100 Years Ago Today

[Jimbuna]

8th May 1915

Western Front

Second Battle of Ypres: British lose Frezenberg Ridge under terrific shelling.

Eastern Front

Germans take Libau.

Further Russian retreat in Galicia.

Southern Front

2nd Battle of Krithia ends in an Ottoman victory as Allied troops suffer more than one-third casualties.

Naval

North Sea
Limewold, armed trawler, 189/1898, Grimsby-reg, hired 12/14, 1-6pdr, CO on shore sick, Acting Skipper C Bond i/c, on patrol. Shell burst close to the bows at 0430, 20 miles E of Peterhead, submarine spotted one and half miles away right astern and closing fast, turned and returned fire, claimed hit on waterline abreast of conning tower with fifth shot when range down to 600yds, submarine submerged.

Admiralty collier (and one steamship) captured and torpedoed by U.9 (Johannes Spiess):

DON, Admiralty collier, 939/1892, Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Co, Goole-reg, Mr W Adron, sailing Cromarty for Blyth in ballast. Sank around 0440, 7 miles E of Coquet Isle, off Amble (wi - in 55.21N, 01.20W).

Political etc.

German shops in Liverpool are attacks by mobs in anger over the Lusitania sinking.

Ship Losses:

Don ( United Kingdom): The collier was torpedoed and sunk in the North Sea 7 nautical miles (13 km) east of Coquet Island by SM U-9 ( Kaiserliche Marine). Her crew survived.
Hellenic ( United Kingdom): The trawler struck a mine and sank in the North Sea with the loss of three of her nine crew.
Lilian Drost ( Denmark): The cargo ship was sunk in the North Sea (56°40′N 4°00′E) by SM U-36 ( Kaiserliche Marine). Her crew survived.
Queen Wilhelmina ( United Kingdom): The cargo ship was torpedoed and damaged in the North Sea off the Longstone Lighthouse by SM U-9 ( Kaiserliche Marine). She was beached at Amble, Northumberland and was a total loss.

[Sailor Steve]

May 8:

Johannes Spieß, commanding U-9, sinks two British freighters: SS Don, 939 tons, bound from Comarty to Blyth in ballast, and Queen Wilhelmina, 3,590 tons, tavelling from Leith to Fowey, also in ballast. His score is now 12 ships and 6,438 tons.

Aboard U-36 Ernst Graeff scores his first victory, sinking the Danish freighter Lilian Drost, 1,966 tons, heading from Blyth to Copenhagen with a load of coal.



Saudi Arabia: Hellmuth von Mücke and his men say goodbye to Suleiman Pasha and board the special train assigned to take them from Al Ula across the Turkish Empire to Constantinople.

[Aktungbby]

^ Not(quite) sunk: QUEEN WILHELMINA, 3,590/1898, Furness, Withy & Co, Sunderland, London-reg, Mr E Dickinson, Leith for Fowey in ballast. Hit and damaged 20 miles S by E of Longstone, Outer Farne Is (L - 20 miles N by W of), beached at Bondicar, 1½m SSE of Amble (55.19N, 01.26W), total loss (+L/te/un/wi) Crew loss reported as 0. http://www.naval-history.net/WW1NavyBritishBVLSMN1504.htm

[Jimbuna]

Precisely and as already posted:

She was beached at Amble, Northumberland and was a total loss.

[Jimbuna]

9th May 1915

Western Front

Second Battle of Ypres: British retake Wieltje. They fail in an attack on Aubers ridge (Neuve Chapelle).


2nd Battle of Artois begins as French forces launch an offensive against Germans at Vimy Ridge.


The leading division of the British New Armies leaves England for France.


Eastern Front

Germans defeated at Krakinow (Baltic Provinces).

Naval

Suez Canal area
FANNY, tug, no further information, probably civilian vessel but crew included at least three ratings from armoured cruiser HMS Euryalus. Lost in accidental sinking; three ratings drowned, two of them buried at Ismailia, near Suez.

Search for survivors of the Lusitania sinking are abandoned as Cunard officials believe all remaining living passengers have been rescued.

The U.S. Atlantic Fleet sails into New York City for review; questions are raised over U.S.’s war readiness.


Political etc.

President Wilson states he is “very earnestly but very calmly” considering the response to the Lusitania sinking.

