March 11th, 1915

- In direct response to the German declaration of a war zone around Britain and the commencement of unrestricted submarine warfare, the British declare a total blockade of Germany today.  Henceforth, Entente navies would prevent all cargoes, not just contraband, from reaching German ports.

- The Zeppelins belonging to the German army are today authorized to conduct aerial bombardments of London.

- In Canada, recruiting for a second contingent began even while the first was still training on Salisbury Plain.  Today, Lord Kitchener informs the Canadian government that the transportation of the first elements of the second contingent across the Atlantic will commence in late April.

- Overnight, German forces have constructed a new defensive line across the breach open yesterday at Neuve Chapelle, while also deploying additional artillery batteries.  In the morning mist the new positions go unseen, such that when a British attack is launched at 7am, it runs into a hail of machine gun and artillery fire from elements of the German 14th Division.  A second attack in the evening is similarly dispatched as further German reinforcements, this time from 6th Bavarian Division, arrive on the battlefield.

- In Champagne the major assault of the French XVI Corps is scheduled to begin tomorrow, and this evening its commander issues his final orders to his subordinates.  He instructs that every soldier is to participate in the advance, with none left to occupy trenches, and that every piece of ground seized is to be immediately consolidated and used as a launching pad for further attacks.

- The results of the reorganization of the German army, to incorporate the newest cohort of recruits while creating a large reserve of experienced divisions, are not as promising as Falkenhayn had originally hoped.  Instead of the anticipated twenty-four new divisions, it is now apparent that, due to losses and other requirements, only fourteen new divisions can be created.  This is less than the force envisioned in 6th Army's proposed operation for an offensive north of the Somme.  Despite this setback, Falkenhayn remains committed to undertaking an attack in the West - writing today to Colonel Seeckt, 11th Army's Chief of Staff, he emphasizes that he still plans to force a return to a war of movement on the Western Front through a major breakthrough that culminates in victory over the Entente.

- Since the beginning of March, the German 10th Army has been gradually falling back towards the line it held prior to the Winter Battle of the Masurian Lakes, as the position it had won in the battle had been rendered untenable due to Russian pressure on the flanks.  It has been cautiously followed by the Russian 10th Army, but two days ago the Germans turned the tables on their pursuers, and after several furious days of fighting the Russians have been halted.  The Germans are thus able to assume defensive positions and stalemate returns to the front.  Despite the victory last month at Masurian Lakes, in terms of territory the Germans find themselves right back where they started.

- After four days of fighting the offensive of the Austro-Hungarian 4th Army has stalled, unable to maintain the early momentum towards Gorlize and Staszkowka, at a cost of six thousand casualties.

Meanwhile, the garrison of the besieged fortress of Przemysl reports today that after the slaughter of all horses and a thorough search for all available food it will be able to hold out until March 24th, at which point surrender will be necessary to avoid starvation.  The winter battles in the Carpathians are approaching their climax; the Austro-Hungarians must break through immediately if Przemysl is to be relieved before it falls.

The Russians, however, have other ideas.  General Brusilov has been concerned that the advance of the left wing of the Austro-Hungarian 2nd Army, particularly near Lupkow, threatens the flank of the Russian forces facing 3rd Army to the west.  To negate this possibility, Russian forces attack today near Lupkow, and the Austro-Hungarian 29th Division is forced to yield the ground it had conquered over the past few days.

- At the Dardanelles the minesweepers are sent into the straits unescorted tonight, hoping to catch the Ottomans by surprise.  The result was about what one would expect, as Keyes related:

The less said about that night the better.  To put it briefly, the sweepers turned tail and fled as soon as they were fired upon.  I was furious and told the officers . . . that it did not matter if we lost all seven sweepers, there were twenty-eight more, and the mines had got to be swept up.  How could they talk about being stopped by heavy fire if they were not hit?

