World War I Day by Day Read online

  July 1915

  After taking heavy losses on the Eastern Front – especially in Poland – the Russian command decides to withdraw their troops from Poland.

  Artillery is manhandled in the mountainous region between Austria and Italy as an Italian infantry battalion marches past.

  1

  War at sea: Off the Cornish coast of Britain Leyland liner Armenian is torpedoed.

  2

  Eastern Front: Austrians occupy Krasnik.

  Italian Front: The great Battle for Carso Plateau begins.

  War at sea: In Danzig Bay the German cruiser Pomern is sunk by a British submarine.

  Off Gothland Russian warships sink the Albatross.

  Off Yarmouth Germarine submarine UC2 unwittingly rammed by steamer Cottingham. Wreck investigators recovered her code book and papers.

  3

  Africa: In South Africa, General Smuts offers a contingent of volunteer soldiers to the Allies: gratefully accepted on 6 July.

  Gallipoli: Since 29 June Turks have lost 5,150 soldiers killed and a further 15,000 taken prisoner.

  4

  War at sea: Off Cape Hellas French liner Carthage is torpedoed and sunk.

  In German East Africa trapped (on Rufiji River) German cruiser Königsberg is disabled by monitors.

  Western Front: Battle of the Argonne diminishes and ends.

  5

  Eastern Front: Austro-German troops attempt to move north from Galicia towards Kholm-Lyublin line is halted, following a heavy defeat between the rivers Vistula and Bug.

  Western Front: Fierce fighting on the Meuse, around Arras and Souchez.

  Wounded on Gallipoli were exacuated to Mudros and Lemnos.

  Making bombs in early 1915, Gallipoli.

  Bomb damage to London.

  6

  Eastern Front: Austrians beaten near Krasnik: Russians capture 15,000 prisoners in the surrounding countryside.

  8

  Africa: In German South-West Africa Union troops reach Tsumbeb and release all captured prisoners.

  Italian Front: In Trentino the Italians take Monticello.

  War at sea: In the Mediterranean the Italian cruiser Amalfi is sunk by an Austrian torpedo.

  Western Front: French victory at Fontenelle in the Vosges.

  9

  Africa: German South-West Africa (now Namibia) surrrenders unconditionally to British South African troops led by General Botha.

  Italian Front: In Trentino Italians capture Costa Bella and Malga Sarta.

  11

  Africa: On the Rufiji River in German East Africa the Königsberg is finally destroyed.

  Eastern Front: Heavy fighting on the Lyublin front sees Austrians losing ground.

  Italian Front: Venice is bombed for the fourth time by Austrian planes.

  “Annie” at work, Gallipoli.

  12

  Africa: Skirmishes are reported between British-Belgian troops and Germans on the Northern Rhodesian frontier.

  Eastern Front: Austro-German troops attack north east of Warsaw on the Bobr and Narev fronts.

  Gallipoli: Turkish trenches in front of Achi Baba are captured.

  13

  Western Front: Germany starts a new offensive in the Argonne.

  14

  Eastern Front: Beginning of the massive Austro-German Triple Offensive from the Baltic to Bukovina. The Russians are forced to withdraw towards the Narev.

  Western Front: A German attack on the Yser Canal is repulsed by Belgian soldiers.

  15

  Eastern Front: Russians forced into further retreats.

  Western Front: Germans sustain heavy losses around the Yser.

  16

  Western Front: Renewed German attacks in Lorraine and west of Soissons.

  17

  Eastern Front: Desperate fighting between the rivers Vistula and Bug as the Austro-German forces advance.

  Politics: A secret treaty is signed between Bulgaria and Turkish-German alliance.

  British troops depart Boulogne for leave in Britain. The cross-Channel ferry used as a trooper is camouflaged in dazzle comouflage.

  Italian troops creeping into the sap of a front line trench in preparation for a lightning raid on the Isonzo front.

