Gallipoli campaign

Gallipoli campaign of World War 1

The Gallipoli campaign, also known as the Dardanelles campaign, the Battle of Gallipoli or the Battle of Çanakkale (Turkish: Çanakkale Savaşı), was a campaign of the First World War that took place on the Gallipoli peninsula (Gelibolu in modern Turkey), from 17 February 1915 to 9 January 1916.

The Entente powers, Britain, France, and Russia, sought to weaken the Ottoman Empire, one of the Central Powers, by taking control of the straits that provided a supply route to Russia.

The Allies’ attack on Ottoman forts at the entrance of the Dardanelles in February 1915 failed and was followed by an amphibious landing on the Gallipoli peninsula in April 1915 to capture the Ottoman capital of Constantinople (Istanbul).

In January 1916, after eight months’ fighting, with approximately 250,000 casualties on each side, the land campaign was abandoned and the invasion force withdrew.

It was a costly defeat for the Allies and for the sponsors, especially First Lord of the Admiralty (1911–1915), Winston Churchill. The campaign was considered a great Ottoman victory.

In Turkey, it is regarded as a defining moment in the history of the state, a final surge in the defense of the motherland as the Ottoman Empire retreated.

The struggle formed the basis for the Turkish War of Independence and the declaration of the Republic of Turkey eight years later, with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who rose to prominence as a commander at Gallipoli, as founder and president.

The campaign is often considered to be the beginning of Australian and New Zealand national consciousness; 25 April, the anniversary of the landings, is known as ANZAC Day, the most significant commemoration of military casualties and veterans in the two countries, surpassing Remembrance Day (Armistice Day)

Silent Landscape at Gallipoli: The Battlefields of the Dardanelles, One Hundred Years On

Sinking of the RMS Lusitania

The Sinking of RMS Lusitania during World War 1

The sinking of the Cunard ocean liner RMS Lusitania occurred on Friday, 7 May 1915 during the First World War, as Germany waged submarine warfare against the United Kingdom which had implemented a naval blockade of Germany.

The ship was identified and torpedoed by the German U-boat U-20 and sank in 18 minutes, and also took on a heavy starboard list.

The vessel went down 11 miles (18 km) off the Old Head of Kinsale,:429 Ireland, killing 1,198 and leaving 761 survivors.

The sinking turned public opinion in many countries against Germany, contributed to the American entry into World War I, and became an iconic symbol in military recruiting campaigns of why the war was being fought.

Lusitania fell victim to torpedo attack relatively early in the First World War, before tactics for evading submarines were properly implemented or understood.

The contemporary investigations in both the United Kingdom and the United States into the precise causes of the ship’s loss were obstructed by the need for wartime secrecy and a propaganda campaign to ensure all blame fell upon Germany.

Arguments over whether the ship was a legitimate military target raged back and forth throughout the war as both sides made misleading claims about the ship.

At the time she was sunk, she was carrying over 4 million rounds of small-arms ammunition (.303 caliber), almost 5,000 shrapnel shell casings (for a total of some 50 tons), and 3,240 brass percussion fuses, in addition to 1,266 passengers and a crew of 696]

Several attempts have been made over the years since the sinking to dive to the wreck seeking information about precisely how the ship sank, and the argument continues to the present day.

Wilful Murder: The Sinking of the Lusitania

The Battle of Jutland

The Battle of Jutland during World War 1

The Battle of Jutland was a naval battle fought between Britain’s Royal Navy Grand Fleet, under Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, and the Imperial German Navy’s High Seas Fleet, under Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer, during the First World War.

The battle unfolded in extensive maneuvering and three main engagements (the battlecruiser action, the fleet action, and the night action), from 31 May to 1 June 1916, of the North Sea coast of Denmark’s Jutland Peninsula.

It was the largest naval battle and the only full-scale clash of battleships in that war. Jutland was the third fleet action between steel battleships, following the long-range gunnery duel at the Yellow Sea and the decisive Battle of Tsushima in 1905, during the Russo-Japanese War.

Jutland was the last major battle in world history fought primarily by battleships.

Germany’s High Seas Fleet intended to lure out, trap, and destroy a portion of the Grand Fleet, as the German naval force was insufficient to openly engage the entire British fleet.

