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Mike Palmer: Posted on 30 January 2015 04:08
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Colin: Posted on 29 January 2015 07:45
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 28 January 2015 06:17
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 27 January 2015 06:58
Today is indeed Wilhelm II, the German Emperors birthday, and
as today’s paper suggests he was still smarting from the defeat at Dogger Bank issuing
orders that all further risks to surface vessels were to be avoided. The German
armies on the western front have again taken the offensive with simultaneous
attacks at several points along the line. Today is the day the British war
cabinet decides to attack the Dardanelles from the sea.
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 26 January 2015 07:56
The loss of the German armoured cruiser Blucher: Having
taken part in the raids on Yarmouth, Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby in 1914
which resulted in 137 deaths and 592 casualties, many of whom were civilians
there was significant public outrage towards the German navy. So when Blucher was
slowed significantly after being hit by gunfire from the British battlecruiser
squadron and abandoned by Rear Admiral Hipper, the commander of the German
squadron in order to save his more valuable battlecruisers she was left to the mercy
of the Royal Navy who had no qualms in sinking her or abandoning the survivors
of her crew to the sea when a German zeppelin began dropping bombs on the rescue
effort. It is estimated that between 747 to 1,000 of Bluchers crew were killed.
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 25 January 2015 05:56
On this day a hundred years ago a German deserter entered
the British front line trenches at Cuinchy at about 7 am and let it be known of
an imminent German attack about to take place Within half an hour of the
warning four German mines exploded along the trench line occupied by No 4
company Coldstream Guards and immediately rushed and occupied by the Germans killing
amongst others Captain Hon. J.B. Campbell. . No 1 Coy on the embankment by the
La BasséeCanal held its ground and No 2 Coy under Lt Viscount Acheson held on
to the keep and Brickstacks and repelled German attacks. The Scots Guards the
immediate right shared a similar fate but were able to maintain a stand at the
Brickfields. Reinforcements of London Scottish, Black Watch and Cameron
Highlanders were sent up and a counter attack was made but it was found
impossible to dislodge the Germans from the front trenches they had taken.
After this German attack, the front settled down a little, but thiswas only a
lull before a further storm.
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 24 January 2015 08:18
  On the 23rd January room 40 of British Naval
Intelligence intercepted German radio traffic outlining Admiral Franz Hipper′s
battlecruiser squadrons plans on attacking the British fishing fleet on the
Dogger Bank. A responce was quickly formulated by the Admiralty. Acting Vice
Admiral Beatty set sail from Rosyth with five battlecruisers — supported by
four light cruisers — in an attempt to trap Hipper′s force. The ensuing battle
resulted in the loss of the German armoured cruiser SMS Blücher. The battlecruiser
HMS Lion Vice Admiral Beatty's flagship was so badly damaged it had to be towed
back to port by the battlecruiser Indomitable and was under repair for more than
twomonths.
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 23 January 2015 07:57
Numerous artillery engagements along whole line; successful
French air-raids.
The RNAS continue their air raids on the German submarine
station at Ostend and Zeebrugge. Today
Lieutenant Richard Bell-Davies and Lieutenant Richard Edmund
Charles Peirse will drop eight bombs each on submarines alongside the mole at
Zeebrugge. Flight Lieutenant Davies was severely wounded by a bullet in the
thigh, but nevertheless he accomplished his task, handling his machine for an
hour with great skill in spite of pain and loss of blood. . Both men would
survive the Great War: Davies would recover from his wounds and go on to be
awarded the Victoria Cross he achieve the rank of Vice Admiral he died 26th
February 1966. Peirse would be knighted and achieve the rank of Air Chief
Marshal he died 5th August 1970.
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 22 January 2015 09:24
Tuesdays “The Murder Raid” or “Airship barbarities” over
Norfolk and Suffolk still dominate todays daily’s, whilst sarcastically
acknowledging the heroism required to kill women and children. The papers also
ran reports of British and French bombing raids on Essen and Ostend pointing out
the successful raids hit only military targets with no civilian casualties.
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 21 January 2015 08:00
“Four persons, as far as is known at the time of writing,
were murdered between the hours of eight and eleven on Tuesday night in the
towns of Yarmouth and King’s Lynn. The murders were committed under
circumstances of cold-blooded cruelty very rare in the records of crime. No
motive whatever but the desire to kill and terrify can be assigned for these
acts.” The Telegraph was pulling no punches in its criticism of the German air
raids two days previously in its leader on page 8, while page 9 backed this up
with indignation from across the Atlantic over the raid. There was plenty more
on pages 9 and 12 reporting on the raid and its aftermath to fuel further ire
as well.raid and its aftermath to fuel further ire
as well.