  18

  Eastern Front: Russians retreating all along Vistula and Bug front and in full retreat north and west of Warsaw.

  Italian Front: Start of the Second Battle of the Isonzo: Italians take 2,000 prisoners.

  War at sea: Italian cruiser Guiseppe Garibaldi torpedoed.

  19

  Gallipoli: In London in the House of Commons Dardanelles Allied casualties to 30 June are announced as 42,434.

  Western Front: Germans attack near Verdun and around Souchez.

  20

  Eastern Front: Fierce fighting especially south of Ivangorod, around the Bubissa, and during the Russian defense of the Lyublin-Kholm railroad.

  21

  Eastern Front: As Russian resistance collapses Germany starts to remove troops from the Eastern Front to the Western Front.

  Mesopotamia: A British force reaches the River Euphrates and captures Turkish troops.

  United States: President Wilson orders his Secretaries of War and the Navy to draft a defense program.

  The great Austro-German campaigns that resulted in the conquest of much of Poland and the recovery of nearly all the province of Galicia, lost by Austria in 1914.

  22

  Eastern Front: Severe Russian losses force the leadership to announce the ‘Great Retreat.’ Russian troops are ordered out of Galicia taking their equipment and machinery with them.

  Italian Front: Fierce fighting around the bridgehead of Gorizia sees Italian troops holding out against the Austrians.

  23

  Italian Front: Innsbruck is bombed.

  Middle East: In Tripoli the Italian garrisons are massacred in the revolt of Senussites.

  War at sea: In the Adriatic Austrian warships bombard Ortona and the Tremiti Islands.

  24

  United States: Public opinion is stirred up by strikes and rumors of German sabotage in U.S. munition factories.

  25

  Africa: In the Cameroons the French occupy Lomie.

  Mesopotamia: Nasriya is bombarded, attacked, and occupied by British troops under General Gorringe.

  War at sea: U.S. steamer Leelanaw is torpedoed.

  Western Front: The first RFC fighter squadron – No 11 Sqn – arrives in France equipped with 2-seater Vickers FB5 Gunbus planes.

  German High Command—from left to right: Hindenburg, the Kaiser, Ludendorff.

  French Minister of Munitions, Albert Thomas; Sir Douglas Haig; General Joffre; Lloyd George who was British Minister of Munitions and then Secretary for War.

  The frontier between Italy and Austria. Many battles took place along the Isonzo river.

  26

  General: Great fire in Constantinople.

  Italian Front: In the Adriatic Italian troops capture Pelagosa Island.

  War at sea: In the Adriatic French ships destroy an Austrian submarine supply station in Lagosta.

  27

  Eastern Front: Warsaw under direct attack on three sides.

  Western Front: Soissons and Reims bombarded by German artillery.

  29

  War at sea: In the Dardanelles the French submarine Mariotte is lost.

  30

  Eastern Front: Russians fall back all along the Eastern Front: only resisting north of Grusbieszow on the slopes of the Lower Bug.

  Far East: Japanese cabinet resigns because of the political crisis.

  Middle East: Cholera epidemic among Turkish troops in Constantinople.

  Western Front: Germans use flame-throwers and break the British line at Hooge.

  Freiburg, Pzalzburg, and Pechelbronn bombed by 45 French planes.

  French scout in a shattered wood near Verdun.

  31

  Western Front: End of 10-day movement of German troops from the Ea
stern Front to the Western Front.

  Politics: Bulgaria announces that it will neither join the Central Powers nor attack Serbia.

  AUGUST

  Germans occupy Warsaw

  August 1915

  After incurring world revulsion and in particular American anger German high command announces that they are restricting submarine attacks against non-military shipping. The Allies continue their disastrous Gallipoli campaign. In August alone the Allies lost 40,000 soldiers – mostly from Australia and New Zealand – either killed in action or to dysentry and disease.

  2

  Eastern Front: Germans claim to have captured 9,000 Russians during their latest retreat.

