The First World War

[palo5]

What will Australians say?

[Ennath]

April 17, 1895
Diplomatic Relations The Treaty of Shimonoseki ends the Sino-Japanese War. China recognizes Korean independence and pays an indemnity. Formosa is ceded to Japan. The war marks Japan’s emergence as a major world power. The other powers now engage in a scramble for Chinese territory.

April 17, 1915
Western Front The British take Hill 60 at St. Eloi. The “Tin Hat” helmet is first used in action here. Hints, including escaped prisoners and deserters, have indicated that the Germans are planning an attack with poison gas. Today, the Germans accuse the British of gas attacks, perhaps to claim a right of retaliation. But French and Smith-Dorrien remain skeptical as nothing suspicious has been discerned by air reconnaissance.
Eastern Front In eastern Galicia the Austrians attack toward Styrj.
Mediterranean The British submarine E-15 penetrates the Sea of Marmara, but a violent current drives it aground. Coming under artillery fire, the British scuttle the vessel.
Mesopotamia Indian cavalry occupy Nakaila.

April 17, 1916
Western Front, Verdun The Germans are repulsed west of Douaumont, but gain a footing in the Bois de Chaudfour.
Italian Front In the Dolomites, the Italians take the west face of Monte Ancona.
Caucasus The Russians occupy Surmeneh and reach Assene Kalessi.
Mesopotamia The British take Beit Aiessa.
Diplomatic Relations Italy prohibits trading with Germany.

April 17, 1917
Western Front While Mangin consolidates his position and Mazel pauses due to unfavorable weather, Nivelle sends the 4th Army, under Francois Anthome, into battle in the Champagne sector, attacking toward Moronvillers. Anthome achieves a small advance, taking the heights and 3500 prisoners. On Mangin’s left flank, the Germans withdraw during the night toward the Chemin des Dames, leaving Vailly, Aizy, Sancy and Jouy burning in their wake.
Britain The Times carries reports of German “corpse utilization factories”, melting down battlefield corpses for fat for soap and industrial processes. This is a notorious propaganda ploy, leading to doubt during World War II when concentration camp victims actually are so disposed of.

April 17, 1918
Western Front The Germans renew the attack along the entire Lys front. Wytschaete is again lost. The Belgians thoroughly repulse an attack at Dixmude. The Germans achieve only minimal gains. The French repulse attacks on the Meuse and in Champagne.
France German agent Bolo Pasha is executed.
North Sea British monitors bombard Ostend.
Austria-Hungary Baron Burian returns as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

[Ennath]

April 18, 1915
Western Front The Germans fail to retake Hill 60.
Eastern Front The Russians repulse counterattacks in the Carpathians.
India A Pathan raid is repulsed at the northern end of Peshawar Valley.

April 18, 1916
France The Germans announce the deportation of civilians from Lille and elsewhere in occupied territory.
Caucasus Trebizond falls to the Russians. The city provides the Russians with another coastal base from which to supply their advance into eastern Anatolia. Progress is made west of Erzurum.
Mesopotamia A Turkish counterattack at Sannaiyat forces the British back 500 yards.
German East Africa Van Deventer’s Mounted Brigade, now reduced by disease, hunger, and fatigue to only 600 men fit for duty, reaches Kondoa Irangi, abandoned by the Germans.

April 18, 1917
Western Front, Aisne The French take Vailly and a bridgehead at Conde, repulse a counterattack at Juvincourt and consolidate their positions at Moronvillers. Nivelle orders Duchene’s 10th Army into the attack.
Western Front, Arras British troops take Villers-Guislain, south of Cambrai.
MesopotamiaA British night attack forces a crossing of the Shatt-el-Adhaim, the left tributary of the Tigris below Samarra. 1200 prisoners are taken.
Britain Cake and pastry making are restricted.
Germany The government makes concessions to the strikers.
Belgium General von Bissing, Governor-General of Belgium, dies.

April 18, 1918
Western Front There are heavy attacks from Givenchy to the Lys. Attacks south of Mount Kemmel are repulsed. The Belgians repulse an attack northwest of Passchendaele. With the British line holding fast, 3 French divisions – Foch has relented somewhat – relieve Plumer’s troops between Meteren and Mount Kemmel.
Macedonia Italian troops repulse a Bulgarian attack at the Cherna Bend.
United States Wilson creates the National War Labor Board, giving its members authority “to promote and carry on mediation and adjustment in the field of production necessary for the effective conduct of the war” in all cases where existing agreements or laws do not provide for means of effecting settlements.
Ireland A meeting in Dublin organizes opposition to government plans to extend conscription to Ireland. Nationalist leaders withdraw from Parliament in protest of the plan.

