# On this day in the Great War (1914-1918)



## Vassili Zaitzev (Aug 13, 2014)

Hey guys, 

Been doing this on my Facebook; it would be good to do it here. Found a website that I find credible and has a timeline of major events:A guide to the WW1 battlefields and home to the Poppy Umbrella

I'll be doing a day by day account of the war. First post or two will be playing catch up.

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## Vassili Zaitzev (Aug 13, 2014)

*JUNE 1914*
*28th June*
The Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassinated at Sarajevo.
*JULY 1914*
*5th July*
The Kaiser receives at Potsdam special envoy from Austrian Emperor and promises "the full support of Germany" in the event of Austrian action against Serbia. He consults his military and naval advisers before leaving for a cruise in northern waters.
*14th July*
Council of Austro-Hungarian Ministers finally determine on action against Serbia.
*19th July*
Council of Austro-Hungarian Ministers approve of draft ultimatum to Serbia.
*23rd July*
Austro-Hungarian Government send ultimatum to Serbia (see 25th).
*24th July*
German Government submit note to Entente Governments approving Austrian ultimatum to Serbia (see 23rd).
British Foreign Minister (Sir E. Grey) initiates proposals for an international conference in order to avert war (see 27th and 28th).
Belgian Government declare that, in the event of war, Belgium will uphold her neutrality "whatever the consequences" (see 31st).
*25th July*
Serbian Government order Mobilisation (see 23rd ).
Austria-Hungary severs diplomatic relations with Serbia. Austro-Hungarian Minister leaves Belgrade (see 26th).
Serbian Government transferred from Belgrade to Nish (see November 3rd, 1915).
*26th July*
Austro-Hungarian Government order Partial Mobilisation as against Serbia (see 28th and 31st).
Montenegrin Government order Mobilisation (see August 5th).
British Admiralty countermand orders for dispersal of Fleets (see 28th).
The Kaiser returns from the Baltic to Berlin (see 5th).
*27th July*
French and Italian Governments accept British proposals for an international conference (see 24th).
German High Seas Fleet recalled from Norway to war bases.
*28th July*
Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia (see 25th and 26th).
German Government reject British proposals for an international conference (see 24th and 27th).
British Fleets ordered to war bases (see 26th).
*29th July*
Russian Government order Partial Mobilisation as against Austria. (Evening) Russian Minister for War orders General Mobilisation without the knowledge of the Tsar (see 30th and 31st).
Hostilities commence between Austria-Hungary and Serbia: Belgrade bombarded by Austrian artillery (see 25th, and December 2nd).
German Government make proposals to secure British neutrality (see 30th).
British Admiralty send "Warning Telegram" to the Fleets.
British War Office send out telegrams ordering "Precautionary Period" (2:10pm).
*30th July*
The Tsar signs order at 4pm for mobilisation of Russian army (see 29th and 31st).
British Government reject German proposals for British neutrality (see 29th).
Australian Government place Australian Navy at disposal of British Admiralty.
*31st July*
Belgian Government order Mobilisation (see 24th).
Russian Government order General Mobilisation (see 29th and 30th).
Austro-Hungarian Government order General Mobilisation (see 26th and 28th).
German Government send ultimatum to Russia (presented at midnight, 31st-1st) (see August 1st).
State of "Kriegsgefahr" proclaimed in Germany - (see August 1st).
Turkish Government order Mobilisation (to commence August 3rd). (see (October 29th).
London Stock Exchange closed (see January 4th, 1915).

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## Vassili Zaitzev (Aug 13, 2014)

*1st August*
British Government order Naval Mobilization.
German Government order General Mobilization and declare war on Russia (see July 31st).
Hostilities commence on Polish frontier.
French Government order General Mobilization.
*2nd August*
German Government send ultimatum to Belgium demanding passage through Belgian territory (see 3rd, and July 24th).
German troops cross frontier of Luxembourg (see November 20th, *1918*).
Hostilities commence on French frontier.
Libau bombarded by German cruiser "Augsburg" (see November 17th).
British Government guarantee naval protection of French coasts against German aggression way of the North Sea or English Channel.
Moratorium proclaimed in Great Britain (see November 4).
General von Moltke [Chief of the Great General Staff since 1906.] appointed Chief of the General Staff of the German Field Armies (see September 14th).
*3rd August*
Belgian Government refuse German demands (see 2nd and 4th).
British Government guarantee armed support to Belgium should Germany violate Belgian neutrality.
Germany declares war on France.
British Government orders General Mobilization.
British Government issues Proclamation authorizing requisition of shipping.
Italy declares neutrality.
The Grand Duke Nicholas appointed Commander-in-Chief Russian armies (see 14th).
*4th August*
British Government sends ultimatum to Germany.
Great Britain declares war on Germany at 11 pm (midnight 4th-5th by Central European time).
Belgium severs diplomatic relations with Germany (see 2nd and 3rd).
Germany declares war on Belgium.
German troops cross the Belgian frontier and attack Liège (see 3rd and 7th, and November 26th, *1918*). Battle and Siege of Liège begins (see 16th).
Battles of the Western Front: First Encounters and Battles of the Frontiers

Two German airships pass over Brussels by night (first hostile act in the air).
German warships _Goeben _and _Breslau _bombard Philippeville and Bona respectively (see 7th and 11th).
Secret Alliance between Germany and Turkey signed at Berlin.
British Grand Fleet constituted under Admiral Sir John Jellicoe (see November 29th and December 4th, 1916).
Staff of British Expeditionary Force appointed [Commander-in-Chief: Field-Marshal Sir John French (see December 15th, 1915). Chief of General Staff: Lieut.-General Sir Archibald Murray (see January 24th, 1915). Adjutant-General: Lieut.-General Sir Nevil Macready (see February 21st, 1916). Quartermaster-General: Lieut.-General Sir William Robertson (see January 24th, 1915)].
British Government issue Proclamation specifying articles to be treated as contraband (see 20th. and September 21st).
German armed merchant cruiser _Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse_ leaves Bremen (see 26th).
*5th August*
Montenegro declares war on Austria-Hungary (see July 26th).
Minelaying in the open sea commenced by the Germans (east of Southwold) (see October 3rd). German mine-layer _Königin Luise_ sunk.
First meeting of British War Council (see May 14th, 1915). [Formed to exercise the functions of the Committee of Imperial Defence, but with additional executive powers.]
*6th August*
Austria-Hungary declares war on Russia. (Declaration presented at St. Petersburg).
Serbia declares war on Germany (see July 28th).
Battle of the Frontiers begins in France. [General name covering all operations of the French armies up to the Battle of the Marne of 5th - 9th September 1914.]
Field-Marshal Earl Kitchener succeeds Mr. Asquith as Secretary of State for War, Great Britain. (Mr. Asquith held the appointment from March 31st, 1914.) (See June 5th, 1916.)
H.M.S. "Amphion" sunk by mine off Yarmouth.
Naval Convention between France and Great Britain concluded in London. French Admiral to command Allied Naval Forces in the Mediterranean. (See November 9th.)
Action between H.M.S. _Bristol_ and German cruiser _Karlsruhe _in the West Indies (see November 4th).
German armed merchant cruiser _Prinz Eitel Friedrich_ leaves Tsingtau (see January 28th and April 8th, 1915).
Admiral von Spee's squadron leaves Ponape (Caroline islands) (see, September 22nd). [_Scharnhorst_ (flag), _Gneisenau_, _Nürnberg_. _Dresden_ and _Leipzig_ joined on October 12th and 14th respectively]

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## Vassili Zaitzev (Aug 13, 2014)

*7th August*
City of Liège occupied by German forces (see 4th and 16th).
First units of British Expeditionary Force land in France (see 16th).
French troops cross the frontier of Alsace (see 2nd).
Action between H.M.S. _Gloucester_ and the _Goeben_ and _Breslau_ off the coast of Greece (see 4th and 11th).
*8th August*
Montenegro severs diplomatic relations with Germany.
"State of War" commences between Montenegro and Germany (see 5th).
*Battle of Mulhouse*. Mulhouse (Alsace) occupied by French forces (see 7th, 11th, 19th and 25th).
Battles of the Western Front: First Encounters and Battles of the Frontiers

British forces cross frontier of Togoland and occupy Lome (see 13th and 26th).
Swiss Government order Mobilisation.
Hostilities commence in East Africa (see 15th). H.M.S. _Astræa _bombards Dar es Salaam (see September 4th, 1916).
*9th August*
British aerial cross-Channel patrol for the protection of transports instituted.
Belgian Government proposal for neutralisation of African free trade zone formulated (see 22nd).
H.M.S. _Birmingham_ sinks German submarine _U-15_ in the North Sea. (First submarine destroyed.)
*10th August*
British aerial coast patrol established.
France severs diplomatic relations with Austria-Hungary (see 12th).
*11th August*
German warships _Goeben_ and _Breslau_ enter the Dardenelles (see 4th and 7th).
Mulhouse retaken by German forces (see 8th and 19th).
French Government issue first list of contraband (see 25th and November 6th).
*12th August*
Great Britain and France declare war on Austria-Hungary (see 10th).
Austrian forces cross the Save and seize Shabatz (see 25th).


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## davebender (Aug 13, 2014)

Only two German army corps in Ardennes.
.....VIII AK at Luxembourg.
.....XVIII AK at Aumetz. (Almost right. XVI AK was actually at Aumetz.)
.....Plus two German cavalry divisions.


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## davebender (Aug 13, 2014)

French preparations for attack into Lorraine. This was expected to be the main attack. 16 army corps plus two groups of reserve divisions. 38 to 40 divisions total. About 60% of the French field army.

German 5th Army alerted to prepare for attack into French left flank via Metz fortress complex.
German 4th Army alerted to guard right flank of 5th Army.

.....This intelligence estimate was wrong, which OHL would determine by 16 August 1914. Only French 1st and 2nd Armies would attack into Lorraine. French army main attack by 3rd, 4th and 5th Armies would be in Belgium.


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## Vassili Zaitzev (Aug 13, 2014)

*13th August*
Austrian forces cross River Drina and begin first invasion of Serbia (see 25th).
Four squadrons Royal Flying Corps fly from Dover to France. (First units to cross by air.)
Allied advance on Kamina (Togoland) from Lome begins (see 8th and 26th).

PS: DaveBender, do you mind sharing your info?


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## davebender (Aug 13, 2014)

Final two (of 12 total) Liege forts would not surrender until 16 August 1914. However the remaining forts were neutralized (i.e. no offensive capability) by 13 August 1914. Hence it was no longer an obstacle to German military movement.


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## davebender (Aug 13, 2014)

Germany was first major nation to make economic preparations for a long war. Discussions for establishment of K.R.A. (War Raw Materials Section) began 8 August 1914 and the deal was done five days later. 

At first only metals, wool and chemicals were managed. Later expanded to include most of the wartime German economy.


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## davebender (Aug 13, 2014)

Romanian Government declines Russian proposals to enter the war.


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## davebender (Aug 13, 2014)

Admiral von Spee held a council of war aboard his flagship SMS Scharnhorst on this date. Decision was reached to detach CL Emden and one collier on the following day for purpose of commerce raiding in Indian Ocean.


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## davebender (Aug 13, 2014)

Lt. Erwin Rommel and his platoon on outpost duty in vicinity of Bollingen (north of Metz).


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## Vassili Zaitzev (Aug 14, 2014)

*14th August*
Proclamation issued by Russian Commander-in-Chief (The Grand Duke Nicholas) promising autonomy to Poland (see April 3rd, 1915).
Battles of Morhange and Sarrebourg begin (see 20th).


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## davebender (Aug 14, 2014)

Belgium Ardennes.
German 3rd Calvary Division pushes French 4DC elements out of Etalle. This allows 3rd Cavalry Division to send recon squadrons to Carignan and Montmedy, where it was established that the French were digging in on the Chiers.
.....Part of ongoing effort to conduct recon while denying recon information to the enemy. Vital stuff rarely mentioned in popular history books.

Belgium. North of Meuse River.
Neutralization of Liege fortress system the previous day allows German Army to build a pontoon bridge over Meuse River east of Huy. German 9th Cavalry Division crosses on the newly built bridge to continue their recon mission.


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## Vassili Zaitzev (Aug 15, 2014)

*15th August*
Japanese Government send ultimatum to Germany demanding evacuation of Tsingtau (see 23rd, and September 2nd).
German troops cross frontier of British East Africa and occupy Taveta (see 8th. November 2nd, and March 10th, 1916).
Junction of British and French squadrons effected at entrance to the Adriatic.


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## imalko (Aug 15, 2014)

*15th/16th August*
On the night between 15th and 16th August elements of the Serbian 1st Combined Division encountered Austro-Hungarian outposts that had been established on the slopes of Cer Mountain. The clashes that followed escalated into full scale battle for control over several towns and villages near the mountain, especially Šabac.

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## Vassili Zaitzev (Aug 16, 2014)

*16th August*
Landing of original British Expeditionary Force (B.E.F.) [4 Divisions and 1 Cavalry Division] in France completed (announced August 18th) (see 7th).
Last forts of Liège captured by German forces (16th/17th) (see 4th and 7th).
Naval action in the Southern Adriatic: Austrian light cruiser "Zenta" sunk by Allied squadron.


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## imalko (Aug 16, 2014)

*16th August*
At midnight, fierce clashes between the Austro-Hungarians and the Serbs on the Cer mountain were underway and chaos ensued in the darkness. By the morning of 16 August and as the day progressed, the Serbs managed to completely drove the Austro-Hungarian 21st Infantry Division off the slopes of Cer to prevent it from linking with the their 2nd Army in Šabac. The Austro-Hungarians, who had suffered heavy casualties during the fighting, retreated in some disorder.


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## Vassili Zaitzev (Aug 26, 2014)

*22nd August*
Austria-Hungary declares war on Belgium (see 28th).
Battle of the Ardennes begins (see 24th).
Battles of the Western Front: First Encounters and Battles of the Frontiers

German Government agree to Belgian proposal, made through Spanish Government, re African free trade zone (see 9th, and November 20th).
*23rd August*
Battle of Mons (see 24th).
Battles of the Western Front: First Encounters and Battles of the Frontiers

German airship "Z.-8" shot down in the Vosges.
Battle of Tannenberg begins (see 31st).
First Battle of Krasnik (Poland) begins (see 25th).
Germany severs diplomatic relations with Japan (see 15th).
Japan declares war on Germany (see 15th).
General C. M. Dobell appointed to command Allied land forces operating in the Cameroons.
General von Hindenburg takes over command of German Eighth Army (see September 18th).
*24th August*
British Army retreats from Mons (see 23rd, and September 5th).
Battle of Charleroi ends (see 21st).
Battle of the Ardennes ends (see 22nd).
Austria-Hungary severs diplomatic relations with Japan (see 25th).
First units of Indian Expeditionary Force "A" leave India for France (in first place for Egypt) (see September 26th).
*25th August*
Namur captured by German forces (see 21st, and November 21st, 191*8*.)
Battle of the Meuse begins (see 2*8*th).
Battles of the Western Front: First Encounters and Battles of the Frontiers

Battle of Malines begins (see 27th).
Valenciennes taken by German forces (see November 3rd, 191*8*).
Maubeuge invested by German forces (see September 7th).
Battle of the Mortagne (Vosges) begins (see September 3rd).
Mulhouse again retaken by German forces (see 19th, and November 17th, 191*8*)
Battles of the Western Front: First Encounters and Battles of the Frontiers

First use of aircraft for patrol purposes (over retreating British forces in France).
First Battle of Krasnik (Poland) ends (see 23rd).
Shabatz (see 12th) retaken by Serbian forces. Last Austrian forces recross the Drina (see 13th). End of First Austrian invasion of Serbia (see September 8th).
Japan severs diplomatic relations with Austria-Hungary (see 24th).
Japan declares "State of War" with Austria-Hungary.
Nigerian frontier of the Cameroons crossed by British forces.
Affair of Tepe. Chad frontier crossed by French forces.
French Government issue new decree defining contraband (see 11th, and November 6th).
*26th August*
Louvain sacked by German troops.
Battle of Le Cateau.
Battles of the Western Front: First Encounters and Battles of the Frontiers

Noyon taken by German forces (see September 21st).
Longwy capitulates to German forces (see 20th).
Cambrai occupied by German forces (see November 20th, 1917, and October 9th, 191*8*).
Douai occupied by German forces (see October 17th, 191*8*).
First Battle of Lemberg (Galicia.) begins (see 30th).
Battle of Zamosc-Komarow begins (see September 2nd).
Naval action off the Aaland Islands. German cruiser "Magdeburg" destroyed by Russian squadron.
German forces in Togoland capitulate to the Allied forces (see 8th, 13th and 31st).
Action between H.M.S. "Highflyer" and German armed merchant cruiser "Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse" off the Rio de Oro: latter sunk (see August 4).
General Galliéni appointed Governor of Paris (see October 30th, 1915).
M. Messimy, French Minister for War, [Appointed June 14th, 1914.] resigns (see 27th).
M. Delcassé succeeds M. Doumergue [Appointed August 3rd, 1914.] as French Foreign Minister.