  War at sea: In the Baltic a British submarine sinks a German transport ship carrying troops for von Below’s army.

  Western Front: Fighting around the Argonne and Verdun regions.

  4

  Eastern Front: The Russians evacuate Ivangorod while the Germans threaten Warsaw.

  5

  Caucasus: The Russians capture Turkish positions near Sarikamish and Olti.

  Eastern Front: Germans enter Warsaw and cpature Ivangorod.

  Western Front: Heavy fighting in the Vosges.

  The military cemetery near the entrance to Fort St Michel, near Verdun.

  HMS Queen Elizabeth leads Colossus, St Vincent and Bellerophon.

  District north of La Bassée showing Aubers Ridge and Festubert where the British attacked German positions in May 1915. Inset, the larger area showing Ypres to Lens.

  6

  Gallipoli: Battle of Sari Bair begins. A diversionary attack is made while two Allied reinforcement divisions make a surprise landing at Suvla Bay and attack Achi Baba on the west of the peninsula.

  7

  Eastern Front: Fierce fighting all over the Eastern Front. Russians retreat behind the Jara and hold off the Germans in the Riga region.

  Gallipoli: Relentless fighting in blisteringly hot weather totals up heavy losses.

  Western Front: Allies repulse German attacks in the Vosges and Argonne. The latter taking heavy losses.

  8

  Eastern Front: German troops under Mackensen force the Russians back over the Veprj.

  Italian Front: In the north Adriatic Monfalcone dockyard is bombed.

  War at sea: The German High Seas Fleet attack in the Gulf of Riga.

  HMS Ramsay is sunk by the German steamer Meteor.

  AMC India of the Northern Patrol is mined off Bodo, Norway.

  King Ferdinand of Bulgaria in consultation with General Ivanoff.

  9

  Caucasus: 255,000 Armenians arrive from Van.

  Eastern Front: Osovyets is evacuated and then destroyed by the Russians.

  Gallipoli: In the Dardanelles Anzac troops are taking heavy losses.

  War at sea: German auxiliary minelayer Meteor scuttled to avoid capture by Harwich Force cruisers 50 miles northwest of Horns Reef.

  Turkish battleship Kheir-ed-Din Barbarossa is torpedoed by a British submarine.

  HMS Lynx hits a mine and sinks.

  Western Front: A German Zeppelin raids the east coast of England: another is destroyed at Dunkirk.

  12

  Balkans: Serbians bomb Semlin and Panchevo in retaliation for Austrian bombing of Belgrade.

  Great Britain: A Zeppelin raid on the east coast of England leaves 29 victims.

  Middle East: German munition factory at Jaffa is shelled and destroyed by a French cruiser.

  War at sea: German and Russian fleets engage near Riga.

  14

  War at sea: In the Aegean the transport ship Royal Edward is sunk: 800 drown and 600 are saved.

  Western Front: Valley of Spada (on the Meuse) bombarded by 19 French planes.

  Italian machine-gun post watches the skies.

  Gas masks on Germans captured during a gas attack.

  Italian 280mm gun.

  15

  Italian Front: Venice bombed by enemy seaplane.

  Western Front: Violent bombardments along Yser front.

  16

  Western Front: Towns along the coast of England in Cumberland are shelled by German submarine.

  17

  Eastern Front: Fall of Kovna as Russians lose heavily despite fierce fighting on the Eastern Front.

  Germany claims to have taken two million prisoners, over three quarters of them Russians.

  18

  War at sea: German fleet withdraws from Gulf of Riga having lost two cruisers and eight torpedo boats: Russians lost the gunboat Sivuch.

  19

  Eastern Front: Fall of Novo Gregievsk. Russians losing ground all over Eastern Front. Russians destroy a German landing force at Pernau, Riga.

  War at sea: White Star liner Arabic torpedoed and sunk by submarine off Fastnet, Ireland: 44 lives lost including two Americans.

