The First World War

[Trintron]

Originally Posted by savage560

does anyone know if they were in the Balkans fighting there against Bulgaria,Ottomans,Albanians, or others allied to the central powers?

It is my understanding that Russia did not intervene directly in the Balkans, but their support of Serbia was vital, remember up until the Autumn of 1915, Serbia did very well against Austria-Hungary, the first Austro-Hungarian Invasion did not go well and ended in disaster. It was not until 1915 that Bulgaria entered the war and help defeat Serbia, it was not until 1916 that Romania entered the war against the Central Powers.

I don't think Russia would have been able to get any troops over into that part of the world, Bulgaria and Romania were both non-combatants at the time, and the Ottoman Empire had control of the Bosporus, so getting there would have been hard, but not impossible.

By the end of the Summer in 1916, Russia was already in trouble, they were very close to being forced to capitulate. Romania asked Russia for support to stop the Bulgarians and Austro-Hungarians but none came.

[savage560]

Thanx Trinitron.I did a little further research too,& it appears that Bulgaria attacked Serbia & Rumania,with the Russians kept very "busy" on their own fronts ,unable to aid the 2 countries directly.Russia however aided Serbia early in the war by attacking the AHE vigorously from the north.Serbia managed to get her remaining army into Greece, & along with Brit & Greek troops managed to reverse losses to Bulgaria.The war was very unpopular & disasterous on their economy in Bulgaria, & the government sued for peace,soon after the Allied victories against them.

[Ennath]

The Allies had large forces in the Balkans from autumn 1915 on, including a couple of Russian brigades until the Revolution. Their situation was complicated. Their main base was at Salonika, but Greece was officially neutral and King Constantine was pro-German, along with a lot of Greek public opinion. The leading Greek politician, Venizelos, was pro-Allied and occasionally openly rebellious against the royal government. The Alles slapped a blockade on the Greeks every now and then to get Constantine to ease off and actually fought royal troops in December 1916. Finally, Constantine abdicated in spring 1917 and Greece joined the war on the Allied side.

There were Allied offensives against the Bulgarians, but the Bulgarian troops fought quite well and the Allied commander until late 1917 was Maurice Sarrail, a political intriguer whose main qualifications were his radical republican politics and friends in the government. The Allied gains were out of proportion to the strength committed. The Germans sometimes called the Salonika area (Macedonian Front) "our largest internment camp."

The Allies finally knocked Bulgaria out of the war in September 1918, by a combination of getting their act together, a good commander (Franchet d'Esperay) and, mostly, Bulgarian war weariness and shortages of just about everything.

[Trintron]

Bulgaria's role in the war is a interesting one, from what I have read is that Bulgaria could have fought for either the Allies or the Central Powers. Either way, the citizens of Bulgaria did not want to fight another war and were interested in keeping the country neutral.

I guess diplomatic isolation and a high public dept will make political leaders do anything. So they joined the Central Powers, I am surprised that they did this, relations between Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire were not good by any stretch of the imagination.

In the end, Bulgaria's King Ferdinand I had to abdicate in favor of Boris III due to pressure from a unhappy public.

[savage560]

Originally Posted by Trintron

I guess diplomatic isolation and a high public dept will make political leaders do anything. So they joined the Central Powers, I am surprised that the did this, relations between Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire were not good by any stretch of the imagination.

Very true Trin,& compounding this strange alliance is Bulgaria has such close traditional ties with the Russians,similar to the Serbs;Orthodox religion,language (& they both use a variant of russian Cyrilic for their written language) is one of the closest to Russian along with Serbian,& f course same type of Slavic herritage.

I think it was the Bulgars hopes of regaining some of the lands & prestige lost to Greece & Serbia during the Second Balkan War,in which they had lost.They also viewed the Serbs & to a lesser extent the Greeks as a rival powers in the Balkans,& had a deep long standing misstrust of the Serbs.

Strange bedfellows being on the same side as their ancient nemesis the Ottomans though!During the Second Balkan War the Turks rubbed salt in the Bulgar wounds by forcibly taking back its lost territories it had lost to them in the First Balkan War!The Bulgars had territory in the first of such wars it gained to the outskirts of Contantinople!The Turks hung on to the European portion of the empire by a thread & only had "Tsargrad" & vicinity as the Slavic world called Contantinople & a good portion of the Galipoli peninsula.Bulgaria had won the lions share.The Bulgars had more or less rightfully Serbia,Greece, & even to a lesser extent Imperial Russia to blame,for not helping mediate a peace, & obviously did not forget it!

