The First World War

[palo5]

Originally Posted by Ennath

April 25-May 7, 1920
Eastern Europe ...Polish general Josef Pilsudski prepares to swing north behind the Pripet Marshes to hit Soviet Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky in the rear. The plan is, however, too ambitious for the forces and logistical backup available to him.

Tuchachevsky was also a very capable man, who made major contributions to Soviet military doctrine and manuals, much more than anyone else actually. Unfortunately, he was killed in Stalin's paranoid purges. This was a tragedy, because he would have been a great asset in WW2

[Ennath]

At the time he was purged, Tukhachevsky was planning to reorganize Soviet motorized forces along the lines pursued by Guderian in Germany, Fuller in Britain, and De Gaulle in France. These plans were shelved after his death. No one wanted to be caught sharing an opinion with him.

[Navvet]

Frank W. Buckles, the last known American veteran of the Great War, died just a little over a year ago. He was 110.
It's hard to believe that it's been almost 94 years since that murderous war ended.

[haroldeye]

A little known fact is that the officer commanding the last Company to leave the Dardenelles was Clem Atlee, later to be Prime Minister.

[Historian]

Originally Posted by tmee2000

From the landings at V Beach six VCs were awarded, all to men of the Royal Naval Division. Another six VCs would also be awarded, eventually, to troops of the Lancashire Fusiliers who landed at W Beach. That would become the main landing site at Cape Hellas.

The Lancashires' famous '6 VCs before breakfast'- Capt. Richard Willis, Capt. Cuthbert Bromley, Sgt Frank Stubbs, Sgt Alfred Richards, Cpl. John Grimshaw and Pvt William Keneally.

In terms of troop numbers, the Turkish defences the Lancashires faced at 'W Beach' were relatively light- a single infantry company (3rd/26th Regt). The physical defences were another story- Turkish engineers had been hard at work and 3rd/26th were very well dug-in:

'In the five weeks following the abortive naval assault of 18th March, Turkish engineers toiled to turn the beach at Tekke Burnu into a mini-fortress. A belt of wire, three rows deep, stretched almost the length of the 350-yard strip of sand. Submerged tripwires were laid just beyond the waters' edge and crude, but effective, landmines were sown on the shoreline. The beach, which varied in depth from 15 to 40 yards, was covered by 3 short trenches; one on each cliff and a third on the sandy rise which lay in the gully between them. This low ridge was in turn commanded by more Turkish positions to the North and South. According to British reports, the defences also included two machine gun posts burrowed into the cliff faces to enfilade the main wire entanglements. Further inland, two wired-in redoubts were sited to halt any breakthrough in the direction of 'Hill 138', a Turkish position between 'W' and 'V' beaches.'

Shortly after 6:00am, 672 men of the Lancashires were landed by rowing boats from HMS Euryalus, and initially, all went smoothly as the boats were released from their tows and rowed in- then about 50-100 yards from shore, all hell broke loose, as the Turks waited until the boats were in close range before opening fire

In the words of Capt. Willis:

'Not a sign of life was to be seen on the Peninsula in front of us. It might have been a deserted land we were nearing in our little boats. Then 'Crack!' The stroke oar of my boat fell forward, to the angry astonishment of his mates. The signal for the massacre had been given; rapid fire, machine guns and deadly-accurate sniping opened from the cliffs above, and soon the casualties included the rest of the crew, and many men....The timing of the ambush was perfect, we were completely exposed and helpless in our slow-moving boats, just target practice for the concealed Turks, and within a few minutes, only half the 30 men in my boat were left alive'.

The Lancashires scrambled out of their boats into four feet of seawater, and somehow made the beach, but were then forced to wait for the wire-cutting parties to cut a pathway for them. Trapped on the beach, they were being cut to pieces, and were unable to return effective fire- not only were the Turks dug in above them, but many of the British rifles had suffered from the effects of seawater and sand while coming ashore. Willis recalls forcing the bolt of a rifle open with his boot in order to take a shot at a sniper who was taking a heavy toll from close range.