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 20 January 2015 08:41
Yesterday’s Zeppelin raids which occurred at about 8.00pm is
found on the back page of today’s pictorial news, this is more to do with press
deadlines then Government censorship. The ironical aspect of yesterday’s attack
would be that Yarmouth would not only be the first British town to be attacked
by a Zeppelin it would also be the last but unlike the first the last would
result in the downing of the German raider.
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 19 January 2015 08:40
While the good folk of Great Yarmouth were digesting today’s
news of Russian advances little did they realize they would be tomorrow’s headlines?
Germany employed three zeppelins, the L.3, the L.4, and the L.6, for the first
airship raids on Britain. The L.6 turned back after encountering mechanical
problems, but the other two zeppelins succeeded in dropping bombs on the towns
of King’s Lynn and Great Yarmouth in Norfolk. The 19th January raids marked the
start of over 50 attacks by German airships on Britain, which killedmore than
500 people and caused injury to many more.
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 17 January 2015 23:14
"old one o’clock”. Was Alexander Heinrich Rudolph von
Kluck the German general who was in command of the German First Army which reached
to within thirteen miles of Paris? It was Klucks decision to wheel his columns
to the east of Paris which created the 30-mile gap in the German line which the
British Expeditionary Force exploited forcing a German retreat and to take entrenched
positions behind the River Aisne. Toward the end of March 1915 he was seriously
injured which forced his retirement in 1916. His son, Lieutenant Egon von
Kluck, was killed early in 1915. "old one o’clock”. was immortalized in a
bawdy British army song
"Kaiser Bill is feeling ill, The Crown Prince, he's gone barmy. We don't give a f**k for old von Kluck And all his bleedin' army."
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Colin: Posted on 16 January 2015 09:18
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 15 January 2015 09:33
War news takes second place to a devastating earthquake which hits central Italy.
The 1915 Avezzano earthquake occurred on the 13
January in central Italy, near the city of L'Aquila. The epicentre was located
in the town of Avezzano in central Italy. More than 30,000 deaths resulted from
the earthquake. The quake took place at around 8:00 local time affecting
thousands of people throughout central and southern Italy. The town of Avezzano
was literally toppled from the shaking and only one high-rise building
survived. 96 percent of its population was eliminated almost simultaneously. Because
of World War I the government decided not to accept foreign assistance.
Throughout the middle of January there is trench exchanging
in the Soissons area of France with German attacks and French retreating then
role reversal. The German harassing operations gradually peter out and come to
nothing..
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 14 January 2015 10:36
The investiture of the Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest
military award for bravery above and beyond the call of duty by His Majesty the
King at Buckingham Palace was always well publicised by the national
press. These men would be elevated to
national hero statues. Their acts of heroism would appear in pictorials and
their images on collective cigarette cards. They would be used by the state to
give lectures and on recruitment drives. David Nelson VC and John Dimmer VC would both
be killed in action. Nelson at Lillers, France, on 8th April 1918 his Victoria
Cross is displayed at the Imperial War Museum, London. John Dimmer would die at
Marteville, France on 21st March 1918. His Victoria Cross is displayed at the
Royal Green Jackets Museum, Winchester, England.
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 13 January 2015 10:05
January 1915 would be the wettest month for a century in the
United Kingdom only being matched by the wet weather of 2014. Vast sways of
land in Norfolk were under water and so dominated the national tabloid press
headlines.
In today’s Telegraph is a report detailing the growing
unrest in Constantinople following Turkish military defeat in the Caucasus.
These reports would influence the British cabinets strategic planning towards the
Ottoman Empire .Having already rejected a plan to attack the Ottoman Empire by French Minister of Justice Aristide Briand and
failed in an attempt to pay the Ottomans to join the Allied side, Winston
Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, proposed naval attack on the
Dardanelles coincided with Grand Duke
Nicholas of Russia appeal to Britain for assistance against the Ottomans in
freeing the mined entrance to the Black Sea through the Dardanelles.
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Colin: Posted on 12 January 2015 07:23
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COLIN: Posted on 11 January 2015 00:30
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 09 January 2015 07:41
.
At the beginning of 1914 the British Army had just 80,000 regular
troops ready for front line duty. In august 1914, the British Parliament issued
a call for an extra 100,000 soldiers; by January 1915 a million men had enlisted.