[Ennath]

May 19, 1913
France Socialists demonstrate in Paris against extension of military service to 3 years.

May 19, 1914
Diplomatic Relations A treaty settles the border between French Tunisia and Italian Tripolitania.

May 19, 1915
Western Front The Battle of Festubert degenerates into inconclusive local actions.
Eastern Front In Galicia, German troops take Lutkow. The Russian salient on the west side of the San is smashed. Russian reinforcements, arriving to face the breakthrough, are wasted in two days of piecemeal counterattacks.
Dardanelles The Turks continue their attack on the Anzac positions. Though outnumbered 2-1, the Anzac’s again hold fast. Hamilton receives a gloomy dispatch from Kitchener expressing his disappointment over the continuing failure at Gallipoli and his concern “whether we can long support two fields of operation draining on our resources.”
Caucasus The Russians arrive at Van, relieving the besieged Armenians.
Britain The age limit for recruits is fixed at 40.

May 19, 1916
Italian Front The Trentino offensive stalls momentarily as the Austrians fail to take Monte Pasubio and Col Santo, incurring heavy casualties. But the beleaguered Italians destroy their forts at Monte Toraro, Monte Campolon, and Monte Melignone, giving the Austrians control of the Della Verena Pass. Archduke Karl, heir to the throne and commander of 11th Army’s XX Corps, spearhead of the offensive, sends a message to Conrad, “Breakthrough completed.”
Entente Diplomacy Italian representatives at STAVKA insist that the Russians open an offensive to relieve Austrian pressure on the Italian Front, threatening to conclude a separate peace otherwise.
Mesopotamia The Turks evacuate the Dujaila works.

May 19, 1917
Western Front The British push beyond Bullecourt. German attacks on the Chemin des Dames are repulsed.
French Command Petain issues his Directive #1, setting out a policy of short, limited offensives. The ability to move troops rapidly from place to place to gain surprise in these attacks will also aid defense in moving reserves. Petain will carry out only a few minor offensives in the coming months, rebuilding the morale of the troops and waiting for the “Yanks and tanks”.
Italian Front Austrian counterattacks are repulsed. A surprise night attack on Vodice collapses. Austrian 5th Army is renamed the Isonzo Army.
Diplomatic Relations Nicaragua severs relations with Germany.
Russia Trying to resolve the government crisis, leaders of the Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet, over the objections of the Bolsheviks, agree to a combined government that includes five socialists in addition to Kerensky, who becomes Minister of War and marine. Lvov continues as premier. Milyukhov resigns.
United States Concerned over rapidly climbing food prices, Wilson has chosen Herbert Hoover as administrator of a committee of the Council of National Defense. He announces that he wants Hoover to have authority to fix prices, investigate food stocks and the methods of pricing and distribution, take measures to prevent hoarding and waste, and oversee licensing and requisitioning. Such authority will require Congressional approval.


May 19, 1918
War in the Air Over 20 Gothas raid London; 49 are killed and 5 raiders are downed. It is the last such raid; in 22 Gotha raids on England, 93 tons of bombs have been dropped (a pittance compared to World War II totals) and 61 bombers lost.
Raoul Lufbery (18 kills), leading ace of the Franco-American Lafayette Escadrille, is shot down and killed.
Italian Front Austrian advanced positions at Capo Sile are captured.

May 19, 1919
Turkey Mustafa Kemal arrives in Samsun, appointed Inspector General in Anatolia to oversee demobilization here.

[Ennath]

May 20, 1882
Diplomatic Relations Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy sign the Triple Alliance, a defensive pact directed primarily against France. It is also anti-Russian, due to the conflicting Austrian and Russian ambitions in the Balkans. Bismarck is able to juggle Austria-Hungary and Russia via a secret “re-insurance” treaty with Russia, behind the back of his Austrian ally. Italy has joined due to losing a colonial race to possess Tunisia to the French, but the Italians’ main foreign antagonist is actually Austria-Hungary.