Simon Lake, American pioneer of the submarine, predicts that German submarine warfare will decide the war.

German embassy in Washington DC receives a bomb threat; city police forces tighten security around the embassy.

King Wilhelm writes to the King of Italy to urge that Italy and Austria-Hungary settle their territorial disputes peacefully.

Chinese President Yuan Shikai is forced to accept the revised 21 Demands to avoid war with Japan.

[Sailor Steve]

May 9:

Red Sea:
0500 HMS Trent picks up wireless message between German warships. Worried that Königsberg may have managed to elude King-Hall's forces and be heading their way, Captain Fullerton orders the convoy to turn back toward the Suez Canal.
0800 Unable to raise Suez on the wireless, Fullerton reverses course and heads south again.
2359: A large ship is spotted approaching from astern. When in sight of the tugs the ship puts out its lights. After some panic the ship turns out to be the freighter Trioba, which had suffered a dynamo failure at the most inopportune time.



German East Africa:
1330 HMS Laconia launches Short No. 121 for another reconnaissance flight.
1425 Short 121 comes down some distance away.
1445 HMS Chatham weighs anchor and proceeds to Short 121's position.
1458 Laconia weighs anchor and proceeds to Short 121's position.
1525 Chatham sights Short 121.
1545 Chatham and HMS Fly guarding Short 121.
1614 Laconia anchors next to Short 121
1645 Short 121 hoisted aboard Laconia.

No information is given on why Short 121 failed to make it back to Laconia.

[Jimbuna]

10th May 1915

Western Front

French take cemetery of Neuville St. Vaast and part of Carency (north of Arras).

British repulsed on Aubers ridge.

Eastern Front

German retreat in Baltic Provinces.

Naval and Overseas Operations

North Sea
Dominion, battleship, King Edward VII-class, returning to Rosyth after cruise in northern North Sea with rest of 3rd BS, also 3rd CS, all Grand Fleet, divisions in line ahead, zigzagging at 15kts, had not yet met screening destroyers. (ge - 8th; Cn - May 1916) - unsuccessfully attacked by U.39 about 100 miles ENE of Firth of Forth, two torpedoes missed.

Submarine E14 sinks a transport in the Sea or Marmora.

Naval Convention signed between Great Britain, France, and Italy.

North Sea
Swedish steamer Björn 1,241 tons enroute to the UK from Göteborg with a cargo of timber was taken as a prize by U 36 (Ernst Graeff).
The same fate befell the Dutch steamer Niobe 654 tons to the same submarine that day.

Danish steamer Olga 798 tons was taken as a prize by U 39 (Walter Forstmann).

Aviation

Four German zeppelins raid Britain, dropping bombs on Southend, Westcliff-on-Sea, and Leigh.

Political, etc.

President Wilson on the "Lusitania". "There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight," etc.

German government: “The German government desires to express its deepest sympathy at the loss of lives on board the Lusitania. The responsibility rests, however, with the British government, which…has forced Germany to resort to retaliatory measures.”

Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, is questioned in the House of Commons over the Lusitania sinking.

Italy gives the Austro-Hungarian government until midnight to accede to territorial demands or else negotiations will be terminated.

Stories appear of a Canadian soldier supposedly crucified by Germans; it is later used as Allied propaganda.

[Catfish]

Stories appear of a Canadian soldier supposedly crucified by Germans; it is later used as Allied propaganda.

^ "Supposedly", of course. There were also "rumours" of belgian babies being bayonnetted by german soldiers, parading with them through belgian cities.

Entente propaganda was pretty reluctant and civilised. Just as it is now, with "the west".

[Sailor Steve]

May 10:

Air War:
German observer Wilhelm Frankl, riding in an unidentifed two-seater with an unnamed pilot, shoots down a Voisin with a carbine. For this feat he will be awarded the Iron Cross, 1st class.

Louis Strange is flying a sortie in his new Martinsyde Scout when he encounters an Aviatik two-seater. His first attack in a single-seat fighter is almost his last. I have already posted this in my 'Models' thread, but his own account of the story is certainly worth repeating here.