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## nuuumannn (Aug 27, 2014)

Great thread guys. Some additional info. On possibly 28 August, the first time a single-seat scout brought down an enemy aeroplane took place. 2nd Lt Norman Spratt of 3 Sqn RFC flying a Sopwith Tabloid chased and harrassed a German two-seater that had been dropping bombs on the 3 Sqn airfield at Compiegne. The German aircraft force landed and its crew were captured, according to eye witnesses, including James McCudden a 3 Sqn mechanic and later fighter ace and VC holder. The event was witnessed by many on the ground at Compiegne, but the exact date this took place has been lost. Spratt doesn't mention it in his log book, having marked that on several dates in late August and early September that he had been 'Chasing Germans'. Incidentally, the Sopwith Tabloid was the first single-seat scout put into production.

One account puts the date on the 25th August and that the unit was 2 Sqn, but Spratt flew with 3 Sqn.

On 26 August, the first aeroplanes to be destroyed by deliberate ramming in combat, an Austrian two-seater flown by Lt Baron von Rosenthal was rammed by Capt P.N. Westeroff, of the Russian air service flying an unarmed Morane Saulnier monoplane over Galicia. Both pilots killed.

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## nuuumannn (Aug 29, 2014)

*30 August 1914*, Royal Navy warships arrive off the coast of German held Samoa and offload New Zealand troops at Apia, who, without a fight, remove the German administrators and haul down the German Imperial ensign and raise the Union Jack. The Ships were the light cruisers HMS _Philomel_, _Psyche_ and _Pyramus_, based in New Zealand at the time and described as 'unspeakably useless' and the New Zealand registered Union Steamship Coy merchant ships _Monowai _and _Moeraki_ carrying some 1400 troops. There was a fear that the German East Asiatic Squadron under Maximillian Graf von Spee was in the region, as Spee had left the German colony at Tsing Tao on the third and had not been heard of since, but he was not there thankfully - the three cruisers were no match for any of Spee's ships, not least his two armoured cruisers _Scharnhorst_ and _Gneisenau_.


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## nuuumannn (Aug 29, 2014)

Another important occurence for *16 August*; the German battlecruiser _Goeben_ and light cruiser _Breslau_ of the Mittelmeer Division (Mittelmeer - Mediterranean) are officially commissioned into the Ottoman Navy as _Yavuz Sultan Selim_ and _Midilli _respectively, although still operating their German crews. This was after several days evading a superior British squadron, during which time the two ships docked in Messina for coal and arriving in the Dardanelles on the Tenth.


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## nuuumannn (Sep 1, 2014)

Some more info regarding the first German aeroplane brought down in action during the war in post #20. on *25 August* a German two seater (which type?) was brought down by a flight of three B.E.2cs of 2 Sqn RFC, led by Lt H.D. Harvey Kelly. The B.E.2.cs, chased the German until he landed in a field and the two crew ran off. Harvey Kelly landed and gave chase on foot, but the Germans had disappeared into the woods. The German aeroplane was burned.

On *30 August*, Paris became the first city to be bombed from the air. Lt Ferdinand von Hiddesen flying a Rumpler Taube dropped three bombs near Gare de l'Est railway station and a message attached to a sand bag reading "The German Army is at the gates of Paris. There is nothing for you to do but surrender."

on *26 August*, the German light cruiser _Magdeburg_ ran aground on Odensholm Island during a mine laying sortie in the Baltic and was fired on and destroyed by Russian ships, but not before the Russians recovered the German naval code books, which were forwarded to the British Admiralty.


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## Vassili Zaitzev (Sep 1, 2014)

*27th August*
Battle of Malines ends (see 25th).
British Marines landed at Ostend, accompanied by R.N.A.S. unit.
Lille occupied by German cavalry (see September 5th).
Mezières occupied by German forces (see November 10th, 191*8*).
M. Millerand appointed French Minister for War (see 26th, and October 29th, 1915).
First attack on Mora (Cameroons) (see September 8th, 1915).
*28th August*
Battle of the Meuse ends (see 25th).
Austro-Hungarian declaration of war received by Belgian Government (see 22nd).
Naval action off Heligoland (German light cruisers "_Köln_", "_Mainz_", and "_Ariadne_" sunk by British squadron).
*29th August*
Arras evacuated by the French forces (see September 30th).
First Battle of Guise begins (see 30th).
Sedan taken by German forces (see November 6th, 191*8*).
Battles of the Western Front: First Encounters and Battles of the Frontiers

German airship "Z.-5" brought down by gunfire at Mlawa (Poland).
*August 30th*
Laon, La Fère, and Roye occupied by German forces (see March 17th, 1917, and October 13th, 191*8*).
First Battle of Guise ends (see 29th, and November 4th, 191*8*).
First German aeroplane raid on Paris (see September 16th, 191*8*).
First Battle of Lemberg (Galicia) ands (see 26th, and September 3rd).
First attack on Garua (Cameroons) (see April 18th, 1915).
Samoa occupied by New Zealand Expeditionary Force.
*31st August*
Amiens entered by German forces (see September 13th).
Battle of Tannenberg ends (see 23rd).
Franco- British Agreement defining provisional zones in Togoland concluded (see 26th, and December 27th, 1916).
*SEPTEMBER 1914*
*1st September*
Lord Kitchener visits France to confer with the British Commander-in-Chief.
Craonne taken by German forces (see May 4th, 1917).
Soissons taken by German forces (see 13th).
First unit of Indian Expeditionary Force "C" arrives at Mombasa (see August 19th and December 31st).
General J. Stewart takes over command of British forces in East Africa (see October 31st).


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## parsifal (Sep 1, 2014)

The RAN at war
source

On This Day ? 1914-1918 » Naval Historical Society


catch up timeline

28 Feb 1914
The E class submarines HMA Ships AE1, (LCDR T. F. Besant, RN), and AE2, (LCDR H. H. G. D. Stoker, RN), were commissioned in Portsmouth, England. AE1 and AE2 were laid down in Vickers Yard, Barrow-in-Furness, England. AE1 was launched on 22 May 1913, and AE2 on 18 June 1913. AE1 and AE2 departed Portsmouth on 2 March 1914, for Australia.

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02 Mar 1914
HMA Submarines AE1 and AE2 sailed from Portsmouth on their maiden voyage to Australia. The passage took 83 days and was at the time the longest journey ever under taken by a submarine.

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01 Apr 1914
LEUT A. M. Longmore, an Australian serving with the Naval Wing of the Royal Flying Corps, flew the First Sea Lord, Winston Churchill, on his first flight in a Maurice Farman seaplane.

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24 May 1914
The RAN’s first two submarines, AE1 and AE2, arrived in Sydney after a record voyage from England. 

Within a year both submarines had been lost on active service, with AE1 lost during the campaign in German New Guinea, and AE2 lost in the Sea of Marmora during the Gallipoli Campaign. 

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28 Jul 1914
LEUT A. M. Longmore, an Australian serving with the RNAS, made the first successful aerial torpedo drop by a naval pilot from a Short Folder seaplane.

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30 Jul 1914
Garden Island Wireless Station intercepted the Admiralty warning to HM Ships that war with Germany was imminent.

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03 Aug 1914
Even before the declaration of war between Britain and Germany, the Australian Cabinet met in Melbourne and promptly offered the Australian fleet to Britain.

Port war lookout and examination stations were manned by the Royal Australian Naval Brigade. Stations were established at all major ports.

All wireless stations in Australia were placed under the control of the Naval Board. Censorship of all cable and wireless traffic was enforced.

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04 Aug 1914
Great Britain declared war on Germany. The telegram informing Australia of a state of hostilities was not received in Melbourne until 5 August. At the outbreak of war the strength of the RAN was 3800 of all ranks.

A warning shot was fired across the bows of the German merchant ship PFALZ by the Nepean Battery on Port Phillip Bay, VIC, when the vessel attempted to escape to sea. PFALZ turned back and was seized. Records suggest this was the first shot fired by British forces against the Germans in the First World War.

The Sydney pilot steamer CAPTAIN COOK, was commissioned as an examination vessel.

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05 Aug 1914
The message conveying the news of the outbreak of war with Germany was received in Australia at 12.30pm.

The disposition of ships of the RAN, at the declaration of WWI, was: HMAS AUSTRALIA, (battle-cruiser), steaming north from Sydney; HMAS MELBOURNE, (cruiser), steaming south from Sydney; HMA Ships SYDNEY, (cruiser), WARREGO and YARRA near Thursday Island; HMAS PARRAMATTA, (destroyer), nearing Townsville; HMAS PROTECTOR, on passage from Melbourne to Sydney; HMAS ENCOUNTER, and submarines AEI and AE2, at Sydney; HMAS PIONEER, at Port Phillip, VIC; HMAS GAYUNDAH on passage from Sydney to Brisbane.

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07 Aug 1914
VADM Sir George Patey, RN, wrote the first wartime order for the RAN, and for that matter the Commonwealth of Australia, whilst onboard his flagship, HMAS AUSTRALIA, (battle-cruiser). It was Operational Order No. 1, headed ‘Intention’.

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10 Aug 1914
An Australian Government Order-in-Council was gazetted placing all Commonwealth Naval Forces, including the Naval Board, under British Admiralty control, for the duration of WWI, (and was later repeated for WWII).

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11 Aug 1914
HMAS AUSTRALIA, (battle-cruiser), and the Australia Squadron, under VADM Sir George Patey, RN, arrived in St Georges Channel, near Rabaul, on a search for ADML von Spee’s forces.

The German naval and merchant services code was captured from the German vessel HOBART, (merchant ship), at Port Phillip, VIC. The boarding officer, CAPT J. T. Richardson, RN, used a subterfuge to allow the German Captain to retrieve the codes from their hiding place. Richardson seized the books at gunpoint as they were about to be thrown overboard.

HMA Ships PARRAMATTA, YARRA, and WARREGO, (torpedo boat destroyers), launched a night torpedo attack on the German anchorage in Simpsonhaven, New Britain only to find the port was empty. During the day HMAS AUSTRALIA, (battle- cruiser), captured the enemy ship SUMATRA whilst patrolling St Georges Channel.

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12 Aug 1914
HMA Ships PARRAMATTA, YARRA, and WARREGO, (torpedo boat destroyers), landed parties at Rabaul.

HMAS ENCOUNTER, (cruiser), captured the German steamer ZAMBESI in St George’s Channel, New Britain.

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13 Aug 1914
HMAS MELBOURNE, (cruiser), intercepted the collier ALCONDA off Rossel Island, and requisitioned her cargo of coal.

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16 Aug 1914
HMAS PIONEER, (light cruiser), captured the German merchant ship NEUMUNSTER, off Rottnest Island, WA.

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18 Aug 1914
The auxiliary cruiser HMAS BERRIMA, (CMDR J. B. Stevenson, RN), was commissioned. BERRIMA was requisitioned for the RAN, from her owners, the P&O Steam Navigation Co Ltd, in August 1914.

ADML von Spee, C-in-C, German Pacific Fleet, recorded in his journal: ‘The AUSTRALIA is my special apprehension-she alone is superior to my whole squadron’.

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20 Aug 1914
The German cruiser MAGDEBURG was captured by the Russian Navy, after running aground in a fog in the Gulf of Finland. Code books recovered from the cruiser were rushed to London, where intelligence experts matched them with merchant service code books seized by the RAN on 11 August, from the German ship HOBART, in Port Phillip, VIC. By November 1914 all German naval wireless traffic was being intercepted and decoded orders passed to the British Fleet.

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26 Aug 1914
HMAS PIONEER, (3rd class cruiser), captured the German merchant vessel THURINGEN, off Fremantle, WA.

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30 Aug 1914
VADM Sir George Patey, RN, in HMAS AUSTRALIA, arrived of Samoa, and the official surrender of German Samoa took place. The squadron comprised AUSTRALIA, HMA Ships MELBOURNE, and PSYCHE , and HM Ships PYRAMUS and PHILOMEL.

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04 Sep 1914
The cruiser HMS PSYCHE, (later HMAS PSYCHE), and survey ship HMS FANTOME, (later HMAS FANTOME), joined the contraband patrol in the Bay of Bengal.

*Battle of Heligoland Bight 28 August 1914*

Commander Tyrwhitt (RN) was charged with leading the Harwich Force of two light cruisers, Fearless and Arethusa, accompanied by two flotillas of 31 destroyers, 1st and 3rd Flotillas, in a raid upon German shipping located close to the German naval base at Heligoland.

Acting as cover for Tyrwhitt's force was the First Battle Cruiser Squadron, recently arrived from Scapa Flow and under the command of Vice Admiral Beatty. His squadron consisted of the battlecruisers New Zealand and Invincible, plus three other battlecruisers.

Tyrwhitt began the action by sinking two German torpedo boats at around 7am on 28 August. Not entirely surprised by the British attack, the Germans hastily deployed the Frauenlob and the Stettin, joined shortly afterwards by four other light cruisers, including Rear Admiral Mass's flagship, Koln.

Finding himself outgunned by the German defence and under increasing fire, with the Arethusa heavily damaged, Tyrwhitt called Beatty for urgent assistance at 11.25am. Beatty, some 40km to the north, hurried to Tyrwhitt's assistance, arriving at 12.40pm. In time to save Tyrwhitt, Beatty's squadron sunk Mainz, Koln, and Ariadne and damaged a further three other cruisers.

Retreating hurriedly under the cover of mist, the Germans had lost 1,200 men, as opposed to just 35 British fatalities.

As a consequence of the action, Beatty enhanced his reputation as a fighting seaman; it also influenced the Admiralty's decision to appoint Beatty as Commander of the Grand Fleet, replacing Sir John Jellicoe, who was summarily dismissed by Lloyd George on Christmas Eve, 1917, in a dispute over the use of convoy shipping.

Beatty's success however overshadowed deficiencies in the British handling of the encounter, in areas as diverse as planning and communication.


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## nuuumannn (Sep 2, 2014)

Great info Parsifal, but...



> 20 Aug 1914: The German cruiser MAGDEBURG was captured by the Russian Navy, after running aground in a fog in the Gulf of Finland. Code books recovered from the cruiser were rushed to London, where intelligence experts matched them with merchant service code books seized by the RAN on 11 August, from the German ship HOBART, in Port Phillip, VIC. By November 1914 all German naval wireless traffic was being intercepted and decoded orders passed to the British Fleet.



According to my sources (Conway's All the world's fighting ships 1906-1921) it was 26 August.

"Prince Heinrich, the overall commander of the Baltic naval forces, replaced Mischke with Rear Admiral Behring. Behring ordered another operation for *26 August* to sweep for Russian reconnaissance forces in the entrance to the Gulf of Finland. Early that morning, Magdeburg ran aground off the lighthouse at Odensholm on the Estonian coast. Her escorting destroyer, V.26, attempted to pull her free but was unable to do so and began taking off part of Magdeburg's crew. While the evacuation was going on, the Russian cruisers Bogatyr and Pallada appeared and shelled the stranded cruiser. The Germans destroyed the forward section of the ship, but could not complete her destruction before the Russians reached the ship. Fifteen crew members from Magdeburg were killed in the attack. The German code books were also not destroyed; the Russians were able to recover three of the books along with the current encryption key. They passed one copy to the British Royal Navy via a pair of Russian couriers on 13 October. The Russian Navy partially scrapped the ship in situ and eventually destroyed the wreck."

From here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Magdeburg

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## parsifal (Sep 2, 2014)

Yes, I think your version is correct. there appears another error in the Hysterical societies notes. They are claiming HM Australia took the surrender of Samoa before the assault on Rabaul. I think it was the other way around, and the assault into New Guinea did not take place until September


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## parsifal (Sep 2, 2014)

Australia's first amphibious campaign and the largest territorial gains of the war....
Wartime Issue 20 | Australian War Memorial

"Australia did not enter the First World War with the landing on Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. When war broke out in August 1914, Australians faced an immediate military threat in their region – a situation they had long feared. German possessions and warships in the Pacific posed a threat to Australian shipping and ports. With a shared-land border between British Papua and German New Guinea, an enemy was suddenly at Australia’s northern frontier.

