December 22nd, 1914

- By today the British line between Cuinchy and Neuve Chapelle has been stabilized by the insertion of 1st Division of I Corps into the centre of the position around Givenchy, formerly held by the Indian Corps.  Most of the original lines held before the German attack of the 20th have been regained, though some stretches of the first trench have been so destroyed by artillery fire as to render them useless.  The moment of danger has passed, though the Indian Corps has suffered almost a thousand casualties over the past three days, as compared to only 250 for the Germans opposite.  The need for 1st Division to come to the 'rescue' of the Indian Corps also does little for the confidence of the BEF leadership in the latter's fighting qualities.

- In Galicia the Russians continue to press against the Austro-Hungarian 3rd Army, and in many spots the latter is forced southward.  Further complicating matters, most of the reinforcements destined for the right wing of the army had been sucked into the fighting on the left wing in an attempt to stem the tide, making the execution of the planned advance on Przemysl by the army's right wing impossible.  In an attempt to make the best of a bad situation, Conrad approves a proposal by 3rd Army commander to attack with his left wing towards Tarnow.

The Russian advance in Galicia, December 22nd to 31st, 1914.

- In light of the failed invasions of Serbia, General Potiorek is forced into retirement today.

The Serbian Front at the end of December, 1914.

- What will become the Battle of Sarikamish begins today when Enver Pasha orders the Ottoman XI and X Corps of his 3rd Army to begin their advance into the Russian Caucasus.  Enver's objective is the town of Sarikamish, which sits at the head of the main railway supplying Russian forces in the Caucasus, but his plan bears the strong imprint of German thinking and the influence of 3rd Army's Chief of Staff Baron Bronsart von Schellendorff.  Of 3rd Army's three corps, XI Corps, reinforced by two divisions that had been originally bound for Syria and Iraq, was to frontally attack the two Russian corps southwest of Sarikamish in order to fix them in place.  This was no small task for XI Corps, given the two Russian corps number 54 000 men and the Ottoman unit would have been outnumbered by just one of the enemy corps.  The key maneouvre, however, is to be undertaken by IX and X Corps.  The former, sitting on XI Corps' left, is to advance along a mountain path known as the top yol towards Çatak, from which it can descend on Sarikamish from the northwest, outflanking the two Russian corps pinned by XI Corps.  Though the top yol is known to the Russians, they believe it was impractical to move large bodies of troops along it.  Enver, for his part, believes that not only is the path useable but its high altitude and exposed position would ensure that high winds kept it swept of snow, as compared to the valleys below.  Finally, X Corps, on the left of IX Corps, is to advance and occupy the town of Oltu, from which one portion of the corps can move to support IX Corps' move on Sarikamish, while another portion can continue northeastwards towards the town of Ardahan.  If successful, the plan promises the envelopment and annihilation of the two Russian corps southwest of Sarikamish and the opening of the way to Kars.

With its emphasis on outflanking the enemy position, it has the obvious imprint of the thinking of Schliffen and the German General Staff.  Further, Enver's plan involves precise timetabling of the advance of IX and X Corps (necessary given the lack of communications between the three corps of 3rd Army) which removes all possibility of improvisation and does not allow for any unit to fall behind schedule.  Finally, there is the emphasis on speed - the soldiers of IX Corps, for instance, are told to leave their coats and packs behind to quicken their advance.  This ignores the obvious reality of conducting operations in the Caucasus in December and January - temperatures are consistently below -30 degrees centigrade and the snow on the ground is measured in feet, not inches.  This ignorance of the human element, also a conspicuous reflection of pre-war German planning, is to be of decisive import in the days ahead.

Incidentally, Enver's decision to launch his invasion of the Russian Caucasus today is the first link in a chain of events that will lead to the collapse of the last Liberal government in Britain.  Just another example of how one cannot understand the First World War without understanding how it was a world war.

The planned advance of the Ottoman 3rd Army against Sarikamish.

- In German Kamerun the French column that occupied Nola in October today seize the village of Molundu.

- A force of Boer rebels numbering about a thousand, comprising those who managed to escape to German South-West Africa under Martiz and Kemp, cross the Orange River back into South Africa.  Though they have achieved surprise, the advance is plagued by disagreements between the two Boer leaders, Kemp refusing to serve under Maritz's leadership and wanting to return to the Transvaal.  Martiz for his part desires to avoid giving the impression of being a German puppet, and thus refuses German assistance.  The result is that when a South African force is encountered near Schuit Drift, they are driven off and retreat back over the Orange River.