But on May 10th, 1915, I reached 8,500 ft when going after an Aviatik belonging to von Leutzers Squadron from Lille Aerodrome. We were somewhere over Menin, and the Hun was still gaining height, though we were both near the tops of our respective ceilings. Not all the enemy aircraft were equipped with machine guns in those early days, but the German observer potted at me from the rear cockpit with a parabellum pistol, and as some of his bullets came unpleasantly close, I thought it high time to retaliate, and gave him a drum from my Lewis gun without much effect. But when I wanted to take off the empty drum and replace it with a full one, it seemed to jam, and I was unable to remove it with one hand, I wedged the stick between my knees and tugged at the obstinate thing with both hands. After one or two fruitless efforts, I raised myself up out of my seat in order to get a better grip, and I suppose that my safety belt must have slipped down at a critical moment. Anyhow, my knees loosened their grip on the stick just as the Martinsyde, which was already climbing at it's maximum angle, stalled and flicked over into a spin.

As I was more than half out of the cockpit at the time, the spin threw me clear of the machine, but I still kept both of my hands on the drum of the Lewis gun. Only a few seconds previously I had been cursing because I could not get that drum off, but now I prayed fervently that it would stay on forever. I knew it may come off at any moment, however and as its edge was cutting my fingers badly, I had to get a firmer hold of something more reliable. The first thing I thought of was the top of the center strut, which at the time was behind and below the Lewis gun, but as the machine was now flying upside down, I had sufficient wits left to realize that it was behind and above me, though where it was exactly I could not tell.

Dare I let go of the drum with one hand and make a grab for it? Well there was nothing else for it but to take the risk; I let go and found the strut all right, and then I released my other hand and gripped the strut on the other side. I was then in a more comfortable position, and at least I felt rather more part of my machine than I had done in my original attitude. My chin was rammed against the top plane, beside the gun, while my legs were waving about in empty air. The Martinsyde was upside down in a flat spin, and from my precarious position the only thing I could see was the propeller ( which seemed unpleasantly close to my face), the town of Menin, and the adjacent countryside. Menin and its environs were revolving at an impossible angle - apparently above me - and getting larger with every turn. I began to wonder what sort of spot I was going to crash on.

Then I got angry and cursed myself for a fool for wasting time on such idle speculations, while at the same time it dawned on me that my only chance of righting the machine lay in getting my feet into the cockpit. If I could manage it, I knew that I was bound to fall automatically into the cockpit.
when the machine came over. I kept on kicking upwards behind me until at last I got first one foot and then the other hooked inside the cockpit. Somehow I got the stick between my legs again and jammed on full aileron and elevator; I do not know exactly what happened then, but somehow the trick was done. The machine came over the right way up, and I fell off the top plane into my seat with a bump.

I grabbed at the stick with both hands and thanked my lucky stars when I got hold of it. Then to my surprise I found myself unable to move it. I suddenly realized I was sitting much lower than usual inside the cockpit; in fact, I was so low down I could not see over the edge at all. On investigation I found that the bump of my fall had sent me right through the seat, with the result I was sitting on the floor of the machine as well as on the controls, which I was jamming. The cushion had fallen out when the machine turned upside down, along with everything else that was loose or had been kicked loose when I was trying to find the stick with my feet. Something had to be done quickly, as although the engine had stopped through lack of petrol when the machine was upside down, it was now roaring away merrily and taking me down in a dive which looked likely to end in the wood to the north of Menin. So I throttled back and braced my shoulders against the top of the fuselage, and my feet against the rudder bar; then I pulled out the broken bits of seat and freed the controls. Luckily I found them all working all right, so that I was able to put up the machines nose and open the throttle again. I rose and cleared the trees on the Menin Road with very little to spare.

I did not trouble to climb anymore, but just flew back along the Menin Road. In my efforts to find the control stick with my feet, I had smashed all the instruments on the dashboard, and as I gazed at the damage, I wondered if I could ever make anyone realize how it had been done. I had only a very hazy idea myself as to what had really happened, but I felt happy to be alive, and thought it simply marvelous that I was still able to control the machine.

I hurried back to Abele, without worrying about the increasing strain on the small of my back or the futile shots that the Germans on the ground were sending after me. I went to bed early that night and slept for a good solid twelve hours; but; Lord, how stiff I was the next day! It took a long time before I was able to move about with any comfort.