- At the Admiralty, Churchill has received reports of Ottoman ammunition shortages at the Dardanelles, and sends orders to Carden to abandon his methodical attempts to bombardment the forts and sweep the minefields, and instead press forward with maximum force.  In Churchill's views, any losses that may occur would be amply compensated by the strategic consequences of victory at the Dardanelles.

- The landing party of the German light cruiser Emden arrives today back at Hodeida, from which it had departed a month earlier.  Intending to continue their journey by sea, they must secure new vessels, as Choising, the merchant ship upon which they had crossed the Indian Ocean, had been sent away upon their arrival at Hodeida.  As there are no steamships to be had, First Officer Mücke acquires two zambuks, small sailboats fourteen meters long and four meters wide, used along the Arabian coast.  The party intends to sail from Yabana, a small bay north of Hodeida, on the fourteenth, while to deflect unwanted attention Mücke spreads the rumour that they will instead sail from Isa Bay on the thirteenth.

December 23rd, 1914

- The British government announces a further tightening of the blockade of Germany by declaring additional items to now be contraband and subject to seizure.  New to the list are all types of rubber, whether raw or wast, and all elements used in the production explosives.

- The French Parliament today votes to hand over even more powers to Joffre and the French Army.  Within the 'Zone of Armies' along and near the front, the power of the French Army is supreme and cannot be interfered with by civilians - politicians are even forbidden to visit the front line.

- In the Caucasus the Ottoman X Corps today seizes the town of Oltu, its first objective.  However, given low supplies and appalling weather conditions, the advance of X Corps and the neighbouring IX Corps are already behind schedule.

November 23rd, 1914

- In France four squadrons of Voisin biplanes, totaling eighteen airplanes, are merged together into 1st Bombardment Group, the first French aerial unit devoted to strategic aerial attacks on Germany.

- For several weeks the British and Dutch governments have been negotiating an agreement regarding the importation of goods to the Netherlands deemed contraband by the British.  The concern of the latter is that such goods after arrival in the Netherlands could easily be shipped across the border to Germany, thus allowing the Germans to circumvent the blockade.  The Dutch, for their part, believe that as a neutral power their global trade should not be impeded.  Today the negotiations result in an agreement to create the Netherlands Oversea Trust, a company composed of Dutch private sector merchants who would help individuals wishing to trade in contraband goods.  A pledge would be extracted from such individuals that the contraband goods were for home or Dutch colonial consumption only, and the Netherlands Oversea Trust would then communicate the pledge to the British who would allow the trade based on the guarantee of the Trust's board of directors.  This system solves many of the concerns of both parties - the British gain a means by which Dutch trade in contraband goods can be regulated, while Dutch merchants gain some security that their goods will not be seized.  Moreover, as the Trust is civilian, the Dutch government is not worried about the arrangement appearing to violate their neutrality by leaning too heavily towards the British.

- East of Lodz the German XXV Reserve Corps and Guards Division is now pulling back northwards in an effort to escape from the Russian encirclement, marching over poor, icy roads.  To the west of the German force the Russian defenders at Lodz are too disorganized from the ongoing fighting with the bulk of the German 9th Army to interfere.  To the south, German cavalry covers the German retreat so successfully that the Russian commander there believes he has won an excellent defensive victory.  To the east Russian cavalry mistakes columns of thousands of Russian prisoners accompanying the retreating Germans as additional German soldiers, believe themselves vastly outnumbered, and do not bother to attack.  So far, then, the Russian army is demonstrating their usual level of competence in attempting to destroy the German corps and division.  Still, the Lovitch detachment from the Russian 1st Army has now advanced far enough to sit astride the line of retreat northwards of the German corps and division, leaving the latter still in great danger of envelopment and destruction.

- It is only today that the last units of the Austro-Hungarian army arrive by train opposite central Poland.  The two weeks it has taken the army to redeploy by rail from Galicia to east of Breslau is testimony to the poor state of Austro-Hungarian railways and the dysfunctional logistics that has plagued their armies in the field.

