On This day in World War 1

@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

Wonderful piece, Marc. Thank you; I had no idea.

Glad you enjoyed it.  I once briefly visited Orkney, where the High Seas Fleets was interned and later scuttled.  I got to see a little museum in Kirkwall that displays, among other things, salvaged relics from the German ships – brass machinery dials with German lettering and so forth, plus part of the torpedo that sank the Royal Oak in WWII.  That alone was worth the trip up from Edinburgh.

I’ll try to catch up by summarizing the main developments in the various theaters of World War I during the period from late September to early November, 1914 - though I can’t promise to stay on track, as life gets in the way.

The French and the British won the First Battle of the Marne. This crucial victory stopped the rapid German advance and saved Paris from being cptured. If this bat t- though I can’t prole would have ended with a German victory, it could well have meant the defeat of France.
But now that the Germans had been turned back, the Allies tried to follow up on their success and started a flanking maneuver in an attempt to envelop the right flank of the German army in what would become the First Battle of the Aisne. The Aisne, like the Marne, runs east-west, but is some 25 miles further to the north.
The Germans countered this by sending troops south from Belgium. And during the weeks that followed this game of flanking and countering continued, resulting in the inconclusive battles of Picardy, Albert and Arras. As the focus of the fighting gradually moved north, this stage of the war has been dubbed the “Race to the Sea”, though neither party actually intended to reach the sea - it was just the direction that the respective maneuvers followed. This period also saw the beginning of the entrenchments that would become so characteristic of the Western Front.
In early October, the Belgians were still holding on to their fortress of Antwerp, where the king and the government resided after the loss of Brussels. Antwerp was defended by two circles of forts, an inner line immediately near the city, and an outer line some 5-10 miles away. The Germans kept advancing slowly but steadily, and they captured several of the outer forts after heavy artillery bombardments. A problem began to form further south, where the Germans were starting to threaten Ghent, thereby separating the Belgian forces at Antwerp from the Allied front further to the South. Despite British and French aid, the Belgian position became untenable, especially when the Germans gained enough ground to bring their heavy artillery within range. Antwerp surrendered on October 10. The majority of what remained of the Belgian army had retreated to fight another day, but some 30,000 were captured by the Germans, and even more fled north to the Netherlands, where they were interned. During the war, the Dutch interned all soldiers found on their soil: mostly Belgians, but also a British force that had been cut off at Antwerp, a few thousand Germans, and a few French and American pilots.
After the fall of Antwerp, the Germans continued to push westward, capturing Ghent a few days later. The Belgian army fell back behind the river Yser, almost the last natural line of defence that was actually in Belgium. German pressure was intense, and the Belgians, now joined by French and British forces, were gradually forced back. To stop this, the Belgian inundated a large part of the area toward the end of October, and this indeed worked: the terrain became almost impossible to traverse, and at the end of what became known as the First Battle of the Yser, the Belgians were still holding on to a small part of their country. King Albert I would continue leading his army in that area for four more years.

On the Eastern front, the Russian attempt to capture East Prussia had been crushed at the Battle of Tannenberg. Soon after, they suffered another major defeat, when the Russian First Army was soundly beaten at the Battle of the Masurian Lakes. The Russians were much more successful against Austria-Hungary, however. The Battle of Rawa was a major Russian victory, and the Russian third army laid siege to the fortress of Przemysl. Lemberg, the capital of the province of Galicia, had already fallen of September 3, and by the end of the month, the Austro-Hungarian army was in full retreat towards the Carpathian mountains. The situation alarmed Germany, that saw its key industrial area of Silesia threatened as Austrian resistance in neighboring Galicia collapsed. Von Hindenburg therefore started to advance southward from Eastern Prussia, but this time he was unsuccessful. On the other hand, a genuine Russian threat to Silesia never materialized.

In the South, the Serbians actually launched a limited offensive into Austro-Hungarian territory in September, but were soon confronted with a massive counterattack from their numerically superior opponent. The ensuing Battle of the Drina River lasted until early October and was inconclusive, but the Austrians could better afford the losses. Moreover, the ensuing trench warfare didn’t go well for the Serbians, who were seriously short of heavy artillery and suffered many casualties from Austrian bombardments. Eventually, they had to retreat and established a new position on the Kolubara river, where a lengthy and costly battle began on November 16.
Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire on November 2, and launched a campaign in the Caucasus. Their attack was repulsed a few weeks later, however.

