The First World War

[tygrkhat40]

Originally Posted by knobby109

In that case what word do you use when you mean to deliberately kill one in ten? The "deci" part should give a tiny clue..........

Well, since decimation was used by the Roman Legions as a punishment/motivational tactic, it's very rarely used by modern armies. It's the evolution of language, for instance, the word "awful" once meant "full of awe" but over the centuries it has come to meant something terrible.

[rotobott]

Still used in WW1 and even later

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Cadorna

Word Origin & History

decimate
c.1600, in reference to the practice of punishing mutinous military units by capital execution of one in every 10, by lot; from L. decimare "to take the tenth," from decimus "tenth" (see decimation). It has been used (incorrectly, to the irritation of pedants) since 1660s

[scoundrel]

Cadorna sounds like a real sweetheart. People like him should be shot themselves. In particular, during the battle of Caporetto, he ran away to Padua; conduct for which he habitually shot subordinates. What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, right?

Too late now of course.

[Tmee2020]

Originally Posted by scoundrel

Cadorna sounds like a real sweetheart.

Here is another one, General Géraud Réveilhac:

Originally Posted by tmee2000

After an attack had been checked, General Géraud Réveilhac commanding 60th D.I. had ordered 4 corporals and 16 men to cut some barbed wire in plain daylight. They had obeyed but had not managed to get past the first shell holes. The 4 corporals were condemned to death and shot, 16th March, 1915.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A9raud_R%C3%A9veilhac

[Ennath]

March 27, 1915
Western Front A French attack at Les Eparges makes some progress.
Eastern Front A German attack on the Niemen is repulsed.

March 27, 1916
Western Front, Elsewhere Two lines of German trenches in the Ypres sector are captured at St. Eloi.
Eastern Front Following another failed attack, the offensive at Lake Naroch pauses.
Caucasus The Russians cross the Baltachi Darassi River.

March 27, 1917
Western Front The French reach St. Gobain Wood.
Russia Pressured by the Allies, the Provisional Government has continued Russia’s participation in the war. Now the Petrograd Soviet threatens that policy, issuing a public statement urging the peoples of the world “to take into their own hands the decision of the question of war and peace.” Singling out the workers of Germany and Austria, the statement incites them to “throw off the yoke of your semi-autocratic rule” and to refuse service in the war perpetuated by “kings, landowners, and bankers.” The statement also renounces secret negotiations and territorial claims.
Palestine Because of the previous day’s misunderstandings, the British assault on Gaza fails. At 6:30 PM, under orders from General Dobell, the men withdraw across the Wadi Ghazze and the 1st Battle of Gaza ends. The British have lost 4000 men, the Turks 2500.

March 27, 1918
Western Front The Germans reach Sailly le Sec, but lose some ground to British counterattacks. The Germans are checked near Lassigny but take Montdidier from the French after a rapid advance.
Palestine Allenby is ordered to suspend offensive operations and send another division to France. In the coming weeks, three more of his veteran Territorial divisions will go. Their place is taken by new Indian battalions and the two battalions of the Zionist Jewish Legion. The cavalry is unaffected.
Mesopotamia On the Aleppo Road, at Wadi Hawran, the British armored cars force the surrender of 2000 more Turks withdrawing from Khan Baghdadi. The cavalry moves upriver, taking Alus and Haditha and 500 more prisoners.

March 27, 1920
Russia White forces in south Russia evacuate from Novorossisk by sea. Only Pyotr Wrangel, with a small force, holds out in the Crimea.
Hungary The Rumanian Army completes its evacuation of Hungary.

March 27, 1921
Hungary Former Hapsburg Emperor Karl attempts to reclaim his Hungarian crown, but Horthy refuses to yield without Assembly consent. In October, Karl invades with a small loyalist force, but the Little Entente mobilizes and Horthy forces capture him. Karl is turned over to the British and exiled to Madeira, where he dies in 1922. The Little Entente then forces Hungary to pass an act dethroning the Hapsburgs.

