Search by or
Search: Quotation Context Tags
A folding postcard from a pencil sketch of an unsuccessful Allied gas attack in Flanders.
Map of the Theatre of War Operations on the Russian front showing the furthest (westernmost) advance of Russian forces and the Front as of December 1917 after the Russian armistice. From The War of the Nations Portfolio in Rotogravure Etchings Compiled from the Mid-Week PictorialPublished by the New York Times Co.New York City N.Y., 1919.Copyrighted 1919 by the New York Times Company1914 — 1919
The rulers of the Central Powers — Kaisers Wilhelm and Franz Joseph, Tsar Ferdinand, and Mohammed V — surrounded by the Allies: Belgium, Britain, France, Italy to the west, the Balkan states of Montenegro, Serbia, and Greece, where Britain and France ensure Greek participation in the war, and Russia its strength bolstered by Japan's munitions supplies. Out to sea, the British, French, and Italian navies stand guard, with that of Russia in the distance. Portugal likely stands at the lower left. By 1916, Serbia was already occupied by the Central Powers.
What do you want here? Turkish and British child soldiers on the Suez Canal. After crossing the Sinai Peninsula during January, 1915, a Turkish army of approximately 12,000 soldiers reached the Suez Canal on February 2, and tried to cross after nightfall, but were driven back. On the 3rd, the British crossed the canal, and struck the Turkish left flank, driving them back. By February 10, the Turks had evacuated the Peninsula.
Relief map of Great Britain and Ireland, the North Sea, English Channel, and Atlantic Ocean, with northwestern Europe: France, Belgium, Holland, and Scandinavia. The war-zone outlined on the map was declared on February 4, 1915. On May 7, the Lusitania entered the war zone southwest of Ireland.
"On the last day of January, the German Ninth Army undertook a feint in the direction of Warsaw, designed to distract Russian attention from the main efforts elsewhere. The Battle of Bolimow was not a success. Sub-zero weather negated the first use of poison gas (xylyl bromide) by the Germans — which the Russians failed to report to their western allies. The Russians committed 11 divisions to defend the 6-mile-wide front, losing 40 000 men in just 3 days." ((1), more)
"They resumed the attack five days later, assaulting the same three-thousand-foot Russian-held heights they had stormed, taken, and lost the previous week. Snow that had been knee deep a few days earlier was waist deep now. Companies were down to a handful of men. By the end of January, the 6th Jäger Battalion, which had numbered 1,069 men on New Year's Eve, had only 100 left. Even the fabled Jägergeist — the Spirit of the Huntsman — could not bear this blood, snow, ice, wind, and death forever. An alarming number of officers broke under the strain, sent home with only this explanation: zusammengebrochen, 'shattered.'" ((2), more)
"On the left bank of the Vistula, in the region of Sochaczev, the Russians are engaged in a series of partial, short attacks which correspond closely with what the Grand Duke Nicholas has called 'as active a defense as possible.' In the Bukovina they are slowly retreating owing to the shortage of ammunition." ((3), more)
"The main army of the Turks, which had now dwindled to 12,000 men, arrived at the canal on February 2d. A skirmish near Ismailia Ferry was suddenly terminated by a violent sandstorm. After nightfall, however, the Turkish Army hauled some 30 pontoon boats to the banks of the canal at Toussoun, 12 miles below Ismailia, and attempted to cross. The British troops opened fire with maxim guns, which took a heavy toll in lives. The Turks brought several batteries of field guns into action, but failed to silence the British batteries." ((4), more)
"Next day [February 3, 1915], the British, supported by land and naval artillery, crossed the canal at Serapeum and attacked the Turkish left flank. By late afternoon a third of the Turkish Army was in full retreat, leaving 500 prisoners and many dead behind them. The guns of a Turkish warship in the adjacent lake then opened a lively fire, damaging a British gunboat. During the night, the Turks stole away, and so ended the battle of the Suez Canal. By February 10th, the Sinai Peninsula was cleared of the enemy." ((5), more)
(1)
The First World War: Germany and Austria Hungary 1914-1918 by Holger H. Herwig, page 135, copyright © 1997 Holger H. Herwig, publisher: Arnold, publication date: 1997
(2) Chief of the Austro-Hungarian General Staff Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf had lost Galicia and Bukovina, Austria-Hungary's northeastern provinces in 1914, and hoped to regain them in a winter offensive. He also hoped to end the threat of the Russians advancing through the passes of the Carpathian Mountains, which would put them in a position to strike Budapest, the Hungarian capital.
A Mad Catastrophe by Geoffrey Wawro, pp. 350, 351, copyright © 2014 by Geoffrey Wawro, publisher: Basic Books
(3) Entry from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia, for Monday, Febuary 1, 1915. The ammunition shortage which affected all combatants at the end of 1914 and early 1915 was particularly acute for the Russians. With inadequate production capacity, they imported shells and weapons from Japan and the United States. On the Vistula River, the Russians faced the German Army. In the Bukovina, they were retreating before Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf's winter offensive, one costly to both sides.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. I by Maurice Paléologue, page 271, publisher: George H. Doran Company, publication date: 1925
(4) A Turkish army of 65,000 men advanced from Constantinople to the Sinai Peninsula to seize the Suez Canal from the British. Before its arrival, and after a November 21, 1914 skirmish between the British and 2,000 Bedouins, the British had enhanced their defenses of the canal, in part by breaking through the canal dyke to flood the desert to the east. British gunships and French warships patrolled the Bitter Lakes and flooded land through and along which which the canal ran. The Turkish force had been significantly diminished by the time it reached the canal.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 139, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
(5) After the attack on February 2-3, 1915, the Turks did not again seriously threaten the Suez Canal, although they attempted to lay mines in the Canal and connecting waterways. Only one mine damaged a ship, the liner Teiresias, on June 30. Many of the Turkish troops who could have threatened the Canal were redeployed to defend against the Allied invasion on the Gallipoli Peninsula,which began in April.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 140, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
1 2 Next