During the recent trip to Germany which enabled me to make the acquaintance of von Leutzer, my opposite number, I told him the story of this incident. In reply he stated that one of their observers had returned that day with a report of a victory over a British machine, which went down in a spin into the wood on the north side of Menin. This observer was positive that he had seen the pilot thrown out of the machine, although did not fall clear of it, and on the strength of his evidence the Germans spent half a day vainly searching the wood for the wreckage of the machine. Von Leutzer added that the observer, who was known to be reliable and accurate in his statements, got very much ragged about the business for some time afterwards.
-Louis Arbon Strange, Recollections Of An Airman, 1933

North Sea:
Ernst Graeff, commanding U-36, takes two prizes - Swedish steamer SS Björn, 1,241 tons, carrying a load of timber from Göteborg to the United Kingdom, and the Dutch freighter SS Niobe, 654 tons, destination and cargo unlisted. Graeff will only recieve credit for Björn, as the prize court will later release Niobe. His score is now 2 ships and 3,237 tons.

Walter Forstmann in U-39 captures Danish steamer SS Olga, 798 tons. This ship will also be released by the prize court.



Red Sea: The day is extremely hot. Captain Fullerton aboard Trent tells the tugs' captains that he will send fresh meat and ice when the sea is calmer.

[Jimbuna]

11th May 1915

Western Front

Second Battle of Ypres: Germans bombard Ypres-Menin road.

French take fort and chapel of Notre Dame de Lorette.

Eastern Front

Germans evacuate Shavli.

Austro-German advance in Galicia.

Russians fall back to the San River.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theatres

Russian progress in the district of Tabriz.

Naval and Overseas Operations

French take Eseka (Cameroons).

An early attempt to intercept an airship with a shipborne aircraft takes place in the North Sea when the Royal Navy seaplane tender HMS Ben-my-Chree tries to launch a Royal Naval Air Service Sopwith seaplane to attack a German Zeppelin sighted low on the horizon.


Political etc.

Italian government orders all Italian officers and men in Switzerland to immediately return home and rejoin their regiments.

In a report to the House of Commons, Britain has lost 201 merchant vessels and 1,556 civilian lives due to enemy naval action.

Estimates show that U.S. insurance companies will pay up to $1.05 million ($25.1 million today) for the Lusitania sinking.

British newspapers attack U.S. neutrality with the phrase: “Too Proud to Fight.”

[Sailor Steve]

May 11:

Red Sea: Calmer seas allow the monitors' convoy to stop. Captain Fullerton sends the promised ice and meat to the tugs. The tugs have no form of air conditioning and older crew members begin to suffer when temperatures in the fire rooms reach 145 degrees fahrenheit (63C).

[Jimbuna]

12th May 1915

Western Front

French capture Carency.

Eastern Front

Germans occupy Kyeltsi (Poland).

Austro-German advance in Galicia and north of Uzsok Pass.

Austrian retreat south of Pruth.

Southern Front

Dardanelles: Cape Tekeh ("Gurka Bluff") captured by Gurkas.
Naval and Overseas Operations

The HMS Goliath is sunk by a Ottoman torpedo boat, resulting in 570 deaths.

GOLIATH, battleship, Canopus-class, 14,300t, 1898, 4-12in/12-6in/12-12pdr/4-18in tt, 18 kts, c750 crew, Pennant No.N.54, 8th BS Channel Fleet 8/14, later to Mediterranean, Capt Thomas Shelford. French forces under heavy attack inland of S-Beach, night of 12th/13th, Goliath and Cornwallis providing gunfire support, both anchored in exposed position in Morto Bay off Seddul Bahr village, Cornwallis astern of Goliath, destroyers Beagle, Bulldog, Pincher, Scorpion, Wolverine on patrol, night very dark, foggy around midnight, attacks were suspected. Turkish destroyer Muavenet-i-Miliet, partly German-manned and commanded by Lt-Cdr Rudoph Firle came down the Dardanelles, avoided Bulldog and Beagle around 0100, spotted the battleships and came round Eski Hissarlik Point under De Totts battery, challenged by Goliath at 0115 but steamed ahead and fired all three torpedo tubes as Goliath opened fire, one torpedo hit abreast fore turret, a second by the foremost funnel, and the third near after turret, ship immediately began listing badly to port and soon on beam ends, turned turtle, floated for a few minutes, then went down bow first; 505 lives lost - 20 officers including her Captain, 479 ratings and 4 canteen staff, 2 ratings DOW (Cn/He/ke - 570 men lost, 180 survivors). Wolverine and Scorpion tried to cut off the torpedo boat as it headed back up the Straits but failed.