[Ennath]

March 28, 1898
France The French Army adopts the mle1897 75mm gun, the first modern artillery piece, incorporating advances in breech-loading quick-fire, smokeless powder, pneumatic recoil control, modern sighting and ammunition and a gun shield.

March 28, 1915
Western Front German counterattacks at Les Eparges fail.
Irish Sea U-28 sinks the steamer Falaba, causing 104 fatalities, including one American, resulting in a flap with the U.S. government.
Eastern Front German and Austrian forces launch attacks to try and divert the Russians from their Carpathian offensive. Little success is achieved.
Black Sea Russian ships bombard forts on the Bosporus.
Mediterranean Allied warships bombard the Izmir forts.
Aden Turkish troops cross the border into the Protectorate.


March 28, 1916
Western Front, VerdunA German attack near Haucourt fails.
Eastern Front The Russians gain a success near Bojan, Galicia.
Italian Front The Italians launch two days of unsuccessful attacks on the Carso.
Black Sea Russian ships destroy ten coasters and an ammunition depot.

March 28, 1917
Western Front A German attack at Masons de Champagne takes a few French trenches.
Italian Front The Austrians make an unsuccessful attack on the Carso Plateau.
Rumanian Front Russian attacks on Magyaros Ridge fail.
Russia All members of the Romanov family swear an oath of loyalty to the Provisional Government.
Arabia Lawrence raids the Hejaz Railway again, this time at Mudahrij.

March 28, 1918
Western Front Below’s 17th Army attacks 3rd Army on both banks of the Scarpe and fails totally with heavy losses. Farther south, German advances reach Hamel. Strong French counterattacks regain some ground near Montdidier and Pont-l’Eveque. Ludendorff, with a deep salient in the Allied lines, faces a dilemma in that the places he most needs to break are those that are the best defended; 5th Army, which was penetrated easily, guards little of great value, while 3rd Army protects important supply centers around Arras. Thus, when Ludendorff tries to keep his offensive on the right track, his attacks fail with heavy loss.
British Command Gough is removed from command, over Haig’s protests; his shattered 5th Army is taken over by Rawlinson’s 4th Army headquarters. He never holds a command again.
Allied Diplomacy A 3-day Congress of Nationalities of Austria-Hungary concludes in Rome. It recognizes the right of each nationality to its own state or the right to unite with an existing state.
Finland White troops penetrate into Tampere. The fighting is house to house.
Mesopotamia The British armored cars push to ‘Anah and beyond, capturing the Turkish commandant and the head of the German Euphrates Mission bearing official documents, before turning back to ‘Anah. In its March sweep up the Euphrates, Marshall’s column has garnered 6000 Turkish prisoners and a large supply of ammunition, while suffering only 159 casualties.

March 28, 1930
Turkey Constantinople is renamed Istanbul.

[Ennath]

March 29, 1898
Diplomatic Relations British Colonial Secretary Chamberlain meets with the German ambassador proposing a rapprochement, perhaps an alliance. The reaction in Berlin is that Britain has no where to go for allies but Germany, so that as long as the Germans wait, dangling hope of an alliance, they can demand whatever they want from London.

March 29, 1915
Eastern Front German attacks near Tilsit take Tauroggen. The Russians continue to advance in the Carpathians, taking 5600 more prisoners.
War at Sea The Germans formally commission the Flanders Flotilla, comprised of smaller, coastal U-Boats. The flotilla is based at Bruges and accesses the sea through the Zeebrugge and Ostend Canals.
Diplomatic Relations The Dutch government protests to Germany over the sinking of one ship, the damaging of another and the detention of two more by the submarine blockade.
Allied Planning Millerand, Joffre, Kitchener and French meet to discuss combined operations. Kitchener is having growing doubts about the value of massive attacks on the Western Front. Joffre insists that these are indispensable in keeping the Germans from transferring forces east. When Kitchener expresses doubts about the likelihood of a breakthrough, Joffre cites the British success at Neuve Chapelle. The British finally agree to relieve two French corps but to commit no more forces without signs of progress.

