January 13th, 1915

- An all-day meeting of the War Council is held in London today.  After an exhausting discussion that touched on a wide range of issues, including the ongoing stalemate on the Western Front, just after sunset Churchill presents his plan for a purely naval attack on the Dardanelles.  The mood of the meeting is suddenly transformed - from despair at the futility of operations in France and Belgium to optimism and hope at the prospects in the eastern Mediterranean.  Here Churchill's plan offered the potential for a war-winning operation without the massive casualties that would be necessitated by further efforts to pierce the German lines on the Western Front.  Success at the Dardanelles would allow the British squadron to anchor off Constantinople, and under the threat of bombardment force the surrender of the Ottoman government.  With the Straits in Entente hands, munitions and armaments could flow unimpeded to the Russian, giving them the material necessary to complement their numerical advantage on the Eastern Front.  Such a visible and overwhelming Entente victory would also certainly persuade the Balkan neutrals to enter the war on their side, and would open up a southern front for the invasion and destruction of Austria-Hungary.  Churchill presented the plan with all his oratorical talents, and the Council is caught up in his enthusiasm.  Admiral Fisher is in attendance, but is not asked for, nor does he offer, his opinions - he sees the War Council as a political, not a military, body, and thus the service chiefs are there merely to offer advice if asked, not attempt to persuade.  The Council unanimously agrees that the Admiralty should prepare for an operation to break through the Dardanelles, with Constantinople as its objective.  What will become one of the most controversial campaigns of the First World War has now been set in motion, and the next link in the chain connecting Enver Pasha's decision to invade the Caucasus and the fall of the last Liberal government in Britain is created.

- Along the Aisne French reinforcements are dispatched to the immediate north of Soissons to regain the ground lost yesterday at Crouy.  The French movement, however, is a double failure - not only to they fail to regain the lost trenches around Crouy, buy they are also out of position to respond to the major German attack launched this afternoon just to the west centred on Vregny.  By evening the Germans have pushed through Vregny and reached the northern edge of the wooded slope stretching down to the Aisne River.

- Joffe formally suspends the attacks of 10th Army in Artois and 4th Army in Champagne today, with neither offensive accomplishing more than the most negligible gains.  For his part, General Fernand de Langle de Cary, commander of 4th Army, submits a review of his operation to Joffre which emphasizes the difficulty of breaking through the enemy front through a 'continous' attack.  Instead, he suggests that once initial objectives have been achieved, it is necessary to repeat preparations for subsequent attacks, including digging approach trenches and an intensive preliminary artillery bombardment.  De Langle is arguing in favour of a methodical, step-by-step approach to offensive operations, as opposed to the 'continuous' method which calls for repeated waves of infantry assaults to overwhelm defensive positions.

- In Austria-Hungary today Count Berchtold is replaced as Foreign Minister by Count Stephan Burián, reflecting the triumph of the opponents of territorial concessions to Italy and Romania.  Instead, the Empire will seek to restore its international reputation through battlefield victory.

- In German South-West Africa the South African force that landed at Walvis Bay on December 25th today occupies the town of Swakopmund just to the north, which is also the terminus of the northern rail line running from the coast inland to the colonial capital at Windhoek.  Further south, a thousand Boer rebels, formed into different groups commanded by Maritz and Kemp, cross the frontier into South Africa for a second time after the failure of December.

January 12th, 1915

- Admiral Carden submits his plan for the attack on the Dardanelles this morning.  He suggests a slow and methodical approach, knocking out the Ottoman forts one-by-one while minesweepers clears the Straits, in order to minimize losses.  He estimates the operation will take one month, and should be undertaken by a force of twelve pre-dreadnoughts, three battlecruisers (to deal with Goeben), three light cruisers, sixteen destroyers, six submarines and twelve minesweepers.

Carden's plan is discussed at the Admiralty by Churchill and his senior admirals, including the First Sea Lord.  No one objects to Churchill's strong endorsement of the proposal, and crucially Fisher suggests adding to the force the newly-commissioned dreadnought Queen Elizabeth.  It was scheduled to undertake gunnery training off Gibraltar in February, but if it is going to be lobbing 15-inch shells in practice, they might as well be aimed at Ottoman forts instead of the open sea.

