#evricourt

#OTD in #WW1 Gen #Smuts is very annoyed and starts sacking people; a BEF officer goes patrolling in No Man's Land

Africa General Smuts is deeply, deeply unhappy that Colonel von Lettow-Vorbeck is sitting pretty at Kahe rather than walking into a gentleman’s captivity. When the Commander-in-Chief is unhappy he often spreads it around with a shovel, and Smuts more so than most. He begins with the obvious step of sacking General Malleson. Amusingly enough, General Tighe has already recommended Malleson for…

#OTD in #WW1 Gen #Boroevic appeals for more reinforcements and gets Conrad's attention, as snow falls on the #Carso

Fourth Isonzo General Boroevic is using the latest temporary pause to get out his megaphone and shout very loudly once again in Conrad von Hotzendorf’s general direction about the urgent need for more reinforcements to the Carso. He does accompany this with an important rider; he’s absolutely certain of being able to hold the line as long as he gets at least one more division and as long as the…

Cafard on Gallipoli | 14 Sep 1915

There is no angle from which the situation on Gallipoli can be presented as anything other than pretty bloody shocking. Gallipoli</h4 Sir Ian Hamilton is concerned by the latest cable from Lord Kitchener. It seems that the French government is trying to use Hamilton as a stick to beat General Joffre with. Sir Ian has certainly been drinking plenty of the Constantinople juice these last few days,…

#OTD in #WW1 #LittleWillie, usually called the first tank prototype, is given a first test run

Little Willie No, we’re not casting aspersions on anyone’s manhood. Little Willie, currently known as the No. 1 Lincoln Machine, is usually cited as the first tank prototype. It’s also the oldest surviving tank, on display at the Tank Museum in Bovington. Today it gets a first test run, yet another important landmark in the ongoing experiments conducted by the Landships Committee. It doesn’t go…

#OTD in #WW1 #NicholasII takes personal command of the Russian army, effectively signing his own death warrant

Stavka In the wake of the Russian retreat from Poland, it’s obvious that something now needs to be done. There’s good news and bad news here. The good news is that Tsar Nicholas II fully understands how serious the situation is, and that something big and revolutionary needs to be done in response to it. Accordingly, he sacks his brother, Grand Duke Nicholas, as head of Stavka. Possibly he’d have…

#OTD in #WW1 A corporal describes the trenches at #Loos, and his senior officers' bizarre obsession with tidiness.

Battle of Loos Having had certain facts explained to him by Lord Kitchener, Sir John French today informs General Joffre that the BEF will be ready to launch the Battle of Loos alongside Third Artois by the 8th of September. Since it always does, it’ll take a bit longer than that for the blokes to actually go into action. The planning process is well underway in First Army, and we’ll examine the…

#OTD in #WW1 The MEF lurches drunkenly towards another attack at #Gallipoli; the Caucasus settles down for winter.

Battle of Scimitar Hill Sir Ian Hamilton is going off the deep end. Not only is he still convinced that one more push will achieve something, but he’s also worked out what’s needed to give the latest attack a bit more steel. He’s taken elements of the 29th Division, the division that’s been bleeding slowly to death at Cape Helles since April, and sent it round to Suvla Bay to reinforce the Battle…

Yesterday in #WW1: The situation in #Africa is deadlocked; an officer at #LaBassee has a plan to weaponise his band

Herbert Sulzbach Herbert Sulzbach continues describing for us his new position at Evricourt. The trenches along the front are a model of how trenches should be built. The dugouts are comfortable to live in, and very deep. Our observation-post is in a tall fir tree, and in the French trenches you can see the [Zouaves] walking about. Our dugout by the post is very snug. In the evening, back to the…