Wednesday, November 24, 1915. Withdrawals at Ctesiphon.

Both sides withdrew in the Battle of Ctesiphon.

Pristina fell to the Bulgarians.

William Joseph Simmons, inspired Birth of a Nation, founded the second variant of the Ku Klux Klan at Stone Mountain, Georgia.  The event included the burning of a cross, something the original Klan did not do, but which the film had depicted.

Simmons would run the organization until 1922, at which point he'd be removed from power  The organization reached its peak membership in 1925, and declined thereafter due to scandal.

Last edition:

Tuesday, November 23, 1915. Turned back at Ctesiphon.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Battle for Pristina, Battle of Ctesiphon, British Army, German Army, Ottoman Army, World War One

Saturday, November 13, 1915. French fall back in Macedonia.

The French fell back to Bitola, Macedonia, and  halted offensive operations in the Vardar region.

Last edition:

Thursday, November 11, 1915. Churchill resigns, war in Morocco resumes.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Blog Mirror, Bulgarian Army, French Army, Macedonia, Morocco, United Kingdom, Whatever It Is I'm against it, Winston Churchill, World War One, Zaian War

Thursday, November 11, 1915. Churchill resigns, war in Morocco resumes.

The French captured a pair of key Bulgarian defense positions in Vardar Macedonia, but by the evening Bulgarian forces caused a French withdrawal.

An informal truce ended in Morocco when a French convoy was attacked by a large party of Zayanes.

Churchill Resigns After Exclusion from New War Committee

And a bunch of interesting stuff:

Whatever It Is, I’m Against It: Today -100: November 11, 1915: The war upon the ki...: After that Austrian-flagged, German-manned u-boat sank the Ancona, the US is just now realizing that while Germany gave assurances about g...

Last edition:

Wednesday, November 10, 1915. Staging on Hermosillo.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Austro Hungarian Army, cavalry, Central Powers, Constitutionalist Army, Fourth Battle of the Isonzo, Italian Army, Kosovo Offensive, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Pancho Villa, Serbian Army

Monday, November 13, 1944. Air service returns to London.

Civil air service returned to London.  It had been stopped in September, 1939.

The Akebono, Akishimo, Hatsuharu, Kiso and Okinami was sunk in Filipino waters by the U.S. Navy.  The I-12 was sunk east of Hawaii.

The Bulgarian 1st Army captured Skopje.

SSgt Junior J. Spurrier performed the actions that resulted in his receiving a Medal of Honor.

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy at Achain, France, on 13 November 1944. At 2 p.m., Company G attacked the village of Achain from the east. S/Sgt. Spurrier armed with a BAR passed around the village and advanced alone. Attacking from the west, he immediately killed 3 Germans. From this time until dark, S/Sgt. Spurrier, using at different times his BAR and M1 rifle, American and German rocket launchers, a German automatic pistol, and hand grenades, continued his solitary attack against the enemy regardless of all types of small-arms and automatic-weapons fire. As a result of his heroic actions he killed an officer and 24 enlisted men and captured 2 officers and 2 enlisted men. His valor has shed fresh honor on the U.S. Armed Forces.

Spurrier had an extremely difficult time adjusting to post World War Two life and rejoined the Army during the Korean War, where he proved to be a difficult soldier.  He was by that time an alcoholic and after his second period of service had numerous run ins with the law.  He ultimately became a teetotaler and ran an electronics repair service, dying at age 61 in 1984.

Last edition:

Sunday, November 12, 1944. Carving off part of China, Tirpitz sunk, Hitler takes time to release a long Beer Hall message, Dog Faces in chow line.

Labels: 1920s, 1923, 1940s, 1944, Adolf Hitler, Army, Beer Hall Putsch, boats and ships, France, German Kriegsmarine, Nazi Germany, Nazi Party, Republic of China, Royal Air Force, The written word, USSR, World War Two

Thursday, September 28, 1944. The Belgrade Offensive and a last telegraph.

Soviet, Yugoslav Partisan, and Bulgarian forces, the latter now in league with the USSR, began the Belgrade Offensive.

Polish Home Army General Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski sent a last telegraph requesting help from the Red Army command for the fighters at Warsaw.  He received no reply.

Churchill announced the formation of a Jewish Brigade.

The US lands on Negesbus and Kongaruru near Peleliu.

Last edition:

Wednesday, September 27, 1944. The Battle of Metz commences.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Australian Navy, Battle of Metz, boats and ships, Christianity, Finnish Army, George S. Patton, Personalities, Protestant, Sweden, U.S. Air Force, World War Two

Thursday, November 4, 1915. Villa withdraws.

 I don't think the withdrawal was puzzling anyone who knew what had happened at the battle.

The Third Battle of Artois concluded with the Allies having sustained major casualties and having failed to achieve their objectives.

The French pulled off at Karahojali and advanced toward Veles.

The British besieged a German position at Banjo, Kamerun.

The SM U-38 sank the French troopship SS Le Calvados off the coast of Algeria, killing 740 of the 800 on board..

A contingent of 129 Belizean men departed for the “great fight for civilization and freedom”  and British military service aboard the HMT Verdala.  

Last edition:

Wednesday, November 3, 1915. Wilson considers ordering troops into Mexico.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Aircraft, Austro Hungarian Army, boats and ships, Frederick Funston, Italian Army, Mexican Border War, Royal Navy, The Punitive Expedition, Third Battle of the Isonzo, Woodrow Wilson, World War One

Tuesday, October 26, 1915. Coaxing the Afghanis.

