Surrender of Kut General Townshend is apparently too sick to surrender personally. He is, however, apparently well enough to issue one last message to the Continue reading Kut surrenders | Easter Rising | 29 Apr 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
Siege of Kut Today General Townshend attempts to open negotiations for his surrender. I say “attempts” advisedly, since he spends a great deal of time Continue reading Negotiating for Kut | Hulluch | 27 Apr 1916
Siege of Kut At the Siege of Kut, negotiations are now under way for the garrison’s surrender. Frantic messages have been pinging between General Lake Continue reading BEF intelligence | Kut | 25 Apr 1916
Siege of Kut Today sees the final, desperate throw of the dice for relieving the Siege of Kut. A large paddle steamer, the Julna, has Continue reading Julna | Easter Rising | 24 Apr 1916
Arsing around in the North Sea Hopefully we’re all used by now to scratching our heads at the intermittent North Sea naval actions that have Continue reading Arsing around | North Sea | Douaumont | 22 Apr 1916
Still too busy for my own good right now. Today, though, we have lots of little snippets to be catching up with. Siege of Kut Continue reading Vehip and Izzet | 20 Apr 1916
Siege of Kut There’s now absolutely no chance for success if the relief column tries to attack out of Bait Isa towards Es Sinn. But, Continue reading Kut | Trebizond | 18 Apr 1916
March to Kondoa From Africa we have news from General van Deventer and the South African Horse. Most of it is not good. On the Continue reading Kondoa | Bait Isa | Air doctrine | 17 Apr 1916
Battle of Bait Isa Good news from Mesopotamia! For one thing, the rain’s stopped for the moment. And, after some very confused, very wet, very Continue reading Bait Isa | Luxueil | 16 Apr 1916
Battle of Bait Isa The rains rain, the men sink. There was supposed to be an all-out assault on the Twin Pimples today, in the Continue reading Nightmares | Balakian’s escape | 15 Apr 1916
Tanks for the Somme Time to start exploring what General Haig might have been thinking when he decided that bite and hold was not going Continue reading Haig, tanks, & Swinton | 14 April 1916
Breslau in the Black Sea The preparations for the final attack on Trebizond are nearly complete, and then what must be the final straw is Continue reading Breslau | Trenchard | 13 Apr 1916
Africa General van Deventer’s altitude is increasing as he and his horsemen ride through Tanzania. Today they’ve arrived at a boma, a fortified village with Continue reading Indian engineers | HMS Campania | 12 Apr 1916
Edward Mousley Hey, is there anyone out there who’s got a pet? Yeah, me too. Um, this might be a bit difficult to read. You Continue reading On les aura! | Mousley’s horse | 10 Apr 1916
Battle of Verdun Here we go again. With carefully moderated expectations, the Germans launch yet another punishing assault along the two banks of the River Continue reading Verdun again | Halberstadt | 9 Apr 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
Siege of Kut Before dawn, another attack goes in against Sannaiyat. There’s not much to say about it other than it’s unsurprising that they tried, Continue reading Flooding | Yudenich | 7 Apr 1916
Apologies for the rather disjointed update schedule of late. Stick with it; hopefully we’ll get back on terms by next week. Anyway. Siege of Kut Continue reading Sannaiyat | Lolkisale | 6 Apr 1916
Hanna chokepoint Yesterday, we left General Gorringe’s men at the Hanna chokepoint. They’re from the 13th (Western) Division, Kitchener’s Army men who’ve already survived Gallipoli Continue reading Miracle at Hanna | 5 Apr 1916
March to Kondoa Yesterday we left the situation in Africa with General van Deventer riding out of Arusha, secure in the knowledge that Lolkisale (or Continue reading March to Kondoa | Lolkisale | 4 Apr 1916
March to Kondoa General van Deventer can wait no longer for his 2nd Division to finish forming up. Time is of the essence here. They Continue reading March to Kondoa | Plans for the Somme | 3 Apr 1916
Africa On the eve of General van Deventer’s departure on the long journey to Kondoa Irangi, General Smuts’s morale remains high. It’s so high, in Continue reading Tanzania | Ceyhan | 2 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
Lake Naroch Offensive It would be unfair, just about, to say that the Russians have achieved nothing with the Lake Naroch Offensive. A lot of Continue reading Lake Naroch | Verdun | 31 Mar 1916
Hanna That’s the Hanna chokepoint in Mesopotamia. Why yes, I’m starting today with the relief effort for the Siege of Kut, rather than holding it Continue reading Hanna | Gorringe | 30 Mar 1916
Mining on the Italian Front Even the Italian army is capable of learning and trying to do war slightly better. Some bright spark back at Continue reading Mining | Noel Pemberton Billing | 29 Mar 1916
Fun and games in Paris So, that conference I mentioned the other day? Colonel Hankey, secretary to the British War Committee, would dearly like you Continue reading Ructions in Paris | Lafayette Escadrille | 28 Mar 1916
Action of St Eloi Craters There’s more action brewing over in the Ypres salient, as General Plumer continues his quest to annoy the Boche by Continue reading St Eloi Craters | 27 Mar 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