December 20th, 1914

- The second of the major French offensives opens today with the attack in Champagne by 4th Army.  Advancing against a twelve-kilometre front approximately forty kilometres east of Rheims, the operation is undertaken by four corps - from west to east, XII, XVII, I Colonial, and II.  Two primary assaults are to be undertaken by XII and XVII Corps, while supporting assaults will be launched by I Colonial Corps.  The hope at 4th Army headquarters is that by having two main attacks, each controlled by a separate corps command, will double the chances of success.  In support the French have over seven hundred artillery pieces of varying calibers, a number that would have been all but unthinkable before the war.  The operation in Champagne also mirrors the operation in Artois in dividing the attacks into phases, to allow for sufficient concentration of artillery fire.  The objective is to secure a breach in the German line, and to do so the plan is to constantly feed fresh soldiers into the battle in order to maintain the momentum of the attack.  This tactic, which comes to be known as 'continuous battle', seeks to break through the enemy line by maintaining constant pressure to wear the opponent down, as opposed to overwhelming the enemy with a massive concentration of infantry and artillery at a single point.

Today, in the first phase of the attacks, both XVII and I Colonial Corps attack precisely at 930am.  Despite the heavy artillery barrage, the advancing infantry find the enemy's barbed wire and trench lines largely intact, and are unable to secure anything more than small, local gains.

- Unlike most of the other small attacks by British and French forces in Flanders this month, the failed assault of the Indian Corps results in a swift and powerful German attack that aims to do more than simply recover lost ground.  At dawn, the front held by the Indian Corps comes under intensive artillery and mortar fire, and at 9am the portion of the line near Givenchy, held by the Sirhind Brigade of the Lahore Division, is targeted by ten explosive mines, each of 50kg of gunpower, planted by the German VII Corps opposite.  The trench lines are shattered; some Indians are buried alive, while the already-waterlogged ground is turned into waist-deep mud.  German infantry from two battalions of 57th Regiment then surge forward, and though the defending Gurkhas and Afridis fight desperately, they are forced backwards.  Givenchy is lost to the Germans, and the position of the Indian Corps is such that Sir John French orders General Haig to dispatch a brigade to reinforce the line at Givenchy.

There are also reports of Indian soldiers, primarily Baluchis, fleeing the battlefield in panic and discarding their rifles.  In practice the number of cases were few, often limited to those situation where all of both the British and Indian officers had been killed, but the reports appear to give sustenance to the belief of some that Indian soldiers are not capable of fighting in the cold winter of Flanders and in the conditions of modern industrialized warfare.

The front near Givency. 

- To revive his faltering offensive, the commander of the Austro-Hungarian 3rd Army argues that his eastern wing should be reinforced, concentrating eight or nine infantry and five cavalry divisions here, with the objective being to outflank the entirety of the enemy's position in Galicia and reach Przemysl.  Conrad agrees, and orders the advance on Tarnow, which has not made any progress anyway, suspended.  Instead, 4th Army and the western wing of 3rd Army are to stand on the defensive until the forces destined for the eastern wing are assembled.

- While the Ottoman 3rd Army is about to launch Enver Pasha's invasion of the Russian Caucasus, the Ottoman 4th Army, based in Syria and Palestine, is planing an invasion of Egypt, and just as 3rd Army's operation is linked to the pan-Turkic vision of Enver, 4th Army's advance is to be associated with the call to jihad, hoping that it will inspire the Egyptian population to rise up in support of the Ottoman invasion.  Thus 4th Army is to be given the full trappings of a religious crusade - today a holy flag brought from Mecca is paraded through Jerusalem, after which it is to accompany 4th Army, along with a number of Islamic clerics.

December 19th, 1914

- The British undertake another attack in Flanders today, this time by the Indian Corps, which currently holds the line between Cuinchy just south of the La Bassée-Bethune Canal north to a position just west of the village of Neuve Chapelle.  Elements from both divisions of the Indian Corps participate in the attacks, which begin at 430am.  Initial successes are achieved, and the Sirhind Brigade of Lahore Division manages to occupy two German trench lines.  However, these successes cannot be maintained, as the units that have advanced find themselves attempting to hold small salients in the German lines, which allow the enemy to counterattack from three directions.  By nightfall, all of the day's gains have been given back.

- Falkenhayn and Conrad meet today at the railway station in Oppeln to discuss strategy on the Eastern Front.  The German Chief of Staff continues to believe that a decisive victory in the East is impossible because the Russian army will always be able to retreat into the interior of the country.  Thus Falkenhayn's plan is to advance to the Vistula River in order to secure a strong defensive position in Poland, which would then allow for the redeployment of significant forces to the Western Front for a decisive operation against the French in February.  Needless to say, Conrad could not disagree more, as he still argues that a massive envelopment maneouvre, with the pincers originating in East Prussia and Galicia, can surround and annihilate the Russian army.  This would knock Russia out of the war, and lead to victory in the Balkans and the West.  With such thoroughly divergent
opinions, it is not surprising that the two generals depart without having agreed to anything.

