Showing posts with label Battle of the Frontiers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Battle of the Frontiers. Show all posts

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Sunday, September 13, 1914. Improved Allied Positions In The West.

British forces crossed the Aisne at night.

The French retook the villages Pont-à-Mousson and Lunéville bringing the Battle of the Frontiers  to an end.  Some of the front in the  northeast would thereafter remain stable until 1918.

Stallupönen (now Nesterov) fell to the Germans in East Prussia.

Belgian troops returned to Antwerp.

Irish nationalist Roger Casement, who at one time had been a British diplomat met with German diplomat Franz von Papen in Washington D.C. to seek Germany's support for Irish independence.

The survivors of the Karluk arrived in Nome.

Last edition:

Saturday, September 12, 1914. French and British victory at the Marne.

Saturday, August 23, 2014

Sunday, August 23, 1914. Maurice James Dease

The Battle of Mons occurred in which the BEF held the German forces, but began a month long retreat to the Marne.

Irishman Maurice James Dease became the first British officer to be killed in action, for which he additionally won the Victoria Cross.

The machine gun crews were constantly being knocked out. So cramped was their position that when a man was hit he had to be removed before another could take his place. The approach from the trench was across the open, and whenever a gun stopped Lieutenant Maurice Dease... went up to see what was wrong. To do this once called for no ordinary courage. To repeat it several times could only be done with real heroism. Dease was badly wounded on these journeys, but insisted on remaining at duty as long as one of his crew could fire. The third wound proved fatal, and a well deserved VC was awarded him posthumously. By this time both guns had ceased firing, and all the crew had been knocked out. In response to an inquiry whether anyone else knew how to operate the guns Private Godley came forward. He cleared the emplacement under heavy fire and brought the gun into action. But he had not been firing long before the gun was hit and put completely out of action. The water jackets of both guns were riddled with bullets, so that they were no longer of any use. Godley himself was badly wounded and later fell into the hands of the Germans.

German troops killed 654 Belgian civilians in Dinant, Belgium in confusion or panic regarding francs-tireurs

The French were defeated in the  Battle of the Ardennes and the Battle of Charleroi.

The Battle of Tannenberg began between the German Army and the Imperial Russian Army.

The Battle of Kraśnik began between the Austro Hungarian Army and the Imperial Russian Army.

Japan declared war on Germany.  China canceled the German lease of the Kiaochow Bay.

New Zealand occupied the German colony of German Samoa, following an unopposed invasion.

Last edition:

Saturday, August 22, 1914. British at Mons.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Friday, August 21, 1914. Zapata warns about Carranza.

Emiliano Zapata wrote to Lucio Blanco: 

that this  Carranza does not inspire much confidence in me. I see in him much ambition, and an inclination to fool the people.

Blanco and staff, 1913.   Blanco was an artillery officer, and the first of the Mexican revolutionary commanders to redistribute hacienda land to peasantry.  He was murdered in Mexico's revolutionary strife in 1922.

Zapata also wrote to  Pancho Villa to warn him that Carranza's ambitions were dangerous and likely to another war.

The French fought the Germans in the Ardennes, Luxembourgian border and on the Sambre River in Belgium.

A German night attack on Dinant lead the German forces to erroneously believe that the city was full of hostile civilians.

The Germans lost two zeppelins on their first mission, making it three zeppelins lost in a row.  French cavalry actually attacked and looted one of the crashed zeppelins.

German colonials troops captured Laï from the French in what is now Chad.

Pvt. John Parr, a 17 year old reconnaissance bicyclist, became the first British soldier to be killed on the Western Front when he was killed in an encounter with German cavalry.

Albanian rebels took Vlorë.

Captain Robert Bartlett met Burt McConnell, secretary for Canadian Arctic Expedition leader Vilhjalmur Stefansson, at Point Barrow, Alaska, who exchanged information on the stranded and missing.

Boston Red Sox.

There was a solar eclipse.



Last edition:

Thursday, August 20, 1914. Carranza enters Mexico City. The Germans enter Brussels.

Monday, August 18, 2014

Tuesday, August 18, 1914. Lady Teacher for Lincoln County. Neutrality for the US.

The Lincoln County School District requested a "lady teacher" from the University of Wyoming for the Cumberland Mining Camp. (UW History Calendar).

Lincoln County is remote now, and it would have been even more so in 1914.

The Imperial Russian Army invaded the Austrian Crownland of Galicia, or Austrian Poland (it's now in Poland and Ukraine.

The French captured bridges over the Rhine as well as taking large numbers of German soldiers in Alsace.

President Wilson declared the United States to be strictly neutral in the war developing in Europe and spreading the globe.



Last edition:

Monday, August 17, 1914. Russia invades Prussia.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Friday, August 14, 1914. First bombing raid.

The French First Army advanced on German forces near Sarrebourg, Lorraine, France.

Albanian rebels attacked Durrës, the capital of Albania, but were driven back by Romanian volunteer forces, showing how confusing the Great War already was.

The first real bomber, the the French Voisin III, made its first combat run. An attack on German airship hangars at Metz-Frescaty Air Base in Germany.


The Austro Hungarian steamer SS Baron Gautsch struck a mine off of Croatia and sank, killing 150 passengers.

The German light cruiser SMS Emden left the rest of the German Pacific squadron to raid shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean.

Friday, August 8, 2014

Saturday, August 8, 1914. Leaving for the Antarctic.

The UK passed the first Defence of the Realm Act authorizing wartime censorship.

French forces took Muhouse in Alsace, although they'd be pushed back out two days later.

German colonial authorities executed Cameroonian resistance leaders Martin-Paul Samba and Rudolf Duala Manga Bell for treason.

The Shackleton Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition left the UK for Antarctica, seemingly out of context and now out of their own times.

Last edition:

Friday, August 7, 1914. The BEF arrives in France.

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Friday, August 7, 1914. The BEF arrives in France.

The British Expeditionary Force arrived in France.

The French launched an offensive to regain Alsace.

German soldiers began burning private buildings in Kalisz.


The British Gold Coast Regiment entered German Togoland.  German police opened fire and British soldier Alhaji Grunshi returned it, becoming the first British soldier to fire a shot in World War One.

Spain declared its neutrality.


Last edition:

Thursday, August 6, 1914. More declarations of war.