Willis again:

'An astonishing sight was now seen- soldiers on the beach under close enemy fire, getting out brushes and oil to clean their rifles- a job which would not have been neccessary if the Company commander's request for rifle covers had been listened to'

Disaster was averted by the success of the northernmost landing parties on the left of the beach, and gradually, the Lancashires achieved their objectives, despite enormous casualties.
27 officers and 1002 men had embarked for Gallipoli- the following morning, the battalion could only muster 16 officers and 304 men...

Amongst the carnage, there had been many outstanding acts of bravery, and after consulting with his officers, the battalion's acting commander, Major Bishop (the actual CO, Lt-Col. Ormond, had been invalided home with a heart attack a few days previously- an event which, according to some accounts I've read, was apparently a great relief to many of those under his command!) nominated Willis, Bromley, Stubbs, Richards, Grimshaw and Keneally for the VC.

Initially, the awards fell victim to War Office bureaucracy, and it took a second attempt by Maj-Gen Sir Aylmer Hunter-Weston, under Article 13 of the VC warrant, which allowed for VC awards to be made to those selected by a ballot of the unit involved, before the first three were made. Hunter-Weston reporting that Capt. Willis had been nominated by the officers, Sgt Richards by the NCOs, and Pvt Keneally by the other ranks. These awards were confirmed in August 1915.

Other awards included a DCM for L/Cpl Grimshaw, however a member of Hunter-Weston's staff, Brigadier Owen Wolley-Dod, himself a former Lancs Fusilier, felt an injustice had been done to his old regiment, and pressed for the case to be re-examined, and eventually, the remaining three were awarded in March 1917, Grimshaw, much to his surprise, exchanging his DCM for the VC

The citation for all six men was the same:

On the 25th April, 1915, headquarters and three companies of the 1st Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers in effecting a landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula to the West of Cape Helles, were met by very deadly fire from hidden machine guns, which caused a great number of casualties. The survivors, however, rushed up to and cut the wire entanglements, notwithstanding the terrific fire from the enemy, and after overcoming supreme difficulties, the cliffs were gained and the position maintained. Amongst the many very gallant officers and men engaged in this most hazardous undertaking, Capt. Willis, Sgt Richards, Private Keneally, Capt. Bromley, Sgt Stubbs and L/Cpl Grimshaw have been selected by their comrades as having performed the most signal acts of bravery and devotion to duty.

Stubbs' VC was posthumous, he had been the only one of the six to be killed on 'W' Beach, but by the time the final awards were made, Bromley had also perished- he was wounded and evacuated to Egypt in June, and drowned on 13 August, when the troopship 'Royal Edward', on which he was travelling back to Gallipoli, was torpedoed by a German submarine.

I'll post the story of the six Naval Division VCs from 'V' beach later.

[Ennath]

April 26, 1915
Diplomatic Relations After three days of negotiations, the Entente and Italy sign the secret Treaty of London, committing Italy to enter the war on the Allied side.The Italians are promised the South Tyrol, including the Brenner Pass, Gorizia, Istria and most of Dalmatia.
China rejects the 21 Demands.
Western Front At Ypres, the British continue to fail at St. Julien. German attacks pierce their line at Brodseinde. The French recover Het.
Dardanelles After suffering 700 casualties during the night, the force at Y Beach evacuates. Nevertheless, in the darkness, other Anzac troops have landed on the point, bringing their total to 15,000. The British storm Hill 141 and secure V Beach. However, the Anzac beachhead is only two miles long and less than a mile deep.
Caucasus The Russians advance on Olti.
War at Sea Short on coal, the auxiliary cruiser Kronprinz Wilhelm puts in at Newport News and is interned. It has sunk 15 ships of 60,552 tons.
Southwest Africa After two days of fighting, Smuts defeats the Germans at Gibeon. At Trekkopjes, a column of South Africans and Rhodesians defeats a German force with the aid of armored cars attacking the German flanks.