On 6 August, Australia agreed to undertake a “great and urgent imperial service”: to seize German wireless stations in the south-west Pacific, specifically German New Guinea. Australia was also required to occupy the territory under the British flag and establish a military administration. For the first time, Britain called on Australia to train, supply and command her own forces in defence of the empire.

The man selected to raise what would become known as the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF) was Boer War veteran Colonel William Holmes, who came to the position with a reputation for “personal bravery, ability and capacity for command”. He did not disappoint his superiors. In less than 10 days, Holmes recruited, equipped and embarked a 1,000-strong infantry battalion, 500 naval reservists and ex-seamen, and a 500-strong citizen-battalion from north Queensland. The majority of the force were untrained men who had rushed to enlist at the outbreak of war. Holmes noted the abundant enthusiasm of his men, but also their inexperience, with many having “never been put to sea”.

The expedition was delayed when the commander-in-chief of the Australian fleet, Rear Admiral Sir George Patey RN, was unexpectedly called away on escort duties in Samoa. Most of the AN&MEF, now aboard HMAT Berrima, had to wait at Palm Island, off Townsville in Queensland. Here they went ashore each day for jungle training and drill. After two long weeks, Berrima sailed for Port Moresby to meet the Queensland battalion waiting on board the hospital ship HMAT Kanowna. Upon inspection, Holmes decided regretfully that the youthful and unseasoned troops were “unfit for active service”. Nevertheless, Patey decided that they should accompany the expeditionary force and perform garrison duties.

The naval force, comprising Sydney, Encounter, Yarra, Warrego, Berrima and the supply ship Aorangi, and the submarines AE1 and AE2, gathered at Port Moresby before rendezvousing with HMAS Australia on 9 September en route to Rabaul. Only then did Patey reveal the precise destination of the convoy. The Kanowna’s stokers, who had not volunteered for overseas service, called a snap strike as soon as they discovered they were heading into a war zone. Eager not to miss out, the soldiers offered to stoke the ship the rest of the way. For the battalion aboard Kanowna, that was the end of their adventure. Unimpressed by the stokers and the low military standard of the men, Holmes ordered the ship back to Australia.

The slightly depleted AN&MEF approached Blanche Bay, just south of Rabaul, at dawn on 11 September 1914. The military leaders had expected the occupation to be a simple exercise; nevertheless they had sent 1,500 men and almost the entire Australian fleet. Then, not having encountered any naval formations or coastal defence, the AN&MEF became complacent. Holmes, in particular, convinced himself that he could acquire new territory for the British empire “without a shot being fired”.

Two parties of 25 naval reservists went ashore at the settlements of Herbertshöhe and Kabakaul, on the south-eastern shore of the bay. Their orders were to capture the radio station at Bitapaka, about seven kilometres inland. Lieutenant R.G. Bowen, RAN, led his men from Kabakaul and headed inland along a narrow road. They had travelled less than two kilometres when they encountered three Germans and about 20 New Guineans fighting for the Germans. “This is where the fighting began, shots being exchanged as fast as we could put them in our barrels,” recalled Able Seaman Sidney Staines, a member of the lead party. “Bullets were buzzing all around us … I was expecting to drop anytime at this stage, so we got together and started firing volleys.”

The Australians soon captured the group after wounding one of the Germans. A map found on one of the prisoners revealed German plans to resist the Australian troops by means of a system of trenches, rifle pits and mines. Bowen sent for reinforcements and pushed on. Some New Guineans had climbed the tall trees and were firing from elevated positions. The Australians made slow progress and “were constantly subjected to rifle fire by an unseen enemy”, which forced them from the narrow road into dense jungle.

As they approached the first trench, Able Seaman W.G.V. Williams was shot through the stomach. Captain Brian Pockley, the medical officer, immediately set out to find him. Under fire, Pockley removed his red-crossed brassard and tied it around Leading Stoker Kember’s hat, in the hope that the enemy would respect the symbol. Soon after, Pockley himself was wounded. Both men were taken aboard Berrima, where they died later that afternoon. Williams became the first Australian to die in action in the Great War.

For the young men in the AN&MEF, the excitement of joining Australia’s first action of the war gave way to the realities of combat. Able Seaman “Gus” Shea was in the thick of the attack and helped carry the dead and wounded to the beach: “It is terrible to hear the wounded scream,” he wrote in a letter home. “I don’t want to hear anymore.”

Back on the Bitapaka Road, Bowen’s men encountered a well-defended trench dug across the road. As reinforcements arrived, a sniper’s bullet pierced Bowen’s helmet, leaving a deep furrow along the side of his head. Lieutenant G.A. Hill, RNR, assumed command and sent a runner to Berrima calling for more support. A few hours later, Lieutenant Commander Charles Elwell, RN, arrived with 50 men. He launched a flanking attack and charged the enemy. Sword in hand, Elwell was shot through the heart. Outflanked on both sides, the Germans surrendered.

Tensions remained high. Shots rang out, possibly from snipers, when the forward party captured the second trench held by three Germans and 20 New Guineans. As Lieutenant W.D. Hunter wrote to his girlfriend, they “made a break … and the officer and ten niggers were shot while escaping”. Able Seaman Henry Street was mortally wounded in the exchange.

Three Germans and about 30 New Guineans were killed in the fight for the Bitapaka wireless station. The claim that Australians bayoneted some of the New Guineans who fell into their hands during the fighting is probably true. Numerous personal letters and diaries reflect the mixture of racism, inexperience and anger at having lost men to the New Guinean fighters, and this would have contributed to the brutal treatment of the Indigenous population.

At 7.00 pm the wireless station was captured and Admiral Patey demanded the German acting governor, Dr Edward Haber, surrender the entire colony. Although Haber did not officially surrender, he told Patey that Rabaul and Herbertshöhe were “unfortified” and “no opposition [would] be offered to the military occupation”. The next day the naval reservists marched from Kabakaul to Herbertshöhe, and Berrima landed a garrison at Rabaul.

On Sunday 13 September, AN&MEF forces raised the Union Jack in Rabaul. A translator told the New Guineans who looked on: “All boys belongina one place, you savvy big master … No more ‘Um Kaiser, God Save ‘Um King.” With this sentence, the Australians asserted the authority of their military administration and custody of the Indigenous population was transferred from one imperial power to another.

By October, departments of Treasury, Works, Law and Lands and Surveys were in operation. But it was as administrators of the colony that the AN&MEF began to fall apart. Corruption and undisciplined behaviour marred the occupation. Most of the troops saw no action, and the boredom fuelled unruly and rampageous behaviour. Harsh discipline – 137 Australians were court-martialled in the four months to December 1914 – seemed no deterrent. Most were eager to join the war in Europe, and on their return to Australia in early 1915 many re-enlisted for service in the AIF.

Australia’s first action in the war certainly made headlines at the time. Naturally, the magnitude of Australian losses in Gallipoli and the Western Front quickly pushed these stories to the fringes of popular memory. But Australians in 1914 knew that the war had come to their part of the world".

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## nuuumannn (Sep 3, 2014)

Great info Parsifal. You're right about the order of things, too.


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## parsifal (Sep 3, 2014)

Formation of the 7th Australian Light horse Regiment

When the First World War began August 1914, Australia offered Great Britain 20,000 troops. Militia units could not be sent overseas, and a new force, the Australian Imperial Force, was raised. New Light Horse Regiments were raised from volunteers - the AIF remained a volunteer force throughout the war. The Light Horse regarded as mounted infantry, and were trained with the infantry weapons of Lee Enfield rifle (S.M.L.E., .303 inch) and bayonet.

The 7th Light Horse Regiment was formed at Liverpool and Holsworthy, near Sydney, New South Wales in October/ November 1914. The Regiment belonged to the 2nd Australian Light Horse Brigade. . Lt Col J. M. Arnott of 11th Light Horse became the Regiment's first commanding officer with Major G. M. Macarthur-Onslow of 9th Light Horse as 2nd-in-command.

Enlisting on the 14 October 1914 was private AW Glenn, my grandfather. The ALH records record him as being assigned to "A" squadron of the regiment, and departing for Egypt aboard the steamer Ayrshire 9that explains why out family property was called "Ayshire"...I thought it was named after Ayshire downs, but could never work out why "downs' was dropped from the name). His service record simply states

158 Private Albert William GLENN, a 22 year old Stockman from Redfern, New South Wales. He enlisted on 10 October 1914; and subsequently Returned to Australia, 15 November 1918.

Going through the personel lists for A squadron, they were to suffer more than 60% casualty rates in the four years of war. Most returned dead, or wounded. my grandfather was one of the so called lucky one. though he never recovered from his experiences mentally. 

The Regiment sailed for overseas and arrived in Egypt on 1st February, 1915. Later, colour patches were issued to AIF units and worn on tunic sleeves; the colour patch of 7th Light Horse Regiment, was a rectangle, divided diagonally, the upper portion being black and the lower red, worn with the broad of the red to the front. In May, the 2nd Brigade was ordered to Gallipoli, the 7th disembarking there on May 19th. The Light Horse units left their horses in Egypt and served at Gallipoli as dismounted troops to reinforce those fighting on the Peninsula and to make up for some of the unexpectedly high casualties suffered by the infantry since 25th April. The squadrons of the 7th were initially distributed among the battalions of the 3rd Infantry Brigade, but later the Regiment operated as a complete unit. It served at Bolton's Ridge, Tasmania Post, Chatham's Post, the Balkan Pits (??) and Lone Pine. my grandfather fought at lone pine, reluctantly recounting stories of the vicious fighting that occurred in that earthly version of hell. During August, as with many hundreds of others, Lt Col Arnott was evacuated sick and Major (later Lt Col) Macarthur-Onslow took command of the regiment. My grandfathers service records also show that he was wounded by a grenade at that time and was sent to England to recover. He married my grandmother whilst recovering in 1915, returning to Egypt in 1916. 

The 7th Regiment fought on the Peninsula until the campaign was abandoned and the troops evacuated in mid-December. 

The weakened and weary troops returned to Egypt, where the mounted units were remounted. The 2nd Light Horse Brigade was allotted to Anzac Mounted Division. 

The 7th Light Horse served in Egypt, Sinai and Palestine with the Anzac Mounted Division. Lt Gen Sir Harry Chauvel, who commanded the Desert Mounted Corps, wrote of the 7th:

"At the Battle of Romani it was largely due to its stubborn defence and spirited counter-attack, under the leadership of Lt Col G. Macarthur-Onslow that the victory was so complete.

At the first Battle of Gaza, it was this Regiment that led the Anzac Mounted Division through the night to its position in rear of the city and which captured the new Commander of the Gaza Defence, who was on his way up to take his command. During the Attack on Beersheba and the pursuit which followed, the Regiment sustained the fine traditions it had already established for dash and gallantry. In the raids across Jordan and throughout the long summer of 1918 in the Jordan Valley, it bore its share of the fighting and the hardships, from the bitter cold of Gilead in mid-winter to the scorching heat of Jericho in July.

Under Lt Col J. D. Richardson, it played a brilliant part in the final victory which destroyed three Turkish Armies and brought Germany's Ally out of the War."

Decorations and awards gained by the Regiment were as follows: CMG - 2; DSO - 5; MC - 8; Order of the Nile - 4; DCM - 8; MM - 20; Serbian Medal - 5; Mentioned in Despatches - 41; Complimentary Mention (Anzac) - 1; Mentioned in Divisional Orders (Anzac) - 1.

A full narrative has been given in the book "The 7th Light Horse Regiment, A.I.F., 1914-1919" by Lt Col J. D. Richardson, DSO; Publishers E. N. Birks, Radcliffe Press, Sydney.

The following Battle Honours were awarded to the Regiment (those in block letters were borne on the Guidon which was received in 1928: Anzac, DEFENCE OF ANZAC, Sulva, SARI BAIR, Gallipoli, 1915, ROMANI, EGYPT, 1915-17, GAZA-BEERSHEBA, El Mughar, Nebi Samwil, JERUSALEM, JORDAN (ES SALT), JORDAN (AMMAN), MEGIDDO, Nablus, PALESTINE, 1917-18.

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## nuuumannn (Sep 3, 2014)

*3 September 1914*: The Royal Naval Air Service is made responsible for air defence of the United Kingdom. At this time, the sole air defence of the London area was a single Caudron G.III and its pilot Lt Eric Bentley Beauman, along with a searchlight based at the London Aerodrome at hendon. beauman would later go on to command the aviation aspects of the seaplane tender HMS Manxman and also command an air defence station in Scotland. On 1 September No.3 Sqn RNAS is formed with Sqn Cdr Charles Rumney Samson as commanding officer.


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## parsifal (Sep 4, 2014)

*Miracle On the Marne. First German Setbacks 5-11 September*

Thirty miles northeast of Paris, the French 6th Army under General Michel-Joseph Maunoury begins attacking the right flank of German forces advancing on the French capital. By the next day, the counterattack was total. More than two million soldiers fought in the Battle of the Marne, and 100,000 of them were killed or wounded. On September 9, the exhausted Germans began a fighting retreat to the Aisne River. The Battle of the Marne was the first significant Allied victory of World War I, saving Paris and thwarting Germany's plan for a quick victory over France.

After the outbreak of hostilities in Europe in August 1914, Germany took the offensive in the West, hoping to defeat France before the Russians were able to fully mobilize in the East. The Germans rushed across Belgium, routing the Allies, and by September the "Schlieffen Plan"--the planned outflanking of the French forces--seemed headed to a triumphant conclusion. In early September, German forces crossed the Marne River to the northeast of Paris, and the French government was evacuated to Bordeaux.

As retreating French forces and the British Expeditionary Force scrambled to prepare a counterattack, they were dealt a lucky hand when precise information about the German plan of attack was found in a knapsack retrieved from a slain German officer. The French had thought that German General Alexander von Kluck's 1st Army would march into the Oise Valley, but the plan told of a direct march on Paris. The French commander in chief, General Joseph Joffre, coordinated the information into his battle plans, and on the afternoon of September 5 the French 6th Army under General Michel-Joseph Maunoury surprised the right flank of Kluck's 1st Army near the Marne River.

Kluck turned his army to meet the French 6th Army, creating a gap between his 1st Army and German General Karl von Bulow's 2nd Army, 30 miles to the southeast. The French 5th Army then turned and rushed into the gap to attack BÝlow, and the British Expeditionary Force halted its retreat and turned to likewise advance into the gap. Meanwhile, to the west of the German 2nd Army, the newly created French 9th Army attacked the German 3rd Army.

For three bloody days, the battle shifted back and forth along a 100-mile front. The French 6th Army stubbornly held its ground under heavy counterattacks by Kluck's 1st Army, and at one point 600 Paris taxicabs were enlisted to drive 6,000 French troops from the capital to the battle front. The fighting was so near the city that the automobiles could make the trip there and back on a single tank of gas.

On September 9, General Bulow learned of the approach of the British Expeditionary Force and ordered his 2nd Army to retreat. General Kluck and the German 1st Army had no choice but to follow, and by September 11 the retreat extended to all the German armies. The Germans retreated 40 miles north to the Lower Aisne River, where they dug trenches and succeeded in repelling successive attacks by the pursuing Allied forces. Both sides then tried and failed to outflank each other in the "Race to the Sea," in which trench networks were extended northwestward by both sides until they reached the Atlantic at a point inside Belgium.

Because it defeated Germany's Schlieffen Plan and also ended Allied hopes for a quick end to the war, the First Battle of the Marne ranks as one of the most decisive battles in history. Around 100,000 soldiers were killed or wounded in its six days of heavy fighting, roughly an equal number on each side. By the end of 1914, well over a million soldiers of various nationalities had been killed on the battlefields of Europe, and neither for the Allies nor the Central Powers was victory in sight. On the western front--the battle line that stretched across northern France and Belgium--the combatants settled down in the trenches for a terrible four-year war of attrition.


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## parsifal (Sep 4, 2014)

*The Battle in Maps and Pictures*


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## parsifal (Sep 4, 2014)

*East Front Summary 1914*

The Austro-Hungarian Army of 1914 had been starved of proper equipment and resources throughout the pre-war period. It was also composed of an increasingly nationalistic soldiery, three-quarters of whom were from Slavic recruiting districts. The reluctance of these troops to follow Austrian officers into combat against their Russian brethren became a major liability, especially after the enormous losses suffered during the first year of war. The main German armies in the East operated with characteristic Teutonic efficiency. Indeed it was here that their troops enjoyed the luxury of fighting the battles of maneuver for which they had been trained. The Russian front also saw the rise of the great German "artillery virtuosos" of the war, men such as Lieutenant Colonel Georg Bruchmüller. Lieutenant Colonel Bruchmüller was capable of orchestrating artillery firepower with ferocious efficiency, but more importantly he undertook aggressive training measures to assure near perfect coordination between the artillery and infantry branches of the army.