This formed part of a larger strategy to break the British blockade of Germany and to allow German naval vessels access to the Atlantic.

Meanwhile, Great Britain’s Royal Navy pursued a strategy of engaging and destroying the High Seas Fleet, thereby keeping German naval forces contained and away from Britain and her shipping lanes.

The Germans planned to use Vice-Admiral Franz Hipper’s fast scouting group of five modern battlecruisers to lure Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty’s battlecruiser squadrons into the path of the main German fleet.

They stationed submarines in advance across the likely routes of the British ships.

However, the British learned from signal intercepts that a major fleet operation was likely, so on 30 May Jellicoe sailed with the Grand Fleet to rendezvous with Beatty, passing over the locations of the German submarine picket lines while they were unprepared.

The German plan had been delayed, causing further problems for their submarines, which had reached the limit of their endurance at sea.

On the afternoon of 31 May, Beatty encountered Hipper’s battlecruiser force long before the Germans had expected. 

In a running battle, Hipper successfully drew the British vanguard into the path of the High Seas Fleet.

By the time Beatty sighted the larger force and turned back towards the British main fleet, he had lost two battlecruisers from a force of six battlecruisers and four powerful battleships—though he had sped ahead of his battleships of 5th Battle Squadron earlier in the day, effectively losing them as an integral component for much of this opening action against the five ships commanded by Hipper.

Beatty’s withdrawal at the sight of the High Seas Fleet, which the British had not known was in the open sea, would reverse the course of the battle by drawing the German fleet in pursuit towards the British Grand Fleet.

Between 18:30, when the sun was lowering on the western horizon, back-lighting the German forces, and nightfall at about 20:30, the two fleets—totaling 250 ships between them—directly engaged twice.

Fourteen British and eleven German ships sank, with a total of 9,823 casualties.

After sunset, and throughout the night, Jellicoe maneuvered to cut the Germans off from their base, hoping to continue the battle the next morning, but under the cover of darkness, Scheer broke through the British light forces forming the rearguard of the Grand Fleet and returned to port.

Both sides claimed victory.

The British lost more ships and twice as many sailors but succeeded in containing the German fleet.

The British press criticised the Grand Fleet’s failure to force a decisive outcome, while Scheer’s plan of destroying a substantial portion of the British fleet also failed.

The British strategy of denying Germany access to both the United Kingdom and the Atlantic did succeed, which was the British long-term goal.

The Germans’ “fleet in being” continued to pose a threat, requiring the British to keep their battleships concentrated in the North Sea, but the battle reinforced the German policy of avoiding all fleet-to-fleet contact.

At the end of 1916, after further unsuccessful attempts to reduce the Royal Navy’s numerical advantage, the German Navy accepted that its surface ships had been successfully contained, subsequently turning its efforts and resources to unrestricted submarine warfare and the destruction of Allied and neutral shipping, which—along with the Zimmermann Telegram—by April 1917 triggered the United States of America’s declaration of war on Germany.

The Great Retreat

The Great Retreat of World War 1

The Great Retreat, (French: La Grande Retraite) also known as the Retreat from Mons, is the name given to the long withdrawal to the River Marne, in August and September 1914, by the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), the French Fifth Army, and Allied forces on the Western Front, after their defeat by the armies of the German Empire at the Battle of Charleroi (21 August) and the Battle of Mons (23 August).

A counter-offensive by the Fifth Army, with some assistance from the BEF at the First Battle of Guise (Battle of St. Quentin 29–30 August), failed to end the German advance and the Franco-British retreat continued to and beyond the Marne.

From 5 to 12 September, the First Battle of the Marne ended the Allied retreat and forced the German armies to retire towards the Aisne river and fight the First Battle of the Aisne (13–28 September).

Reciprocal attempts to outflank the opposing armies to the north known as the Race to the Sea followed.

Siege of Przemyśl

The Siege of Przemyśl during World War 1

The Siege of Przemyśl was the longest siege of the First World War and a crushing defeat for Austria-Hungary against the Russian attackers.

Przemyśl (German: Premissel) was a fortress town on the River San and a Galician stronghold. 

The investment of Przemyśl began on 16 September 1914 and was briefly suspended on 11 October, due to an Austro-Hungarian offensive.