April 26, 1916
Ireland The British begin serious efforts to suppress the Easter Rising, as the gunboat Helga opens fire, destroying Liberty Hall, headquarters of the Labor Party, and other buildings. Many civilians are killed in the shelling and many buildings set afire. British troops land at Kingstown and march toward Dublin. Eamon de Valera’s fighters ambush them but cannot prevent the British from entering the city.
Mesopotamia Townshend opens negotiations for surrender, sending a letter to Kalil Pasha, the Turkish commander and a nephew of Enver. Townshend has been authorized to offer one million pounds and he proposes parole for his force and a six day armistice during which food can be brought into the town.
Diplomatic Relations Sir Mark Sykes, principal advisor to the British government on Middle Eastern affairs, and Georges Picot, former French consul general in Beirut, conclude negotiations on a postwar division of the territories controlled by the Ottoman Empire. The agreement contradicts other negotiations Britain has conducted via letter with Sherif Husain of Mecca that promise the Arabs a restoration of lands and autonomy. The secret Sykes-Picot Agreement provides that Russia will acquire several Armenian and Kurdish areas. France will acquire Lebanon, the Syrian littoral, and several areas adjacent to Russia’s share, and Britain will acquire Mesopotamia and the ports of Haifa and Acre; the territories between the British and French shares will become a confederation of Arab states where the two Allies will exercise “spheres of influence”. Alexandretta will be a free port and Palestine will have an international government.

April 26, 1917
Western Front German counterattacks in the Aisne and Arras sectors fail
Allied Planning Haig visits Defense Minister Painlevé, who assures him that the French offensive will continue, but indicates that he wishes to replace Nivelle.
Macedonia British troops repulse a Bulgarian counterattack.
Russia The Provisional Government abolishes deportation to Siberia for criminal offenses.

April 26, 1918
Western Front The Germans take Kemmel hill and village after a hard fight. A German attack in the Ypres sector is repulsed at Voormezeele. British troops retake Hangard Wood.

[Ennath]

April 27, 1906
Diplomatic Relations The Anglo-Chinese Convention on Tibet reaffirms that nation’s independence under Chinese ”suzerainty”. The Chinese interpret this to mean that Tibet is a part of China.

April 27, 1915
Western Front In response to a letter Smith-Dorrien has sent, expressing his view that he sees little reason to continue the offensive at Ypres “unless the French do something really big” and that it “will be very difficult to hold” the area east of Ypres, French angrily orders the attack to go on. An Allied attack north of Ypres is checked by renewed German gas attack.
Eastern Front The Germans in East Prussia attack toward Shavli, achieving a rapid advance.
Dardanelles All the Cape Helles beachheads are joined and secure. At the Anzac beachheads, the Allies remain under heavy Turkish fire despite naval gunfire support. Penetrating to the Sea of Marmara, the submarine E-14 sinks a Turkish gunboat.
Persia The Russians expel a Turkish garrison from Kutur.
Adriatic A successful French naval blockade of the Adriatic, designed to prevent Austrian ships from entering the Mediterranean through the Straits of Otranto, suffers a menacing loss when the Austrian submarine U-5, under Lt. Georg Ritter von Trapp, torpedoes the armored cruiser Leon Gambetta, sending 547 men to their deaths.
Britain First Lord of the Admiralty Churchill announces that 29 prisoners from German submarines are being separately confined and specially treated in reprisal for the German submarine campaign.

April 27, 1916
Western Front, Elsewhere A German attack south of Hulluch is repulsed by British XIX Corps, despite the most heavily concentrated gas attack yet seen. .
Ireland Martial law is extended to cover the whole island. Sir John Maxwell takes command. Asquith has sent him with orders to subdue the rebellion immediately. The mostly untrained troops sent from Britain begin shooting Irish men on sight, as the rebels, of course, do not wear uniforms. Artillery shells set fire to the General Post Office.
Mediterranean The pre-dreadnought Russell is mined off Malta.
Mesopotamia Hostilities cease at Kut. Townshend and Kalil meet secretly. The Turkish commander demands unconditional surrender, with Townshend and his men becoming prisoners. When offered the million, Kalil says that he must confer with Enver and that Townshend’s force must leave the fort, with the Turks providing tents and food from the wrecked Julnar.