The Eastern half of the Great War began on August 17, 1914, when Russian General Pavel Rennenkampf's First Army invaded Eastern Prussia in a full scale offensive . Two days later, General Alexander Samsonov's Second Army attacked around the right flank of the German Eighth Army commanded by General Friedrich von Prittwitz . This was achieved despite the fact that Second Army was fighting at two-thirds strength due to the slow Russian mobilization. Prittwitz, who was certain that he could not hold against the two armies facing him, informed high command that he intended to withdraw to the Vistula River, abandoning most of East Prussia including Königsberg. He was immediately relieved of duty and replaced by Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg and his new Chief-of-Staff, Erich Ludendorf. Along with the staff at East Prussian Army Headquarters, they planned a counteroffensive against the Russians. By August 27 they had already laid the plans and fallen on Samsonov's weak Army, taking it in both flanks in a near perfect double envelopment. The Battle of Tannenberg ended by August 30 when Samsonov's entire command disintegrated at a cost of 92,000 captured and tens of thousands of other casualties. Within a week, German forces under General August Mackensen defeated Rennenkampf at the Battle of Masurian Lakes, where the Russians lost another 100,000 casualties. Inadequate logistic support hampered Russian movement and supply. Now, against an industrialized opponent, these shortcomings quickly assumed catastrophic proportions.

In the south of Poland, Austrian Chief-of-Staff Conrad von Hoetzendorf launched his own attack northward toward Warsaw. The Russians however, had concentrated four fully supplied armies opposite the 39 Divisions of Austrian troops, and on August 30 they opened their offensive By the third week in September, Hoetzendorf ordered a general retreat. and the province of Galicia was abandoned by the Austrians at a cost of over 130,000 casualties. Contrary to our popular concepts of the nature of the WWI eastern front, the russians were not uniformly defeated alo9ng the entire front.... The year ended with limited attacks toward Warsaw by Mackensen and Russian probing assaults into the Carpathian passes.

Already, disaffection between the two major central powers was occurring. The increasing alienation between the Austrian and German high commands caused some German officers to cynically state "we are shackled to a corpse."


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## parsifal (Sep 4, 2014)

If you just want to have a quick glance at the situation maps for the east Front, thgis is rather cool

First World War.com - Battlefield Maps: Eastern Front


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## parsifal (Sep 7, 2014)

*Operations Of the East Asian Naval Squadron August-September 1914*

In the start of August 1914 Germany had only one squadron overseas, the East Asia Squadron based at Tsingtao under the command of Vice-Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee. The squadron consisted of the armoured cruisers SMS Scharnhorst (flag) and Gneisenau and the light cruisers Emden, Leipzig and Nürnberg. The only other German cruisers outside Europe at that time were the Königsberg in East Africa and the Dresden and Karlsruhe in the Caribbean. All these ships were modern with officers hand picked by Tirpitz himself and hand picked crews, it was the best cruiser squadron in the German navy and possibly the world.

Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Nürnberg sailed for the German base at Pagan, arriving on August 11 to find several German merchant ships there. Emden arrived a day later. The German captains held a conference to decide tactics. Karl von Muller of the Emden asked that his ship be sent to the Indian Ocean as a lone raider, the other cruisers remaining together.

On August 13 they left Pagan and the following morning Emden and her collier Markomannia left for the Indian Ocean.
August 19 they coaled at Eniwetok, several of the supply ships being detached to buy more supplies. Nürnberg was sent to Hawaii to send messages and arrange supplies.

On September 6 the squadron arrived at Christmas Island to find that Nürnberg had already arrived. The following day Nürnberg destroyed the wireless station at Fanning Island.

Scharnhorst and Gneisenau raided the harbour at Western Samoa a week later but found no targets. They then raided Papeete on Tahiti, the French Fort there opened fire but was quickly silenced as well as sinking the gunboat Zelee and the merchant ship Walkure. The French set fire to the islands coal supplies to prevent their capture.


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## parsifal (Sep 7, 2014)

[Duplicate - see below]


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## parsifal (Sep 7, 2014)

Emden meanwhile was detached for operations in the Indian Ocean. She quickly made her presence felt. Emden was a cruiser that, at the start of the First World War, formed part of the German East Asiatic Squadron. She was detached to stalk the shipping routes across the Indian Ocean and quickly became the scourge of the Allied navies. Between August and October 1914, Emden captured or sank 21 vessels. 
Specifications:




Class: Dresden Class light cruiser 
Launched: 26 May 1908 
Commissioned: 10 July 1909 
Complement: 361 
Length: 388 feet [118.3m] 
Beam: 43.33 feet [13.5m] 
Draught: 17.75 feet [5.54m] 
Displacement: 3664 tons 
Speed: 24 knots 
Armament: 10 x 10.5 cm guns
8 x 5.2 cm guns
2 x 45 cm torpedo tubes

Armour: 2 inch [5 cm] deck 


On 14 August, Emden and Markomannia left the company of the East Asia Squadron, bound for the Indian Ocean. Since the cruiser Königsberg was already operating in the western Indian Ocean around the Gulf of Aden, Müller decided he should cruise in the shipping lanes between Singapore, Colombo, and Aden. Emden steamed toward the Indian Ocean by way of the Molucca and Banda Seas. While seeking to coal off Jampea Island, the Dutch coastal defense ship Tromp stopped Emden and made clear that she would enforce Dutch neutrality. Müller therefore decided to steam into the Lombok Strait. There, Emden's radio-intercept officers picked up messages from the British armored cruiser HMS Hampshire. To maintain secrecy, Emden's crew rigged up a dummy funnel to give her the appearance of a British light cruiser. She then steamed up the coast of Sumatra toward the Indian Ocean.

On 5 September, Emden entered the Bay of Bengal, achieving complete surprise, since the British assumed she was still with Spee's squadron. She operated on shipping routes there without success, until 10 September, when she moved to the Colombo–Calcutta route. There, she captured the Greek collier Pontoporros, which was carrying equipment for the British. Müller took the ship into his service and agreed to pay the crew. Emden captured five more ships; four were sunk, and the fifth, a steamer named Kabinga, was used to carry the crews from the other vessels. On 13 September, Müller released Kabinga and sank two more British prizes. Off the Ganges estuary, Emden caught a Norwegian merchantman; upon searching her, the Germans determined she was not carrying contraband and therefore released her. The Norwegians informed Müller that Entente warships were operating in the area, and so he decided to return to the eastern coast of India.

Emden thereafter stopped and released an Italian freighter, whose crew relayed news of the incident to a British vessel, which in turn informed British naval authorities in the region. The result was an immediate cessation of shipping and the institution of a blackout. Vice Admiral Martyn Jerram ordered Hampshire, Yarmouth, and the Japanese protected cruiser Chikuma to search for Emden. The British armored cruiser Minotaur and the Japanese armored cruiser Ibuki were sent to patrol likely coaling stations.


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## parsifal (Sep 8, 2014)

*Naval operations in the Adriatic August and September 1914
*
On 6 August 1914, an Anglo-French naval agreement was signed, giving France the leadership of naval operations in the Mediterranean. The remaining British Mediterranean forces, one armored cruiser, four light cruisers, and 16 destroyers were placed under the control of the French Mediterranean Fleet and both Gibraltar and Malta would be open as bases to the French.

One day after the French declaration of war against Austria-Hungary on 11 August, the French fleet—under Admiral Augustin Boué de Lapeyrère—entered Malta. He had orders to sail with all available French and British ships, pass into the Adriatic Sea and undertake whatever operation he thought best against an Austrian port. Lapeyrère decided to surprise the Austrian vessels enforcing a blockade of Montenegro. The main Allied force comprised the French battleships Courbet, Jean Bart, and the cruiser Jurien de la Gravière. Two French squadrons of pre-dreadnoughts, two squadrons of cruisers, and five destroyer squadrons were held back in support. The British support group comprised two armored cruisers and three destroyer divisions. The Anglo-French force succeeded in cutting off and sinking the old Austro-Hungarian light cruiser SMS Zenta off Bar on 16 August in Battle of Antivari.

Throughout most of late August most of the action was simple bombardment of Serbian and Montenegrin troops by Austrian ships. On 9 August, the pre-dreadnought SMS Monarch shelled the French radio station at Budva, while the destroyer SMS Panther shelled Mount Lovcen. On 17 August, Monarch shelled a Montenegrin radio station off Bar, then another station off Volovica Point on 19 August. Meanwhile, a French squadron shelled Austrian troops on Prevlaka.

The French and Montenegrin forces attempted to cause havoc also at Cattaro in September, October and November 1914, and the KuK navy was called in there also, resulting in a decisive defeat for the Allies.

Both the French and the Austrians spent much of this time laying extensive minefields throughout the shallow waters of the Adriatic. Mostly this was done by destroyers, and at night. Several steamships ran afoul of these mines and either sunk or were damaged. 

*Voyage Of the Goeben*

The pursuit of Goeben and Breslau was a naval action that occurred in the Mediterranean Sea at the outbreak of the First World War when elements of the British Mediterranean Fleet attempted to intercept the German Mittelmeerdivision consisting of the battlecruiser SMS Goeben and the light cruiser SMS Breslau. The Goeben was ordered by its German captain to attack Russian positions, in doing so bringing the Ottoman Empire into the war on the side of the Central Powers.

Though a bloodless "battle", the failure of the British pursuit had enormous political and military ramifications. In the short term it effectively ended the careers of the two British Admirals who had been in charge of the pursuit. Writing several years later, Winston Churchill - who had been First Lord of the Admiralty - expressed the opinion that by forcing Turkey into the war the Goeben had brought "more slaughter, more misery, and more ruin than has ever before been borne within the compass of a ship." certainly the operations of the goeben and breslau played a significant part in bringing turkey into the war on the German side. 

Without specific orders, just prior to the the outbreak of hostilities, Souchon (the german squadron commander) had decided to position his ships off the coast of Africa, ready to engage when hostilities commenced. He planned to bombard the embarkation ports of Bône and Philippeville in French Algeria. Goeben was heading for Philippeville, while Breslau was detached to deal with Bône. At 18:00 on 3 August, while still sailing west, he received word that Germany had declared war on France. Then, early on 4 August, Souchon received orders from Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz reading: "Alliance with government of CUP concluded August 3. Proceed at once to Constantinople." So close to his targets, Souchon pushed on and his ships, flying the Russian flag as he approached, carried out their bombardment at dawn before breaking off and heading back to Messina for more coal.

Under a pre-war agreement with Britain, France was able to concentrate her entire fleet in the Mediterranean, leaving the Royal Navy to ensure the security of France′s Atlantic coast. Three squadrons of the French fleet were covering the transports. However, assuming that Goeben would continue west to Gibraltar, the French commander, Admiral de Lapeyrère, sent the "groupe A" of his fleet to the west in order to make contact, but Souchon was heading to the east and so able to slip away.

In Souchon′s path were the two British battlecruisers, Indomitable and Indefatigable, which made contact at 09:30 on 4 August, passing the German ships in the opposite direction. Unlike France, Britain was not yet at war with Germany (the declaration would not be made until later that day, following the start of the German invasion of neutral Belgium), and so the British ships commenced shadowing Goeben and Breslau. Milne reported the contact and position, but neglected to inform the Admiralty that the German ships were heading east. Churchill therefore still expected them to threaten the French transports, and he authorized Milne to engage the German ships if they attacked. However, a meeting of the British Cabinet decided that hostilities could not start before a declaration of war, and at 14:00 Churchill was obliged to cancel his authorization to attack.

(see next post)


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## parsifal (Sep 8, 2014)

*The Goeben, evasion and escape*

The rated speed of Goeben was 27 kn (31 mph; 50 km/h), but her damaged boilers meant she could only manage 24 kn (28 mph; 44 km/h), and this was only achieved by working men and machinery to the limit; four stokers were killed by scalding steam. Fortunately for Souchon, both British battlecruisers were also suffering from problems with their boilers and were unable to keep Goeben′s pace. The light cruiser HMS Dublin maintained contact, while Indomitable and Indefatigable fell behind. In fog and fading light, Dublin lost contact off Cape San Vito on the north coast of Sicily at 19:37. Goeben and Breslau returned to Messina the following morning, by which time Britain and Germany were at war.

The Admiralty ordered Milne to respect Italian neutrality and stay outside a 6 mi (5.2 nmi; 9.7 km) limit from the Italian coast—which precluded entrance into the passage of the Straits of Messina. Consequently, Milne posted guards on the exits from the Straits. Still expecting Souchon to head for the transports and the Atlantic, he placed two battlecruisers—Inflexible and Indefatigable—to cover the northern exit (which gave access to the western Mediterranean), while the southern exit of the Straits was covered by a single light cruiser, HMS Gloucester. Milne sent Indomitable west to coal at Bizerte, instead of south to Malta.....a fateful error. 

For Souchon, Messina was no haven. The Italian authorities insisted that he depart within 24 hours and delayed supplying coal. Provisioning his ships required ripping up the decks of German merchant steamers in harbour and manually shovelling their coal into his bunkers. By the evening of 6 August, despite the help of 400 volunteers from the merchantmen, he had only taken on 1,500 short tons (1,400 t) which was insufficient to reach Constantinople. Further messages from Tirpitz made his predicament even more dire. He was informed that Austria would provide no naval aid in the Mediterranean and that the Ottoman Empire was still neutral and therefore he should no longer make for Constantinople. Faced with the alternative of seeking refuge at Pola, and probably remaining trapped for the rest of the war, Souchon chose to head for Constantinople anyway, his purpose being "to force the Ottoman Empire, even against their will, to spread the war to the Black Sea against their ancient enemy, Russia."

Milne was instructed on 5 August to continue watching the Adriatic for signs of the Austrian fleet and to prevent the German ships joining them. He chose to keep his battlecruisers in the west, dispatching Dublin to join Troubridge′s cruiser squadron in the Adriatic, which he believed would be able to intercept Goeben and Breslau. Troubridge was instructed 'not to get seriously engaged with superior forces', once again intended as a warning against engaging the Austrian fleet. When Goeben and Breslau emerged into the eastern Mediterranean on 6 August, they were met by Gloucester, which, being outgunned, began to shadow the German ships.

Troubridge′s squadron consisted of the armoured cruisers HMS Defence, Black Prince, Warrior, Duke of Edinburgh and eight destroyers armed with torpedoes. The cruisers had 9.2 in (230 mm) guns versus the 11 in (280 mm) guns of Goeben and had armour a maximum of 6 in (15 cm) thick compared to the battlecruiser′s 11 in (28 cm) armour belt. This meant that Troubridge′s squadron was not only outranged and vulnerable to Goeben′s powerful guns, but it was unlikely that his cruiser′s guns could seriously damage the German ship at all, even at short range. In addition, the British ships were several knots slower than Goeben, despite her damaged boilers, meaning that she could dictate the range of the battle if she spotted the British squadron in advance. Consequently, Troubridge considered his only chance was to locate and engage Goeben in favourable light, at dawn, with Goeben east of his ships, and ideally launch a torpedo attack with his destroyers; however, at least five of the destroyers did not have enough coal to keep up with the cruisers steaming at full speed. By 04:00 on 7 August, Troubridge realised he would not be able to intercept the German ships before daylight and after some deliberation he signalled Milne with his intentions to break off the chase, mindful of Churchill′s ambiguous order to avoid engaging a "superior force". No reply was received until 10:00, by which time he had withdrawn to Zante to refuel.

Milne ordered Gloucester to disengage, still expecting Souchon to turn west, but it was apparent to Gloucester′s captain that Goeben was fleeing. Breslau attempted to harass Gloucester into breaking off—Souchon had a collier waiting off the coast of Greece and needed to shake his pursuer before he could rendezvous. Gloucester finally engaged Breslau, hoping this would compel Goeben to drop back and protect the light cruiser. According to Souchon, Breslau was hit, but no damage was done. The action then broke off without further hits being scored. Finally, Milne ordered Gloucester to cease pursuit at Cape Matapan.

Shortly after midnight on 8 August Milne took his three battlecruisers and the light cruiser HMS Weymouth east. At 14:00 he received an incorrect signal from the Admiralty stating that Britain was at war with Austria; war would not be declared until 12 August and the order was countermanded four hours later, but Milne chose to guard the Adriatic rather than seek Goeben. Finally, on 9 August, Milne was given clear orders to "chase Goeben which had passed Cape Matapan on the 7th steering north-east." Milne still did not believe that Souchon was heading for the Dardanelles, and so he resolved to guard the exit from the Aegean, unaware that Goeben did not intend to come out.

