Showing posts with label French Army. Show all posts
Showing posts with label French Army. Show all posts

Saturday, November 22, 2025

Monday, November 22, 1915. British turned back in Mesopotamia.

The Indian Expeditionary Force D, mostly made up of Indian units and under the command of Gen. Sir John Nixon, attacked a more powerful force of Ottoman troops under the command of Nureddin Pasha near the site of the ancient city of Ctesiphon, located on the Tigris southeast of Baghdad.


Both sides took high casualty rates, but the battle arrested British progress in Mesopotamia and forced a British withdrawal.

The French evacuated the Vardar region of Macedonia in light of the defeat of the Serbian Army.

While the fighting in Europe had much of the front news attention in the US, in Texas it was Villa's plight south of the border, and how that might spill into the US.


Larrabee State Park was created in Washington.

The circus/carnival train owned by Con T. Kennedy was hit head on by the engine of a Central of Georgia passenger train east of Columbus, Georgia.  The resulting crash resulted in at least 15 deaths of circus workers and perhaps up to 25, who were buried in a common grave.

Last edition:

Sunday, November 20, 1915. Villa in retreat. . . again.

Tuesday, November 11, 2025

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.

Saturday, October 4, 2025

Sunday, October 4, 1925. Fawzi al-Qawuqji attacks Hama.

Fawzi al-Qawuqji lead an assault on French security installations in the city of Hama, Syria.

Fawzi al-Qawuqji had started his military career as an Ottoman officer, and then under King Faisal.  He thereafter served in the Syrian Legion for the French, before deserting in the Great Syrian Revolt.  He served the Saudis after that, and then the Palestinian Cause against the British in the 1930s.  He was wounded in the Palestinian uprising and ultimately took refuge in Germany, where he joined the German Army, ending up a prisoner of war of the Soviets.  Released in 1947, he made his way back to the Middle East and was appointed the Arab League field commander of the Arab Liberation Army (ALA) in the 1948 Palestine War.   His forces ultimately lost control of territory that was to have been Palestinian.  He retired to Syria thereafter and died in 1977.

Al-Qawuqui is one of those rare military refigures who had a track record of serving in uniformly losing causes and who not only survived them, but inexplicably continued to receive further commands.

Fawzi al-Qawuqji in May, 1948.

The Soviet Union gave up on restricting the alcohol content of beverages.

Ty Cobb, who was normally a centerfielder, pitched against the St. Louis Browns for one inning.  The Browns had George Sisler first baseman pitch for two innings against the Tigers.  Non pitchers in the pitching role would not happen again for another 92 years.

The Finnish torpedo boat S2 sank in a storm with the loss of all 53 hands.

Last edition:

Saturday, October 3, 1925. The launch of the USS Lexington.

Monday, September 29, 2025

Wednesday, September 29, 1915. The Great New Orleans Hurricane.


A hurricane made landfall in Louisiana, killing 279 people.  The destruction of the storm would not be surpassed for fifty years.

The Germans recaptured lost ground in the Second Battle of Champagne resulting in a French suspension of their campaign.

6,000 or more Ottoman troops were dispatched to break Armenian resistance at Urfa, Turkey.

Last edition:

Tuesday, September 28, 1915. La Matanza of Ebenezer

Wednesday, September 24, 2025

Friday, September 19, 2025

Wednesday, September 19, 1945. Kim Il Sung returns to Korea.

Kim Il Sung arrived at Port Wonsan and began to organize the Communist Party of Korea.

Kim was born into a Presbyterian family.  He fled to Manchuria in 1920 after being involved in anti Japanese activities.  He was in  his mid teens at the time and then attended military schools.  It was while he was in China that he became interested in Communism.  He was a figure in the Chinese Communist Army during the pre World War Two Chinese Civil War and then again during World War Two, crossing into the Soviet Union in 1940.  He then joined the Red Army. The Soviets chose Kim in order to have a Communist figure to introduce into Korea even though he was poorly educated and by 1940 his Korean was very poor.  His early life is not very well known.

Navy aircraft over Inchon, September 1945.

The US banned reporting on the atomic bombs in Japan.

British and French troops complete the suppression of the Việt Minh in Saigon.

New Zealand ratified the UN Charter.

William Joyce was sentenced to death.

The British announced that Indian would shortly be granted home rule.

Shirley temple married Sgt. John Agar, a fellow actor.  She was 17 years old. Agar was 25.

The marriage wouldn't last.

Agar had a real drinking problem, although he amazingly lived to age 81.  Apparently he's associated with B science fiction movies, but I always associate him with John Ford westerns.  He also appeared in The Sands of Iwo Jima.  He met Shirley Temple in 1943 when he escorted her to a Hollywood party.  She would only have been 15 years old at the time.

His second marriage lasted 49 years.

He had a remarkably long film career, although many of his roles were very minor.  In World War Two he served first in the Navy, joining in 1941 and then in the Army Air Force as a physical instructor.  He was discharged from the Navy due to an ear infection.


Shirley Temple in 1943.

