Brusilov Offensive The great summer offensive plays its overture today. Today is given over entirely to artillery barrages. The Austro-Hungarian generals remain unconcerned; if this Continue reading Brusilov Overture | Fort Vaux | 4 Jun 1916
Siege of Kut Let’s go straight to Edward Mousley. It’s been an extremely busy day, and I feel I owe it to him to let Continue reading Unconditional surrender | Lt-Col Churchill | 28 Apr 1916
Sir John French The niceties and bureaucratic obligations have all been completed. Today it’s time for Sir John French to formally hand over command of Continue reading Sir Douglas Haig | Wieltje | 19 Dec 1915
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 Continue reading Boroevic | German japery | 16 Nov 1915
Mesopotamia The final advance on Ctesiphon and Baghdad has now begun. General Townshend’s force is proceeding up the River Tigris in cautious leapfrogs. He has Continue reading Churchill | Ctesiphon | Isonzo | 15 Nov 1915
The British government and Gallipoli The British government hocks up a giant hairball and attempts to do something to assert a little control over the Continue reading War Committee | 3 Nov 1915
Gallipoli General Monro fires off his report to Lord Kitchener, in which he sets out the problems of Gallipoli as a battlefield in great and Continue reading Evacuating Gallipoli | 30 Oct 1915
Third Isonzo At one point when discussing some of the attacks today, the Austro-Hungarian Official History describes the Italian gains on the Carso as “meagre”. Continue reading Suits of armour | 22 Oct 1915
Important trials in Britain today for both a prototype landship and the Stokes mortar, the French Empire troops on Gallipoli win another limited victory, and Continue reading Landship prototype | Hetherington | Jun 30 1915
Battle of Bukoba General Tighe has managed to assemble a force of some 1,500 rifles (and their much larger entourage of deemed-expendable African porters) for Continue reading Haricot | Attrition | 21 Jun 1915
There’s a big question mark over the fate of the Landships Committee. With Winston Churchill out at the Admiralty, will he be able to protect Continue reading Balfour and the Landships | 8 Jun 1915
Free of Churchill’s influence, the Royal Navy has resorted to a rather more sane solution to the Konigsberg problem than setting the entire river on Continue reading Severn | Mersey | 3 Jun 1915
The word “Triumph” in that title does not, sadly, refer to any kind of victory. Before we can decode that, it’s to Artois and London Continue reading Triumph | Shell Crisis | 25 May 1915
It’s a tempestuous time to be in government. The Times is giving the British government a good kicking, and Alessandro Salandra has just threatened to Continue reading Shell Crisis | Portugal | 14 May 1915
The sinking of Goliath has unsurprisingly dropped a massive bombshell into the situation at Gallipoli. We’re looking at the inevitable ructions. Meanwhile, things are even Continue reading Goliath | U-boats | 13 May 1915
Time to widen our focus again for a moment and get back to Mesopotamia, where things are starting to get rather hairy for Indian Expeditionary Continue reading Qurna | Mar 31 1915
In London, the War Council gathers to hear what’s been going on in the Dardanelles. First, we’re off behind the lines in France, to Bohain. Continue reading Bulair | 19 Mar 1915
A few days ago, we saw the establishment of an important committee in France, to develop military camouflage. Today sees the establishment of a different Continue reading Landships Committee | 22 Feb 1915
The Royal Navy’s “extended operations”, beginning today with a forcing of the Dardanelles and ending with the landing of troops in Constantinople, are supposed to Continue reading Sedd el Bahr | 19 Feb 1915
We’ve got another relatively quiet day; but disagreements between Winston Churchill and his First Lord of the Admiralty are beginning to sprout. Kenneth Best But Continue reading Jackie Fisher | 20 Jan 1915
Colonel von Lettow-Vorbeck fights a pitched battle in Africa. In London, one W. Churchill is bored with the War Office’s lack of urgency around building Continue reading Jasin | Landships | 18 Jan 1915
Not a monarch or a consort, no. This Queen Elizabeth is the Navy’s newest super-dreadnought. But first, back to Africa, and then the Caucasus. Mafia Continue reading Queen Elizabeth | 11 Jan 1915
At the risk of being Anglo-centric, today is an excellent day to stop and consider what Britain will be doing this year in the war. Continue reading Britain in 1915 | 3 Jan 1915
It happened, like so many other things in this war, because someone had to act on faulty or out-of-date information. Today marks the first step Continue reading Dardanelles | 02 Jan 1915
We’ve got a quieter day today, even down in the Caucasus. However, important events are still afoot! Nieuport The Belgians have continued attacking over the Continue reading Landships | 28 Dec 1914
The focus remains on India, Serbia and Africa, as the Western Front simmers nastily. Affair of Miranshah We’re still extremely diffy on information about this Continue reading Dar-es-Salaam | Miranshah | 29 Nov 1914
The first phase of the Battle of Kolubara is coming to an end; but before we go to Serbia, let’s spend a moment in the Continue reading Bulwark | 26 Nov 1914
The Austro-Hungarians are still advancing into Serbia; the Germans complete their escape from the Lodz pocket, and inconclusive fighting continues all along the Eastern line. Continue reading Covka | Alumni | 25 Nov 1914
Once again, we have a day light on action on the Western Front, and plenty to talk about elsewhere. Konigsberg There’s been a lot of Continue reading Rufiji Delta | Basra | 19 Nov 1914
The Ypres salient broods ominously. German guns are firing all along it, hammering its defenders again and again. The Germans are rather unsportingly remaining in Continue reading Kilimanjaro | Nov 03 1914