Year 1915

Diary for Saturday, November 27, 1915: Air War Western Front: 21 RFC 1st Wing aircraft damage Don railway station (10 killed, 12 wounded; repeat December 2). Western Front Artois: Unsuccessful […]

Diary for Friday, November 26, 1915: Western Front ‘The night was quiet all along the Front’ (Friday afternoon official communique). Artillery duels at many points. Argonne: French artillery destroys German

Diary for Thursday, November 25, 1915: Middle East Mesopotamia – Townshend begins retreat after air reconnaissance reports Turks returning. Gallipoli: Monro becomes C-in-C MEF, Birdwood GOC Dardanelles Army. Western Front

Diary for Wednesday, November 24, 1915: Western Front Artois: 50 German shells directed at Arras rail station. Meuse: Germans fire a few gas shells at Bois Brule (Woevre). Argonne: French

Diary for Tuesday, November 23, 1915: Southern Fronts Serbia: Fall of Mitrovica and Pristina drives Serbs west of Kossovo Plain. Germans claim 17,000 PoWs and captured 35 guns. 200,000 Serbs

Diary for Monday, November 22, 1915: Middle East Mesopotamia – Battle of Ctesiphon (until November 24, 22 miles southeast of Baghdad): Townshend’s 13,756 men with 30 guns take 1,300 PoWs

Diary for Sunday, November 21, 1915: Air War Mesopotamia: Major Reilly Royal Flying Corps shot down by MG fire and captured near Ctesiphon before he can report crucial Turk reinforcements

Diary for Saturday, November 20, 1915: Western Front French artillery active at different points. Meuse: German set of mines exploded in Bois des Chevaliers (Meuse Heights). Southern Fronts Serbia: Bulgars

Diary for Friday, November 19, 1915: Western Front Alsace: Lively fighting with artillery, trench mortars and grenades on Hartmannsweil­erkopf and on Uffholz plateau. Southern Fronts Serbia: Bulgarian troops reach Tetovo

Diary for Thursday, November 18, 1915: Sea War Mediterranean and Adriatic: Full German Cattaro U-boat Flotilla formed. Pacific: Fuso, Japan’s first true dreadnought, completed. Three more by April 30, 1918.

Diary for Wednesday, November 17, 1915: Southern Fronts Italian Front: Italians attack and take Oslavia and Hill 188 (latter kept). Salonika: Sarrail sees Kitchener who tells him Joffre will not

Diary for Tuesday, November 16, 1915: Home Fronts Austria: Prime MInister writes ‘The English war of starvation, … three bad harvests … has brought us into the most difficult situation’.

Diary for Monday, November 15, 1915: Middle East Gallipoli: Kitchener cables home evacuation might not be so costly. 52nd Division Helles bridgehead mining success near Krithia Vineyard. Persia: Central Powers’

Diary for Sunday, November 14, 1915: Sea War Black Sea: Battlecruiser Goeben missed off Bosphorus by 2 Russian submarine torpedoes but taken off coal convoy route. Dardanelles: ­Cruiser Chatham brings

Diary for Saturday, November 13, 1915: Western Front German official communiques of November 13 and 14 state nothing to report. Flanders: In Belgium effective bombardments silence German artillery batteries. Southern

Diary for Friday, November 12, 1915: African Fronts Cameroons: c. 250 British soldiers occupy Gorori, cross Mban and take Bumbo (November 24). East Africa­: Whitehall recommends, ‘conquest of this German

Diary for Thursday, November 11, 1915: Home Fronts Britain – War Council of Five appointed: Asquith, Bonar Law, Balfour, Lloyd George, McKenna. Churchill resigns from Cabinet (public November 13), farewell

Diary for Wednesday, November 10, 1915: Southern Fronts Italian Front – Fourth Battle of the Isonzo (until December 3): Italian 5assa Brigade prominent in Carso fighting (until November 12) after

Diary for Tuesday, November 9, 1915: Southern Fronts Serbia: Putnik attacks Bulgars east of Pristina with 5 divisions, his defence on Morava line ends having extricated Timok Army survivors from

Diary for Monday, November 8, 1915: Air War Turkey: 3 RNAS aircraft (2 x 112lb bombs each) from Imbros and Enos first attack Kuleli Burgas rail bridge and damage its