March 29, 1916
Western Front, Verdun German troops enter Malancourt village. French troops recover the Avocourt Redoubt.

March 29, 1917
Western Front The British take Neuville-Boujonvalle, east of Bapaume, in heavy fighting.
Italian Front Fighting on the Carso continues.
Mesopotamia The Turks have concentrated a force of 5000 at Harhwan Canal near Sindia. Maude’s troops, blinded and disoriented by mirages created on the canal waters and oppressed by intense heat, fail to outflank the Turks and suffer 514 casualties in a frontal assault. During the night, the Turks withdraw across the Diyala River.

March 29, 1918
Western Front The advance largely ceases north of the Somme. To the south, the Germans take Hamel and Mezieres. The French hold the line around Montdidier.
A shell from the Paris Gun, one of only four fired this day, hits the crowded Church of St. Gervais, killing 75 people and injuring 90.
Allied Command Clemenceau, Lloyd George, and other Allied leaders, including Pershing and General Tasker Bliss meet at Beauvais. Recognizing that greater military coordination still remains to be achieved, they unanimously agree to give Foch “the strategic direction of military operations.” Foch is now Commander in Chief of the Allied Forces, although control of tactics and the right to appeal decisions to their respective governments remain with the commanders of each nation’s troops.

March 29, 1919
Turkey Italian troops arrive at Adalia to begin their occupation duties in southwestern Anatolia.
Estonia The Estonian Army counterattacks the Soviet invaders.

[palo5]

Originally Posted by scoundrel

...TE Lawrence was clear that even a Turkish life was worth something...

He should have been in the Turkish Army, because they didn't know that, especially not Mustafa Kemal aka Ataturk

[Ennath]

March 30, 1915
Western Front The French begin staggered attacks around the St. Mihiel salient, leading to one of the most poorly coordinated French offensives of the war.
Britain After Lloyd George denounces drinking as an enemy of the war effort, George V declares the royal household’s willingness to abstain from consumption of alcoholic beverages for the duration.
Serbian Front The Austro-Germans make another unsuccessful attempt to run supplies for Turkey down the Danube.
Russian Command Russki resigns due to illness. Mikhail Alexeev assumes command of Northwest Front.

March 30, 1916
Western Front, Verdun A French effort toward Douaumont fails.
Black Sea The French hospital ship Portugal is torpedoed by a U-Boat; 115 die.
Russian Command Brusilov replaces Ivanov in command of Southwest Front. Kaledin assumes command of 8th Army.

March 30, 1917
Western Front The French regain their lost trenches in Champagne.
Russia The new government acknowledges the independence of Poland. Alexeev receives reports from his Front commanders that only defensive operations are now feasible. Desertion is now averaging about 34,000 per month.

March 30, 1918
Western Front The French are counterattacking on the south end of the German advance; they gain little ground, but force the Germans to divert troops. Demuin is lost and retaken by British troops. An attack on the Belgian trenches east of Nieupoort is heavily defeated.
Albania An Austrian attack on the Italian bridgehead at Avlona fails.
Palestine The British raid the Hejaz Railway near Amman.
Russia Russian and Armenian Communists massacre the Azeri population of Baku; up to 10,000 are killed.

[deepsepia]

"The Mutinies"

One of the less remembered features of WW I is that many of the armies mutinied in 1917 and 1918. The Russians did. The French did. The Germans did. The British never quite did, though there were incidents that approached it, at Etaples in 1917.

The way I see it, the forces of authority demanded everything of their populations-- pushed them to slaughter.

Its astonishing how long they obeyed, and at what cost . . . but its also worth noting that the authority broke itself, in some cases reparably, in others utterly and completely. To me, the mutinies are far more important than the War-- to the extent that WWI is remembered, it is often in the shape of citizens abused by an authority which didn't deserve their trust (think the ANZACs at Galllipoli)

It was this disastrous dynamic that opened the way for Bolshevism, by shattering the legitimacy of authority.

Mutiny also shaped responses to popular demands -- it created the fear in the castle of the mob with torches come for them, a bitter irony-- and thus engendered reaction and fascism.