[Ennath]

April 19, 1915
Western Front Fighting continues for Hill 60.
War in the Air Ground fire forces down Roland Garros behind German lines. He fails in an attempt to destroy his plane and its bullet-deflector, which falls into enemy hands. The Germans go to work adapting the device. Garros has shot down five German planes in the previous two weeks, becoming the first air ace.
Southwest Africa The Germans evacuate Keetmanshoop.

April 19, 1916
Western Front, Verdun The Germans fail in three attacks on Les Eparges.
Western Front, Elsewhere The Germans take positions at St. Eloi and north of Langemarck.
French Command General Castelnau, Joffre’s chief of staff, telephones Petain at his headquarters to inform him that Joffre has decided to relieve General Langle de Cary as commander of Army Group Center, replacing him with Petain. General Robert Nivelle will assume Petain’s command of 2nd Army at Verdun. Although he will remain in overall command, Petain’s new post will take him to Bar-le-Duc, well removed from the Verdun front and he fears for what his 2nd Army soldiers will face under Nivelle, who wholeheartedly supports the murderous struggle.
Turkish Command Von der Goltz dies of cholera.

April 19, 1917
Western Front The French capture the fort at Conde and Le Teton on the Moronvillers massif.
Palestine Based on misleading reports from General Murray portraying the Gaza expedition as “most successful”, Lloyd George believes all is well and sets Jerusalem as Murray’s next objective, necessitating another attack at Gaza. But this time, the Turks are fully prepared. Although Murray sends 3 divisions supported by tanks, this second attack on Gaza fails dismally – the Turks not only hold but counterattack. The British lose 6500 men to 2000 Turkish casualties. As a result, Murray relieves Dobell of his command.
Russian Command Admiral Kolchak is transferred from command of the Black Sea Fleet to that of the Baltic Fleet.
France There are restrictions placed on pastry making.
United States A policy is announced giving food shipment priority to Allied nations before neutrals.

April 19, 1918
Western Front The British position is restored at Givenchy.
Eastern Front The Germans occupy two stations on the Sevastopol line.
Macedonia British troops withdraw from the Struma valley positions occupied on the 15th.
Diplomatic Relations The U.S. State Department announces that the occupation of Vladivostok is merely a police precaution.
The Dutch have announced that they intend to send a convoy to the East Indies. The British government announces a right to search the convoy.

April 19, 1919
Eastern Europe Polish troops reoccupy Vilna. Desultory fighting continues into the spring of 1920, bringing Polish forces to the Berezina River and into the northern Ukraine.

[Ennath]

April 20, 1915
Western Front In Lorraine, the Germans take Embermenil.
Eastern Front An Austro-German attack near Gorlice fails.
Caucasus The Armenian rebels seize Van and face immediate Turkish attempts to retake it.
Southwest Africa German troops are defeated by the South Africans at Kebus, near Keetmanshoop.
Cameroon Anglo-French troops take Mandera.
Britain Asquith, speaking in Newcastle, denies that military operations have been hampered by a lack of munitions.

April 20, 1916
Western Front, Verdun The French regain some ground near Le Mort Homme.
Western Front, Elsewhere The first elements of the Russian Legion arrive at Marseilles.
Caucasus The Russians gain in the Bitlis sector.
Mesopotamia The effort to relieve Kut collapses as another attack on the Turkish position at Sannaiyat fails. The Tigris Corps’ casualties total nearly 10,000 men, one fourth of the force. Total losses since January number 23,000, an unqualified disaster, especially considering that Townshend’s force at Kut numbers about 12,500, about half the men killed or wounded in the relief effort. Turkish casualties are thought to number 10,000 since January.

April 20, 1917
Western Front French troops occupy Sancy. The British take Gonnelieu. All the generals and politicians now know the offensive has failed. The objectives of the offensive are changed from a breakthrough to limited offensives. Nivelle’s subordinate commanders have lost all confidence in him.
English Channel For a third time, the Germans send two destroyer flotillas out of Zeebrugge for a raid on Dover. Although the Dover Patrol is unaware of the German approach, two scouting destroyers, Swift and Broke, come upon one of the flotillas, six strong, southwest of Goodwin Sands. The Broke rams one of the German destroyers and, repulsing a boarding attempt, then breaks free. The German destroyer sinks. The Swift accounts for another German as British reinforcements begin to arrive on the scene, sending the remaining Germans into flight. The skirmish discourages any subsequent German raids on the Dover coast.
Diplomatic Relations In a meeting, Ribot and Lloyd George maintain the secrecy of Prince Sixtus’s intermediary efforts, but raise the question of pursuing peace negotiations with Austria-Hungary to test the Italian response. Italy’s foreign minister Baron Sidney Sonnino adamantly rejects the idea, insisting on the pursuit of total victory so that Italy will be guaranteed cession of Trieste, the Trentino, Dalmatia, and the Adriatic islands. His response torpedoes Sixtus’s effort.

