Showing posts with label 1914 Christmas Truce. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1914 Christmas Truce. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 31, 2024

Thursday, December 31, 1914. Ottoman disaster, T. S. Eliot being a snot.

The 1914 Christmas Truce, which was now over, hit the newspapers.

Ottoman forces retreating from Sarikamish bogged down in the woods outside the city. Their numbers had started out at 12,000 and were now 2,500.

Reduced from 12,000 to 2,500 soldiers and a handful of guns, the remaining units fled and freed major routes into Sarikamish for Russians to resupply.

The French retook ground lost the prior day at Champagne.

T. S. Eliot, in a letter to Conrad Aiken from Merton College, Oxford, wrote: "I hate university towns and university people, who are the same everywhere, with pregnant wives, sprawling children, many books and hideous pictures on the walls ... Oxford is very pretty, but I don't like to be dead."

University towns were apparently much different then.  FWIW, I like university towns.

Last edition:

Monday, December 28, 1914. Ottoman advance slows.

Friday, December 26, 2014

December 26, 1914. Boxing Day.

The unofficial truce between the combatants, which by this point had spread to certain areas of the Eastern Front where the Austro Hungarian Army was present, continued into its  third, and final, day.

No news of the truce had spread to newspapers as the reporting of the event had been suppressed, although that would soon change.

Last edition:

Christmas Day, 1914.

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Christmas Day, 1914.

The unofficial truce between German and British troops was widely observed with the troops mingling between the lines and playing soccer.

Elsewhere the war raged on.

Ottoman forces besieged Ardahan, held by the Russians.  The Russians were ordered to withdraw from Sarikamish.

The Russians pushed the Polish Legion back at Łowczówek, Galicia, but their defense caused the Russians to halt further advances.

Aircraft of the Royal Navy raided Cuxhaven.

Last edition:

Thursday, December 24, 1914. The Christmas Truce.


Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Thursday, December 24, 1914. The Christmas Truce.


The unofficial Christmas Truce of 1914 commenced between German and British troops, both in Europe, and interestingly also in Africa.  The Pope had called for one, but that had been rejected by the warring parties.  The troops caused the truce on their own.

John Muir died in Los Angeles at age 76.

Last edition:

Tuesday, November 17, 1914. Strained resources.

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Monday, December 7, 1914. End of the Maritz Rebellion and calling for a Christmas Truce.

Pope Benedict XV called for an official truce between the warring nations so that Christmas could be celebrated.

The National Assembly of Serbia issued their owar aims publically, including the unification of the southern Slavic nations into one country.

Boer General Christian Frederick Beyers drowned in the Vaal River bringing to an end the Maritz Rebellion.

Last edition:

Sunday, December 6, 1914. Villa and Zapata enter Mexico City.