May 20, 1914
Persia The British government obtains a controlling interest in the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in order to safeguard the navy’s oil supplies. The newest ship types use oil fuel rather than the traditional coal-fired boilers.

May 20, 1915
Western Front There is a slight British advance at Festubert. French 10th Army renews its attack in Artois; General d’Urbal has now opted for a series of small operations to capture and secure specific points to aid future advances.
Eastern Front German guns bombard Przemysl.
Russian Command The energetic commander of the Baltic Fleet, Admiral Nikolai Essen, dies suddenly of a lung infection. He is replaced by Admiral Viktor Kanin.
Italy The government is granted extraordinary powers in preparation for entry into the war.
Southwest Africa Botha and Seitz meet at Giftkop to discuss terms for ending the fighting. The talks fail and both men return to their bases to prepare for renewed hostilities.

May 20, 1916
Western Front, Verdun With the advantage of controlling Hill 304, the Germans storm Le Mort Homme, but fail to gain the summit. They do take the summit of Hill 295.
Western Front, Elsewhere The British regain the mine crater at Vimy Ridge.
Italian Front Count Cadorna, Italian commander in chief, confers with General Pietro Frugoni, commanding 2nd Army, and the Duke of Asota, commanding 3rd Army, on the Isonzo front. Deeply concerned that Austrian XX Corps may break through into the Venetian Plains, Cadorna and his commanders agree to the possibility of abandoning the Isonzo River front and to otherwise take all necessary steps to shore up the Trentino defenses. Italian 1st Army in the Trentino is ordered to fight to the last man. Rather inexplicably, Archduke Eugen, army group commander in charge of the offensive, issues orders for regrouping his forces, sending the 3rd Army into a flanking movement at the Assa Gorge, instead of supporting XX Corps’ rapid advance and thus providing the Italians with valuable time for reinforcing their frontline troops. Austrian troops capture Cima di Leva.

May 20, 1917
Western Front The 2nd Battle of the Aisne ends.
Italian Front An Italian assault on Monte Santo fails. More Austrian counterattacks on the Carso fail. The Austrians are almost out of reserves.
United States An offer from Theodore Roosevelt to raise a force for France is declined.
Canada A conscription bill is proposed.
War at Sea U-36 becomes the first submarine sunk by air attack, the victim of a British flying boat in the North Sea.
RussiaA Congress of Officers meets at Mogilev under the auspices of the Officers’ Union.

May 20, 1918
Western Front There is a major French raid near Bermericourt.
United States President Wilson signs the Overman Act, which authorizes the president to reorganize the functions of the executive branch’s agencies in any way he deems fit, including abolishing bureaus and offices or creating new ones, consolidating existing agencies, and redefining duties – an extraordinary grant of authority to the chief executive by the Congress.
Russia The Soviet government orders the Czech Legion, now strung out along the Trans-Siberian Railway, to surrender their arms. When the Czechs refuse, Trotsky, now Commissar of War, orders the Red Army to forcibly disarm and detain them. Fighting breaks out along the railway.

May 20, 1919
Germany The Allied occupation armies on the Rhine prepare themselves to march in case the Germans should reject the Paris peace terms.
Latvia The Baltic Landwehr drives the Soviets from Riga.
Hungary Hoping to win popular support by restoring the old borders, Kun sends his troops to attack Czechoslovakia. The Czechs are defeated at Miskolc. Rumanian attacks to try and relieve the pressure on the Czechs fail.

May 20, 1920
United States Congress passes a joint resolution ending the state of war with Germany. Wilson vetoes it.
Germany The swastika first appears on the Nazi party banner.

May 20, 1927
Technology American Charles Lindbergh leaves New York on the first solo non-stop trans-Atlantic flight, arriving in Paris the next day. He becomes an international celebrity.

[squigg58]

Originally Posted by Ennath

May 20, 1917
War at Sea U-36 becomes the first submarine sunk by air attack, the victim of a British flying boat in the North Sea.

There's been much debate about this one, and to add to the confusion, Germany lost three "U-36's" during WWI as different classes of U-boats were given the same numerical designation!

SM U-36, a Type 31 U-boat was sunk by Prince Charles, a Royal Navy "Q Ship" (heavily armed vessel disguised as a merchant ship) on the 24th July 1915.