- For the past four days Count István Tisza, Prime Minister of Hungary, has been in Germany discussing the diplomatic relationship with Romania, meeting with Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg, General Falkenhayn, and others.  The Germans have been applying pressure on Austria-Hungary to cede territory to Romania in exchange for its entry into the war on their side, a stance that Tisza strongly opposes - though willing to give some concessions on language and education to Romanians within the Empire, the lands the Germans propose to yield come from the Hungarian portion of the Empire.  However, the entry of the Ottoman Empire into the war and the initial progress made in the current invasion of Serbia have served to calm German fears regarding the situation in the Balkans, and Tisza returns home confident that he has convinced the German leadership to drop any suggestion of territorial concessions.

- A ceremony is held today in Basra today to formalize the British occupation of the city.  The British are eager to win the active support of Arab tribes in the region, and thus desire to show that as the Ottomans are never to return the Arabs need have no fear of Ottoman reprisals.  But if the Ottomans are not to return, what, exactly, is to become of the region.  Are the Arabs to 'enjoy the benefits of liberty', as the commander of Indian Expeditionary Force D proclaims at today's ceremony, or is the region to be annexed by Britain, as the same commander suggests he said to the assembled crowd in his report on the ceremony to the Secretary of State for India.  Neither option has been seriously discussed, and both raise important issues.  For the British it will prove to have been much easier to occupy Basra than decide what to do with it.

There is also the question of what IEF D ought to do next.  Its initial orders said nothing beyond the occupation of Basra, so are they now simply to stay put?  Sir Percy Cox, IEF D's political officer and an Arab expert, believes that Arab support will only be forthcoming if the British continue to advance up the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and demonstrate their complete dominance of the region.  To this end, he recommends in a letter to the Viceroy of India that IEF D advance to Baghdad, a much more significant undertaking that simply securing the Shatt al-Arab.  Even though the term has not yet been coined, the British campaign in Mesopotamia takes a first step towards becoming a textbook definition of mission creep.

- At 10am this morning the schooner Ayesha, carrying First Officer Helmuth von Mücke and his fifty-man detachment that escaped from Direction Island after the sinking of Emden, sights the Sumatra coast in the Dutch East Indies.  Ayesha has had an adventurious journey since they set sail two weeks ago.  Given that the schooner was built for a crew of five, sleeping arrangements were at a premium, and most had to sleep in the hold with scrap iron used for ballast, while two small cabins below deck, originally fitted out for sleeping, had to be abandoned to the huge cockroaches that patrolled them.  The water held in iron tanks aboard was discovered to have fouled, forcing the crew to rely on rainfall to avoid dehydration.  The old sails tore repeatedly, meaning much work was spent mending and patching the canvass.  Much of the wooden hull was rotten, so much so that when it was inspected with a knife they had to quickly desist in fear poking the wood would let in the Indian Ocean.

That the Ayesha has survived the nearly eight hundred mile journey from the Cocos Islands to Sumatra is nothing short of a minor miracle, but their tribulations are hardly at an end.  They have no charts of the Sumatra coast, and there is a constant worry of running aground upon some hidden reef or rock.  There is also a keen awareness that warships of the Entente are almost certainly searching the seas for them, and may anticipate them sailing to the Dutch East Indies.  First Officer Mücke, however, has no intention of being captured.  They still have the four machine guns they had brought with them when they had landed on Direction Island, and hole have been cut in the gunwales to mount them.  Though the aged schooner could hardly have looked less like a warship, Mücke has every intention of fighting if confronted by an enemy vessel.  Meanwhile, his intention is to sail up the Sumatra coast to the port of Padang, where he intends to avail himself of international law that allows warships to enter neutral ports for twenty-four hours, during which time he hopes to reprovision.

November 20th, 1914

- Reconnaissance today gives to French and British commanders in Flanders the first indications of German units transferring from the Western Front eastwards.