Union forces occupy Windhoek (German south-west Africa).

Political, etc.

Report of Bryce Committee published.

Anti-Germans riots in England.

Sir Edward Grey reports that typhus fever is spreading among British POWs in several German camps.

Britain’s national guard is dubbed “Methusaliers” due to it being composed of men above fighting age.

Austria-Hungary orders all of its ships in Italian waters to leave for Austrian ports.

Ship Losses:

HMS Goliath ( Royal Navy): Naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign: The Canopus-class battleship was torpedoed and sunk by Muâvenet-i Millîye ( Ottoman Navy) in the Dardanelles with the loss of 570 of her 700 crew.

[Sailor Steve]

May 12:

Air War: Lt. Harold Rosher was sent to England to fly a new BE.2c from Hendon back to Dunkirk. On this day he has his father meet him there for lunch. At 1500 hours Rosher takes off to fly the new machine back to France, but engine troubles force him to return. Rosher finds himself grounded for several days while mechanics try to determine the problem.



Red Sea: Collier Kendal Castle is sent forward to Aden to make preparations for the arrival of the monitors' convoy.

[Jimbuna]

13th May 1915

Western Front

Second Battle of Ypres: Very severe German bombardment. Cavalry, etc., hold on.

French complete conquest of Bois le Pretre.

Eastern Front

German and Austro-Hungarian troops under General von Linsingen make further advances in the Carpathians and capture 3650 Russians.

Russians retreat in Galicia.

Russians occupy Sniatyn (River Pruth).

Political, etc.

Premier Asquith announces in the House of Commons that all citizens of enemy countries of military age will be interned.

In another round of rioting, mobs destroy 150 German owned shops in East End in London.

Italy: Signor Salandra resigns.

German Sovereigns struck off the Garter roll. Kaiser Wilhelm’s membership in the Order of the Garter, the highest order of chivalry in the United Kingdom, is annulled.

While Julian Grenfell stands talking with other officers, a shell lands a few yards away, and a splinter hits him in the head. He is taken to a hospital in Boulogne, where he dies 13 days later. His poem "Into Battle" is published in The Times the day after his death.

Into Battle
BY JULIAN GRENFELL

The naked earth is warm with Spring,
And with green grass and bursting trees
Leans to the sun's gaze glorying,
And quivers in the sunny breeze;
And life is Colour and Warmth and Light,
And a striving evermore for these;
And he is dead who will not fight,
And who dies fighting has increase.

The fighting man shall from the sun
Take warmth, and life from glowing earth;
Speed with the light-foot winds to run
And with the trees to newer birth;
And find, when fighting shall be done,
Great rest, and fulness after dearth.

All the bright company of Heaven
Hold him in their bright comradeship,
The Dog star, and the Sisters Seven,
Orion's belt and sworded hip:

The woodland trees that stand together,
They stand to him each one a friend;
They gently speak in the windy weather;
They guide to valley and ridges end.

The kestrel hovering by day,
And the little owls that call by night,
Bid him be swift and keen as they,
As keen of ear, as swift of sight.

The blackbird sings to him: "Brother, brother,
If this be the last song you shall sing,
Sing well, for you may not sing another;
Brother, sing."

In dreary doubtful waiting hours,
Before the brazen frenzy starts,
The horses show him nobler powers; —
O patient eyes, courageous hearts!

And when the burning moment breaks,
And all things else are out of mind,
And only joy of battle takes
Him by the throat and makes him blind,
Through joy and blindness he shall know,
Not caring much to know, that still
Nor lead nor steel shall reach him, so
That it be not the Destined Will.

The thundering line of battle stands,
And in the air Death moans and sings;
But Day shall clasp him with strong hands,
And Night shall fold him in soft wings.

[Sailor Steve]

May 13:

United States President Woodrow Wilson sends an official protest over the Lusitania sinking to the German Ambassador, signed by Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan.
http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Wil...ote_to_Germany



Middle East: The train carrying Helmuth von Mucke and his men passes from Saudi Arabia into Syria.