April 20, 1918
Western Front Minor German attacks fail. At Seicheprey, on the Woevre, the Germans gain a minor success against French and American troops.
North Sea There is a destroyer clash off Heligoland Bight. One German ship is damaged.
South Africa The Governor-General issues a warning to the Nationalists.

April 20, 1919
Germany A government-backed Freikorps army is gathering just outside the Bavarian Soviet republic.
Hungary Rumanian troops take Oradea. The authorization is given to push ahead to the Tisza.
Yugoslavia Montenegro votes to depose King Nicholas and join Yugoslavia. Nicholas is the only monarch on the winning side to lose his throne.

[Mal Hombre]

With tomorrow being the anniversary of the death of Manfred Von Richthofen,Here is a quote from the preface to His autobiography which was published in translation in Britain- in 1918.
This little book gives one a useful insight into the enemy's methods, and more than little respect for at any rate some of those whom we are at present endeavoring to kill.
C. G. GREY

[Ennath]

April 21, 1915
Western Front The fighting for Hill 60 continues. Near St. Mihiel, the French take the “Cow’s Head”, two lines of trenches.
French Forces All troops are ordered to wear the new light blue uniform.
Eastern Front In the Carpathians, the Russians take Hill 1002, northeast of Lubonia.
Italian Front There is an affair between border guards.

April 21, 1916
Western Front, Verdun Twelve days of incessant rain have hindered action at the front. After assessing the results, the local commander, General Mudra, has expressed to Knobelsdorf, 6th Army chief of staff, his growing doubt that the offensive can succeed. In response, Knobelsdorf removes him from command and returns him to the Argonne front. Rather ironically, on this same day, Crown Prince Wilhelm, persuaded by Mudra’s arguments, concludes that the offensive has failed and should be ended. “A decisive success at Verdun could only be assured at the price of heavy sacrifices, out of all proportion to the desired gains.” Knobelsdorf disagrees, and replaces Mudra with a commander who shares his views, General Ewald von Lochow – the first move in a continuing chess game to counter the Crown Prince’s opposition and to keep the Verdun offensive rolling on.
Western Front, Elsewhere The British regain lost ground at Langemarck.
Ireland Sir Roger Casement lands in Ireland near Tralee from a U-Boat, having failed in his mission to Germany to obtain weapons for an uprising scheduled for Easter Week. However the German ship is sunk while trying to land arms on the Irish coast. Casement is arrested when he lands. Ironically, he has come to try and forestall the rising, due to the lack of support.

April 21, 1917
Western Front, Aisne After learning that Nivelle plans to continue his offensive, even throwing the 10th Army, under Denis Duchene, into the attack between Barry-au-Bac and Hurtebise Farm, Joseph Micheler, commanding the Reserve Army Group, expresses concern over the supply of artillery shells and recommends a much reduced offensive. Nivelle had led the army to expect only about 10,000 casualties and, as a result, the medical support system has virtually collapsed. The offensive has taken over 100,000 casualties. Compared with similar attacks in previous years, such losses might not have seemed excessive had not Nivelle so extravagantly promised a breakthrough and victory.
Western Front, Arras The British gain east of Fampoux.
Mesopotamia British troops moving up the rail line toward Samarra launch an attack on a Turkish defensive line near Istabulat defended by 11,000 troops. The Turks fall back during the night to consolidate their position.
Persia Russian cavalry repulse Kurdish irregulars near Kasr-i-Shirin.

April 21, 1918
Western Front The position at Seicheprey is restored.
War in the Air The great German ace Manfred von Richtofen, the “Red Baron”, meets his end, apparently the victim of ground fire, although Captain Roy Brown, a Canadian flying a Sopwith Camel, claims the victory. His total score at his death stands at 80, making him the leading ace of the war.

[palo5]

Originally Posted by Ennath

April 21, 1918
War in the Air The great German ace Manfred von Richtofen, the “Red Baron”, meets his end, apparently the victim of ground fire, although Captain Roy Brown, a Canadian flying a Sopwith Camel, claims the victory...

If today's medical opinion is correct, and if 1918's description of the wound is correct, and if witness reports from 1918 are correct... how many 'ifs' is that?... then the airman can't have killed him

Experts say that v. Richthofen's wound would cause death in around 20 seconds, but the airman already flew away minutes before, so therefore it must have been ground fire that killed him

[Mal Hombre]

At the end of the day it doesn't matter Who killed Him,The main point was that He was dead and that was a blow to German morale and a boost to that of Allied pilots.

[palo5]

Originally Posted by Mal Hombre

At the end of the day it doesn't matter Who killed Him,The main point was that He was dead and that was a blow to German morale and a boost to that of Allied pilots.

Yes, but his post was taken over by the mastermind Hermann Goering. How can Allied morale have risen?

Actually, we shouldn't laugh - at that time he was not a drug addict