- In the North Sea the armoured cruisers of the Tenth Cruiser Squadron have been suffering as they continued the work of enforcing the naval blockade of Germany.  In many respects these warships are unsuited for the task - outdated, they are prone to breakdown and could not hope to catch a fast modern vessel should one try to break the blockade line.  Today the Admiralty decides to replace these armoured cruisers with merchant ships pressed into government service and armed with light guns.  These vessels are better-suited to the poor weather of the North Sea, and their numbers can be more easily augmented as compared to armoured cruisers.

- The day prior to the fighting at Sahil, the British cabinet had designated the capture of the Ottoman city of Basra as the main objective of Indian Expeditionary Force D, though Lord Crewe, Secretary of State for India, had clarified the instructions such that a move against Basra ought to be undertaken only if doing so was practical under the circumstances.  Today the commander of IEF D reports that continuing problems and delays with the landing of horses, ammunition, and supplies rendered an immediate advance unlikely.  However, the Ottoman commander of 38th Division, tasked with the defence of Basra and the surrounding region, decides today to make the situation much easier for his British counterpart by hastily and precipitously abandoning Basra and withdrawing northwards along the Shatt al-Arab.

November 13th, 1914

- At Ypres the Germans launch several attacks today.  In the morning an attack by elements of XXVI and XXVII Reserve Corps assault the French 18th Division of IX Corps, and though they are able to gain a portion of the French trench they are halted.  After a heavy bombardment during the morning the German 4th Division advances against a portion of the British line south of the Menin Road, but are repulsed with heavy losses.

Meanwhile an agreement is reached today between General Foch and Field Marshal French to reorganize the units on the front line at Ypres.  The fighting of the last month has resulted in French units being interspersed among British units, and the desire is to consolidate the BEF so that it holds just one stretch of the front line.  To do so the northernmost units of the BEF are to move southwards towards the line already held by Indian Corps, while the French take over most of the Ypres salient.   For his part General Joffre approves of such a reorganization as he believes that the German offensive in Flanders has run its course.

The strength of the BEF is also reinforced today with the arrival of 8th Division from England, it being composed of Regular Army battalions that had been in India and elsewhere in the Empire on the outbreak of war.

- Denmark, Norway, and Sweden today issue a joint protest against the blockade policy of Britain, and in particular the recent declaration of the North Sea as a war zone.  They assert that this has impacted their overseas trade, and violates their rights as neutrals.  The protest demonstrates how Britain's blockade of Germany, and the means by which they enforce it, inevitably impacts neutral states.  The Foreign Office is concerned not only to avoid pushing the neutrals into a more pro-Germany stance, but also to ensure that the substantial British trade with these neutrals can continue unimpeded.  To this end, the Foreign Office is continuing negotiations with the Scandinavian neutrals to find means by which neutral trade can continue but Germany remains blockaded.

November 5th, 1914

- In Flanders General d'Urbal recieves instructions from General Foch that, as per communications from Joffre, the possibility of a decisive breakthrough north or south of Ypres had all but disappeared, given the time the Germans have had to entrench in their current positions.  Conversely, indications at present suggest the Germans have themselves abandoned hopes for a breakthrough.  Instead, it would be preferable to withdraw troops from the fighting to reconstitute reserves for the French army elsewhere.

The one thing Foch does not do is order d'Urbal to cease his attacks on the German lines.  In the absence of such orders, attacking is precisely what d'Urbal does.  For his efforts today precisely no ground is gained, and indeed Hill 75, just to the west of Messines, is captured by the Germans today.

On the British front it is finally possible this evening to relieve 7th Division and 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, replacing the former with battalions drawn from II Corps and the latter with 6th Cavalry Brigade.  7th Division epitomizes the struggles faced by the BEF and the losses they have suffered.  It has been in near-constant combat, and under continual shelling, since October 19th, and of the 12 522 officers and men who comprised the division when it landed at Ghent on October 12th, only 4149 men remain when it is pulled out of the line today, which includes 2000 soldiers sent as reinforcements over the past month - its commander has been heard to joke darkly that he is a divisional commander without a division.