The reality of the retreat from Mons and the battle of the Marne and the
perceived atrocities carried out by the German army meant men joined knowing that
war was dangerous indeed many joined precisely because it seemed to be a threat
to their home and their country. While voluntary enlistment was in place, pressure
was put on every able bodied male to join up.
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Posted on 08 January 2015 10:32
 “je suis Charlie” |
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Posted on 08 January 2015 09:54
The British press played its part in a concerted effort to demonise
the German Empire by publishing overseas editions of its newspapers. President
Woodrow Wilson efforts to keep the United States neutral during the Great War “in
thought and deed". The sentiment for neutrality was strong among Irish
Americans, German Americans as well as among church leaders and women. However
the drip drip feed of propaganda by the British press highlighting German atrocities
embedded itself into the ordinary American conscious so when the sinking of the passenger liner RMS
Lusitania in 1915 America leaned in favour of the UK by allowing large-scale
loans to Britain and France.
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Colin: Posted on 07 January 2015 08:14
 
The news of the Russian victory over the Ottomans at The
Battle of Sarikamish is just starting to filter through to the British media. Ismail
Enver Pasha who was the main leader of the Ottoman Empire during the Great War
would blame his defeat on his Armenian soldiers, although in January 1915, an
Armenian named Hovannes had saved his life during a battle by carrying Enver
through battle lines on his back. Nonetheless, Ismail Pasha later initiated the
deportations and sporadic massacres of Western Armenians, culminating in the
Armenian Genocide the wholesale killing of the able-bodied male population
through massacre and subjection of army conscripts to forced labour, followed
by the deportation of women, children, the elderly and infirm on death marches
leading to the Syrian Desert. Driven forward by military escorts, the deportees
were deprived of food and water and subjected to periodic robbery, rape, and massacre.
The total number of people killed as a result has been estimated at between 1
and 1.5 million. Other indigenous and Christian ethnic groups such as the
Assyrians andthe Ottoman Greeks were similarly targeted for extermination by
the Muslim Ottoman government,
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Colin: Posted on 06 January 2015 09:09
For a full PDF version of today’s Daily Telegraph printed
one hundred years ago please click here
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 05 January 2015 11:45
The Ilford train crash occurred on New Year’s Day 1915, the primary
cause being driver error and excessive speed when the London bound express
collided with a local train killing ten and over 500 complaining of various injuries.
Alfred Nicholls attempts to avert the crash by waving a red flag featured prominently
in the press and at the inquiry which concluded that some form of Automatic
Warning System should be introduced onto the railway system.
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 04 January 2015 09:07
The press recount the bravery of the Brixham trawler
Provident BM291, Skippered by William Pillar, with First Hand William Carter,
Second Hand John Clarke and Apprentice Daniel Taylor (né Ferguson), who picked
up men from one of HMS Formidable's pinnace (Ships boat.) before it sank,
saving 71 members of the crew. Another story picked up by the press was that of
a Half collie, Lassie who was owned by the landlord of the Pilot Boat, a pub in
the port of Lyme Regis who’s cellar was being used as a temporary mortuary. The
dog found her way down amongst the bodies, and she began to lick the face of
one of the victims, Able Seaman John Cowan. She stayed beside him for more than
half an hour, nuzzling him and keeping him warm with her fur. To everyone’s
astonishment, Cowan eventually stirred. He was taken to hospital and went on to
make a fullrecovery. The story was retold so many times that it eventually
inspired the film makers of Hollywood and the legend of Lassie was born.
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 02 January 2015 09:24
As far as the British public was concerned the loss of HMS
Formidable was the first Royal Navy Battleship to have been sunk (HMS Audacious
sinking was kept secret for the duration of the Great War) by enemy action.With the appearance of the new dreadnought-type battleships
and battlecruisers beginning in 1906, predreadnoughts such as Formidable were
outclassed but still played an important role in defending the English Channel.
Formidable and the other ships of the 5th Battle Squadron were based at
Sheerness because of concern that a German invasion of Great Britain was in the
offing. The squadron was relieved by the 6th Battle Squadron and transferred to
Portland on 30 December.Formidable sank after being hit by two torpedoes while participating
in gunnery exercises off the Isle of Portland.
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 01 January 2015 09:10
The press and British public greeted 1915 with optimism. The
Royal Navy defeat at Coronel had been convincingly revenged with victory over
the German navy in the Battle of the Falklands; the ground lost to the Germans
in France during August 1914 now having been retaken, the impression of the
Germans seemingly on the retreat and the allies in the ascendance surely it
will only be a matter of months before the victory bells will toll?
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