On This day in World War 1

Thanks for an interesting story, Wittmann. I’ve been a bit to busy myself to tell more of the Great War, but I intend to return to this thread soon.

I believe on the Western Front at this time a series of flanking movements from both sides begun which continued until Flanders. This series of local actions has become popularly known as The Race To The Sea.

Have any of you read the account of the SMS Seeadler? Its the most unusual merchant raider of the World Wars.

@ABWorsham:

Have any of you read the account of the SMS Seeadler? Its the most unusual merchant raider of the World Wars.

I’d never heard of her.  I’ve just looked her up.  I thought at first you were talking about the German cruiser of the same name, but then I saw the article on the sailing ship that served as a commerce raider in WWI.  16 merchant ship captures is an impressive record; from what I can recall, it’s an even higher figure than the Graf Spee scored in WWII. Thanks for this interesting bit of naval history.

Thanks Worsham.
It is an excellent story. Looks like it should be a Civil War Commerce Raider!

@CWO:

@ABWorsham:

Have any of you read the account of the SMS Seeadler? Its the most unusual merchant raider of the World Wars.

I’d never heard of her.  I’ve just looked her up.  I thought at first you were talking about the German cruiser of the same name, but then I saw the article on the sailing ship that served as a commerce raider in WWI.  16 merchant ship captures is an impressive record; from what I can recall, it’s an even higher figure than the Graf Spee scored in WWII. Thanks for this interesting bit of naval history.

A sailing ship armed for offensive warfare in a World War that is movie worthy. The ship also survived a hurricane!

On the 27th October 1914, the British Dreadnought, Audacious
Was the first battleship to sink in WW1. She hit a mine off the North  coast of Ireland of all places. She sank later that evening, but with no loss of life. Although a sailor on another ship half a mile away died when hit by a piece of shrapnel as she exploded and sank.
Audacious was a King George class Deadnought, 600ft long, weighing 24000 tons and armed with ten  13.5 inch guns. She was only commissioned the year before. 
Her sinking was covered up until the end of the war.

@wittmann:

On the 27th October 1914, the British Dreadnought, Audacious Was the first battleship to sink in WW1. […] Her sinking was covered up until the end of the war.

Thanks for this item.  The part about the cover-up is especially interesting.  I wonder if the Admiralty would have tried to keep the sinking a secret if there had been heavy loss of life rather than no casualties?

Could they have? There was the sister ship to the Titanic close by, the Olympic. In an ironic twist, it heeded the distress call.  It rescued many of the crew and tried to tow it.
I am on my phone, so can’t attach a link. Is quite an interesting read.

On November 1, 1914 the First World War naval Battle of Coronel took place on the coast of central Chile near the city of Coronel. German Kaiserliche Marine forces led by Vice-Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee met and defeated a Royal Navy squadron commanded by Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock.

Evening Worsham. Thanks for posting that. I saw it on twitter this morning and was unaware of the battle. Was interesting to read about it.
I saw it was a  Cruiser battle and that Cradock died along with 1600 sailors. Two of the modern German Cruisers were called Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.
I think it said it was the  first time the Royal Navy had lost a ship since 1815. Remarkable fact.

@wittmann:

Evening Worsham. Thanks for posting that. I saw it on twitter this morning and was unaware of the battle. Was interesting to read about it.
I saw it was a  Cruiser battle and that Cradock died along with 1600 sailors. Two of the modern German Cruisers were called Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.
I think it said it was the  first time the Royal Navy had lost a ship since 1815. Remarkable fact.

Graf Spee knew that his victory over the RN at Coronel spelled his doom. Any chance he had of anchoring in home water had just vanished. The best he could do was to cause as much damage for the German cause before his time ran out. Coal was becoming a constant problem, and refueling in the busy Atlantic was dangerous unlike the wild open quiet South Pacific. Heavy shells were running extremely low from the victories at Papeete and Coronel. His cruisers were far beyond the need of a dry-dock overhaul.

While resupply his ships in a pro German Chilean after the battle he was presented a gift of flowers from the local governor, his reply was, “Thank you, they will look great at my funeral.”

I just picked up a book about WW1 in the Pacific called Spee Raiders. Its been a great read.

It is so weird (to me) to hear German and Pacific in the same sentence.
I am reading Osprey’s new release  about Kursk’s Northern shoulder (Model). Lots of great pictures of tanks. Especially the Ferdinand!

@wittmann:

It is so weird (to me) to hear German and Pacific in the same sentence.

One still-surviving relic of Germany’s small and short-lived colonial empire in the Asia-Pacific region is the name of a particular group of islands off New Guinea: the Bismarck Archipelago.  Another relic is Tsingtao Beer, which started being produced in 1904 by the Germania-Brauerei.  Tsingtao (now Qingdao) was a German-controlled territory in China from the late 19th century to 1914, when Japan seized it.  The beer is still being produced in Qingdao, under the old Tsingtao name.

The Battle of Cambrai began today, the 20th November, in 1917.
The British 3rd Army(Byng) pushed 3-4 miles into Germans lines, but were unable to surround Cambrai itself and break The Hindenburg line. The whole of The Tank Corps’ strength was utilised: 476 tanks. By the end of the day 179 had been destroyed or had broken down. The Cavalry Corps (Kavanagh) was poorly led and did not fulfil its objectives. The 4000 British casualties were low for such an operation, however.
Two weeks later the Germans would successfully counter attack.

@wittmann:

The whole of The Tank Corps’ strength was utilised: 476 tanks.

If I’m not mistaken, this was the first time in history in which tanks had been used in massed formations.  The results, although limited by the slow speed, limited range and poor reliability of WWI tanks, were nonetheless a precursor of the tank tactics that came to maturity during WWII.

As a child, I learnt Cambrai was the first battle in which tanks were used.
Later, I discovered it was at the Somme!
500 is certainly a large number. Did I read the Germans only had 20 Battle Tanks?

@wittmann:

Did I read the Germans only had 20 Battle Tanks?

That figure sounds right.  Germany domestically built only a small number of tanks.  I think they had only one model, called the A7V as I recall, a big squarish boxlike contraption that required a ridiculously large crew – more than a dozen men, I think.

On 21 November 1918, the German High Seas Fleet surrendered to the British Grand Fleet, as described in detail below.  The meeting of the two fleets was the greatest gathering of warships the world had ever witnessed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30128199