Year 1915

Diary for Wednesday, May 19, 1915: Middle East Gallipoli: 17,356 Anzac troops repel 40,000 Turks. Armenia: Nikolayev enters Van, relieving Armenians who received Tsar’s thanks. Western Front Flanders: Virtual stalemate […]

Diary for Tuesday, May 18, 1915: Middle East Gallipoli: Hamilton gets pessimistic Kitchener telegram, interprets as instruction not to encourage evacuation. Eastern Front Galicia: Austrians re-occupy Galician oilfields northeast of

Diary for Monday, May 17, 1915: Western Front Ypern – Festubert: 450 Germans surrender during BEF shelling after which ‘Quadrilateral’ strong point captured, but rain and mist hamper exploitation. German

Diary for Sunday, May 16, 1915: Eastern Front Battle of the San (until May 23): Austro­-Germans cross river by 15 bridges, take Sieniawa on May 18. Western Front Ypern –

Diary for Saturday, May 15, 1915: Western Front Ypres – Battle of Festubert (until May 25) begins at 2330 hours: first British major night attack with 3 divisors takes 3

Diary for Friday, May 14, 1915: Eastern Front Galicia: German Guard Corps capture Jaroslav (93 miles (ca. 150 km) from Gorlice). English novelist Hugh Walpole becomes Russian officer in Otriad

Diary for Thursday, May 13, 1915: Western Front Ypres: Battle of Frezenberg Ridge ends. Heavy German bombardment. BEF MG crews get first primitive flannel-bag gas masks. French complete capture of

Diary for Wednesday, May 12, 1915: Eastern Front Poland: Woyrsch occupies Kielce in general Austro­-German advance. Western Front Artois: French 70th Division takes Carency with 1,000 PoWs. Ypres: British 1st

Diary for Tuesday, May 11, 1915: Middle East Mesopotamia: Nixon orders Tigris offensive (Viceroy of India outlines plan to London on May 23). Western Front Flanders: Germans bombard Ypres-Menin Road

Diary for Monday, May 10, 1915: Neutrals USA: President Wilson Lusitania speech: ‘There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight’. Germany assures US that neutral

Diary for Sunday, May 9, 1915: Western Front ALLIED SPRING OFFENSIVE begins: French estimate only 4 1/2 German Western Front reserve divisions (actually 7 1/2, but only 2 in north),

Diary for Saturday, May 8, 1915: Air War Britain: British airship SS1 snares telegraph wires and crashes in flames. First coastal station for anti-submarine patrol airships opened at Capel (Folkestone).

Diary for Friday, May 7, 1915: Sea War Irish Sea: Unescorted unarmed British Cunard liner LUSITANIA (32,000t) SUNK in 20 minutes, torpedoed from 765 yards (0.7 km) without warning off

Diary for Thursday, May 6, 1915: Eastern Front Galicia: Austrian Fourth Army occupies Tarnow, takes 30,000 PoWs until May 8. Carpathians: Kornilov and 48th Division cut off, surrender to Austrians.

Diary for Wednesday, May 5, 1915: Southern Fronts Austro-Italian frontier: Cadorna learns that Italy committed to war by May 26. Austrian COS Conrad changes his mind, now accepts that ‘war

Diary for Tuesday, May 4, 1915: Western Front German GHO moves to Pless, Silesia. Artois: French bombardment by 1,073 guns (690,000 shells) and 92 mortars begins. Flanders – Ypres: Battle

Diary for Monday, May 3, 1915: Politics ITALY DENOUNCES TRIPLE ALLIANCE. Western Front Artois: French preliminary bombardment begins. Germans expect offensive for next day. Eastern Front Galicia: 12-mile gap in

Diary for Sunday, May 2, 1915: Western Front Flanders – Ypres: Gas attacks near St Julien-Fortuin. These and similar ones on next day are repulsed. Eastern Front Galicia: After 4-hours

Diary for Saturday, May 1, 1915: Eastern Front Galicia – AUSTRO-GERMAN OFFENSIVE: BATTLE OF GORLICE-TARNOW (until May 5) starts with 610­ gun bombardment including gas shells. Baltic Provinces: Lauenstein occupies

Diary for Friday, April 30, 1915: Middle East Enver Pasha orders Liman to ‘drive the invaders into the sea’; 2 divisions from Asia Minor transferred to Gallipoli. Allied losses now