Diary WWI

Diary for Sunday, January 9, 1916: Southern Fronts Montenegro: Austrians storm 4850ft Mt Lovcen (‘the Gibraltar of the Adriatic’); Montenegrins retreat 12 miles to capital Cetinje and begin talks for […]

Diary for Saturday, January 8, 1916: Southern Fronts Montenegro – Austrian offensive: General Webenau‘s 50,000 troops including 5,000 Bosnian Muslims and 3 Kaiserjäger battalions from Italian Front begins at dawn

Diary for Friday, January 7, 1916: Middle East Gallipoli, Helles bridgehead: Garrison of 19,000 men, 63 guns after all French gone (January 1-4), repulses half-hearted Turk attack at Gully Spur.

Diary for Thursday, January 6, 1916: Sea War Atlantic: Battleship King Edward VII sunk west of Scapa Flow off Cape Wrath on mine, one of the 252 laid by Möwe.

Diary for Wednesday, January 5, 1916: Air War Western Front: New French Nieuport 11 fighter begins entering service with Esc N3. 25 Royal Flying Corps aircraft attack Douai airfields and

Diary for Tuesday, January 4, 1916: Home Fronts Britain: Lord Derby’s recruiting report published, 2,675,149 volunteers to date but over 2 million of military age unattested justifies conscription. Fuller­-phone (non-tappable)

Diary for Monday, January 3, 1916: Home Fronts France: General Press Relations Directorate formed. Britain: Clydeside Socialist newspaper Forward sup­pressed for 4 weeks. Western Front Brigade-General J Charteris becomes BEF

Diary for Sunday, January 2, 1916: Sea War Dardanelles: British submarine E2 recalled; end of Allied submarine campaign. Half Turk merchant fleet now sunk and warships immobilized by coal shortage.

Diary for Saturday, January 1, 1916: Sea War British introduce depth charges; but only 2 per anti-submarine vessel, insufficient supply till June 1917. Royal Navy now has 35 paddle-minesweepers (24

Diary for Friday, December 31, 1915: African Fronts East Africa: Lettow writes to Kaiser listing Gouverneur Schnee’s interferences (Berlin receives it in August 1916 and reprimands). He now has 14,298

Diary for Thursday, December 30, 1915: Southern Fronts Salonika: First Zeppelin raid. Air War Salonika: First German air raid (by Zeppelins), a Greek shepherd killed on outskirts, but incident does

Diary for Wednesday, December 29, 1915: Western Front First conference between Joffre and Haig: summer 1916 (Somme) offensive mooted. Joffre proposes great combined offensive by 65 divisions on a 60-mile

Diary for Tuesday, December 28, 1915: Home Fronts Britain: Cabinet decides for conscription. Western Front Last of Indian Corps leaves France. Artillery activity near Armentieres and Ypres. Eastern Front Baltic

Diary for Monday, December 27, 1915: Eastern Front Galicia and Bukovina: Ivanov Offensive with 18 infantry and 4 cavalry divisions + 1,000 guns (1000 shells each) along 90-mile front from

Diary for Sunday, December 26, 1915: Sea War North Sea: Disguised raider Möwe (Dohna-Schlodien) leaves Bremen, bluffs her way through Northern Patrol. On January 16 she captures British liner Appam

Diary for Saturday, December 25, 1915: African Fronts Uganda Railway: Germans repulsed from Ndi station (until next day); 17 British cause 24 German casualties in cross-border raid. Cameroons: British reject

Diary for Friday, December 24, 1915: Southern Fronts Montenegro: Austrian 62nd Division finally crosses river Tara after heroic Montenegrin resistance. Western Front Germany – Falkenhayn initiates prepara­tions for the Verdun

Diary for Thursday, December 23, 1915: Western Front France: Nivelle promoted to command French III Corps. African Fronts Cameroons: Final British advance on Yaunde resumes in 4 columns.

Diary for Wednesday, December 22, 1915: Western Front Alsace: First use of storm troops, Sturm battalion Rohrin (night 22/23) in successful German counter-attack on Hart­mannsweilerkopf: 82nd Landwehr Brigade recaptures the

Diary for Tuesday, December 21, 1915: Western Front Sir W Robertson succeeds Sir A Murray as CIGS (Chief of British Imperial Generals Staff); like Haig, Robertson believes in attrition tactics