Nevertheless, the prevailing mood at BEF HQ is that the worst has now past.  Field Marshal French and his corps commanders meet today to discuss the disposition of the BEF over the winter and the provision of leave arrangements.

This optimism, of course, is completely unfounded, as Falkenhayn has determined to make one last push at Ypres.  Today 4th Division, one of the units designated as reinforcements for the offensive, begins detraining today at Lille.

The Battle of Ypres, October 5th to 9th, 1914.

- Today the British government declares the entire North Sea a war zone, and that all vessels entering these waters do so at their own risk.  Ostensibly the move is a response to the laying of German mine fields in the North Sea, but in practice it is a further step in tightening the blockade of Germany - by declaring the North Sea a war zone, the hope is that all neutral traffic would use the Dover Straits where it could be inspected for contraband, a much easier process than patrolling the gap between Scotland and Norway.  Again the British government is undertaking a delicate balancing act - the needs of the Admiralty must constantly be balanced by the Foreign Office's concerns with the impact on neutral opinion.

- This evening the British battlecruisers Invincible and Inflexible depart Cromarty Firth on the west Scottish coast, where they had been a part of Admiral Beatty's Battlecruiser Squadron, en route to Plymouth, where they are to have machinery replaced and take on supplies prior to departure for the South Atlantic.  Their redeployment is the brainchild of Admiral Fisher, just as the ships themselves were a result of his vision of modern naval warfare expounded upon during his earlier tenure as First Sea Lord.  He believed that speed and firepower was paramount, and envisioned the battlecruiser being able to catch everything it could sink and escape from what it couldn't.  In practice this meant having the main armament, but not the armour, of a dreadnought, which gave it several knots advantage over the latter.

In sending them to the South Atlantic they are to form the cornerstone of the British effort to find and sink the German East Asiatic Squadron.  The two battlecruisers are faster than Spee's armoured cruisers, and with heavier main armament is able to fire larger shells over a distance significantly farther than Spee's own main armament can reach.  In other words, they are the perfect weapon to annihilate the German squadron and avenge Coronel - it is the Royal Navy equivalent of stacking the deck in its favour.  Indeed, this is one of the core missions Fisher had envisioned his battlecruisers undertaking - hunting down and sinking enemy commerce raiders.

Of course, the admirals losing Invincible and Inflexible are not pleased about the redeployment.  Beatty is aghast at losing two of his precious battlecruisers, and while Admiral Jellicoe can understand the logic behind the move, he is all-too-aware that it further reduce the British margin of superiority in the North Sea shortly after the loss of the dreadnought Audacious.  The next several months will constitute the closest the German High Seas Fleet will come to parity with the British Grand Fleet.

- All other options exhausted, Britain and France today declare war on the Ottoman Empire.  Simultaneously, the British announce the formal annexation the Ottoman island of Cyprus, which they have occupied since the Congress of Berlin in 1878.  Though this does little more than make de jure what has long been de facto, the action outrages public opinion in Greece, given the substantial Greek population on Cyprus and the belief that the island belongs to them.

The Entente powers are also cognizant of the potential for unrest among the Muslim population of their colonies as they go to war with the preeminent Muslim state in the world.  In an effort to neutralize the issue, the governor-general of French Algeria issues a proclamation that differentiates between the Young Turk rulers of the Ottoman Empire, who are seen as puppets of Germany, and the Turkish people as a whole.

- The Russian declaration of war on the Ottoman Empire yesterday opens a new front in the war, as the two empires share a frontier in the Caucasus.  The terrain here is rough and broken, dominated by the Caucasus and Taurus mountain ranges, and the poverty of the region was such that at the best of times the peasants were barely able to feed themselves.  Two railways on the Russian side approached the border, but their configeration was based on commerce, not defense, while on the Turkish side the nearest railway to Erzurum, the principal Ottoman city in the Caucasus, is 640 miles away.  The weather is also terrible, winter lasting from early November to between late March and May, with snow of two metres in the valleys and temperatures falling below minus twenty degrees centigrade.