- Nine days ago Enver Pasha received a report from his acolyte Hafiz Hakki, whom he had sent out to the Ottoman 3rd Army in the Caucasus to report on its condition.  Hakki told Enver exactly what he wanted to hear - that the supply problems were overblown and that an advance to Kars is possible.  Today Enver decides to take matters into his own hands, dismissing the cautious commander of 3rd Army and appointing himself as his replacement.  He intends to launch the three corps of 3rd Army in an invasion across the Russian frontier towards Sarikamish and Kars, winning a decisive victory that will both demonstrate the continued vitality of the Ottoman Empire and rally all Turkic peoples to the Ottoman banner.  By taking command of the army himself, Enver has raised the profile of and the stakes for the coming invasion; while victory would be widely celebrated, defeat may call into question the entire strategy and war aims of the Young Turks who dominate the Ottoman government, and the viability of the call to jihad against the Entente.

- In Egypt the British are taking steps to formalize their control of the country, which they have informally occupied since 1882.  Yesterday they declared the former Ottoman province to be a British protectorate, and today they depose the pro-Ottoman Khedive Abbas Hilmi, now in Constantinople, and replace him as Khedive with his uncle Hussein Kamil.

- The British battlecruiser Inflexible, which had been hunting for the German light cruiser Dresden along the Chilean coast, is recalled to home waters today.  With Invincible having already departed for home, it leaves the search for Dresden in the hands of the armoured and light cruisers that had contributed to the destruction of the German East Asiatic Squadron on December 8th.  For its part Dresden has been living a fugitive existence, hiding among the fjords and channels along Tierra del Fuego.

December 18th, 1914

- Though the French have abandoned their attacks in Flanders, the British have not - they hope that the continued German redeployments to the Eastern Front have sufficiently weakened their lines opposite the BEF to allow for successful, if small-scale, attacks.  The reality is that though the German lines are thinner, they are still able to easily repulse hastily-planned and poorly-executed operations.  Today, a British attack against the German line at Ploegsteert Wood is a bloody failure, with some of the advancing infantry being killed by their own misdirected artillery fire.

- After the attacks by XXI and X Corps yesterday, the main attack of the French 10th Army's Artois offensive is launched today by XXXIII Corps.  However, the same conditions that impeded progress yesterday - heavy rain and insufficient artillery fire - also plague today's advance, and XXXIII Corps, attacking along a broad front, secures only negligible gains.  General Pétain decides that instead of continuing to attack all along his corps' front, he will instead concentrate his strength against just the portion of the line at the village of Carency, in an attempt to overwhelm the German defenders.

- The Russian armies in central Poland halt their retreat today, taking up strong and prepared positions on the lower Bzura and Rawka Rivers south to the Nida River.  Attacks by both the German 9th and Austro-Hungarian 2nd Armies fail to break through this new line, indicating that the Russians intend to stand and fight here.  Mackensen decides to continue 9th Army's offensive in an effort to capture Warsaw before the end of the year, and thus begins a series of attacks across the Bzura and Rawka Rivers.

- For his part, the Russian halt in central Poland is yet more evidence to Conrad that the essential battle is in Galicia where the Russian line in Poland can be turned from the south.  The omens south of the Vistula, however, are not promising.  In addition to yesterday's check at Lisko, today 4th Army finds its advance halted by Russian garrisons on the west bank of the Dunajec River, evidence that the Russian 3rd Army intends to stand along the Dunajec.  Gone is the question of whether the Russians will retreat across the San; instead, it is now a matter of whether the Russians can be forced to continue retreating at all.  To accomplish this the left wing of 4th Army is ordered to hold at the Dunajec, while the right wing swings around to the south against Tarnow - if successful, it will sever the main railway and supply route to the Russian 3rd Army and force its further withdrawal.

- Along the border between German South-West Africa and Portuguese Angola, the reaction of the latter to the massacre of the Portuguese garrison at Cuangar on October 31st by a small German force had been to evacuate four nearby border posts for fear of further German attacks.  The German commander in South-West Africa, meanwhile, still does not know if Germany and Portugal are actually at war or not, so he decides to shoot first and ask questions later.  Today a German force of approximately five hundred soldiers, aided by local Africans, attack the Portuguese fort of Naulila, just north of the border.  The Portuguese defenders also number about five hundred, but Naulila was designed to resist native insurrections, not withstand the bombardment of the six artillery pieces the Germans brought with them.  When a German shell detonates the munitions dump, the Portuguese survivors break and flee, having suffered 182 casualties.