  In neutral Danish waters British submarine E13 shelled when grounded.

  German storm troopers on the Eastern Front holding a shallow line of pits before advancing.

  20

  Middle East: In Constantinople Russian planes bomb Topkhaneh arsenal.

  Politics: Italy declares war on Turkey.

  21

  Gallipoli: Second Anzac attack in Suvla Bay on Anafarta is repulsed.

  Start of the Battle of Scimitar Hill. The last major Allied offensive on the Gallipoli Front. Allies make no gains but lose 5,000 casualties.

  United States: U.S. newspaper report in the Washington Post says that contingency plans are being drawn up to send a million soldiers to the war in Europe.

  War at sea: The German fleet gives up its attempt to take Riga and withdraws.

  22

  Eastern Front: The city of Osovyets falls to the Germans.

  War at sea: Near Ostend a German destroyer is sunk by two French torpedo boats.

  23

  War at sea: Turkish supply ship Isfahan torpedoed by British submarine near Constantinople.

  24

  United States: The U.S. War College Division denies Washington Post and Baltimore Sun allegations of plans to send American soldiers to join the war.

  Western Front: Start of 13-day continuous artillery duel on the Western Front.

  Zeppelin towed into Ostend harbour after being hit by British AA fire.

  Preparing wire for transport to the front

  Gas attack warning

  25

  Caucasus: Reports reach the outside world of horrorfying massacres in Armenia.

  Eastern Front: The Russian fortress of Brest-Litovsk is stormed and taken by Austro-German forces.

  26

  Western Front: French planes bomb the poison gas factory at Dornach.

  27

  Balkans: German troops start to gather near the Romanian northwest frontier.

  War at sea: Handelskrieg – ‘trade warfare’ – is given up. German submarines are forbidden to attack passenger ships without warning and to give the crew time to abandon ship: for fear of antagonizing the Americans further.

  Western Front: Allies take German trenches at Landersbach and Sondernach in Alsace.

  28

  Italian Front: Italians reach and take Monte Cista in Trentino.

  30

  Eastern Front: Russian victory at Strypa in southern Galicia: capture 4,000 prisoners.

  Great Britain: British deaths from Zeppelin raids over England are given as 89 civilians.

  Middle East: British submarine attacks Constantinople and in the process damages the Galata Bridge.

  Airmen were renowned for their courage: in the centre is Canadian Lt-Col Avery Bishop who took part in 170 air battles during which he shot down 72 German planes. He was awarded the VC, DSO and bar, MC and DFC.

  31

  Western Front: Germany claims victory in the Vosges.

  SEPTEMBER

  Champagne and Artois-Loos offensives in west

  September 1915

  Stalemate on the Western Front despite fierce fighting. With Russia largely
withdrawn from the Eastern Front in Poland the Central Powers turn their might to attacking Serbia.

  1

  Eastern Front: Germans attack Grodno. Austrians enter Brody.

  War at sea: Official German start date of cessation of sinking passenger ships without warning.

  2

  Eastern Front: After fierce fighting Grodno falls to Austro-German troops. Fierce fighting around Vilna.

  Politics: General Polivanov becomes Prime Minister of Russia.

  War at sea: In Gallipoli British submarines sink four Turkish transports off Akbachi Sliman and Nagara.

  In the Aegean the British transport Southland is torpedoed.

  3

  Eastern Front: General von Beseler appointed Governor General of Russian Poland.

  Russian forces retake Grodno and hold the line between the Dniester and the Pripet Marshes.

  The merchant ship has been holed by a torpedo in the bows from the German submarine on the left. The crew have been evacuated and the U-boat is about to sink the ship.

  German U-boat firing across the bows of a merchant vessel warning her to surrender before being sunk.

  Two battleships of the Grand Fleet in the North Sea — the guns belong to Queen Elizabeth and following her is the Orion.