The main debate concerns the fate of SM UC-36 (a Type UC II minelaying submarine) and SM UB-36 (a Type UB II torpedo-attack submarine).

UB-36 is often reported as having been sunk by the French steamer Moliere on the 21st May, 1917. However, records suggest this was in fact UC-36.

The fate of UB-36 is "unknown", as she failed to return from a patrol having set out on the 9th May 1917. Some sources suggest she may have struck a mine, while others claim she was sunk by a RNAS Curtiss H-12 flying boat on the 21st May, 1917. The mine thoery is the more credible as the UB-36 had been ordered to patrol the English Channel and return to base "at the latest after eight days". It's therefore unlikely that UB-36 would have been sunk on the 21st when she was due back home before then. Furthermore, there are no reports of ships being attacked in the patrol area assigned to UB-36, so it's likely that she was sunk soon after her departure on the 9th.

It's possible that UB-32 was the first U-boat sunk by an aircraft (another Curtiss H-12), being lost on the 22nd September, 1917. However, the cause of the sinking is again disputed.

Just to confuse things even farther, on the 9th of August 1916, aircraft of the Austrian Naval Air Service sank the British submarine, HMS B10, while she was under repair in Venice. B10 was subsequently raised and sold for scrap. Technically, she was the first submarine to be sunk by aircraft.

However, if being sunk while tied up and under repair "doesn't count", we need to look at the loss of the French submarine Foucault which was attacked in the southern Adriatic by the Austrian Lohner Flying Boat L135 on the 15th September 1916. Foucault was damaged and forced to the surface. L135 was joined by L132 and the two seaplanes then touched down near the submarine so that the crew could cling to the aircraft until an Austrian torpedo boat arrived to rescue them. No lives were lost. Some sources state that the Foucault was scuttled by the crew after she was forced to the surface ... so does that count as a sinking?

[Ennath]

May 21-28, 1871
France Troops of the new Third Republic of France enter Paris and defeat the Commune in a week of bloody fighting. The Communards murder hostages, including the Archbishop of Paris, and destroy many buildings, including the Tuileries Palace. Government troops are equally ruthless. An estimated 20,000 Parisians are executed in the reprisals. The new republic is off to a poor start and will never succeed in winning the firm affection of large segments of the population. The far left cannot forgive the suppression of the Commune and the aristocracy and far right are unreconciled to a republic.

May 21, 1915
Western Front The French capture White Road near Souchez.
French Forces The Adrian pattern helmet is adopted for service.
Britain Pressed by Conservative leader Andrew Bonar Law after Fisher’s resignation and amid emerging scandal over the shell shortage, Asquith agrees to remove Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty and to form a coalition government.
Eastern Front The Russians launch an attack to cover the evacuation of Przemysl.
Caucasus The Turks retreat on Bitlis.

May 21, 1916
Western Front, Verdun Some local French counterattacks succeed, but the Germans clear the western slopes of Le Mort Homme.
Italian Front The Austrians capture Armenterra Ridge, south of the Brenta.
Caucasus A Turkish attack south of Trebizond is repulsed.
Sudan The Anglo-Egyptian advance in Darfur resumes. Advancing in square, the last time for the British army, they are attacked at the village of Beringia by the main Fur army, some 4000 strong. The Fur are heavily defeated, leaving 261 dead.
German East Africa Belgian troops complete the clearance of Ruanda.
Persia Russian troops occupy Serdasht.

May 21, 1917
Italian Front There is heavy fighting in the Trentino.

May 21, 1918
Western Front A German raid northwest of Merville stalls.
Russia Increasing unrest in Kiev is suppressed by German troops.
Caucasus Turkish forces attack Armenian forces around Sardarapat, taking the town.

May 21, 1919
Arabia Hashemite troops launch an expedition against the fundamentalist Ikhwan and occupy Turaba. This is a threat to ibn Saud, who organizes a counterattack. The struggle between Saudis and Hashemites for control of Arabia begins.

[tygrkhat40]

Originally Posted by squigg58

Some sources state that the Foucault was scuttled by the crew after she was forced to the surface ... so does that count as a sinking?

IMO, no it doesn't. A sinking is due to external forces; an attack, hitting an obstacle, weather conditions, etc. A scuttling is due to internal forces.