April 27, 1917
Western Front The French offensive has stalled. Nivelle receives orders to forego his planned offensive at Brimont Ridge in May.
Diplomatic Relations Guatemala breaks relations with Germany.

April 27, 1918
Western Front Further attacks at Voormezeele fail.
Caucasus Turkish troops capture Kars.
Palestine Dr. Chaim Weizmann, head of the recently created Zionist Commission, and other members of the commission meet with Arab notables to assure them that the perception that they are to be ousted from their “present holdings” results either from a misconception of Zionist aims or from “the malicious activities or our enemies.” The Arabs seem mollified.
Mesopotamia With the Euphrates under control, General Marshall’s new assignment is to drive the Turks out of Kurdistan. Heading northward from the Tigris River, his troops take Qarah Tappah without opposition and press on toward Kulawand, where a cavalry charge quickly subdues the retreating Turks. 600 prisoners are taken.
Russia Georgia proclaims independence.

April 27, 1919
Germany The freikorps army, 30,000 strong, invades Bavaria. They easily beat Red Guard units opposing them. Munich is surrounded two days later. The advance is accompanied by numerous atrocities against anyone suspected by the freikorps of leftist sympathies.

April 27, 1920
Caucasus The Soviets inform Azerbaijan that the Red Army is about to cross the border. The republic surrenders without a fight.

[Ennath]

April 28, 1915
Western Front The German offensive at Ypres is being contained. The Germans storm French positions at Les Mesnils.
Dardanelles With Sedd el Bahr secure, Hamilton is eager to push inland before Turkish reinforcements can arrive. He sends British and French troops into a general advance. They gain two miles, but meeting heavy resistance at Krithia, they give in to fatigue. Turkish shelling continues to render the beaches chaotic, hindering resupply.
Caucasus General Yudenich directs a force to be directed toward Van to relieve the besieged Armenians.
Egypt There are skirmishes east of the Suez Canal.
Libya The Italians are heavily defeated by a Senusi force at al-Qurdabiye, near Sirte, and effectively pinned to the coast.

April 28, 1916
Ireland Connolly, suffering from two wounds, orders all the women out of the General Post Office in the morning, and in the afternoon he and the remaining rebels abandon the building. A force of 5000 British soldiers with armored cars hunts down the rebels – now only 200 string – in King Street, where some of the soldiers bayonet or shoot civilians they find hiding in cellars.
Eastern Front The Germans regain all the ground lost at Lake Naroch.

April 28, 1917
Western Front, Arras Having decided to continue the offensive, Haig determines first to take Roeux and its chemical works, Oppy, and Arleux, and move forward near Monchy. But the assault fails overall, only the Canadians succeeding in capturing Arleux, east of Vimy.
Mediterranean British, French, and Italian officials meet to discuss tactics for combating the U-Boat threat in the Middle Sea, but they remain unprepared to launch any operations against the Austrian fleet at Pola. The Austrians meanwhile are planning a major operation against the Otranto Barrage, a system of nets, 120 net drifters, and 30 motor launches strung across the Straits of Otranto to try to prevent U-Boat passage between the Adriatic and Mediterranean.
United States Wilson issues an executive order providing for government censorship of telegrams and telephone and telegraph lines and authorizing naval operation of all wireless stations for the duration of the war.

April 28, 1918
Western Front Several German attacks are repulsed.
Russia The first Czech units reach Vladivostok.
Austria-Hungary Gavrilo Princip, the assassin of Franz Ferdinand, dies in prison from disease and malnutrition.

April 28, 1919
Turkey The occupying Allies establish a commission to punish Young Turk leaders for the Armenian massacres and subverting the Turkish constitution. Several leaders are arrested and deported to Malta. Here they will be held until the prosecutions are suspended in the summer of 1921. No convictions are ever handed down. Italian troops are landed at Adalia.
Russia The Red Army launches a general offensive against Kolchak. Mikhail Frunze commands.
Greece The Dodecanese Islands vote for union with Greece.