Souchon had replenished his coal off the Aegean island of Donoussa on 9 August, and the German warships resumed their voyage to Constantinople. At 17:00 on 10 August, he reached the Dardanelles and awaited permission to pass through. Germany had for some time been courting the Committee of Union and Progress of the imperial government, and it now used its influence to pressure the Turkish Minister of War, Enver Pasha, into granting the ship′s passage, an act that would outrage Russia, which relied on the Dardanelles as its main all-season shipping route. In addition, the Germans managed to persuade Enver to order any pursuing British ships to be fired on. By the time Souchon received permission to enter the straits, his lookouts could see smoke on the horizon from approaching British ships.

Turkey was still a neutral country bound by treaty to prevent German ships from passing the straits. To get around this difficulty it was agreed that the ships should become part of the Turkish navy. On 16 August, having reached Constantinople, Goeben and Breslau were transferred to the Turkish Navy in a small ceremony, becoming respectively the Yavuz Sultan Selim and the Midilli, though they retained their German crews with Souchon still in command. The initial reaction in Britain was one of satisfaction, that a threat had been removed from the Mediterranean. On 23 September, Souchon was appointed commander-in-chief of the Ottoman Navy.


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## parsifal (Sep 8, 2014)

In August, Germany—still expecting a swift victory—was content for the Ottoman Empire to remain neutral. The mere presence of a powerful warship like Goeben in the Sea of Marmara would be enough to occupy a British naval squadron guarding the Dardanelles. However, following German reverses at the First Battle of the Marne in September, and with Russian successes against Austria-Hungary, Germany began to regard the Ottoman Empire as a useful ally. Tensions began to escalate when the Ottoman Empire closed the Dardanelles to all shipping on 27 September, blocking Russia's exit from the Black Sea—the Black Sea route accounted for over 90% of Russia's import and export traffic.

Germany′s gift of the two modern warships had an enormous positive impact on the Turkish population. At the outbreak of the war, Churchill had caused outrage when he "requisitioned" two almost completed Turkish battleships in British shipyards, the Sultan Osman I and the Reshadieh, which had been financed by public subscription at a cost of £6,000,000. Turkey was offered compensation of £1,000 per day for so long as the war might last, provided she remained neutral. (These ships were commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Agincourt and HMS Erin respectively.) The Turks had been neutral, though the navy had been pro-British (having purchased 40 warships from British shipyards) while the army was in favour of Germany, so the two incidents helped resolve the deadlock and the Ottoman Empire would join the Central Powers.

Continued diplomacy from France and Russia attempted to keep the Ottoman Empire out of the war, but Germany was agitating for a commitment. In the aftermath of Souchon′s daring dash to Constantinople, on 15 August 1914 the Ottomans canceled their maritime agreement with Britain and the Royal Navy mission under Admiral Limpus left by 15 September. Turkey was sliding inexorably to the Central powers, and the Goebens presence was to play an enormous tactical impact on that outcome.Britain had badly miscalculated in not trying harder to prevent their escape, and the unilateral appropriation of turkish ships was a first order mistake in foreign relations.


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## parsifal (Sep 8, 2014)

*U-Boat operations In the North Sea and Med August to September 1914*

1914: 


In August 1914, a flotilla of ten U-boats sailed from their base in Heligoland to attack Royal Navy warships in the North Sea in the first submarine war patrol in history. Their aim was to sink capital ships of the British Grand Fleet, and so reduce the Grand Fleet's numerical superiority over the German High Seas Fleet. The first sortie was not a success. Only one attack was carried out, when SM U-15 fired a torpedo (which missed) at HMS Monarch. Two of the ten U-boats were lost causes unkown.

Later in a the month, the U-boats achieved success, when U-21 sank the cruiser HMS Pathfinder. In September, SM U-9 sank three armored cruisers (Aboukir, Hogue, and Cressy) in a single action. Other successes followed. 

The initial phase of the U-boat campaign in the Mediterranean comprised the actions by the Austro-Hungarian Navy's U-boat force against the French, who were blockading the Straits of Otranto. At the start of hostilities the Austro-Hungarian Navy had seven U-boats in commission; 5 operational, 2 training; all were of the coastal type, with limited range and endurance, suitable for operation in the Adriatic. Nevertheless they had a number of successes later in the year. 


In 1914 the U-boat's chief advantage was to submerge; surface ships had no means to detect a submarine underwater, and no means to attack even if they could, while in the torpedo the U-boat had a weapon that could sink an armoured warship with one shot. Its disadvantages were less obvious, but became apparent during the campaign. While submerged the U-boat was virtually blind and immobile; boats of this era had limited underwater speed and endurance, so needed to be in position before an attack took place, while even on the surface their speed (around 15 knots) was less than the cruising speed of most warships and two thirds that of the most modern dreadnoughts.

The U-boats scored a number of impressive successes, and were able to drive the Grand Fleet from its base in search of a safe anchorage, but the German Navy was unable to erode the Grand Fleet's advantage as hoped. Also, in the two main surface actions of this period the U-boat was unable to have any effect; the High Seas Fleet was unable to draw the Grand Fleet into a U-boat trap. Whilst warships were travelling at speed and on an erratic zigzag course they were relatively safe, and for the remainder of the war the U-boats were unable to mount a successful attack on a warship travelling in this manner

There were no attacks by U-boats on merchant shipping in August and September.


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## parsifal (Sep 9, 2014)

*East Africa - preparations*

Germany was remarkably able to string outs its colonial occupation in East Africa (there was also a campaign in Southwest Africa....present day Namibia, far more short lived) right up to November 1918. The cause of the military resistance in East Africa and last for four violent years, was a virtually unknown German soldier, Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, who in 1914 was appointed the commanding officer of the Colonial Army of German East Africa (GEACA). His skilful planning and prosecution of the four years of highly effective guerilla war, with a paucity of supplies and men, has gone down in the history of war as the classic campaign of its kind. At the outbreak of war his resources were modest in the extreme; 260 Germans regular soldiers and settlers and 2,472 askaris, many newly recruited. Later the army grew in strength to around 10,000; less than a tenth of the forces that were eventually to be ranged against him. At the outset of the campaign, his army was organised into 14 companies of around 200 men. The operational companies were grouped together in threes and were expected to operate entirely independently. Initially the askaris were armed with obsolete German rifles (1871 model), but these were largely replaced by the up-to-date SMLE rifles that were captured from the British at Tanga, along with a vast amount of other munitions and supplies. However, each company was equipped with from two to four Maxim machine-guns. That meant in the early days they easily outgunned the British colonial forces in East Africa, who only had one machine-gun per company.

Portage was an important element in the mobility and effectiveness of the German colonial forces. Each Feldkompagnie (FK) and Schultzkompagnie (SchK) had an establishment of 250 African porters to carry its equipment. Having learnt from bitter experience that neither vehicles nor animals were suited to the terrain, the British eventually had 200,000 porters organised into a Carrier Corps.

For both of the fighting factions a lot of the terrain where the campaigning took place was infested with big and small game. No doubt some of the animal protein that was required to supplement the field rations of the soldiers came from this source; a large bull buffalo would make a lot of army beef stew! (Unfortunately, much of the game has disappeared over the last 30 years, so the visitor of today cannot expect to find much outside the areas set aside as national game-reserves or game-parks).

The British defence

If the GEACA was a modest defence force at the outbreak of war, the British were no better founded at the beginning. The entire East African standing army consisted of the 62 officers and 2,317 askaris of the 3rd and 4th Kenya Africa Rifles (KAR). These troops were to form the key force as the war progressed. Once war was declared, 3000 European volunteers were recruited and formed into reserve units as the East Africa Mounted Rifles (EAMR) and the East Africa Regiment (EAR). There was no artillery. About 1,500 Europeans and 2,300 Africans were available to take part on the British side in the early battles along the border.

The most strategically important asset in East Africa, apart from the British East African port of Mombassa and the German East African ports of Dar es Salaam and Tanga, was the Uganda Railway located in British East Africa. It ran over 600 miles from Mombassa to Kisumu (formerly Port Florence) on the western shore of Lake Victoria. The military objective of the KAR and the volunteer units was the protection of British assets along the common border (now the Tanzania/Kenya frontier) and, in particular, the Uganda railway. The most vulnerable point on the railway line was where it ran closest to the GEA border just north of Mount Kilimanjaro; at that time it was very sparsely inhabited and in the home range of the Masai tribes. The principal GEA railway, which ran from Dar es Salaam, via Morogoro, Dodoma and Tabora, to Kigoma on Lake Victoria, was, in the early stages of the war, far from the battle zone.

At sea, the Germans had the use of the raiding cruiser Konigsberg, which featured in several river battles until its demise midwar


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## Marcel (Sep 13, 2014)

Whow Parcifal, you completely took over this thread. Great info and very interesting


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## parsifal (Sep 14, 2014)

yeah, didnt mean for that, and my commitment to the WWII day by day thread really calls into question my ability to do this one justice.....


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## parsifal (Sep 14, 2014)

*14 September 1914*

HMAS ENCOUNTER, (cruiser), shelled German positions at Toma, New Britain. This was the first occasion a ship of the RAN had fired on an enemy.

HMA Submarine AE1, (LCDR T. F. Besant, RN), was lost with 2 officers and 32 ratings, while patrolling off the Duke of York Island. The cause of the submarine’s loss was never established.

HMAS WARREGO, (torpedo boat destroyer), captured the German steamer NUSA at Kavieng.

HMAMC Carmania sank off Brazil HIMAMC Cap Trafalgar, which had been fitted out by HIMS Eber, now at Bahia.

HIMS Karlsruhe sank British ss Highland Hope (5,150 tonnes) SW from St Paul Rocks.

Admiral Cradock ordered to concentrate a squadron strong enough to meet Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, with Falkland Islands as his base.

General von Falkenhayn German Acting Chief of Staff, vice General von Moltke, invalided.

General von Stein to command Prussian XIVth Reserve Corps; succeeded later as Quarter-Master General by General Wild von Hohenborn.

French Sixth Army carried Aisne line at Compiègne-Soissons, and advanced against plateau beyond. British dug in on slopes, except First Corps on right under Sir D Haig, which advanced to Troyon – Cour-de-Soupir, facing Chemin-des-Dames. French Fifth Army attacked Craonne Plateau. Germans clinging to Berry-au-bac. French Ninth and Fourth Armies advanced; latter took Souain. Crown Prince's Army in retreat; headquarters removed from St Ménéhould to Montfaucon. Châlons-Verdun line clear.

British 6th Division now concentrated S of Marne; proceeding to Aisne front.

General Rennenkampf extricated bulk of his Niemen Army from Hindenburg's grip with loss of 45,000 prisoners and 150 guns.

Russains holding Drohobyez oil-fields (Galacia); River San forced behind retreating Austrians.

Serbo-Montenegrins at Vishegrad.

HIMS Emden sank British ss Traboch and Clan Matheson off Mouth of Hooghli.

Admiral Spee appeared off Samoa.


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## parsifal (Sep 15, 2014)

*15 September 1914 *

Battle of the Aisne 1914 ends 
The First Battle of the Aisne, between 12-15th September 1914, was essentially a follow-up to the Battle of the Marne (8-10th September) in which the German advance on Paris had been checked and then turned back. The battle is significant as it was the watershed between the war of movement and the beginnning of trench warfare. Acting in conjunction with the French Fifth army on its right, and the Sixth Army on its left, and under the orders of the French C-in-C Gen. Joffre, the BEF advanced on the 12th, gaining the heights south of the River Aisne, and on the left south of Venizel reached a bridge over the river itself, which was captured that night in heavy fighting. To the left of the BEF, the French had also reached the Aisne between Compeigne and Soissons, while on the right the French had reached the River Vesle between Beaumont and Fismes. By the night of the 12/13th the gap between Von Kluck's First and Von Bulow's second Armies had widened to 18 miles, making it difficult for the Germans to man a defensive line along the Aisne. On 13th September the BEF crossed the Aisne, despite heavy opposition from the Germans who had brought up reserves to strengthen their line. On the 14th, hampered by a heavy mist, the BEF made little progress in their advance; fighting was intense and losses heavy, with every battalion but one of the BEF engaged. On the 15th, the final day of the battle, GHQ ordered the BEF to entrench the positions they had reached. Determined German counter-attacks were all repulsed. 

Battle of the Masurian Lakes ends .

The second major Russian defeat of the First World War. After the defeat of the Russian Second Army at Tannenburg, the Germans were free to turn on the First Army, under Rennenkampf. However, unlike at Tannenburg, the Germans, despite now outnumbering the Russians, were unable to encircle them in the broken terrain of the Masurian Lake lands, and Rennenkampf was able to extract his army intact, and even launch his own counterattack (on 25 September) which regained much of the land lost during the battle. However, the result of the two Russian defeats was to remove any threat to East Prussia

Czernowitz (Bukovina) taken by russian forces 
The city was occupied temporarily by Russian forces, before being retaken by the Austrians on October 22nd.

Rebellion in South Africa begins 

On 15 September 1914, de la Rey and Beyers left Pretoria for the military camp at Potchefstroom, Western Transvaal to have discussions with Kemp and other senior army officers. However, de la Rey was killed by a police patrol bullet when their car failed to stop at a police roadblock. de la Rey’s death heightened emotions around the SWA campaign, especially as it was suspected that he had been killed deliberately.


Cruiser Encounter participated in the bombardment of rabaul prior to its capture


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## parsifal (Sep 15, 2014)

*16 September 1914*

The Aisne: General Joffre abandons frontal attacks and forms plan to turn the German right (part of the "Race to the Sea").

Germans enter Valenciennes.

Eastern Front

Galicia: Russians advance towards Przemsyl.


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## parsifal (Sep 17, 2014)

*17th September 1914*

◾German New Guinea and surrounding Colonies capitulate to Australian Expeditionary Force 

Battle of Bita Paka, 1914

The Battle of Bita Paka was a battle on 11 September 1914, to capture the wireless station at Bita Paka. A mixed force of German officers and Melanesian police mounted a stout resistance and forced the Australians to fight their way to the objective. After a day of fighting during which both sides suffered casualties, Australian forces captured the wireless station.

Siege of Toma

The Siege of Toma was a siege between 14–17 September 1914 after troops of the ANMEF surrounded Toma, preceding to bombard it with a 12 pound field piece, which caused the Germans to negotiate a surrender.

Madang was captured without opposition in November 1914.

Aftermath

Lieutenant Hermann Detzner, a German officer, and some 20 native police evaded capture in the interior of New Guinea for the entire war. After the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, Germany lost all its colonial possessions, including German New Guinea, which became the Territory of New Guinea, a League of Nations Mandate Territory under Australian administration.

◾Serbian forces in Syrmia withdrawn. Semlin evacuated 

I don't have further information on this event

◾Battle of the Drina ends (see 8th) [This is approximately the date on which the main force of the Austrian offensive had spent itself. But there was no definite end to this battle, which subsided into continuous sharp local actions for the heights south of the Drina. These did not terminate until the Serbian retreat in the first days of November.

After being defeated in the Battle of Cer in August 1914, the Austro-Hungarian army retreated over the Drina river back into Bosnia and Syrmia. Under pressure from its allies, Serbia conducted a limited offensive across the Sava river into the Austro-Hungarian region of Syrmia. Meanwhile, the Timok First Division of the Serbian Second Army suffered a heavy defeat in a diversionary crossing, suffering around 6,000 casualties while inflicting only 2,000.

With most of his forces in Bosnia, general Oskar Potiorek decided that the best way to stop the Serbian offensive was to launch another invasion into Serbia to force the Serbs to recall their troops to defend their much smaller homeland.

September 7 brought a renewed Austro-Hungarian attack from the west, across the river Drina, this time with both the Fifth Army in Mačva and the Sixth Army further south. The initial attack by the Fifth Army was repelled by the Serbian Second Army, with 4,000 Austro-Hungarian casualties, but the stronger Sixth Army managed to surprise the Serbian Third Army and gained a foothold into Serbian territory. After some units from the Serbian Second Army were sent to bolster the Third, the Austro-Hungarian Fifth Army also managed to establish a bridgehead with a renewed attack. At that time, Field Marshal Radomir Putnik withdrew the First Army from Syrmia (against much popular opposition) and used it to deliver a fierce counterattack against the Sixth Army that initially went well, but finally bogged down in a bloody four-day fight for a peak of the Jagodnja mountain called Mackov Kamen, in which both sides suffered horrendous losses in successive frontal attacks and counterattacks. Two Serbian divisions lost around 11,000 men, while Austro-Hungarian losses were comparable.