The siege resumed again on 9 November, and the Austro-Hungarian garrison surrendered on 22 March 1915, after holding out for a total of 133 days.

Diaries and notebooks kept by various people in the town have survived.

The diary of Josef Tomann, an Austrian recruited into military service as a junior doctor, reveals the results of the activities of garrison officers:

“The hospitals have been recruiting teenage girls as nurses. They get 120 crowns a month and free meals. They are, with very few exceptions, utterly useless.
Their main job is to satisfy the lust of the gentlemen officers and, rather shamefully, of a number of doctors, too.

New officers are coming in almost daily with cases of syphilis, gonorrhea, and soft chancre.
The poor girls and women feel so flattered when they get chatted up by one of these pestilent pigs in their spotless uniforms, with their shiny boots and buttons.”

Other accounts reveal the pervasive presence of starvation and disease, including cholera, and the diary of Helena Jablonska, a middle-aged, quite wealthy Polish woman, reveals class and anti-semitic and racial tensions in the town;

“The Jewish women in basements rip you off the worst”, and on March 18, 1915 – “The Jews are taking their shop signs down in a hurry, so that no one can tell who owns what.

They’ve all got so rich off the backs of those poor soldiers, and now of course they all want to run away!”

Once the Russians arrived in March the fate of the Jews worsened and she noted:

“The Cossacks waited until the Jews set off to the synagogue for their prayers before setting upon them with whips.

There are such lamenting and despair.

Some Jews are hiding in cellars, but they’ll get to them there too.”

Battle of la Bassee

The Battle of La Bassée of World War 1

The Battle of La Bassée was fought by German and Franco-British forces in northern France in October 1914, during reciprocal attempts by the contending armies to envelop the northern flank of their opponent, which has been called the Race to the Sea.

The German 6th Army took Lille before a British force could secure the town and the 4th Army attacked the exposed British flank further north at Ypres.

The British were driven back and the German army occupied La Bassée and Neuve Chapelle.

Around 15 October, the British recaptured Givenchy-lès-la-Bassée but failed to recover La Bassée.

German reinforcements arrived and regained the initiative, until the arrival of the Lahore Division, part of the Indian Corps.

The British repulsed German attacks until early November, after which both sides concentrated their resources on the First Battle of Ypres.

The battle at La Bassée was reduced to local operations.

In late January and early February 1915, German and British troops conducted raids and local attacks in the Affairs of Cuinchy, which took place at Givenchy-lès-la-Bassée and just south of La Bassée Canal, leaving the front line little changed.

By 6 October, the French needed British reinforcements to withstand German attacks around Lille. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) had begun to move from the Aisne to Flanders on 5 October and reinforcements from England assembled on the left flank of the Tenth Army, which had been formed from the left flank units of the Second Army on 4 October.

The Allies and the Germans attempted to take more ground, after the “open” northern flank had disappeared, Franco-British attacks towards Lille in October, being followed up by attempts to advance between the BEF and the Belgian army by a new French Eighth Army.

The moves of the German 7th and then the 6th Army from Alsace and Lorraine had been intended to secure German lines of communication through Belgium, where the Belgian army had sortied several times from the National redoubt of Belgium, during the period between the Franco-British retreat and the Battle of the Marne.

In August British marines had landed at Dunkirk. In October a new German 4th Army was assembled from the III Reserve Corps, the siege artillery used against Antwerp and four of the new reserve corps training in Germany.

Flanders terrain

Flanders Plain: Belgium and northern France, 1914
The North-east of France and south-west Belgium are known as Flanders.

West of a line between Arras and Calais in the north-west, lie chalk downlands covered with soil sufficient for arable farming.

To the east of the line, the land declines in a series of spurs into the Flanders plain, bounded by canals linking Douai, Béthune, Saint-Omer and Calais.

To the south-east, canals run between Lens, Lille, Roubaix and Courtrai, the Lys river from Courtrai to Ghent and to the north-west lay the sea. 

The plain is almost flat, apart from a line of low hills from Cassel, east to Mont des Cats, Mont Noir, Mont Rouge, Scherpenberg and Mont Kemmel.

From Kemmel, a low ridge lies to the north-east, declining in elevation past Ypres through Wytschaete, Gheluvelt and Passchendaele, curving north then north-west to Dixmude where it merged with the plain.

