30th August
Western Front
Lanrezac’s increasingly exposed French 5th Army belatedly receives orders to resume its retreat
Bülow asks Kluck to wheel inward - Kluck decides to disregard the BEF and turn the German 1st Army southeast away from Paris in order to roll up and destroy the retreating 5th Army
Charles Mangin is given command of a division in the French 5th Army
Large gaps have opened between the German right and center
Sir John French informs Joffre that the BEF won’t be able to fight for another ten days, although the British troops are in relatively good shape
British III Corps is formed under Pulteney
The Germans occupy Laon, Noyon and La Fère
Foch formally takes command of the detachment (which later becomes the 9th Army) forming in the gap between the French 4th and 5th Armies - Foch’s force crosses the Aisne
Joffre sacks Ruffey and installs Sarrail as commander of French 3rd Army
Moltke fails to end the German Lorraine offensive, though he knows that it’s stalled and that the French are transferring troops north
The French 2nd Army attacks around Luneville, to Aug.31
Joffre and Gallieni advise the divided French government to leave the capital as soon as possible
The first bombing of Paris by a German aircraft kills two civilians - the first black-out is enforced in the city
The French government suppresses German atrocity stories.
German Zeppelin LZ 20 is forced down due to ground fire; crew is captured.
Eastern Front
In East Prussia, Francois's German Corps took Neidenburg. The Russians began retreating to Ortelsburg. The Germans completed their rout of Samsonov's forces at Tannenberg. Samsonov's flanks had collapsed, his center had been surrounded, and his 2nd Army was almost completely destroyed at the Battle of Tannenberg, with the XIII, XV and XVIII Corps being literally wiped out. The badly mauled I and VI Corps managed to retreat south through Mlava and Mychinets. Over 70,000 Russians were killed, another 100,000 were made prisoner. General Samsonov committed suicide with his revolver in the woods. The Russian 1st Army was forced to retreat to the frontier. Russia's hope for a quick victory in East Prussia was dashed. It would not be a short war as many had hoped.
The first Austro-Hungarian invasion of Serbia was soundly defeated with heavy losses. Not to be denied, Austria-Hungary immediately began plans for a second invasion. A tenuous supply route existed through Serbia to Russia that enabled some limited military goods to flow both ways along the Danube River.
On the Southwest Front, the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army had penetrated 100 kilometers into Southern Poland. In Galicia, the Russian 8th Army broke through Austro-Hungarian lines near Halicz (Galich).
Naval and Overseas Operations
Cameroons: British occupy Nsanakong.
Political, etc.
Intended to encourage enlistment, the ‘Amiens dispatch’ appears in the London Times, describing the BEF as “grievously injured” and retreating - the first open intimation of the gravity of the situation, stunning the British public rebuttal, anonymously written by Churchill, is printed by the government.
1,300 women march down Fifth Avenue in New York City in protest against war.
Ship Losses:
Rion ( United Kingdom): The tanker was run in to by Serrana ( United Kingdom) and seriously damaged in the English Channel 9 nautical miles (17 km) south south west of Newhaven, East Sussex. She was consequently beached 2 nautical miles (3.7 km) west of Newhaven.
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