Temple is a film legend, of course, but had trouble transitioning from being a child actress to adult film roles, even though the ones she appeared in showed her to be a very talented adult actress.  This would lead to an early retirement from film, something that was hastened by a negative reaction to being propositioned by MGM figure Arthur Freed and Louis B. Mayer on the same day, when she was only 12, leading to her returning to Fox from MGM without much success.  She later became the US Ambassador to Czechoslovakia during the Reagan Administration.

Last edition:

Tuesday, September 18, 1945. The first desegregation student protest.

Saturday, September 13, 2025

Thursday, September 13, 1945. Start of the 1945–1946 War in Southern Vietnam,

The 1945–1946 War in Southern Vietnam began with the arrival of Major General Douglas Gracey in command if Indian troops.  He arrived to take the Japanese surrendered but immediately apprised the situation as being nearly out of control.

One of his first acts was to arm liberated French POWs.  His Indian Forces and the rearmed French soon evicted the Việt Minh from Saigon.

Gen. Leclerc of the French Army reviewing British Indian troops, Gen. Gracey in the background.

One of the really astounding elements of this is that the British not only won the Malayan Emergency, but arguably won their own portion of the Vietnam War. 

The Japanese surrendered at Rangoon, save for their commander who would not surrender until October.  The Japanese 18th Army surrendered in New Guinea.

The Chinese Communist prevailed in the Battle of Dazhongji while the Wudi Campaign (无棣战役) began.

British military authorities publish a  Gestapo "death list" of 2300 British and Allied notables, including Churchill and the leaders of the French, Polish and Czechoslovak governments in exile.

Spain abolished the Falangist salute.

Last edition:

Tuesday, September 11, 1945. The arrest of Tojo.


Monday, August 25, 2025

Tuesday, August 25, 1925. End of the Occupation of the Ruhr.

French and German troops withdrew from the Ruhr.

The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was organized by A. Philip Randolph, Milton Webster, and C. L. Dellums.

The Spanish Navy leveled Al Hoceima, Morocco.

Last edition:

Friday, August 25, 1925. Infamnia.

Labels: 

Tuesday, July 22, 2025

Wednesday, July 22, 1925. Battle of al-Kafr.

John Henry "Harry" Selby, legendary African big game hunter, was born in South Africa.  After a lifetime as a ph, he died in Botswana, at age 92 in 2018.

In Memoriam: Harry Selby, Hunter And Rifleman, Dies At 92

Selby was part of the post World War Two generation of professional hunters in Africa, who are more associated with guiding than market hunting.  He obtained his professional license in 1945.

The Battle of al-Kafr saw the Druze shoot down a French military aircraft and ambush a column of French soldiers, killing 111 out of 174 members.

Last edition:

Tuesday, July 21, 1925. Scopes verdict and the Great Syrian Revolt.

Sunday, July 20, 2025

Monday, July 20, 1925. Salkhad.

Druze rebels captured the French Army garrison at Salkhad.

Sheikh Sultan el-Atrash, leader of Druze revolt in October, 1925.

The Druze have been in the news recently given a conflict between the Druze, who tend to be allied to Israel, and Bedouins.  

Nobody ever wanted the French in Syria, excepting of course, the French.

Italy and Yugoslavia signed the Treaty of Nettuno.  The treaty allowed Italians to emigrate to Dalmatia, and was opposed by the Croatian Peasant Party, causing Yugoslavia to take three years to ratify it.

Boise City, Oklahoma, was incorporated.


Last edition:

Saturday, July 18, 1925. Nazi tome and Scopes trial.

Monday, June 30, 2025

Wednesday, June 30, 1915. Armenian massacre.

Facing a lack of ammunition, Aremenial militiamen engaged Ottoman troops hand to hand.

They lost, and the Ottomans entered the fort and killed the women and children inside.

The HMS Lightning struck a mine in the Thames Estuary of England and sank.  The German submarine SM UC-2 struck a mine in the North Sea and sank.

French commander Henri Gouraud was wounded at Gallipoli and replaced by his divisional commander, Maurice Bailloud.

A telegram was sent to the Secretary of State from El Paso.

Collector Cobb to the Secretary of State.

[Telegram.]

El Paso, June 30, 1915.

Trial Huerta and others postponed until July 12. When Huerta left Federal building there was repetition of scene of June 27; he was given an ovation by his partisans who are assembled in El Paso.

Cobb.

Last edition:

Tuesday, June 29, 1915. Airpower comes to the forests.

Saturday, May 31, 2025

Thursday, May 31, 1945. Intervening in Syria.

Churchill informed de Gaulle that British forces had been instructed to intervene in the Levant in order to end the fighting and the threat it posed to Allied supply lines to the Pacific.  The British soon arranged a ceasefire but British intervention would bring the UK and France to the point of war.


The Norwegian government started to return to Oslo.

Odilo Globocnik, age 41, Austrian Nazi  committed suicide after being captured by the British.

On Okinawa, the Japanese pulled out of Shuri.

Japanese resistance ended on Negros in the Philippines.

Last edition.

Wednesday, May 30, 1945. Czech reprisals.