- Falkenhayn travels to the headquarters of OberOst at Posen today, where he discusses the general situation on the Eastern Front with Hindenburg and also receives a briefing from Colonel Max Hoffman regarding ongoing planning for an offensive from East Prussia.  Falkenhayn, however, refuses to commit to deploying the four new reserve corps to the Eastern Front before his departure back to Berlin.

- At 11am this morning, the German counterattack north of Soissons is launched on the heights east of Crouy, home to vital French artillery observation posts.  The attack catches the French completely by surprise and the Germans capture the heights, resulting in a noticeable slackening of French artillery fire.  At noon, two regiments of 9th Infantry Brigade takes the trenches north and northwest of Crouy which, in combination with an attack of 7th Reserve Division to the west, undoes the French success achieved over the past few days.  This convinces General Lochow of III Corps to launch the previously-planned offensive tomorrow.

The Battle of Soissons, January 12th to 14th, 1915.

January 11th, 1915

- North of Soissons the French attack launched on the 8th has succeeded in pushing back the German lines at Clamecy.  General Ewald von Lochow, commander of the German III Corps and tasked undertaking the imminent German offensive, decides today to postpone his own attack and reorients his 5th Division to execute a counterattack against the French advance tomorrow.

- After holding off the French attack of the 5th, the German 33rd Infantry Division counterattacked in the Argonne on the 8th.  Following three days of ferocious combat, by today the Germans have carved out a salient that reaches southwest almost to Four-de-Paris, and have taken 1600 French prisoners.

The German advance in the Argonne, January 1915.

- In Vienna the Italian ambassador informs the Austro-Hungarian government, in no uncertain terms, that the price for continued Italian neutrality is the cession of territory along their mutual frontier.

January 8th, 1915

- In London the War Council meets today to discuss British strategy for the coming year.  When discussion turns to theatres outside France, Lloyd George remarks that he supports an operation in the Balkans to provide direct aid to Serbia.  Lord Kitchener then intervenes, commenting that if an operation were to be undertaken outside the Western Front, the Dardanelles would be the most promising.  However, while he asserts that 150 000 soldiers would ensure that the fleet could force the Dardanelles and occupy Constantinople, he informs the Council that he has no units that he can spare.  The key takeaway from the meeting is that forcing the Dardanelles is possible, not that it requires army support to succeed.

- Falkenhayn agrees today to the formation of Südarmee, which is to be deployed in Galicia and will consist of two German infantry divisions and one German cavalry division, drawn from 9th Army as per Ludendorff's earlier offer, and an Austro-Hungarian corps.  The army is to be commanded by General Alexander von Linsingen, who had previously held command during the 1st Battle of Ypres.  Interestingly, as its Chief of Staff Falkenhayn appoints none other than Ludendorff; his reasoning is that, given the repeated claims by Conrad that the fighting in Galicia is of vital importance, it is logical for Ludendorff to 'work his magic' there.  In reality, Falkenhayn is attempting to divide Hindenburg and Ludendorff, in order to weaken their influence over the direction of the German war effort and tone down demands for the next major German offensive to be in the East.

- The German 1st Army currently holds seventy kilometres of the front line on both sides of the city of Soissons just north of the Aisne River.  Since December 27th III Corps has been planning an operation to attack the French defenders near Soissons in order to prevent the enemy from redeploying its forces to assist its ongoing offensives elsewhere.  At 10am this morning, however, the French launch a preemptive attack of their own on the German line at Clamecy, just north of Soissons, leading to bitter fighting in the sector.

- Units of the French 4th Army are able to secure the village of Perthes today, and though this represents a gain of only a few hundred metres, it is one of the most substantial of the 1st Battle of Champagne.

- Following the Russian evacuation of northern Persia a week ago in response to the crisis at Sarikamish, Ottoman and Kurdish forces have advanced into the resulting vacuum and today occupy Tabriz.

- The German steamer Choising passes through the Straits of Perim overnight, despite lacking any detailed chart of the waters and having its lights extinguished to evade two patrolling British warships.  During the day it hugs the Arabian coast, to avoid the shipping lane in the centre of the Red Sea, and by nightfall is approaching the port of Hodeida.