July 5th, 1915

- General Alexeiev of North-West Front meets with Grand Duke Nicholas, the Russian chief of staff, today at Siedlec to discuss the situation on the Eastern Front.  Both recognize the very real danger that a continued German thrust northwards between the Vistula and Bug Rivers poses to the Russian position in central Poland.  Alexeiev requests, and is given, permission to withdraw the armies still west of the Vistula to the east at his discretion.  He intends, however, to hold off retreating until it is necessary, in order to slow any potential German advance and make them fight for any territory they are able to capture.

- In southern Poland the Russian 3rd Grenadier and Ural Cossack Divisions launch a counterattack early this morning against the lines of the Austro-Hungarian 4th Army near Urzedow.  Though X Corps is initially forced back, reinforcements are sent to the threatened sector, and the Russian advance is contained.  The apparent failure of the Russian attack today, combined with a further advance of the right wing of 4th Army, convinces its commander that the Russians opposite remain a beaten force, and orders are issued to continue the pursuit tomorrow.

- Today the Italian army introduces a new cipher for encoding radio transmissions.  Intended to enhance signal security, it has the opposite effect: even before it is introduced the code had already been acquired by Austro-Hungarian intelligence and broken, meaning the Austro-Hungarians can read Italian signals as soon as the cipher is implemented.

- Meanwhile, at the front today sees the crescendo of the Italian offensive along the Isonzo River, as VI Corps launches what is intended to be an overwhelming attack between Mt. Sabotino and Lucinico towards the city of Görz.  Despite being outnumbered six to one, the Austro-Hungarian defenders hold, in no small part due to the disorganization of the Italian assaults, and the latter suffer several thousand casualties.  To the south the Italian X Corps, reinforced be half of 22nd Division from XI Corps, advances against the Karst plateau, though after heavy fighting the attack is defeated.  Though the Austro-Hungarians have held, they have suffered significant losses as well, most battalions on the Karst plateau have now lost over half their strength.  General Borevic of the Austro-Hungarian 5th Army rushes reinforcements to the front to reinforce the hard-pressed defenders.

- For the past week Ottoman forces at Cape Helles have been counterattacking the British positions seized on Gully Spur on June 28th.  Despite thousands of casualties, the Ottomans have been unsuccessful, and today the assaults are called off.  The operation is an undoubted British victory, but one barren of strategic consequence; advancing the front line several hundred yards is insufficient to give the Entente control of Gallipoli and allow the fleet to pass through the Dardanelles.

November 30th, 1914

- To both sides on the Western Front, the trench system is both unprecedented and unexpected - neither side thought they would be fighting such a static war, and indeed expectations remain that trench warfare is but a phase which will soon pass.  In the meantime, as both sides try to find tactical solutions to the problem of attacking trenches, they first draw on their experience and pre-war training, which suggests that trench warfare is most similar to the conduct of sieges, the latter involving prolonged fighting before extensive defenses.  Thus in the initial months of trench warfare both sides attempt to apply the tactics for conducting sieges to operations on the Western Front.  For example, today Joffre issues a communication to all army commanders instructing them to dig their trenches to within 150 yards of the German lines.  This is precisely what the standard approach to siege warfare is, and Joffre hopes the order will have the same benefit - the closer the infantry are to the enemy when they attack, the less time it will take them to cross the killing zone between the lines and reach the enemy positions.  While the order reflects the fact that generals did look for ways to break the deadlock that did not involve the repetition of the same tactics over and over again, it also is indicative how these same generals were in many ways prisoners of their own experience and training, whereas the conditions of trench warfare required entirely new ways of thinking on the battlefield.

- A British fishing trawler in the North Sea makes a remarkable discovery when it hauls in its catch - a lead-lined chest in amongst the fish.  The chest is from a German minelaying destroyer which had been sunk off the Dutch coast on October 17th, and within the chest is a treasure worth more than gold to the British Admiralty.  It includes secret charts of the North Sea showing the operational grid the Germans use to plot the location of warships, and a codebook intended for communication with warships overseas.  These two finds, in combination with earlier breakthroughs, allow the British to decypher German wireless signals, a vital advantage to the war at sea.

- As the Russian 3rd Army continues to advance westwards towards Krakow, the Austro-Hungarian Chief of Staff issues orders today for another offensive.  Despite the battering 4th Army has taken in recent weeks, Conrad orders it back on to the attack - the movement of the Russian 3rd Army has opened a gap between it and the Russian 8th Army in the Carpathians to the southeast, and his intention is that the southern wing of 4th Army will move into this gap and then pivot northward to hit the southern flank of the Russian 3rd Army.

- The Serbian army completes its evacuation of Belgrade today as elements of the Austro-Hungarian 5th Army approach the city.  General Potiorek has ordered his other units to halt, both to recover from the recent fighting and to resupply.  The retreating Serbs had thoroughly destroyed transportation infrastructure as they retreated through November, and the Austro-Hungarians have outrun their supplies and are encountering all manner of shortages.

- Orders are issued for a detachment of Indian Expeditionary Force D, including two and a half infantry battalions, to embark on four river steamers, where they will be escorted by two warships and two armed steamers up the Shatt al-Arab.  Their orders are to land on the riverbank opposite of Qurna, clear that side of the river of the enemy, and then move on Qurna itself.

- Ayesha sets a course westward into the Indian Ocean and, satisfied that the schooner is leaving for good, the Dutch warship De Zeven Provincian halts its pursuit.  The German crew are sailing to a point in the eastern Indian Ocean where they hope to rendezvous with a German merchant ship.  While at Padang it was impermissible for any of the crew to meet with sailors from the German merchant ships alongside, First Officer Mücke happened to say several times quite loudly that his ship would be at this point in the Indian Ocean for several weeks.  His hope is that one of the German merchant ships, motivated by patriotism, will meet them there and allow Ayesha's crew to transfer to the steamer for the next stage of the journey back to Germany.