All of this combines to convince the Russians that there is little risk of Ottoman invasion.  Indeed, the primary Russian focus is internal, not external - the region has always been a troublesome colonial frontier for the Russians, and groups such as the Georgians continue to agitate and organize to fight for independence.  To this end the Russian I Caucasian Corps, the main Russian force responsible for the region's defense, has been ordered to secure the line Bayazit-Eleskirt-Id, just inside the Ottoman border, this constituting a shorter front than if the corps remained on the Russian side of the frontier.  However, this evening General Georgii Bergmann, who commands I Caucasian Corps and desires glory on the battlefield, orders in his own initiative a further advance to Hasankale on the main road to Erzurum.

The Caucasus Theatre.

- At Tanga the German defenders now number 1500, but Colonel Lettow-Vorbeck is uneasy.  Though the British were repulsed yesterday, he is aware that they had managed to penetrate into Tanga before doing so, and is concerned that a more concerted and determined British advance might yet succeed.  Further, though the enemy advance on Longido failed on the 3rd, he is conscious that he has only three companies there should the British go back over onto the attack.  At 5pm, he concludes that Tanga can no longer be held, and begins preparations to withdraw.

As it turns out, however, the British had beaten him to the punch.  After the debacle of yesterday the soldiers of Indian Expeditionary Force B were hopelessly demoralized, and their commander convinced that victory was impossible.  Thus the British evacuate their forces from the beachhead near Tanga, a process complete by 320pm.  Such was their haste to evacuate that they left all of its heavy supplies behind, among which were eight machine-guns, 455 rifles, and half a million rounds, a vital contribution to Lettow-Vorbeck's force given the difficulties of resupply from Germany itself.  The entire British operation, from first to last, has been a disaster, giving the Germans a notable victory and, for now at least, bringing a halt to offensive operations against German East Africa.

Indian dead on the beaches near Tanga, November 5th, 1914.

October 29th, 1914

- West of the Yser the Germans inch closer to the Belgian line along the railway embankment, approaching to within several hundred yards.  Meanwhile, a shortage of artillery shells prevents a resumption today of the artillery bombardment of Dixmude, though Minenwerfers are used to keep the enemy trenches east of Dixmude under fire.

- The German attack today against Gheluvelt is aimed in particular at the crossroads just east of the village where the Menin Road crosses the road connecting Kruiseecke and Poezelhoek.  Here the British line is held by the left flank of the already much-damaged 7th Division and the right flank of 1st Division, and the trenches here are emblematic of many of the difficulties encountered with British defenses during the battle.  Here the trenches are deep and narrow, and not all are connected.  There is only a single strand of wire protecting the trenches, connected to tins with pebbles to warn of a German attempt to rush the trenches.  No sandbags have been used - indeed, the first large shipment from Britain arrived in France only yesterday.  Observation from the trenches is impeded by the continued existence of buildings and trees, and a lack of communication trenches meant that one position could be overwhelmed without its neighbours realizing it.

- The German artillery bombardment begins at 530am, and the three battalions of the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment advance shortly thereafter.  In the morning fog visibility is limited to forty yards, delaying the British response, and crucially two British machine guns near the crossroads jam.  By 630 the Germans have penetrated the line north of the crossroads, but the British south of the line have no idea the enemy has broken through - indeed, the reserves covering that portion of the line were sent to the rear for breakfast in the belief that no further German advance would be forthcoming.  At 730 four German battalions attack, and after hand-to-hand fighting break through here as well.

Poor communications and the morning fog prevent 7th Division's commander from learning of the defeat until 1015.  As British reserves are finally sent forward, the Germans, instead of advancing into the gap they have formed, turn north and south and attempt to roll up the British lines.  Only at 1130 do the Germans move westward from the crossroads, by which time almost all of I Corps reserves have been committed to rebuilding a British line, and a further five squadrons have been sent by the Cavalry Corps to the south.  The German attack peters out, but a British counterattack in the afternoon fails utterly to regain any of the lost ground.

