Deception | Flying Elephant | 19 Jun 1916
Deception on the Somme There are ten days to go until Z Day at the Battle of the Somme. We’ve seen the BEF and French Continue reading Deception | Flying Elephant | 19 Jun 1916
Deception on the Somme There are ten days to go until Z Day at the Battle of the Somme. We’ve seen the BEF and French Continue reading Deception | Flying Elephant | 19 Jun 1916
Behaviour Modification The Sunny Subaltern may not be around to participate, but the Battle of Mont Sorrel is due to go off tomorrow. Since the Continue reading Behaviour Modification | Petain’s worries | 12 Jun 1916
Battle of Kondoa Today should just be a formality. Sure, we’ve seen a load of different times in this theatre when a numerically superior force Continue reading Battle of Kondoa | 9 May 1916
Battle of Kondoa Colonel von Lettow-Vorbeck has now gathered over 4,000 Schutztruppe, and (by theatre standards) plenty of artillery pieces, machine guns, and ammunition. On Continue reading Battle of Kondoa | 7 May 1916
Africa We’ve got a significant development in the very north-west of German East Africa. The Belgians! The Belgians are coming! Said nobody in the history Continue reading Ruanda | Air tactics | 3 May 1916
March to Kondoa The South Africans’ march to Kondoa continues with all speed possible, but Colonel von Lettow-Vorbeck has been thinking hard, and his own Continue reading Kondoa Irangi | Rawlinson & Haig | 8 Apr 1916
Battle of Verdun The German Fifth Army has begun to focus large amounts of artillery fire on Fort Vaux and Fort Souville. Their next big Continue reading Vaux | Souville | Baratov | 1 Apr 1916
French elbows As the Battle of Verdun continues going nowhere, General Joffre attempts to make the best of a bad job. He’s still extremely put Continue reading Joffre, Petain and Nivelle | 26 Mar 1916
Western Front As the Germans and French continue mulching themselves in front of the Mort Homme and in front of Fort Vaux, there’s a lot Continue reading Men for the Somme | 16 Mar 1916
Voie Sacree Right then. The Battle of Verdun is now firmly into the attrition phase. Time to consider how it was that the French were Continue reading Voie Sacree | 13 Mar 1916
Time to lead off with something other than Verdun for the first time in nearly three weeks! Isn’t that nice? Fifth Battle of the Isonzo Continue reading Fifth Battle of the Isonzo | Portugal | 9 Mar 1916
Battle of Verdun Today the Battle of Verdun spreads like a cancer onto the west bank of the River Meuse, where it should very probably Continue reading Verdun spreads | Serengeti | 6 Mar 1916
The west bank of the Meuse After at least a full week of jumping up and down and yelling, General von Falkenhayn’s subordinates have finally Continue reading The west bank of the Meuse | 5 Mar 1916
Fall of Douaumont Douaumont, the village in the shadow of the fort, has almost ceased to exist. It’s no longer a village, just a small Continue reading Fall of Douaumont | Submarines | 4 Mar 1916
Verdun and the noria General Petain’s innovations and rearrangements at the Battle of Verdun continue. He’s started making a personal point of, at least once Continue reading Verdun | Petain | Noria | 3 Mar 1916
Douaumont village Douaumont village is still holding out. Every hour it holds is another hour for French reinforcements to arrive, for artillery to emplace on Continue reading Petain | Defence in depth | 27 Feb 1916
Battle of Verdun Something rather interesting happens today at Verdun. The Germans today attempt to push on out of Fort Douaumont to Douaumont village, just Continue reading Douaumont village | 26 Feb 1916
It’s time for another split day. This is about today at the Battle of Verdun. For everything else today, see this post. Petain’s dirty weekend Continue reading General Petain’s rise | Fort Douaumont’s fall | 25 Feb 1916
Battle of Verdun The Germans continue rolling carefully but slowly forwards, now beginning to nuzzle up against what a week ago had been the third Continue reading Beaumont | Woevre | Verdun | 24 Feb 1916
Decauville, the unsung hero Speaking of heroes who are about to become incredibly popular and important. This hero has been doing a sterling job of Continue reading Decauville railways | 26 Jan 1916
German strategy General von Falkenhayn’s determination to somehow take the initiative on the Western Front with a really, really big battle continues apace. As mentioned Continue reading Falkenhayn | Belfort | Verdun | 3 Dec 1915
Let’s try to break out from the Western Front a little, shall we? The other theatres of the war have obligingly kept quiet these past Continue reading Battle of Es Sinn | 28 Sep 1915
Battle of Loos The BEF has one more card left to play as it searches for that elusive breakthrough of the German reserve line. The Continue reading John Kipling | 27 Sep 1915
Sacre bleu, there’s so much to cover today that I’ve had to divide it into trois seperate posts! This is for the French Army at Continue reading Second Champagne | Third Artois | 25 Sep 1915
Deception One of the more persistent myths about the war, as General Melchett embodies, is the idea that the generals not only refused to believe Continue reading Deception | 17 Sep 1915
Second Champagne Yesterday we looked at the planning for Third Artois, and were sure to pay careful attention to how it bore no resemblance whatsoever Continue reading Second Champagne | 5 Sep 1915
Attacks at Gallipoli: Landings at Suvla With just under a week to go before the men go into battle, let’s finally examine in detail the Continue reading Landings at Suvla Bay | 1 Aug 1915
General Haig would have liked to renew the Battle of Aubers Ridge today, but practical concerns (like not having any shells, and the large numbers Continue reading Second Artois | 10 May 1915
It’s another day for people’s stories. Before we go join them, let’s check in with General Joffre, who is indulging in a little micromanagement. Housekeeping Continue reading Herbert Sulzbach | 28 Jan 1915
We’ll rejoin the Western Front and the First Battle of Artois in a moment; but first, off to Koprukoy to check in with the Ottomans’ Continue reading Artois | 18 Dec 1914