A coastal strip about 10 miles (16 km) wide was near sea level and fringed by sand dunes.

Inland the ground was mainly meadow, cut by canals, dykes, drainage ditches and roads built upon causeways. The Lys, Yser and upper Scheldt had been canalised and between them, the water level underground was close to the surface, rose further in the autumn and filled any dip, the sides of which then collapsed.

The ground surface quickly turned to a consistency of cream cheese and on the coast, troops were confined to roads, except during frosts.

The rest of the Flanders Plain was woods and small fields, divided by hedgerows planted with trees and cultivated from small villages and farms.

The terrain was difficult for infantry operations because of the lack of observation, impossible for mounted action because of the many obstructions and difficult for artillery because of the limited view. South of La Bassée Canal around Lens and Béthune was a coal-mining district full of slag heaps, pit-heads (fosses) and miners’ houses (corons). North of the canal, the city of Lille, Tourcoing and Roubaix formed a manufacturing complex, with outlying industries at Armentières, Comines, Halluin and Menin, along the Lys river, with isolated sugar beet and alcohol refineries and a steelworks near Aire-sur-la-Lys.

Intervening areas were agricultural, with wide roads on shallow foundations and unpaved mud tracks in France and narrow pavé roads, along the frontier and in Belgium. In France, the roads were closed by the local authorities during thaws to preserve the surface and marked by Barrières fermėes, which were ignored by British lorry drivers.

The difficulty of movement after the end of summer absorbed much local labour on road maintenance, leaving field defences to be built by front-line soldiers.

Animal Tribute to World War one

World War 1 Tribute to Animals of World War 1

Military animals are trained animals that are used in warfare and other combat-related activities.

As working animals, different military animals serve different functions.

Horses, elephants, camels, and other animals have been used for both transportation and mounted attack.

Pigeons were used for communication and photographic espionage.

Many other animals have been reportedly used in various specialized military functions, including rats and pigs.

Dogs have long been employed in a wide variety of military purposes, more recently focusing on guarding and bomb detection, and along with dolphins and sea lions are in active use today.

The horse was the most widely used animal throughout the recorded history of warfare.

Early mounts could pull a chariot or carry lightly armored skirmishing forces.

With the appearance of heavier mounts and the invention of the stirrup, the horse-mounted cavalry became the most prestigious combat arm in Europe for several centuries.

A knight’s warhorse was trained to bite and kick.

The combination of the horse-mounted warrior armed with a bow made the steppe people’s armies the most powerful military force in Asian history.

With the appearance of modern ranged weapons and motor vehicles, horse use for military purposes fell into decline.
However, horses and mules are still used extensively by various armies today for transport in difficult terrain.

While elephants are not considered domesticable, they can be trained to serve as mounts, or for moving heavy loads. Sanskrit hymns record their use for military purposes as early as 1,100 B.C.

A group of elephants was employed by Hannibal during the Second Punic War.

They were employed as recently as World War II by both the Japanese and Allies.

Elephants could perform the work of machines in locations where vehicles could not penetrate, so they found use in the Burma Campaign.

Camels have typically seen use as mounts in arid regions (Camel cavalry).

They are better able to traverse sandy deserts than horses and require far less water.

Camels were employed in both world wars.

Camels are used by the Indian Army and Border Security Force for patrolling in the desert regions of Rajasthan.

Mules were used by the U.S. Army, the British Army, and the Indian Army during World War II to carry supplies and equipment over difficult terrain.

Pack animals that are innately patient, cautious, and hardy, mules could carry heavy loads of supplies where Jeeps and even pack horses could not travel. Mules were used in North Africa, Burma, and Italy.

They are also used for transporting supplies in mountainous regions.

It was necessary to have fifteen mules attached to the (Tank) battalion for the purpose of transporting ammunition and gasoline to tanks which were impossible to service with any type of vehicle this battalion possesses.

However, this is far from a satisfactory arrangement due to the limited amount of mules and the number of supplies needed in the positions After the action report,

751st Tank Battalion., February 1945, Section IV – Supply (page 190 of 242)

Oxen have been used widely in war as beasts of burden, especially to transport heavy or siege artillery through heavy terrain.

Camels of World War 1

Camels of World War 1

In 1916, the British created the Imperial Camel Corps.