Bulgarian troops executed 120 sick or wounded Serbian troops under orders of their commander Aleksandar Protogerov.

A German delegation met with Emir of Afghanistan Habibulla Khan to try to persuade the Afghanis to throw in with the Germans.

A Denver boy was being accused by the Canadians of being a spy.

And there was a confession on the Plan of San Diego.

Last edition:

Sunday, October 24, 1915. Arab Revolt, Marine Heroes.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Arab Revolt, Battle of Fort Dipitie, boats and ships, Bulgarian Army, Dan Daly, Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, Smedley Butler, United Kingdom, United States Marine Corps, World War One

Sunday, October 24, 1915. Arab Revolt, Marine Heroes.

Henry McMahon, British High Commissioner of Egypt sent a letter to Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca confirming support for Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire and creating an independent Arab state.

The Bulgarian First Army broke through the Serbian line at Pirot in southeastern Serbia.

Haitian rebels attacked a Marine Corps patrol lead by Smedley Butler resulting in an all night fights.  Butler, Edward Albert Ostermann and William P. Upshur would win the Congressional Medal of Honor.  Dan Daly would win a second Medal of Honor.

Smedley Butler in 1929.

The heroic Butler was one of the greatest Marines of all time, retiring as a Major General, and went on to be an anti war politician close to the end of his life.  He'd win two Congressional Medals of Honor in his career and sadly die of cancer in 1940 at age 58. The condition he died of, is one that I have had, slighter later in age, and detected earlier.

Dan Daly

The almost absurdly heroic Daly is one of the most decorated Marine of all time.  He'd pass away at age 63 in 1937.  

Daly was a short man, 5'6", and an Irish Catholic.  He's not buried in Arlington as he wanted to be buried near his home, in New York.

Edward Ostermann

Ostermann had started his career off in the Army and then switched to the Marine Corps.  He'd been a musician in the Army.  His career which would see him obtain the rank of Major General, lasted until 1943 at which time he was refused a combat command due to physical infirmity, and retired.  He died in 1969 at age 86.

William P. Upshur.

Upshur also obtained the rank of Major General but was in a very senior command when he was killed in an airplane crash in Alaska in 1943 at the age of 61.

The Endurance was abandoned when the hull was breached by ice. The crew transferred to lifeboats.

Givanni BattistaTiepolo's frescos in the Church of the Scalzi in Venice were destroyed by naval gunfire.

Last edition:

Saturday, October 23, 1915. Marching for the vote.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Art, Blog Mirror, boats and ships, German Kriegsmarine, Industry, Ohio (Cleveland), Sarah Stilwell-Weber, The roles of men and women, Whatever It Is I'm against it, Women, World War One

Friday, October 22, 1915. Carranza promises to help.

General Joseph Joffre declared a "moral victory" at Champagne in spite of no French objectives having been reached.

The Bulgarians crossed the South Morava River near Vranje, Serbia.

Carranza promised to help address cross border raids.

Whatever It Is, I’m Against It: Today -100: October 22, 1915: A crime dwarfing eve...: At a Trafalgar Day service in the Church of St. Martin’s in the Fields, the Bishop of London calmly discusses the execution of Edith Cavel..

Last edition:

Thursday, October 21, 1915. Ojo de Agua.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Army, Battle of Krivolak, Bulgarian Army, cavalry, Constitutionalist Army, Mexican Border War, Ojo de Agua Raid, Sedicionistas, Signal Corps, United Daughters of the Confederacy, World War One

Thursday, October 21, 1915. Ojo de Agua.

The U.S. Army and Sedicionistas fought at Ojo de Agua, Texas in the last clash between those two forces.  Sedicionistas, being Constitutionalist, had lost their incentive to fight in Texas given the recent U.S. recognition of Carranza of the de facto ruler of Mexico.  The initial attack was upon signalmen housed in the building depicted above and commenced at 1:00 a.m.  The gunfire attracted cavalry reinforcements.

Three U.S. soldiers, including the NCO in command, Sergeant Schaffer, were killed and eight wounded. The Sediciosos lost five men dead and at least nine others wounded, two of whom later died.  A Japanese man and two Carrancista soldiers were found among the dead.  No further raids by Sedcionistas or those supporting the Constitutionalist occurred, although this raid reinforced the view by American officers that Carranza was not trustworthy.

The rescuing cavalry detachments, it might be noted, came from 2 and 8 miles away, with the latter coming up just as the Mexican forces withdrew.

Elsewhere, other U.S. Army units in Texas were at the State Fair.

Bulgarian troops were repulsed by the British in the Battle of Krivolak.

Whatever It Is, I’m Against It: Today -100: October 21, 1915: All the forces of wi...: Russia declares war on Bulgaria (actually on the 18th, but they didn’t tell anyone for a couple of days). Britain offers Greece a present...

The United Daughters of the Confederacy held their first annual meeting outside the Southern United States, in San Francisco. 

Eight "Russian" children who dropped of elementary school in Sterling, Colorado to work in the beet harvest.  It's not clear to me if they're Russians, or Russian Americans. They might in fact have been Russian refugees, but 1915, would be early for that.

Last edition:

Wednesday, October 20, 1915. Arms okay for Carranza.

Labels: Balkans, Constitutionalist Army, Convention of Aguascalientes, Louis Botha, Macedonia, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Thanksgiving, The roles of men and women, Venustiano Carranza, Woodrow Wilson, World War One