Field Marshal Putnik ordered a retreat into the surrounding hills and the front settled in a month and a half of trench warfare, which was highly unfavourable to the Serbs, who possessed heavy artillery that was largely obsolete, had short ammunition stocks, limited shell production (having only a single factory producing around 100 shells a day) and also a lack of proper footwear, since the vast majority of infantry wore the traditional (though state-issued) opanaks, while the Austro-Hungarians had soak-proof leather boots. Most of the war material was supplied by the Allies, who were short themselves. In such a situation, Serbian artillery quickly became almost silent, while the Austro-Hungarians steadily increased their fire. Serbian daily casualties reached 100 soldiers from all causes in some divisions.

During the first weeks of trench warfare, the Serbian Užice Army (one strengthened division) and the Montenegrin Sanjak Army (roughly a division) conducted an abortive offensive into Bosnia. In addition, both sides conducted a few local attacks, most of which were soundly defeated.

◾British Naval Mission leaves Turkey.


◾Admiral Souchon (Imperial German navy) assumes control of Turkish navy.


Australian Fleet Entering Simpson Harbour


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## parsifal (Sep 18, 2014)

*18 September 1914*

General von Hindenburg appointed Commander-in-Chief of German Armies in Eastern Theatre 

The war in the east began with the Russian invasion of East Prussia on 17 August 1914 and the Austro-Hungarian province of Galicia. The first effort quickly turned to a defeat following the Battle of Tannenberg in August 1914. A second Russian incursion into Galicia was completely successful, with the Russians controlling almost all of that region by the end of 1914, routing four Austrian armies in the process. Under the command of Nikolai Ivanov and Aleksei Brusilov, the Russians won the Battle of Galicia in September and began the Siege of Przemyśl, the next fortress on the road towards Kraków. On this day, 18th September, Artillery of Austro-Hungarian fortress Przemyśl fired on Russian cavalry conducting reconnaissance Eastern Front.

This early Russian success in 1914 on the Austro-Russian border was a reason for concern to the Central Powers and caused considerable German forces to be transferred to the East to take pressure off the Austrians, leading to the creation of the new German Ninth Army. At the end of 1914, the main focus of the fighting shifted to central part of Russian Poland, west of the river Vistula. The October Battle of the Vistula River and the November Battle of Łódź brought little advancement for the Germans, but at least kept the Russians at a safe distance.

The Russian and Austro-Hungarian armies continued to clash in and near the Carpathian Mountains throughout the winter of 1914–1915. Przemysl fortress managed to hold out deep behind enemy lines throughout this period, with the Russians bypassing it in order to attack the Austro-Hungarian troops further to the west. They made some progress, crossing the Carpathians in February and March 1915, but then the Germans sent relief and stopped further Russian advance. In the meantime, Przemysl was almost entirely destroyed and the Siege of Przemysl ended in a defeat for the Austrians


Government of Ireland Act 1914

With the outbreak of war with Germany in August 1914, Asquith decided to abandon his Amending Bill, and instead rushed through a new bill the Suspensory Act 1914 which was presented for Royal Assent simultaneously with both the Government of Ireland Act 1914 and the Welsh Church Act 1914; although the two controversial Bills had now finally reached the statute books on 18 September 1914, the Suspensory Act ensured that Home Rule would be postponed for the duration of the conflict and would not come into operation until the end of the war. The Ulster question was 'solved' in the same way: through the promise of amending legislation which was left undefined.

AIF continues formation

1st brigade of the AIF, consisting of 1st to 4th bns issued kit and declared ready for shipment overseas. Declaration is highly premature.

There are also 7 Light Horse regiments undergoing training at this time

The Samoan Operation – Taking the Kaiser’s Colony

(Based on an article by Lcdr Desmond woods RAN and appearing in the Australian Navy Historical Forum Site)

In the event of war the New Zealand Government had volunteered to occupy German Samoa and take over the WT station in Apia. It was now asked to do so by both Churchill and the Secretary of State for War, Kitchener. Seizing Samoa was deemed to be: “a great and urgent Imperial Service.”

On receiving Admiralty orders Patey assembled at Noumea an escort consisting of his flagship and cruisers, including the French cruiser Montcalm. He believed the threat to the New Zealand troop convoy from von Spee was real and he reasoned that if the German squadron was heading for Samoa, to defend the Kaiser’s colony, he could be brought to battle there. On the basis of the knowledge then available it is hard to fault the proposition that the Samoan expedition was the best chance of achieving a favourable encounter with the German ships. It was a reasonable and prudent assumption and only a few weeks premature. Von Spee would head to Samoa in early September once he learned that it had been seized.

On route to Samoa Patey learnt that the Japanese had entered the war and he was more than ever convinced that von Spee had no choice but to head for South America where re supply was guaranteed in nominally neutral, but de facto pro German, Chile. Patey reasoned that Von Spee’s way into the Indian Ocean was blocked by Jerram’s fleet and he would have no chance of getting coal supplies there. It would be a logistical trap from which his fuel-hungry coal fired heavy cruisers could not escape.

The German Governor of Samoa refused to formally surrender but wisely offered no resistance to the New Zealand force of 1500 volunteers who landed on 29 August 1914. Had Patey been permitted to stay at Apia, as he wished, to await von Spee, battle would have been almost inevitable. But the Admiralty which was not keeping up with the Melbourne signal intelligence believed, without evidence, that von Spee was: “probably somewhere off northern China.” They optimistically stated that his squadron was: “being covered by Jerram.” The scale of the Pacific was apparently unfamiliar to the Admiralty who appeared to be applying European frames of reference to the immensely greater distances of the Far East and Pacific.

Once the Samoan expedition had succeeded the Admiralty reinstated the delayed expedition to be mounted to capture the Bita Paka WT station near Rabaul and to occupy German New Guinea. When first asked his opinion of the New Guinea operation Patey told the Australian Naval Board that: wireless stations “will have to wait for now.” After the war Patey, wrote that his intention in going to Samoa was not only to cover the troop convoy but in the hope that:

“I might have the opportunity of bringing Admiral von Spee to action, as I felt sure he would be in the vicinity, and I thought that once I had got so far east I might be left to free to deal with the German Squadron in my own way.”

This was overly optimistic. The WT revolution combined with older cable links meant that Patey, like all other flag officers at sea, could receive orders from Whitehall in a maximum of 48 hours and became merely the executor of Admiralty orders. The era of independent command was over. The Admiralty became the de facto operational commander and the Australian Naval Board concurred in the decisions made in Whitehall. Unfortunately during the early years of the Admiralty War Room’s operations its limited staff discovered that it was much easier to assume command of world-wide naval operations than to actually try and conduct such operations from afar.

The German Squadron ‘raids’ Apia in Samoa

Von Spee, having heard of New Zealand’s seizure of German Samoa, diverted from his easterly course, left his fleet train and sailed his warships south to the occupied colony. He arrived on 14 September hoping to surprise Patey. But Patey had left Apia on 31 August and Australia and the RAN cruisers were back in Rabaul harbour supporting the operation to take the Bita Paka WT station. Had Patey’s wish to remain at Apia been granted by the Admiralty the decisive battle to destroy Von Spees squadron would almost certainly have taken place at samoa, not the Falklands.

Certainly von Spee and his men were keen to fight the Australians. They cleared for action before dawn and entered Apia Harbour to mount a surprise attack on whatever might be there. They hoped to find an anchored battle cruiser. Instead, like Patey at Rabaul in August, they found the harbour frustratingly empty. Captain Pochhamer, the First Officer of the Gneisenau makes much of the general disappointment in the squadron that Australia was gone when the Germans arrived. However he also wrote more realistically that Australia’s 12 inch guns: “inspired a certain respect.”

If HMAS Australia had been at Apia, and had the Germans achieved surprise at close range with their excellent gunnery an Australian victory is not certain. However the probability is that the duty patrolling cruiser and the New Zealand lookouts at the WT station would have provided Patey with the warning he needed to weigh anchor and proceed into battle at an advantageous range of his choosing.

Under these circumstances the likelihood is that von Spee would have lost ships. Even if he had escaped destruction his ammunition supply for his main armament would have been too diminished to allow him to engage in battle again. His chance of getting back to his fleet train would have been low. In practice any encounter with the RAN off Samoa would have stopped von Spee’s progress across the Pacific. Once in Apia harbour Von Spee sensibly made no attempt to re-take the German colony or to shell its WT station now being operated by New Zealand signallers. He knew his gunners were going to need every one of their irreplaceable shells when battle was eventually joined.


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## parsifal (Sep 18, 2014)

*19 September 1914*

Progress of the Emden

On 19 September the Admiralty learned that Emden was sinking British ships in the Indian Ocean as and when she met them and sending their crews to India with accounts of their humane treatment. Battenberg up to this point had made his priority finding the German East Asia Squadron and bringing it to battle. But Churchill’s focus had already shifted to getting Australian and New Zealand troops to the Western Front. The Admiralty’s attention, and that of the British cabinet and Australian and New Zealand Governments, shifted to the pursuit of von Müller which imperilled this strategic objective. The urgent priority was now to assemble a powerful escort to get the NZEF and AIF Divisions from Wellington to Albany in Western Australia, and then to Egypt and potentially into the trenches in France to reinforce the British Expeditionary Force.

Understandably, the Australian and New Zealand Governments had no intention of sailing their troops across an ocean known to contain a daring German raider without a powerful covering force to guard them from a potentially catastrophic attack. Churchill overrode Battenberg’s objections to this shift of priority away from von Spee to von Müller. The First Sea Lord was forced to concur in Churchill’s view that getting the troops to the Mediterranean was: ‘so important that nothing except the certain prospect of fighting enemy ships should delay it’ Jerram’s flagship Minotaur was sent to Wellington to escort the New Zealand troop transports across the Tasman and the Great Australian Bight to Albany. Patey was stripped of Sydney and Melbourne which with Minotaur and Ibuki made up the powerful convoy escort which finally sailed on 1 November after being delayed since mid September by Emden’s depredations in the Indian Ocean. Australia was also briefly ordered to escort the troop convoy, and proceeded south on 15 September only for the orders to be cancelled two days later.

Once again the Admiralty’s indecision wasted four more days of Patey’s movements. When news of the disaster at Coronel reached Fisher in London he detached Minotaur, from the convoy and sent her to Capetown at her best speed. Fisher reasoned that it was not impossible that von Spee might cross the South Atlantic and appear off German South West Africa and seek refuge in the deep water harbour at Walvis Bay. From there he could attack the multitude of British ships using the Cape route.


Von Spee after Samoa

While von Muller was attracting a massive hunt in the Indian Ocean his Admiral was solving unprecedented logistical difficulties in getting to South America. Coal consumption was the over-riding concern and dictated a slow speed. Fresh food and water were also limited, and the German warships were not designed for steaming over such long distances.

After being frustrated at Samoa von Spee visited Bora Bora in the Society Islands. He flew no flags, and greeted the French Chief of Police in English. French colonists resupplied him with pigs and fruit and bread before an observant and literate native in a canoe pointed out the word Scharnhorst painted over on his stern. France apparently did not send her more observant police to the central Pacific. Von Spee paid the French thanked them for their help and sailed on to Tahiti intending to seize the coal stocks he needed. A junior French naval officer, who knew from Samoa’s WT warning that von Spee was coming, set fire to the island’s coal supplies. Von Spee sank his French gunboat, silenced the boat’s disembarked battery that bravely fired on him, bombarded Papeete and burned the market before sailing away without coal and frustrated.

A ‘Ruse of War’ and its consequences

Knowing he was being observed, von Spee sailed northwest over the horizon from Tahiti before resuming his easterly course. This elementary mariner’s ruse of war was later reported to the Admiralty who fell for it and concluded, without corroborating evidence, that von Spee was heading back into the north Pacific. As a result of this deception Cradock in his old ships at the Falklands would wait in vain for the armoured cruiser HMS Defence which he believed to have been sent to reinforce him from the Mediterranean. Defence was not coming to his aid because it was now believed in the Admiralty that von Spee was not heading for Cape Horn and the South Atlantic. The Admiralty did not inform Cradock of this change of plan or the assumption on which it was based.

By October, on Admiralty orders, Patey in HMAS Australia was back at Fiji conducting pointless patrols, searching for the supposed return of the German East Asia Squadron to the western Pacific. Meanwhile through October von Spee made his slow progress via Easter Island – where he was willingly re-supplied from a British cattle farm manager who had not heard that a war had started – and on to Juan Fernandez. There he fuelled from colliers escorted to him from San Francisco by the light cruiser Leipzig. From there it was a short voyage to the ports of Chile and the snow capped Andes. But before his welcome in Valpariso would come his victory at Coronel.

While this laborious trans-Pacific progress was occurring, Patey continued to patrol off Fiji, and it would not be until 8 November, a week after Coronel had been fought and lost, and Fisher was back at the helm, that the Admiralty ordered Australia to sail to South America. For nearly two months Patey had been in a state of impotence described by Arthur Jose, the Official Australian War historian, as being: “like a dog tethered to his kennel.”

Hindsight is a wonderful asset and it is easy to be wise about what should have been done with its assistance. But two contemporary naval strategists who were in the midst of these events and who deplored what they saw, cannot be lightly dismissed. Admiral Jerram, observing events, lamented what he called: “blundering about in the Pacific achieving nothing.” He wrote to his wife:

The Australian Squadron, were within about 1200 miles of the German cruisers and by Admiralty order footling about with expeditions to New Guinea and Samoa, operations which could not possibly have any effect on the outcome of the war and which might have been undertaken at any slack time later on. Absolutely contrary to all principles of Naval Warfare, as in the first place, they were extremely dangerous due to the near presence of a powerful cruiser force and, in the second, they gave time for the enemy to collect coal store etc.


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## Vassili Zaitzev (Sep 19, 2014)

Damn, I let this one go. Started up grad school again and new job, but really no excuse for this. Parsifal, thanks for picking up the slack. I'll make up what I missed. If I put something down you already have, let me know and I'll edit. 

*2nd September*
Battle of Zamosc-Komarow ends (see August 26th).
Japanese forces land in Shantung to attack Tsingtau (see August 15th, September 23rd and November 7th).
French Government transferred from Paris to Bordeaux (see November 18th).
*3rd September*
Battle of the Mortagne ends (see August 25th).
Lemberg captured by Russian forces (see August 30th, 1914, and June 22nd, 1915).
H.M.S. _Speedy_ sunk by mine off the Humber.
Benedict XV elected Pope (see August 20th and November 5th)
Prince William of Wied leaves Albania (see October 4th).
French Government inform united States Government that they will observe "Declaration of London" subject to certain modifications.
*4th September*
Battle of the Grand Couronné (Nancy) begins (see 12th).
Battles of the Western Front: First Encounters and Battles of the Frontiers

German Government agree to observe "Declaration of London" if other belligerents conform thereto, and issue their list of contraband.
*5th September*
End of the Retreat from Mons (see August 24th, 1914, and November 11th, 191*8*).
Battle of the Ourcq begins.
Battles of the Western Front: German Advance Blocked at the Marne

German forces reach Claye, 10 miles from Paris (nearest point reached during the war).
Reims taken by German forces (see 14th).
Lille evacuated by German forces (see August 27th and October 12th).
H.M.S. _Pathfinder_ sunk by submarine in the North Sea (first British warship so destroyed).
Battle of the Masurian Lakes begins (see 15th).
German forces cross frontier of North Rhodesia. Defence of Abercorn begins (see 9th).
British, French, and Russian Governments sign the "Pact of London." Decision not to make separate peace (see April 26th, October 19th, and November 30th, 1915).
*6th September*
Battle of the Marne begins [French date] (see 9th and 10th).
Battles of the Western Front: German Advance Blocked at the Marne

Serbian passage of the Save. Serbian operations in Syrmia begin (see 11th).
Affair of Tsavo (East Africa).
*7th September*
Maubeuge capitulates to German forces (see August 25th, 1914. and November 8th, 191*8*).
Battle of Tarnavka (Galicia) begins (see 9th).
Naval operations off Duala (Cameroons) begin, in preparation for attack by Allied military forces (see 27th).
*8th September*
Austrian forces begin second invasion of Serbia (see august 25th and December 15th).
Battle of the Drina begins (see 17th).
Second Battle of Lemberg begins (see 11th).
General Sir John Maxwell takes over command of British forces in Egypt (see March 19th, 1916).
*9th September*
German retreat from the Marne begins (see 6th).
Battles of the Western Front: German Advance Blocked at the Marne