It was originally used to fight the Senussi but was later used in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign in World War I.

The Imperial Camel Corps comprised infantrymen mounted on camels for movement across desert, though they dismounted at battle sites and fought on foot. 

After July 1918, the Corps began to become run down, receiving no new reinforcements and was formally disbanded in 1919. 

In World War I, the British Army also created the Egyptian Camel Transport Corps, which consisted of a group of Egyptian camel drivers and their camels.

The Corps supported British war operations in Sinai, Palestine, and Syria by transporting supplies to the troops.

The Somaliland Camel Corps was created by colonial authorities in British Somaliland in 1912; it was disbanded in 1944.

Bactrian camels were used by Romanian forces during World War II in the Caucasian region.

At the same period, the Soviet units operating around Astrakhan in 1942 adopted local camels as draft animals due to a shortage of trucks and horses and kept them even after moving out of the area. 

Despite severe losses, some of these camels came as far West as to Berlin itself.

The Bikaner Camel Corps of British India fought alongside the British Indian Army in World War 1 and World War 2

The Tropas Nómadas (Nomad Troops) was an auxiliary regiment of Sahrawi tribesmen serving in the colonial army in Spanish Sahara (today Western Sahara). 

Operational from the 1930s until the end of the Spanish presence in the territory in 1975, the Tropas Nómadas were equipped with small arms and led by Spanish officers. The unit guarded outposts and sometimes conducted patrols on camelback.

Army Camels: Texas Ships Of The desert

Homing Pigeons of World War 1

Homing pigeons of world war 1

Homing pigeons were used extensively during World War I.

In 1914, during the First Battle of the Marne, the French army advanced 72 pigeon lofts with the troops.

The US Army Signal Corps used 600 pigeons in France alone.

One of their homing pigeons, a Blue Check hen named Cher Ami, was awarded the French “Croix de Guerre with Palm” for heroic service delivering 12 important messages during the Battle of Verdun.

On her final mission in October 1918, she delivered a message despite having been shot through the breast or wing.

The crucial message, found in the capsule hanging from a ligament of her shattered leg,

saved 194 US soldiers of the 77th Infantry Division’s “Lost Battalion”.

German unmanned camera pigeon (probably aerial reconnaissance in World War I)

United States Navy aviators maintained 12 pigeon stations in France with a total inventory of 1,508 pigeons when the war ended.

Pigeons were carried in airplanes to rapidly return messages to these stations; and 829 birds flew in 10,995 wartime aircraft patrols.

Airmen of the 230 patrols with messages entrusted to pigeons threw the message-carrying pigeon either up or down, depending on the type of aircraft, to keep the pigeon out of the propeller and away from airflow toward the aircraft wings and struts.

Eleven of the thrown pigeons went missing in action, but the remaining 219 messages were delivered successfully.

Leg canister for a war pigeon, U.S. Army Signal Corps, World War I. 1 x 2.9 cm, 1.7 gm Pigeons were considered an essential element of naval aviation communication when the first United States aircraft carrier USS Langley was commissioned on 20 March 1922; so the ship included a pigeon house on the stern.

The pigeons were trained at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard while Langley was undergoing conversion.

 As long as the pigeons were released a few at a time for exercise, they returned to the ship; but when the whole flock was released while Langley was anchored off Tangier Island, the pigeons flew south and roosted in the cranes of the Norfolk shipyard.

The pigeons never went to sea again.

Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey

Dogs of World War 1

Dogs of World War 1

Dogs were used by international forces to deliver vital messages. About a million dogs were killed in action.

Dogs used during WWI included Border Collies, Lurchers, English Sheepdogs, Retrievers and mongrels.

The Airedale Terrier was probably the most common breed used by the British in World War One though.

The Red Cross also commonly used them to find wounded soldiers.

Sergeant Stubby, a Bull Terrier or Boston Terrier, has been called the most decorated war dog of World War I, and the only dog to be nominated for rank and then promoted to sergeant through combat.

Recognized in connection with an exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution.

Among many other exploits, he’s said to have captured a German spy. 

He also became a mascot at Georgetown University. 

Rags was another notable World War I

Sergeant Stubby: How a Stray Dog and His Best Friend Helped Win World War I and Stole the Heart of a Nation