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.

Labels: 1910s, 1914, 1914 at the movies, Battle of Sarikamish, Movies, Ottoman Army, World War One

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.

Labels: 1910s, 1914, 1914 Christmas Truce, British Army, Christmas, Christmas Truce, German Army, Imperial Russian Army, Ottoman Army, Polish Legion, Royal Navy, World War One

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.

Labels: 1910s, 1914, 1914 Christmas Truce, British Army, Christmas, Christmas Truce, Conservation, German Army, Personalities, World War One

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.

Labels: 1910s, 1914, Eastern Front, First Battle of Ypres, German Army, Germany, Taxes, United Kingdom, World War One

Thursday, August 26, 1909. A hostel idea.

The youth hostel movement was born when a group of hikers lead by Richard Schirrmann found shelter in a school in a thunderstorm.

Schirrmann was a teacher as well as an outdoorsman.  During World War One he served in the German Army, participating the 1915 Christmas truce, something that lingered in his area for quite some time after Christmas.  He founded the Youth Hostel Association in 1919 and founded the children's village "Staumühle" on a former military training ground near Paderborn, where my German ancestors hail from.  HE served as the President of the International Youth Hostelling Associating until the Nazis forced him to resign and put the control of the hostels under the Hitler Youth in 1936.  He rebuilt the association after the war.  He married late, in 1942, but had six children with his wife before dying in 1961 at age 87.

The SS Cartago telegraphed a report of a hurricane near the Yucatan, the first radio warning of a tropical storm.

Last edition:

Monday, August 23, 1909. Bill Bergen sets a record.

Labels: 1900s, 1909, 1940s, 1943, baseball, Sports