The uses of Churchill | 1 Aug 1916
August on the Somme Winston Churchill is a pain in the arse, but he does have his uses. The fiasco on Gallipoli hasn’t done much Continue reading The uses of Churchill | 1 Aug 1916
August on the Somme Winston Churchill is a pain in the arse, but he does have his uses. The fiasco on Gallipoli hasn’t done much Continue reading The uses of Churchill | 1 Aug 1916
Battle of the Somme The Battle of the Somme is one month old. It’s been a long bloody month. I think I’ve said about all Continue reading Taking stock | 31 July 1916
Maurepas and Guillemont The ears are senseless that should give us hearing to tell his commandment is fulfilled; that Maurepas and Guillemont are dead. Ahem. Continue reading Maurepas | Guillemont | 30 Jul 1916
Pozieres windmill Between the ANZACs and Pozieres windmill, there is a very nasty interconnected trench system with two main fire trenches. The staff knows them Continue reading Pozieres Windmill | 29 Jul 1916
Battle of the Somme In Pozieres, the battered and bruised 1st Australian Division is being removed from the line and replaced with fellow Gallipoli veterans Continue reading General Gough | ANZACs | 28 Jul 1916
Battle of the Somme General Rawlinson is not particularly happy at the moment, having presided over a gigantic wet fart of an offensive on the Continue reading Delville Wood | Longueval | 26 Jul 1916
Battle of Erzincan Erzincan has surrendered. A second overwhelming Russian victory in 1916 is now complete. Vehip Pasha’s Third Army has, for the second time Continue reading Erzincan | Haig & ANZACs | 25 Jul 1916
Battle of the Somme Oh Christ, here comes another big attack at the Battle of the Somme. Let’s go round from the south again, like Continue reading Pozieres | Guillemont | 23 July 1916
Battle of the Somme Delville Wood has now been almost entirely recaptured by the Germans. A couple of hundred men of a single battalion are Continue reading Battle of Fromelles | 19 Jul 1916
Delville Wood It has been calculated that about 20,000 German shells were fired into a square mile of ground today. The wood is disappearing around Continue reading 61st Division | Fromelles | 18 Jul 1916
Battle of the Somme Good news, everybody! One more pink name on our map of the Somme turns black today! After 16 days of on-and-off Continue reading Capture of Ovillers | 16 Jul 1916
Battle of the Somme We start the day with a story from the 16th King’s Royal Rifle Corps. They’re urgently needed as reinforcements. 4th Army Continue reading Delville Wood | High Wood | 15 Jul 1916
Battle of Verdun Time to assault Verdun again. Let’s have the map for this. This is just about the last German throw of the dice. Continue reading Fort Souville | Contalmaison | 11 Jul 1916
Tanga We begin today with the settling of an old score in German East Africa. The Battle of Tanga, way back in November 1914, has, Continue reading Tanga | Mametz Wood | 7 Jul 1916
The Power of Positivity There is at least one person in the whole of the British Army who is entirely confident in his own performance Continue reading Charteris’s intelligence | 6 Jul 1916
Eve of the Somme It’s the last day before the Battle of the Somme. There’s very little more to say. We’ve been building up to Continue reading Eve of the Somme | 30 Jun 1916
Battle of the Somme This, of course, should have been Z Day, but due to the bad weather, Z Day’s been put back to the Continue reading Footballs on the Somme | 29 Jun 1916
“Y” Day on the Somme Just as most of the BEF’s part of the Western Front has been delivering intense artillery bombardments to disguise the Continue reading Rain and raids | 28 Jun 1916
Battle of the Somme Not everyone in the BEF is entirely content with the plans for the Battle of the Somme. General Hubert Rees will Continue reading Hunter-Weston | Serre | 27 Jun 1916
Battle of the Somme The weather has turned nasty over the Somme battlefields. Heavy summer rains are starting to blow in from the south, and Continue reading Somme postponed | 26 Jun 1916
Battle of Verdun The French are now trying to get some counter-attacks going to push the Germans out of Thiaumont and Fleury, and away from Continue reading Revolvers | Parapets | 25 Jun 1916
One man and his throne Signaller Dudley Menaud-Lissenberg is a telephone operator with a British artillery battery on the Somme. It’s early morning, miserable and Continue reading Guns on the Somme | 24 Jun 1916
Battle of Verdun Here we go again. It’s time once more for the Germans to move hell and high water outside Verdun. The map again. Continue reading Fleury | Bras | Souville | 23 Jun 1916
Battle of the Somme Once again, let’s start today with Malcolm White. All up and down the sector, the battalions who will be attacking in Continue reading Intelligence on the Somme | 22 July 1916
Brusilov Offensive Let’s have an update from the Brusilov Offensive, why not? The south of the Eastern Front has now been steadily rumbling west for Continue reading Brusilov Offensive | Secret Session | 17 Jun 1916
Battle of Mont Sorrel At the Battle of Mont Sorrel, the Germans are not overly concerned by another 30-minute Canadian artillery bombardment. Leaving only a Continue reading Retaking Mont Sorrel | Mecca | 13 Jun 1916
Battle of Asiago The next order of business at the Battle of Asiago is to push through the Sugana valley to reach Asiago town, and Continue reading A day in the life of the artillery | 20 May 1916
Chinese labourers We open today with some very interesting news from France. Unsurprisingly, with the voracious demand for men to go into the Army, there’s Continue reading Chinese labourers | Kondoa | 14 May 1916
Battle of Kondoa As Colonel von Lettow-Vorbeck continues dithering, the South Africans send out a couple of raiding parties to see what they can find. Continue reading Kondoa and Kigoma | 12 May 1916
Battle of Kahe As we’ve seen over the past few days, the Schutztruppe have been progressively pushed off several hills around Kahe. Now, the South Continue reading Kahe | Lafayette Escadrille | 21 Mar 1916