Battle of Tarnavka ends (see 7th).
Turkish Government announce abolition of "The Capitulations."
Affairs near Karonga (Nyassaland). First important fighting.
Defence of Abercorn (Rhodesia) ends. German force retreats (see 5th).
First units of Indian Expeditionary Force "A" arrive at Suez (see 19th).
*10th September*
Battle of the Marne ends [British date] (see 6th).
Semlin (Syrmia) occupied by Serbian forces (see 17th).
German light cruiser "Emden" makes her first capture in the Indian Ocean (Greek collier "Pontoporos") (see 22nd, and October 28th).
German and Austrian representatives expelled from Egypt (see November 1st).
*11th September*
Second Battle of Lemberg ends (see 8th).
Austrian forces in Galicia retreat (see October 3rd).
Serbian advance in Syrmia abandoned (see 6th and 17th).
British Government issue orders for the raising of the second New Army of six divisions (see August 21st and September 13th).
Australian Expeditionary Force lands on the Bismarck Archipelago (German New Guinea).
*12th September*
Battle of the Grand Couronné (Nancy) ends (see 4th).
Battle of the Aisne 1914 begins (see 15th).
Battles of the Western Front: The Germans Entrench their Positions on the Aisne

Affair of Herbertshöhe (German New Guinea) (see 11th and 17th)
*13th September*
Soissons (see 1st, and January 8th, 1915) and Amiens (see August 31st) reoccupied by French forces.
British Government issue orders raising third New Army of six divisions (see 11th).
*14th September*
Reims evacuated by German forces (see 5th and 19th).
Action between British armed merchant cruiser _Carmania_ and German armed merchant cruiser _Cap Trafalgar_ in the South Atlantic : latter sunk.
General von Moltke resigns as Chief of the General Staff of the German Field Armies, and is succeeded by General von Falkenhayn (see August 2nd, 1914, and August 29th, 1916).
*15th September*
Battle of the Aisne 1914 ends (see 12th).
Battle of the Masurian Lakes ends (see 5th).
Czernowitz (Bukovina) taken by russian forces (see October 22nd).
Rebellion in South Africa begins (see. December 1st and 28th)
*17th September*
German New Guinea and surrounding Colonies capitulate to Australian Expeditionary Force (see 21st, and October 11th).
Serbian forces in Syrmia withdrawn. Semlin evacuated (see 10th).
Battle of the Drina ends (see 8th) [This is approximately the date on which the main force of the Austrian offensive had spent itself. But there was no definite end to this battle, which subsided into continuous sharp local actions for the heights south of the Drina. These did not terminate until the Serbian retreat in the first days of November.].
British Naval Mission leaves Turkey.
Admiral Souchon (Imperial German navy) assumes control of Turkish navy.
*18th September*
General von Hindenburg appointed Commander-in-Chief of German Armies in Eastern Theatre (see August 23rd and November 27th).
*19th September*
First units of Indian Expeditionary Force "A" leave Egypt for Marseilles (see 9th).
First bombardment of Reims Cathedral by German artillery (see 14th).
Cattaro bombarded by French squadron.
Lüderitzbucht (German South-West Africa) occupied by South African forces. [First German territory to be entered by Union troops.]
British and French Governments guarantee to Belgium the integrity of her colonies.
Secret agreement for mutual support concluded between Russian and Romanian Governments.

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## parsifal (Sep 21, 2014)

*20th September*

H.M.S. "Pegasus" sunk by German light cruiser "Königsberg" at Zanzibar 

At the outbreak of WWI the German light cruiser SMS Königsberg was based at Dar-es-Salaam in German East Africa, now Tanzania. She was armed with 10 105mm(4.1 inch) guns and was designed for 24 knots, making her significantly faster than the three old cruisers on the British Cape Station; HMS Astraea (20 knots, two 6 inch and eight 4.7 inch guns), Hyacinth (19 knots, 11 6 inch guns) and Pegasus (21 knots, eight 4 inch guns).

On 31 July Fregattenkapitän Max Loof took Königsberg to sea in compliance with his orders to attack enemy shipping at the entrance to the Red Sea. Pegasus saw her leaving port, but could not keep up with her. Neither could Hyacinth, which encountered her in the dark two hours later.

HMS Astraea bombarded Dar-es-Salaam on 8 August in order to destroy its wireless station. The Germans, fearing invasion, scuttled a floating dock across the harbour entrance, trapping the liner Tabora and the collier König inside, and preventing Königsberg from entering.

Königsberg was bedevilled throughout her career by difficulties in obtaining coal. The Hague Convention entitled warships to refuel at neutral ports. A ship could visit each port only once every three months, but could take on enough fuel to return to the nearest port in her home country. This meant that a German ship could entirely replenish her coal supplies on each visit.

However, the British bought all the coal supplies in Portuguese East Africa, the only neutral source available to Königsberg. This left her having to coal from small German colliers or from captured ships. However, she managed to take only one merchant ship, the liner City of Winchester, which she captured on 6 August and sank a week later.

The British Official History says that she ‘must have had a narrow escape from the Dartmouth‘, a modern light cruiser armed with eight 6 inch guns and capable of 25 knots, around the time that she captured the City of Winchester.[1] She then overhauled her engines in the secluded Rufiji Delta, and the British heard nothing about her until 20 September.

Pegasus was then at Zanzibar, repairing problems with her machinery. At 5:25 am the armed tug Helmuth, a captured German vessel that was guarding the entrance to the harbour, challenged a ship that was heading for an entrance forbidden to merchant ships. The ship, which was Königsberg, raised the German ensign and increased speed. Helmuth failed to warn Pegasus.

Königsberg opened fire at 9,000 yards, immediately straddling Pegasus. The British ship fired back, but her shots fell short. After eight minutes all the guns of her broadside facing Königsberg were out of action. The German ship ceased fire for about five minutes, but then began firing again, before leaving half an hour after opening fire. She sank Helmuth on her way out

Pegasus was then still afloat, but capsized after an unsuccessful attempt to beach her. Naval-History.net lists 34 men killed and 58 wounded, four of whom later died. Königsberg also destroyed what turned out to be a dummy wireless station. However, she made no attempt to sink or capture the collier Banffshire, which carried several thousand tons of coal, or to damage the lighthouse or cable

J. S. Corbett, H. Newbolt, Naval Operations, 5 vols. (London: HMSO, 1938).


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## parsifal (Sep 21, 2014)

*21 September*

Noyon retaken by French forces .
Jaroslaw (Galicia) taken by Russian forces (see May 14th, 1915).
German armed forces in New Guinea surrender to the Australian Expeditionary Force (see 17th, and October 11th).
British Proclamation issued adding to list of contraband (see August 4th and December 23rd).


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## parsifal (Sep 21, 2014)

*22 September *

First battle of Picardy and the Race to the Sea

General Erich von Falkenhayn replaced Colonel-General Helmuth von Moltke as Chief of the German General Staff on 14 September, when the German front in France was being consolidated in Lorraine and on the Aisne. The open western flank beyond the 1st Army and the danger of attacks from Antwerp, where the Siege of Antwerp had begun on 20 August, created a dilemma in which the German positions had to be maintained, when only offensive operations could lead to decisive victory. Appeals for the reinforcement of the Eastern Front could not be ignored and Falkenhayn cancelled a plan for the 6th Army to break through near Verdun and ordered that it move across France to the right wing of the German armies. The flank of 1st army was at Compiègne, beyond which there were no German forces until Antwerp. Falkenhayn could reinforce the 1st Army with the 6th Army, send it to Antwerp or divide the army by reinforcing the 1st Army and the Antwerp siege with part of the army, while the rest operated in the area between.

Falkenhayn chose to move the 6th Army to Maubeuge and outflank the Franco-British left wing, withdrawing the 1st, 7th and 2nd armies to La Fère, Laon and Rheims while the 6th Army was redeploying. The 3rd, 4th and 5th armies were to defend if the French attacked and attack to the south-west beginning on 18 September. General Karl von Bülow and Colonel Tappen of the Operations Branch of the Oberste Heeresleitung (OHL – Supreme Army Command) objected because the time needed to move the 6th Army would concede the initiative to the French and recommended an attack by the 1st and 7th armies, with reinforcements from the armies to the east for an offensive from Rheims, Fismes and Soissons, since the French could redeploy troops on undamaged railways and the risk of separating the 1st and 2nd armies again would be avoided. Falkenhayn cancelled the retirement and ordered the 6th Army to assemble at St. Quentin. An attack south of Verdun to capture forts on the Meuse and encircle Verdun from the south and an attack from Soissons to Rheims would prevent the French from moving troops to the flanks.

On 10 September, Joffre ordered the French armies and the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) to advance and exploit the victory of the Marne. For four days, the armies on the left flank advanced and gathered up German stragglers, wounded and equipment, opposed only by rearguards. On 11 and 12 September, Joffre ordered outflanking manoeuvres by the armies on the left flank but their advance was too slow to catch the Germans, who ended their withdrawal on 14 September, on high ground on the north bank of the Aisne and began to dig in, which reduced the French advance from 15–16 September to a few local gains. French troops had begun to move westwards from Lorraine on 2 September, using the undamaged railways behind the French front, which were able to move a corps to the left flank in 5–6 days. On 17 September, the French Sixth Army attacked from Soissons to Noyon, at the westernmost point of the French flank, with the XIII and IV corps, supported by two divisions of the 6th Group of Reserve Divisions, after which the fighting moved north to Lassigny and the French dug in around Nampcel.

The German armies attacked from Verdun westwards to Reims and the Aisne on 20 September, cut the main railway from Verdun to Paris and created the St Mihiel salient at the Battle of Flirey (19 September – 11 October), south of the Verdun fortress zone. The main German effort remained on the western flank, which was revealed to the French by intercepted wireless messages. By 28 September, the Aisne front had stabilised and the BEF began to withdraw on the night of 1/2 October, with the first troops arriving in the Abbeville area on 8/9 October. The BEF prepared to commence operations in Flanders and join with the British forces which had been operating in Belgium since August.

The German IX Reserve Corps had arrived from Belgium by 15 September and the 6th Army was expected to complete a move from Lorraine from 13–23 September. Next day the corps joined the right flank of the 1st Army, for an attack to the south-west with the IV Corps, IX Reserve Corps and the 4th and 7th cavalry divisions. The 2nd Army commander Bülow, ordered Kluck the 1st Army commander, to cancel the offensive and withdraw the two corps behind the right flank of the 1st Army. On 16 September, the 2nd and 9th cavalry divisions were dispatched from the Aisne front as reinforcements but before the retirement began, the French XIII and IV corps on the left flank of Sixth Army, with the 61st and 62nd divisions of the 6th group of reserve divisions, began to advance along the Oise and met the right flank of the 1st Army between Carlepont and Noyon, on 17 September. On the right flank the French 17th and 45th divisions attacked near Soissons and gained a foothold on the plateau of Cuffies, just north of the city.

On 18 September the French advance was stopped on a south-east to north-west line at Carlepont on the south bank of the Oise and Noyon on the north bank, which ended the first French outflanking move. Joffre dissolved the Second Army in Lorraine and sent Castelnau and the Second Army headquarters to the north of the Sixth Army, to take over the IV and XIII corps, along with the 1st, 5th, 8th and 10th Cavalry divisions of the French II Cavalry Corps (General Conneau) from the Sixth Army; XIV Corps was transferred from the First Army and XX Corps from the original Second Army, to assemble south of Amiens, with a screen of the 81st, 82nd, 84th and 88th Territorial divisions, protecting French communications. The Second Army prepared to begin an advance on 22 September, on a line from Lassigny north to Roye and Chaulnes around the German flank.

On 21 September, Falkenhayn met Bülow and agreed that the 6th Army should concentrate close to Amiens and attack towards the Channel coast and then envelop the French south of the Somme in a _Schlachtentscheidung _(decisive battle). The XXI Corps, which had moved from Lunéville on 15 September and the I Bavarian Corps which marched from Namur, arrived during 24 September but were diverted against the Second Army as soon as they arrived, to extend the front northwards from Chaulnes to Péronne on 24 September, to attack the French bridgehead and drive the French back over the Somme

The Second Army crossed the Avre on a line from Lassigny northwards to Roye and Chaulnes but met the German II Corps from the 1st Army, which had arrived from the Aisne front, where new entrenchments had enabled fewer men to garrison the front line. The corps moved into line on 18/19 September, on the right flank of the IX Reserve Corps. Despite the assistance of four divisions of the II Cavalry Corps (Lieutenant-General Georg von der Marwitz), the Germans were pushed back to a line from Ribécourt to Lassigny and Roye, which menaced German communications through Ham and St. Quentin. On 21 September the XVIII Corps had begun a 50 miles (80 km) forced march from Rheims and had reached Ham on the evening of 23 September. On 24 September, the XVIII Corps attacked towards Roye and with II Corps forced back the French IV Corps. To the north, the Second Army reached Péronne and formed a bridgehead on the east bank of the Somme, which exhausted the offensive capacity of the Second Army.

Joffre sent the XI Corps, which was the last French reserve, to the Second Army and began to withdraw three more corps for dispatch to the Second Army. The German XXI and I Bavarian corps recaptured Péronne and forced the Second Army west of the Somme, where the French managed to dig in on good defensive ground from Lassigny to Roye and Bray. The German II Cavalry Corps moved north to make room for the II Bavarian Corps, which had marched from Valenciennes, on the north bank of the Somme. On 25 September, a German attack near Noyon pushed back the Second Army. French reinforcements attacked again and from 25–27 September, a general action took place along the Western Front from the Vosges to Peronne, after which the main effort of both sides took place further north at the Battle of Albert (25–29 September). The German offensive took very little ground and after a lull the Germans renewed the offensive against the Second Army, which was driven back from Lassigny to a line from Ribecourt on the Oise to Roye, west of Chaulnes and the plateau north of the Somme between Combles and Albert. On 1 October, the Germans attacked at Roye in the centre of the Second Army and on 5 October, another attack at Lassigny was repulsed; on 7 October a French counter-attack between Chaulnes and Roye took 1,600 prisoners


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## vikingBerserker (Sep 21, 2014)

Excellent fellas!


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## parsifal (Sep 22, 2014)

*22 September 1914 *

Loss of the Aboukir, Cressy and Hogue to Uboat attack

H.M.S. "Aboukir", "Hogue" and "Cressy" sunk by German submarine "U.-9."
During the early months of World War 1 the Royal Navy maintained a patrol of old Cressy class armoured cruisers, known as Cruiser Force C, in the area of the North Sea known as the Broad Fourteens. There was opposition to this patrol from many senior officers, including Admiral Jellicoe and Commodores Keyes and Tyrwhitt, on the grounds that the ships were very vulnerable to a raid by modern German surface ships and the patrol was nick named the "live bait squadron". The Admiralty maintained the patrol on the grounds that destroyers were not able to maintain the patrol in the frequent bad weather and that there were insufficient modern light cruisers available. 

In the early hours of September 20th 1914 the cruisers HMS Euryalus, HMS Aboukir, HMS Hogue and HMS Cressy were preparing to go on patrol under Rear Admiral Christian in Euryalus. Normally the patrol was under command of Rear Admiral Campbell in HMS Bacchantes but he was absent so Christian helped fill the gap although he had other duties. The weather was too bad for destroyers to be at sea and unfortunately Euryalus had to drop out due to lack of coal and weather damage to her wireless, Rear Admiral Christian had to remain with his ship rather than transfer to another ship as the weather was too bad to transfer. He delegated command to Captain Drummond in Aboukir although he did not make it clear that Drummond had the authority to order the destroyers to sea if the weather improved, which it did towards the end of September 21st.

Early on September 22nd 1914 the German submarine U9 under the command of Commander Otto Weddigen sighted the Cressy, Aboukir and Hogue steaming NNE at 10 knots without zigzagging. Although the patrols were supposed to maintain 12-13 knots and zigzag the old cruisers were unable to maintain that speed and the zigzagging order was widely ignored as there had been no submarines sighted in the area during the war.

U9 manoeuvred to attack and at about 6.25 AM fired a single torpedo at Aboukir, which stuck her on her port side. Aboukir rapidly suffered heavy flooding and despite counter flooding developed a 20 degree list and lost engine power. It was soon clear that she was a lost cause and Captain Drummond ordered her to be abandoned, although only one boat had survived the attack so most crew had to jump into the sea. At first Drummond thought that Aboukir had been mined and signalled the other two cruisers to close and assist but he soon realised that it was a torpedo attack and ordered the other cruisers away, but too late.

