Showing posts with label Battle of Gully Ravine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Battle of Gully Ravine. Show all posts

Thursday, July 2, 2015

Friday, July 2, 1915. Porfirio Díaz dies in exile. Muenter bombs the Senate.

A giant in the history of Mexico, liberal Mexican general and dictator Porfirio Díaz died in exile in Paris.  His wife and surviving son (his three other children died as children) were allowed to return to Mexico.

Díaz would be remembered now as a giant in the history of Mexico, and indeed to some extent he is, if he could have surrendered power democratically in 1910.  He was not of a democratic mindset, but had been a moderating and liberal influence in the country's history and had been very successful as a technocratic dictator, advancing the countries economy a great deal.  Time was ripe for him to surrender power in 1910, and he could be remembered today for advancing the country and bringing into democracy, rather than a man whose attachment to power sent it into radicalism and civil war.

There's also a lesson here about politicians hanging on after their time . . . and into old age. . . 


An opponent of war, German-American anarchist Eric Muenter planted a time bomb in the Senate reception room of the United States Capitol, Washington, D.C.  It went off at midnight and didn't hurt anyone. He stated that his goal was to "make enough noise to be heard above the voices that clamor for war. This explosion is an exclamation point in my appeal for peace."

People with a similar political view would soon be amongst the revolutionary combatants in Russia, but oh well.

Parliament passed the Munitions of War Act to address the shortage of artillery shells in the UK. David Lloyd George was appointed Minister of Munitions to oversee the effort.

At Gallipoli, where a lot of shells were being used, the Ottoman 1st Division staged a second counterattack in the Battle of Gully Ravine and got within 30 metres of British trenches before losses became unbearable.  Ottoman commanding officer Faik Paşa then ordered Ottoman troops to dig in, violating orders from General Otto Liman von Sanders.Paşa was relieved and replaced with Mehmet Ali Paşa, which is confusing.

The Imperial Russian Navy's Baltic Sea squadron attacked a German squadron laying mines in the Baltic Sea at the Battle of Åland Islands. The SMS Albatross was hit and ran aground, with 27 sailors dead and another 49 wounded. The SMS Prinz Adalbert and Prinz Heinrich sailed to assist the German squadron, but British submarine HMS E9 torpedoed Prinz Adalbert and forced it to struggle to shore, damaged.

The Chilean Navy took the submarine Guacolda from the Fore River Shipyard. Built for the Royal Navy, US neutrality laws precluded the British from taking delivery.

Last edition:

Thursday, July 1, 1915. Synchronization Gear.

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Thursday, July 1, 1915. Synchronization Gear.

South African forces under Louis Botha defeated German colonial forces at the Battle of Otavi in German South West Africa with assistance from Canada, Great Britain, Portugal and Portuguese Angola. 

The Battle of Gully Ravine started at Gallipoli.  Two Victoria Cross awards would occur due to today's actions.

German fighter pilot Kurt Wintgens became the first person to shoot down a plane using a machine gun equipped with synchronization gear, starting the "Fokker Scourge".


Of the event, he wrote:

Dear Karl:

Unfortunately I gave you the wrong address last time, for during my voyage to Mühlhausen I got a different destination and for the time being I am with the Bavarian (unit) Abteilung 6b. Up to now nothing of real interest happened. In Mannheim I had tested the machine and then from Strasbourg by air to the Front, where lately a (Morane) Parasol fighter monoplane à la Garros had made its presence felt.

I had flown to the Front a couple of times without seeing an opponent, until yesterday evening when the big moment came. Time: 6:00 o'clock. Place: east of Lunéville. Altitude: between 2,000 and 2,500 m. Suddenly I notice a monoplane in front of me, about 300 m higher. And at the same moment he had already dived in front of me, fiercely firing his machine gun decently. But as I, at once, dived in an opposite direction under him, he missed wildly. After four attacks I reached his altitude in a large turn, and now my machine gun did some talking. I attacked at such a close distance that we looked each other into the face.

After my third attack he did the most stupid thing that he could do – he fled. I turned the crate on the spot and had him at once, beautifully, in my (gun)sight. Rapid fire for about four seconds, and down went his nose. I could follow him until 500 meters, then, unfortunately, I was fired upon from the ground too hotly; the fight (now) being far over the French lines. Hopefully, I'll soon meet a biplane.

Cordial greetings and so long,

Your friend,

— Kurt"

He'd be killed in action in September, 1916.

The US Navy started the Office of Naval Aeronautics.

The United States Forest Service combined the Jemez National Forest and Pecos National Forest in northern New Mexico to establish the Santa Fe National Forest, which luckily for us today was not hacked up to be sold by Sen. Mike Lee.

The Moapa National Forest was absorbed into the Toiyabe National Forest in Nevada, which fortunately Mike Lee has to keep his hands off of for the time being.

New York City established in the Child Welfare Board.

Blues great Willie Dixon was born.

Last edition:

Wednesday, June 30, 1915. Armenian massacre.