The result of the day's fighting is that though the Germans are halted short of Gheluvelt itself, the crossroads to the east of the village have been secured, which, due to a dip in the ground there gives the Germans a favourable position for a further attack.  The attack did not accomplish everything that General Fabeck desired, but it did suffice for the major offensive.  For the British, though Haig of I Corps is now focused on holding his line, Sir John French still believes that they and the French should be on the offensive, optimism that he shares with Foch.  They are about to be violently disabused of their hopes.

A British trench near Ypres, October 1914.  Note its rudimentary nature, with no barbed wire, sandbags, trench supports
to prevent collapses, or communication trenches.

- An Order in Council issued today by the British government is another step in the tightening of the blockade against Germany.  It declares a number of items that had previously been conditional contraband - i.e. seizure was discretionary - are henceforth to be absolute contraband, meaning that any ship carrying such goods and destined for Germany will be seized with no exceptions.

- Two days after departing Constantinople, Admiral Souchon and his squadron undertake the real purpose of his sortie - ensuring Ottoman entry into the war on the side of the Germans.  Souchon does this in the most direct way possible - with Goeben and Breslau as the core of his squadron, he sails to the Russian Black Sea coast and proceeds to bombard Odessa, Sevastopol, and Novorossisk this morning.  In addition to damage ashore, a Russian gunboat, minelayer, and six merchant ships are sunk, all done by ships flying the flag of the Ottoman Empire.  As the Ottomans hesitate to join the war willingly, Souchon has decided to force their hand by provoking Russia to declare war on the Ottomans themselves.

- In German Kamerun, the French column that had advanced westward from French Equatorial Africa and occupied the village of Carnot has been experiencing supply problems - the African porters so essential to the movement of equipment have been on half rations, and on the 21st the Europeans were reduced to two-thirds rations.  To avoid starvation, the commander of the column hits on the only real option possible - given the utter impossibility of shipping supplies through the jungle to his present location, he moves the column to where they can scavenge for food.  The column moves further westward into German territory where fertile agricultural lands can be plundered.

-  Off the Chilean coast, while Admiral Craddock and Good Hope, Monmouth, and Otranto depart their anchorage near the Huasco River, Glasgow approaches the port of Coronel.  This afternoon the wireless room aboard Glasgow starts to pick up signals in German code, indicating an enemy warship was nearby.  The captain of Glasgow hesitates to take his ship into Coronel, for fear the sudden arrival of German warships could blockade him in port.  He receives permission from Admiral Craddock to delay entering Coronel to ascertain if the arrival of the German East Asiatic Squadron was imminent.

September 21st, 1914

- After yesterday's failed attacks, General Heeringen of the German 7th Army orders another push by VII Reserve Corps against the British positions opposite.  The corps commander, however, refuses, replying that 'the daily repetition of attack orders could not obtain any success.'  Indeed, full-scale offensive actions by either side have petered out, and the front line becomes increasingly static.  This does not mean there is no fighting - skirmishes occur regularly, and artillery fire is near constant - but there is a growing recognition that neither side is able to break through the enemy lines, which have not shifted to a significant degree since September 14th.  Thus though fighting continues along the Aisne, the Battle of the Aisne, in terms of efforts to break through the enemy positions, has effectively come to a end.

- Today Joffre orders Foch to postpone further attacks by 9th Army, and that artillery fire should be limited.  The French army is starting to experience a shortage of artillery shells, a crisis that will in time afflict all of the major combatants.  In each case, peacetime estimates of the number of shells an artillery piece would use prove to be significantly wide of the mark.  For the French, each of their approximately three thousand 75mm guns began the war with 1244 shells each.  All of this starting ammunition has been fired off by today - the very effectiveness of the '75s' results in more and more requests from the infantry for additional fire support.  The current daily production of 75mm shells, however, is only twenty thousand, or between six or seven shells per gun.  Such a paltry amount could easily be shot off even when major operations were not underway, so the only way Joffre could stockpile shell reserves for major attacks was to reduce artillery fire at other times.