As Aboukir rolled over and sank, half an hour after being attacked, U9 fired two torpedoes at HMS Hogue that hit her amidships and rapidly flooded her engine room. Captain Nicholson of Hogue had stopped the ship to lower boats to rescue the crew of Aboukir, thinking that as he was the other side of Aboukir from U9 he would be safe. Unfortunately U9 had manoeuvred around Aboukir and attacked Hogue from a range of only 300 yards.

The firing of two torpedoes affected the trim of U9 which broke the surface briefly and was fired on by Hogue without effect.

It only took Hogue ten minutes to sink as U9 headed for HMS Cressy. Cressy, under Captain Johnson, had also stopped to lower boats but got underway on sighting a periscope. At about 7.20 AM however U9 fired two torpedoes, one of which just missed but the other hit Cressy on her starboard side, Cressy briefly firing on U9s periscope with no effect.

The damage to Cressy was not fatal but U9 turned round and fired her last torpedo which hit Cressy sinking her within a quarter of an hour.

Survivors were picked up by several nearby merchant ships including the Dutch Flora and Titan and the British trawlers JGC and Corainder before the Harwich force of light cruisers and destroyers arrived. Flora returned to Holland with 286 rescued crew who were quickly returned to Britain even though the neutral Dutch should have interned them. In all 837 men were rescued but 1459 died, many of which were reservists or cadets.

In the aftermath of the attack the patrol by armoured cruisers was abandoned, the stopping of major ships in dangerous waters banned and the order to steam at 13 knots and zigzag re-emphasised.

A court of inquiry was set up and found that some blame was attributable to all of the senior officers involved - Captain Drummond for not zigzagging and for not calling for destroyers, Rear Admiral Christian was criticised for not making it clear to Drummond that he could summon the destroyers and Rear Admiral Campbell for not being present and for a very poor performance at the inquiry at which he stated that he did not know what the purpose of his command was. The bulk of the blame was directed at the Admiralty for persisting with a patrol that was dangerous and of limited value against the advice of senior sea going officers.


Von Spee Bombards Papeete in Tahiti

German warships attacked on 22 September 1914, during World War I. The German armoured cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and Gneisenau entered the port of Papeete on the island of Tahiti and sank the French gunboat Zélée and freighter Walkure before bombarding the town's fortifications. French shore batteries and a gunboat resisted the German intrusion, but were greatly outgunned. The main German objective was to seize the coal piles stored on the island, but these were destroyed by the French at the start of the action.

The German vessels were largely undamaged but the French lost their gunboat. Several of Papeete's buildings were destroyed and the town's economy was severely disrupted. The main strategic consequence of the engagement was the disclosure of the cruisers' positions to the British Admiralty, which led to the Battle of Coronel where the entire German East Asia Squadron defeated a Royal Navy squadron. The depletion of Scharnhorst's and Gneisenau's ammunition at Papeete also contributed to their subsequent destruction at the Battle of the Falklands.

At 07:00 on 22 September 1914, the French sighted two unidentified cruisers approaching the harbor of Papeete. The alarm was raised, the harbor's signal beacons destroyed, and three warning shots were fired by the French batteries to signal the approaching cruisers that they must identify themselves. The cruisers replied with a shot of their own and raised the German colors, signaling the town to surrender. The French refused the German demands, and von Spee's vessels began to shell the shore batteries and town from a distance of 6,000 m . The land batteries and the gunboat in the harbor returned fire, but scored no hits on the armored cruisers. Having difficulty in discovering the exact position of the French batteries, the German cruisers soon turned their attention to the French shipping in the harbor.

The French commander—Destremau—had ordered the coal piles burned at the start of the action and now smoke began billowing over the town. Zélée and Walkure were sighted and fired upon by the Germans. The French had begun to scuttle their vessels when the action had begun, but both were still afloat when Scharnhorst and Gneisenau began firing upon them and finished the two ships off. By now, most of the Papeete's inhabitants had fled and the town had caught fire from the German shelling, with two blocks of Papeete set alight. With the coal piles destroyed and the threat of mines in the harbor, von Spee saw no meaningful purpose in making a landing. Accordingly, the German admiral withdrew his ships from Papeete's harbor by 11:00. After leaving Papeete, the ships steamed out towards Nuku Hiva to meet Nürnberg, Titania, and colliers waiting there.

By the time von Spee withdrew his ships, large portions of the town had been destroyed. Two entire blocks of Papeete had burnt to the ground before the fires were finally put out. A copra store, a market, and several other buildings and residences were among those destroyed by the shellfire and resulting inferno. While the majority of Papeete's civilians fled to the interior of the island as soon as the fighting began, a Japanese civilian and a Polynesian boy were both killed by German shellfire. Although the two French vessels in the harbor had been sunk, there were no military casualties on either side and the German vessels took no damage. Overall, the bombardment was estimated in 1915 to have caused over 2 million francs' worth of property damage, some of which was recouped through the seizure of a German store on the island.In addition to the seizure of their property, several local Germans were interned and forced to repair the damage von Spee's squadron had caused. Perhaps the most lasting effect of the bombardment on the French was the dramatic fall of copra prices in the region, as local suppliers had previously sold a majority of their produce to German merchants in the area who were now interned. Further havoc and distress spread throughout the island 18 days after von Spee's squadron had left, when rumors started to spread that a second German bombardment was about to begin.

After withdrawing, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau rendezvoused with Nürnberg and Titania at Nuku Hiva, where they resupplied and their crews took shore leave before moving on to meet the rest of the squadron at Easter Island. Although the Germans had destroyed the shipping at Papeete and wreaked havoc in the town, they had been denied their primary objective of seizing the French coal piles and replenishing their own stocks. Von Spee's raid allowed the British Admiralty to receive word on his position and heading, allowing them to inform Rear Admiral Christopher Cradock of the German intentions thus leading to the Battle of Coronel. Another effect was the reduction of ammunition available to the two German cruisers.


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## parsifal (Sep 22, 2014)

Emden bombards Madras

The Bombardment of Madras was an engagement of World War I, at Madras (Chennai), British India. The bombardment was initiated by the German light cruiser Emden at the start of the war in 1914.

With Captain Karl von Müller in command, on the night of 22 September 1914, SMS Emden quietly approached the city of Madras on the southeastern coast of the Indian peninsula. After entering the Madras harbor area and observing for a moment, Müller gave the order to engage at 9:30 pm, Emden opened fire at 3,000 yards on several large oil tanks within the harbor, which belonged to the Burmah Oil Company.

Within the first 30 rounds, the oil tanks were in flames. After bombing the fuel tanks, Emden moved onto a small merchant ship in harbor. The craft was quickly sunk by Emden's deck guns. The worst casualties experienced that night were from the merchant vessel, 26 of whose crew were injured. At least 5 of the sailors were killed on scene or died later of injuries.

Goeben and Breslau

The Sultan of turkey reviews the Turkish fleet including the newly transferred ships Goeben and Breslau

Attacks on German Zeppelin sheds

On the 22nd of September four aircraft took off from Antwerp to bomb the Zeppelin sheds at Cologne and Dusseldorf. It was the first attack of its kind. Due to heavy fog only one of the planes found its target and though the pilot managed to drop his bombs little damage was done.

The RNAS tried again on the 8th of October 1914 with more success, destroying a Zeppelin at Dusseldorf. On November 21st a flight of Avro 504s bombed the Zeppelin works at Friedrichshafen. On Christmas Day, 1914, they flew seven seaplanes off from three seaplane tenders and attempted to attack the Zeppelin sheds at Cuxhaven and Wilhelmshaven.

The raid failed to do much damage, but proved the viability of using ships to extend the bombing range of aircraft. These early experiences prompted the RNAS to order the development of a bomber capable of carrying a large bomb-load. In Suerter's words, the RNAS needed "a bloody paralyzer of an aeroplane."

The innovative Louis Strange of the RFC was also experimenting with bombing techniques. He managed to destroy trucks by dropping petrol bombs from his plane, but dissatisfied with dropping bombs by hand he came up with the idea of attaching the bombs to racks on his wings, and dropping them by pulling a release wire.

He tried this out on his BE2c with great success in March of 1915, attacking a train at the station of Courtrai, and thus impeding the flow of German reinforcements during the Battle of Neuve-Chapelle. This bombing raid was also the first RFC bombing raid that was planned from photo reconnaissance.

First Use of airborne Radio Telegraphy

On this day, radio telegraphy on board an aircraft was first employed, though unsuccessfully by the RFC. its use was not perfected, or rather, made functional, until May of the following year


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## parsifal (Sep 25, 2014)

Double Post


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## parsifal (Sep 25, 2014)

*23 September 1914*

British force joins Japanese army before Tsingtau [Force landed September 22nd ; in action September 24th.] 

The Boxer Rebellion at the beginning of the century had led Germany to consider the defense of Tsingtao. The port and town were divided from the rest of the peninsula by steep hills. The natural line of defense lay along these hills, from the Kaiserstuhl to Litsuner Heights. A second 17 kilometres line of defense was set up along a closer line of steep hills. The final line of defense was along hills 200 metres (660 ft) above the town. A network of trenches, batteries, and other fortifications had been built in preparation for the coming siege.

Germany had strengthened the defenses from the sea, laying mines in the approaches to the harbour, and building four batteries and five redoubts. The fortifications were well equipped (though some with outdated Chinese artillery) and were well manned.

Combined alled forces involved: Land: 24,500 infantry 142 artillery pieces; Sea: 1 seaplane carrier 3 battleships 2 battlecruisers 2 destroyers Air: unknown aircraft

Combined Central powers forces:Land: 3,650 infantry, 324 Hungarian crew of the Kaiserin Elisabeth , Sea: 1 protected cruiser 1 torpedo boat 
4 gunboats Air: 1 aircraft

As the Japanese approached his position, the German Commander withdrew his forces from the two outer defensive lines and concentrated his troops on the innermost line of defense along the hills closest to the town.

The Austro-Hungarian cruiser, SMS Kaiserin Elisabeth, was stationed in Tsingtao at the start of the war. On 2 September 1914 the German gunboat Jaguar sank the stranded Japanese Destroyer Shirotaye. On 5 September a Japanese recon plane scouted the port and reported that the Asian German fleet had departed. As a result the Japanese ordered the dreadnought, pre-dreadnought and cruiser to leave the blockade. The next day, the first air-sea battle in history took place when a Farman seaplane launched by the Wakamiya unsuccessfully attacked the Kaiserin Elisabeth and the Jaguar in Qiaozhou Bay with bombs. 





_Japanese seaplane Carrier Wakamiya delivered the first airstrike on enemy ships in history_

On 28 September the Jaguar sank the Japanese cruiser Takashio. Early in the siege, the Kaiserin Elisabeth and German gunboat Jaguar made an unsuccessful sortie against Japanese vessels blockading Tsingao. Later, the cruiser's 15 cm and 4.7 cm guns were removed from the ship and mounted on shore, creating the Batterie Elisabeth. The ship's crew took part in the defense of Tsingtao. 





_Japanese flagship BB Suwo _


On 13 September the advancing Japanese land forces launched a cavalry raid on the German rear-guard at Tsimo, which the German gave up and retreated. Subsequently the Japanese took control of Kiautschou and the Santung railway. Lt. Gen. Kamio considered this the point of no return for his land forces and as the weather became extremely harsh he took no risk and fortified the troops at the town and returned the yet-to-arrive reinforcements, reembarked, and landed at Lau Schan bay.

On 17 October 1914 the torpedo boat S-90 slipped out of Tsingtao harbor and fired a single torpedo which sank the Japanese cruiser Takachiho with the loss of 271 officers and men. S-90 was however unable to run the blockade back to Tsingtao and was scuttled in Chinese waters when the ship ran low on fuel.

The Japanese started shelling the fort and the city on 31 October and began digging parallel lines of trenches, just as they had done at the Siege of Port Arthur nine years earlier. Very large 11 inch howitzers from land, in addition to the firing of the Japanese naval guns, brought the German defences under constant bombardment during the night, the Japanese moving their own trenches further forward under the cover of their artillery. The bombardment continued for seven days, employing around 100 siege guns with 1,200 shells each on the Japanese side. While the Germans were able to use the heavy guns of the port fortifications to attack the landward positions of the Allies, they soon ran out of ammunition.

The German garrison was able to field only a single Taube aircraft during the siege, flown by Lieutenant Gunther Plüschow. ( A second Taube piloted by Lt. Friedrich Müllerskowsky crashed early in the campaign). The Taube was used primarily for frequent reconnaissance flights, but Plüschow made several nuisance attacks on the vessels of the blockading squadron, dropping jury-rigged munitions and other ordnance on them. He also claimed the downing of a Japanese Farman MF.7 with his pistol, the first aerial victory in aviation history. Plüschow flew out from Tsingtao on 6 November 1914 carrying the governor's last dispatches which were forwarded to Berlin through neutral diplomatic channels.

On the night of 6 November waves of Japanese infantry attacked the third line of defences and overwhelmed the defenders. The next morning, the German forces, along with their Austro-Hungarian allies, asked for terms.

The Allies took formal possession of the colony on 16 November 1914.

Japanese casualties numbered 236 killed and 1,282 wounded; the British had 12 killed and 53 wounded. The German defenders lost 199 dead and 504 wounded.

As the German garrison was able to hold out for nearly two months despite a total Anglo-Japanese blockade with sustained artillery barrages and being outnumbered 6 to 1, the defeat nevertheless served as a morale booster. The German defenders watched the Japanese as they marched into Tsingtao, but turned their backs on the British when they entered into town. The German dead were buried at Tsingtao, while the remainder were transported to prisoner of war camps in Japan. The 4700 German prisoners were treated well and with respect in Japan such as in Bandō prisoner-of-war camp. The German troops were interned in Japan lasted until the formal signature of the Versailles peace treaty in 1919, but due to technical questions the troops were not repatriated before 1920. 170 prisoners chose to remain in Japan after the end of the war.


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## parsifal (Sep 25, 2014)

*24th September*

Péronne taken by German forces .

Fought as a precursor to the battles of Albert canal. An offensive by the French Second Army, forced Falkenhayn to divert the XXI and I Bavarian corps as soon as they arrived, to extend the front northwards from Chaulnes to Péronne on 24 September and drive the French back over the Somme. Overcrowded and damaged railways behind the German front slowed the transit of German forces and infantry marched from Namur and Cambrai. On 25 September, the German reinforcements attacked, crossed the Somme south of Péronne and then advanced to take a bridge between Hem and Feuillères, when a French attack north of the Somme against the II Bavarian Corps forced a hurried withdrawal. As more Bavarian units arrived in the north, the 3rd Bavarian Division advanced along the north bank, through Bouchavesnes, Leforest and Hardecourt until held up at Maricourt. The 4th Bavarian Division further to the north, defeated the French territorials and then attacked westwards towards Albert, through Sailly, Combles, Guillemont and Montauban.







_Map of Arras to amiens, showing position of the village of Peronne. Note the poor positioning of the railways, which greatly affected German operations_

Przemysl isolated by Russian forces. First siege begins 

The Siege of Przemysl begins as Russian forces isolate the fortress town on the River San in present day Poland. The siege is the longest of the war, lasting until March 1915. It is a crushing defeat for Austria-Hungary, who suffer over 86,000 dead and up to 110,000 wounded.


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## parsifal (Sep 25, 2014)

*25 September*

Russians regain control of the east bank of the Niemen River

Following the double defeats at Tannenburg and Masurian lakes, the Russian Armies in or adjacent to East Prussia were in bad shape, and the germans were preparing for further attacks. From 25-28 September, Rennenkampfs battered army counterattacked and managed to restore cohesion and stibilised the front, largely by regaining control along the Niemen

The previous actions had resulted in two defeats of the Russian army, and largely removed any threat to German forces stationed in East Prussia, although a Russian counter-attack from 25-28 September (the Battle of the Niemen) forced a German retreat back to the border and resulted in the Russian army retaking much of the ground lost in the First Masurian battle.

As a consequence of Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes - although the former battle was a much clearer cut victory than the second - Hindenburg was hailed as a hero in Germany, subsequently succeeding Falkenhayn as Chief of the German Staff in late summer 1916.


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## parsifal (Sep 25, 2014)

*26 september*

First units of Indian Expeditionary Force "A" land at Marseilles. The Indians are later withdrawn from the western front


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## parsifal (Sep 25, 2014)

*26 September 2014*


The Emden bombards the port of Madras in Ceylon


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## SamPZLP.7 (Nov 19, 2014)

I do these on aviation history on Facebook.


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## parsifal (Nov 20, 2014)

This thread has fizzled unfortunately, but there is another going strong for WWII

http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/ww2-general/day-war-europe-beginning-41546.html?highlight=


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