In Africa, the Germans were rapidly losing ground in their Kamerun colony. The major city of Douala had fallen on September 27, and aided by their naval superiority, the British and French took the eniter coastal area. In East Africa, it was a different story however. The famous German commander Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck, leading a combined force of Germans and native Askari’s, defeated a British naval invasion attempt at Tanga in early November, despite being heavily outnumbered. The parallel land invasion was also defeated at the Kilimanjaro, where the Germans were actually being led by a  major actually named Georg K raut (I had to put the space in to make the forum show the man’s name!). Finally, the anticipated South African invasion into German Southwest Africa (present-day Namibia), was thwarted by a rebellion among South African soldiers of Boer descent. The Boers, who were of Dutch origin and had been defeated by the British in their own independence war a little over a decade earlier, were not at all eager to fight for the British cause. But the South Africans still captured Luderitz, and all in all, the German prospects here were looking bleak in the face of the South African numerical superiority.

Germany’s Kiautschou Bay Concession in China had been under attack by the Japanese since September. The Japanese military had been strengthened considerable during the pre-World War I period, and they were eager to capitalize on their power by extending Japan’s influence. A British request for assistance against the German colonies gave Japan a welcome opportunity, and they sent an overwhelming force against Kiautschou. The attack culminated in the siege of Tsingtao, which capitulated on November 7 after heavy bombardments. By then, the Japanese had already captured Germany’s Pacific islands, that Germany itself had bought from Spain some 15-20 years earlier. German New Guinea had been captured by Australian troops in September. Lieutenant Hermann Detzner and a few of his men would hold out in the jungle for the remainder of the war, however.

Various naval engagements that took place during these months have already been covered by AB Worsham an Wittmann (thanks, gentlemen!), but we might add SMS Emden, a German cruiser that sank a Russian cruiser and a French destroyer at the battle of Penang in late October, but had to be beached in the Cocos Islands when HMAS Sydney proved too strong an opponent on November 9.

Emden, what a ship!

A few days ago a hundred years ago, December 8, 1914 the Battle of the Falkland Islands was fought. This battle ended the threat of the elite German Far East Fleet.

On the morning of 16 December 1914, the shipping town of Hartlepool in north-east England was bombarded by the German Navy during its first attack on the UK’s home front during World War One.

During the 40-minute attack, 1,150 shells were fired, devastating large areas of the town. It left 130 people dead and hundreds more injured.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-30484951

A hundred years ago today saw the Christmas Truce between German and British troops.

Amazing story.

During late 1914 and the beginning of 1915, the situation on the western front stabilized. But before it stabilized, there was one more major battle with a lot of bloodshed: the First Battle of Ypres, which started in October 1914 and continued until late November. As the name suggests, the strategic aim of this battle was the city of Ypres in southwest Belgium, which was the last major stronghold on Belgian territory, and probably also the last obstacle to keep the German advance from the ports of Dunkirk, Calais and Boulogne, which were of course important in British supply line.
The Germans almost made it, and pushed ahead to the north and to the south of Ypres, but in the end, they were unable to capture the fortified city itself. Or rather, the German command decided to call off the attack at some point in time, having reached the conclusion that they couldn’t win the battle. The (mainly) British were at the verge of collapse when that happened, and whether or not Ypres would have fallen if the Germans had pressed on despite heavy losses, is within the realm of speculation. But it’s safe to say that the decision not to do so, was a crucial one. After the battle, there was considerable disagreement within the German high command on what to do next. Von Falkenhayn even proposed to seek a diplomatic solution, but he was opposed by other senior commanders and diplomats.
The front as it was at the end of the First Battle of Ypres, would run across approximately the same line for the remainder of the war, almost until its end in 1918. There would be many smaller and greater battles, and the loss of young lives on either side would be horrific, but little more ground was gained by either side. I often go to England on vacation, and the sheer number of names on war memorials in small villages are a grim reminder of what the Great War did to Europe’s families.

Of course, the dramatic fights of these months created many peculiar stories. AB Worsham already reminded us of the famous Christmas Truce between the fighting men - a moment of peace which did not find agreement with their commanders, who made sure that it wouldn’t be repeated. Another curious incident seems to have happened in late October. Sergeant Henry Tandy saw a wounded German soldier wandering into his line of fire, and decided not to shoot the unthreatening man, who nodded in gratitude before retreating. The name of that soldier, a volunteer in the Bavarian Army, was Adolf Hitler.

In the east, while the Germans had successfully repulsed the Russian invasion of East Prussia, they didn’t capitalize on that victory by gaining additional territory. It seemed that in the east, the central powers were primarily fighting a defensive war. Austria-Hungary remained under strong Russian pressure for some time to come, and it was only at the battle of Limanowa, fought under harsh conditions in the Carpathian Mountains in early December, that they finally stopped the Russian advance, preventing a breakthrough that could otherwise have reached Hungary. But Galicia was lost and remained in Russian hands.