- The German 8th Army reaches the Niemen River today at three points - near Kovno, near Miroslav, and north of Grodno.  However, the Russian 1st Army has been able to cross to the east bank of the river, and has had time to prepare defenses.

- In Galicia, Conrad orders a further retreat, ordering his armies falling back to the Dunajec River, a tributary of the Vistula River.  Here the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th armies are to entrench, with 1st Army being detached to co-operate with the German 9th Army assembling to the north.  The pursuing Russian armies today isolate the Austro-Hungarian fortress of Przemysl, and the 150 000 defenders find themselves under siege.  Otherwise, however, the advance of the Russians is slowing to a halt - September rains have turned the roads into mud, making rapid movement impossible.  Further, the Russian armies are increasingly crippled by supply shortages - there are few railways connecting Galicia with Russia, meaning supplies have to be shipped by horse and cart.

Thus the retreating Austro-Hungarian armies are granted a brief reprieve from Russian pressure.  However, the damage has been done - out of 1.8 million soldiers mobilized at the beginning of August, over 400 000 have become casualties in the fighting in Galicia alone.  Moreover, casualties have been heaviest among the German regiments that constitute not only the elite but also the most loyal units of the Austro-Hungarian army.  These losses cannot be replaced, and increasingly the army has to rely on the non-German regiments whose loyalty is always in doubt.  Finally, many regiments have lost their pre-war junior officers, for whom the rank and file felt a sense of comradeship - replacement officers, unknown and often speaking only German, increase the sense of alienation among the masses of soldiers.  As a result, the Austro-Hungarian army can never completely recover the strength lost in the Galician battles over the first two months of the war.  Conversely, though the Russians have suffered heavy casualties - over a quarter of a million - their massive manpower reserves mean they can absorb far greater losses than the Austro-Hungarian armies could ever hope to.

- In the South Pacific the German East Asiatic Squadron approaches Bora Bora in the Society Islands, owned by France.  Admiral Spee hopes to reprovision from the island, and though Bora Bora is undefended, he would much prefer to acquire food and supplies without force - if attacked, the French islanders might prefer hiding or burning supplies rather than see them seized by Germans.  He thus attempts another ruse - his ships will simply act as if they are not Germans.  Flying no identifying flags, the squadron leisurely approaches Bora Bora, where they are met offshore by several French officers.  Spee ensures that the French officers interact only with German sailors who themselves speak French or British, and imply that they are a British squadron patrolling the Pacific.  The French officers are completely fooled - they gladly offer supplies to the German ships, who pay in cash.  Further, under subtle prodding, they discuss the port defences at Papeete, vital information for the Germans as it is their next target in their journey towards South America.  As they depart, the French fire a salute from one of the antiquated cannons on the island; the cheeky response of the squadron is to raise the German ensign before disappearing over the horizon.

- As the British begin to formalize their naval blockade of Germany, a crucial question is what to do with neutral-flagged ships in the North Sea, whose cargo may be destined for Germany either directly or indirectly (unloaded at a neutral port and shipped overland to Germany).  The desire to halt all trade with Germany needs to be balanced with the opinion of neutral countries, especially the United States, as Britain depends on foreign trade, especially of foodstuffs, for its economy.  Today the British government publishes an expansion of its contraband list of items that will be seized if found on a neutral ship.  Among the goods that will now be seized are rubber, magnetic iron ore, copper, and glycerine, all important components of munitions production.

- The finance minister of France today requests that the Banque de France, the country's national bank, advance a further 3.1 billion francs to support the war effort.  By effectively printing more money, without having to acquire equivalent gold reserves, it gives the French government flexibility to meet the monetary demands of war, but creates inflationary pressure.