleship is still making only 12 knots.



Atlantic Ocean: SMS Kalrsruhe comes across the British freighter SS Hurstdale, 2752 tons, carrying 4,644 tons of maize from Rosario to Bristol. Again everything the crew can use is taken off her victim and the ship is scuttled and her crew taken aboard Rio Negro. Later in the day they intercept SS Annie Johnson, which is examined and released when she turns out to be Swedish.



Indian Ocean: The crew of SMS Emden spend the day in Action Stations drills and gunnery practice, with SS Buresk towing a target.

[Jimbuna]

24th October 1914

Western Front

Battle of Langemarck 1914 (Ypres), ends.

The Yser: French recover Lombartzyde.

Indian troops arrive near Bethune.

Battle of Ypres: Germans occupy Polygon Wood, but fail at Gheluvelt.

Battle round Arras at its height.

Naval and Overseas Operations

Britain is employing 70 warships to hunt for 9 German cruisers, including the Emden, which is credited for sinking 20 British vessels.

Belgian Coast

Myrmidon, destroyer, B-class, with patrol flotillas and Wildfire, old composite sloop, Nymphe-class, two of the various unsuitable vessels operating as gunboats in support of the Alled armies. U-boat attack failed.

Belgian steamer MARIE HENRIETTE ran ashore on Sands "Les Casquets" off Barfleur during the night. Lights and beacons having been shut and captain Rombouts not advised of this. Was used as hospital ship for the casualties of the Yser Battle.

South Africa: Overt rebellion of Beyers and De Wet. Boer rebels in South Africa are defeated by British forces, forcing General Manie Maritz to seek refuge with German forces.

Political, etc.

Britain prohibits the importation of sugar, due to reports that German and Austrian sugars are coming in through neutral countries.

Pope convinces Germany to treat captured French Army priests as officers.

United States demands the release of American oil tankers that were seized by British ships on suspicions of providing oil to Germany.

German soldiers celebrate Christmas in the field, in December of 1914.



GERMAN BULL: "I know I'm making a rotten exhibition of myself; but I shall tell everybody I was goaded into it."

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

German soldiers celebrate Christmas in the field, in December of 1914.

In October?

No, I don't have anything to report today.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

In October?

No, I don't have anything to report today.

I'm not making the cartoons or pictures date specific

[Jimbuna]

25th October 1914

Western Front

Vain German efforts to break through the Allied lines at Dixmude, Ypres, La Bassee and Arras.

German troops cross parts of the Yser in Belgium as heavy battle continues along the river.

Vermelles re-occupied by the Germans.

Eastern Front

Germans in full retreat in Poland.

Naval and Overseas Operations

South Africa: Rebels routed at Calvinia.

Destruction of German submarine by H.M.S. "Badger" announced (unconfirmed).


Naval Aviation - Only 11 years after the Wright brother's first successful powered flight, the Royal Navy attempted to attack Zeppelin sheds at Cuxhaven using "aircraft carriers", but the seaplanes were unable to take off from the water. Seaplane carriers Engadine and Riviera took part escorted by Harwich Force:

North Sea
During the attempted Cuxhaven Raid, two Harwich Force ships encountered U-boats:

Fearless, scout cruiser, Active-class, leader 1st DF (broad pendant, Cdre Tyrhwitt). Believed attacked by submarine, possibly off Ems River, two torpedoes reported missed.

Badger, destroyer, I-class, c990t, 1st DF, Lt-Cdr G Freemantle. Ran down U.19 in pitch dark and believed to have sunk her off the Dutch coast. Although badly damaged the submarine reached port; Badger’s own bows “bent up”.

Political, etc.

Cheap Iron Cross replicas are sold in London to be hung around the necks of dogs and horses.

Sir Charles W.H. Douglas, British Chief of the Imperial General Staff, dies from strain and overwork.



Germany: General von Moltke, Chief of the German General Staff, "unwell", his duties undertaken by General von Falkenhayn.

United States Marines and Sailors posing on unidentified ship (likely either the USS Pennsylvania or USS Arizona), in 1918.



"I say, old girl, do let me carry something."