The Serbians achieved an important success by winning the Battle of the Kolubara River against the Austrians, and even recaptured Belgrade after that city had been lost. But their overall situation was deteriorating, especially after Bulgaria entered the fight on the side of Austria-Hungary, and launched an invasion as well.

Here’s an odd one.  It sounds like these guys flunked basic geography in high school.

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Today marks the 100th anniversary of the bombing of a train bridge on the Maine-New Brunswick border during the First World War.

In the early-morning hours of Feb. 2, 1915, German agent Werner Horn and his Irish accomplice planted a large satchel of explosives on the CPR train bridge between Vanceboro, Maine, and St. Croix, N.B., says Brent Wilson, director of the New Brunswick Military Heritage project at the University of New Brunswick’s Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society.

They thought they could take out a strategic supply line to the Canadian war effort, says Wilson.

Japan had recently entered the war and the conspirators misguidedly thought a Japanese army might soon be using the rail line to get to the Western Front.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/werner-horn-s-st-croix-bridge-bombing-in-ww-i-happened-100-years-ago-today-1.2940299

@CWO:

Here’s an odd one.  It sounds like these guys flunked basic geography in high school.

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Today marks the 100th anniversary of the bombing of a train bridge on the Maine-New Brunswick border during the First World War.

In the early-morning hours of Feb. 2, 1915, German agent Werner Horn and his Irish accomplice planted a large satchel of explosives on the CPR train bridge between Vanceboro, Maine, and St. Croix, N.B., says Brent Wilson, director of the New Brunswick Military Heritage project at the University of New Brunswick’s Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society.

They thought they could take out a strategic supply line to the Canadian war effort, says Wilson.

Japan had recently entered the war and the conspirators misguidedly thought a Japanese army might soon be using the rail line to get to the Western Front.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/werner-horn-s-st-croix-bridge-bombing-in-ww-i-happened-100-years-ago-today-1.2940299

. Great story.

The western front had dug in by this time in 1915, but there were some developments in the east, where the Germans had pushed the Russians back into central Poland (which was Russian-owned in 1914), while conversely, the Russians had gained ground against the Austrians. At the battle of Bolimov, the Germans first used poison gas, but it turned out to be ineffective due to the low temperatures. February 7 saw the beginning of a major German attack in the north, in what would become the second battle of the Masurian Lakes.

The Ottoman Empire had actively entered the war on the side of the Central Powers by now, but they fared poorly against the Russians in the Caucasus, where they had lost the battle of Sarikamish in December-January, and also against the British, when a raid on the Suez Canal was defeated in January-February.
Still, the Ottomans caused the Allies quite some trouble at the time, because the Sultan’s envoys managed to incite various uprisings in their North African colonies. Such battles in the Sahara are traditionally associated with the famous French Foreign Legion, but in reality, they were mostly active in Europe during World War I, and the protracted warfare in areas such as Morocco and Niger were fought by other colonial troops. Religion was definitely a factor here: jihad is not a modern word.

In South Africa, the Maritz Rebellion, a Boer uprising, had been suppressed in early February. South African forces were now preparing to resume their invasion of German South West Africa.
Not too much happened in East Africa, because the British refrained from further attempts after their 1914 defeats at the battles of Kilimanjaro and Tanga. SMS Konigsberg. under the command of Captain Max Looff, had been successful in the Indian Ocean in 1914, but had been forced to seek refuge in the Rufiji delta, and was blocked by the British.

After the fall of Tsingtao and the Pacific colonies to the Japanese and the British, German presence in East Asia and the Pacific was very limited. SMS Dresden had survived the battle of the Falkland Islands and returned to the Pacific, but wouldn’t last long.

May 31, 2016: 100th anniversary of the start of the Battle of Jutland, the largest naval battle of WWI, and history’s only full-scale engagement between fleets of dreadnought battleships and battlecruisers (even though the battleship groups were only in sight of each other for a brief amount of time overall).

As our naval expert, Marc, who would you say won at Jutland? Germany because of the greater damage and loss of life inflicted? Or Britain because the German fleet retreated (and never ventured out again)?

Of course Britain only needed not to lose. The blockade was maintained and so some say Jutland was the battle that won the war.

I imagine that the allied armies would disagree with that, especially given the furious German onslaught early in 1918 and the series of victories subsequently, with the deployment of various advances in tactics and equipment, such as the tank and rolling artillery barrage.

It was definitely a British victory, for the reasons you mentioned. Strategy was all that mattered, not at the tactical level.  The German fleet never sailed again and Britain never lost control of the seas.