[Historian]

Originally Posted by tmee2000

From the landings at V Beach six VCs were awarded, all to men of the Royal Naval Division .

'V' Beach is about 300 yards long, and is described by the Official History of the campaign as lying 'at the foot of a natural amphitheatre which rises by gentle slopes to a height of a hundred feet. The actual beach is a sandy strip some 10 yards wide and 300 yards long, bordered in most places by a bank some 5 feet high'

Furthermore, it was flanked by forts on both sides- the 17th century Sedd el Bahr Castle on the right, and the more modern 'Fort No1' at Etrugrul on the left. The defenders were some 240 men of 3rd/26th Regt, supported by a handful of machine-guns.

As on 'W' Beach, the first wave of the assault were rowed ashore in ships boats- and as on 'W' Beach, all seemed to go smoothly at first, as the Turkish defenders waited until the boats were close to the beach before opening fire.
Just like 'W' beach, this resulted in a massacre... The first wave of the attack was 1st Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers. They landed at 6:30am, and within a matter of a few minutes, the 700-strong landing party was reduced to barely 300 men, many of them wounded and incapable of further action.

The plan for the landing at 'V' Beach was rather more unconventional than that at 'W' beach. Behind the first wave were two unlikely vessels- the 4000-ton collier 'River Clyde', and the flat-bottomed steam hopper barge 'Argyll'. These would be central to the events for which the six VC's would be earned.

The 'River Clyde' carried 2000 troops forming the second wave of the attack, and the intention was that she was to steam in after the first wave of boats, and be run aground. The 'Argyll' would run in ahead of her, to act as a bridge over which the troops would then disembark through 8 doorways cut in the sides of the 'River Clyde's hull, via gangplanks which would link her to the 'Argyll'.
To bridge any potential gaps, three wooden-decked lighters would be towed by the 'River Clyde'. She would also provide covering fire for the landing, from eleven machine-guns of the RNAS Armoured Car Squadron, emplaced on her bows.

This rather Heath-Robinson improvised plan was devised by Commander Edward Unwin, a 51-year-old former Merchant Navy officer, and was intended to provide a faster way of landing the second wave, taking into account a shortage of boats and the size of the beach- it would also provide a degree of protection for the second-wave troops, and an element of surprise. Unwin's reward for the idea was a promotion to Acting Captain, and the command of the 'River Clyde'...

It went badly from the start- Unwin was forced to make an additional turn in his approach to the beach to avoid arriving before the first wave boats, and the loss of speed from this manoeuvre caused the 'River Clyde' to beach further out than planned at 6:25am. Worse, the 'Argyll', skippered by Midshipman George Drewry, (a volunteer from Unwin's usual command, the communications yacht HMS Hussar) missed the mark totally, ending up grounded off to port, broadside to the beach, and crucially, 10-15 yards away from River Clyde's bows.

Unwin quickly improvised an alternative plan, to use the towed lighters to form a bridge to a spit of rocks off to starboard. He and Leading Seaman William Williams (another 'Hussar' volunteer) used one of the steam pinnaces which had towed the first wave's boats to push the lighters to the rocks, before diving into the sea to pull them into place by hand. Drewry jumped overboard from 'Argyll' and joined Unwin and Williams in the water to assist.

A precarious bridge now existed, albeit one held in place by three men pulling on ropes while standing waist-deep in the sea in the face of murderous fire from the Turkish lines, and the first troops, two companies of the Royal Munster Fusiliers, attempted to disembark from 'River Clyde'. They were cut to pieces, suffering around 70% casualties.
Furthermore, the bridge was broken, as Williams was mortally wounded by a shell fragment, and Unwin was forced to release the ropes in an attempt to assist him.

With Williams dead and Capt Unwin exhausted, Midshipman Drewry now took up the task, hauling the exhausted Unwin onto one of the lighters, from which he was taken back to the River Clyde for medical assistance, and attempting to restore the bridge, however he got into difficulties in the water, while trying to secure a line to one of the lighters.

Enter 18-year-old Midshipman Edwin St. Aubyn Malleson. Malleson, part of a detachment from HMS 'Cornwallis' engaged in towing in the landing boats, had been sheltering on the Argyll, from where he could see Drewry's situation. Taking a second rope (an act which required him to stand up in full view of the Turkish positions under heavy fire to retrieve it), he dived into the sea and swam to Drewry's aid, securing the rope to the lighter.

By 9:00am, Drewry and Malleson were back on board the River Clyde recovering from their exertions, and a second attempt to land troops was attempted- it suffered the same fate as the first.

Unwin by now was back on deck of the 'Argyll' re-securing the lighters, and at 9:30, Maj-Gen Hunter-Weston ordered a third attempt to land from the 'Clyde'- a single company of 2nd Hampshires emerged from the sallyports, and like the preceding companies, were slaughtered.

At 10:00 am, Brigadier-General Napier, commanding 88th Brigade, arrived on the scene, presumably in an attempt to renew the attempts to land- he was shot dead almost immediately. By now it was clear that any further attempt to get men onto the beach would be futile, and General Hamilton ordered Hunter-Weston to divert the main force to 'W' Beach, and wait until nightfall before resuming efforts to get the men ashore from the 'River Clyde'.

Captain Unwin, however, hadn't finished yet. Possibly angered by the failure of his plan, and the loss of life it had resulted in, he took a small boat ashore, and crawled along the rocks looking for wounded men to rescue. Assisted by one of the 'River Clyde's RNAS machine-gunners (who would be seriously wounded in the attempt), he retrieved at least half-a-dozen men to the boat. By now, Unwin was on the verge of collapse through exhaustion, however others came forward to continue the rescue work.

The troops on board 'River Clyde' included a single platoon from Anson Battalion, Royal Naval Division, under Sub/Lt Arthur Tisdall, a 24-year-old Cambridge scholar and poet. Tisdall could hear the cries of the wounded outside, and eventually it became too much for him to bear- Saying 'I can't stand it, I'm going over', he took a boat ashore to retrieve more of the wounded. Tisdall, assisted by various volunteers from his own men and the RNAS gunners made four or five trips over the next hour or so, each time towing back a lifeboat loaded with wounded men.

Further rescue work was carried out by Seaman George Samson. Samson, another volunteer from HMS 'Hussar', had been detailed as part of Drewry's crew manning the 'Argyll', and had been in the thick of the action from the start. He'd already assisted Unwin, Williams and Drewry in securing the lighters to form the initial bridge, after which he'd returned to 'Argyll' to look after the wounded. He now turned his attention to retrieving wounded men from the shore to the 'Argyll', a task which continued until the evening. The following day, he was severely wounded while giving covering fire from the 'River Clyde's' decks.

The remaining troops from 'River Clyde' would eventually be landed under cover of darkness, and by 12:30am, a beach-head had been established.

Unwin, Drewry, Samson, Williams and Malleson were all recommended for the VC, although the recommendations took time to filter through naval red-tape, finally, Maj-Gen Hunter-Weston breaking with tradition and as an army officer, making recommendations for Naval VCs. Williams would become the Navy's first posthumous VC, the awards finally coming in August.

One man had so far been overlooked- Sub/Lt Tisdall. Although his bravery had been widely witnessed, in the general chaos, no-one was initially able to identify the RND officer who had gone ashore to rescue the wounded, and it took a lengthy period of investigation to establish his identity- a task presumably made more difficult by his death during the 2nd Battle of Krithia, a few weeks later.
Tisdall's (by now posthumous) VC was finally gazetted almost eleven months later, in March 1916!

[deepsepia]

One of the lesser known German reparations after World War I was the loss of the Bayer Aspirin trademark in the Allied nations, where it became a generic. Elsewhere, it remained the property of Bayer AG.