The Germans halt their advance after destroying the fort at Naulila - in the long term, the much greater threat comes from the British and South Africans along the coast and the Orange River.  The German success here, along with the Portuguese withdrawal, does effectively create a buffer zone in southern Angola, which allows the Germans to concentrate their forces elsewhere.

December 17th, 1914

- The French 10th Army opens its offensive in Artois today.  Its objective is Vimy Ridge, which stretches from the village of Souchez southeastwards to a point northeast of Arras.  To the east of the ridge is a long flat plain stretching twenty kilometres towards Douai, and it is believed that by seizing the ridge French artillery would be able to dominate the plain and force the Germans to withdraw perhaps past Douai.  10th Army has three corps assigned to the operation: XXI, XXXIII, and X Corps, aligned north to south.  The main attack will be undertaken by XXXIII Corps, under the command of General Philippe Pétain, which is to break through south of Souchez and seize the high ground before the village of Vimy itself.  To the north, XXI Corps is to capture Souchez and advance to the northern end of the ridge near Givenchy, while to the south X Corps will attack northeastward from Arras to protect the flank of XXXIII Corps as it advances.

In an attempt to ensure the strongest support for each advance, General Maud'huy has the attack of XXXIII Corps delayed until tomorrow, so French artillery today can provide maximum aid to the attacks of the two flanking corps.  Despite this, the preliminary artillery bombardment proves insufficient, and heavy rain has turned the battlefield into a field of mud, slowing the French infantry.  As a result, today's attacks by XXI Corps to the north and X Corps to the south make only minimal gains - the former only occupies less than a kilometre of the first German trench line, while the latter makes even less progress.

The Western Front around Vimy Ridge in early 1915.  That this map can also be
used to illustrate the front line prior to the 1st Battle of Artois says all that needs
to be said about how successful that operation was.

- Meanwhile to the north in Flanders the attacks undertaken by the French south of Ypres in an effort to distract the Germans from the major operations in Artois and Champagne have continued to be unsuccessful.  Not only have they failed to force the Germans to divert their reserves away from Artois and Champagne, but they have also failed to gain any significant ground whatsoever - along the Menin Road southeast of Ypres French attacks have gained only a hundred yards, while similar minuscule gains have been 'achieved' near the villages of Bixschoote and Klein Zillebeke.  As a result, the French attacks in Flanders are halted.

- Bernhard von Bülow, a former Chancellor, is appointed German Ambassador to Italy today.  He is tasked with keeping Italy neutral in the war, but his work is rendered difficult by the ongoing refusal of Emperor Franz Joseph to making any territorial concessions to Italy, the granting of which would be the vital 'inducement' to Italian neutrality.

- In central Poland the Russian 2nd and 5th Armies have begun their retreat eastward overnight, leading Mackensen to order his forces to quicken their advance in order to overtake and envelop the two Russian armies before they can withdraw to safety.

- General Falkenhayn, General Ludendorff, and Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg meet today in Berlin to discuss operations on the Eastern Front.  With reports indicating that the Russians are in full retreat along the entire front held by 9th Army, it is decided that the offensive in Poland should continue until Warsaw is occupied and the middle Vistula reached.

- On the Russian side, General Ruszkii has lost confidence in the ability of his armies to hold off the advances of the German 9th Army, and desires to retreat even further, past the line of the lower Bzura and Rawka Rivers and back to Warsaw itself.  Doing so would require South-West Front to retreat further eastward as well, and as such General Ivanov strongly objects to Ruszkii's proposal.  Grand Duke Nicholas decides in favour of Ivanov, ordering Ruszkii to hold the line decided upon on the 15th.

- Two days ago a significant Austro-Hungarian force in the besieged fortress of Przemysl had begun a sortie to the southwest towards the town of Lisko, on the other side of which the eastern wing of the Austro-Hungarian 3rd Army was advancing northwards.  However, by today the Russians have brought in reinforcements, and in fierce fighting manage not only to drive the force from Przemysl back behind the siege lines but also compel 3rd Army to retreat southwards away from Lisko.  This Russian victory upsets the Austro-Hungarian plans for a further advance by the eastern wing of 3rd Army towards the San River.

The weather along the Eastern Front also continues to deteriorate.  Strong winds and heavy rain makes conditions for the infantry miserable, while the deep mud makes relocating artillery almost impossible; thus not only does the mud slow foot soldiers, but greatly reduces artillery support for those attacks that do occur.

December 14th, 1914

- Planning continues for the two major offensive operations the French army will undertake in the next week - in Artois on the 17th, and in Champagne on the 20th.  Today General Foch meets with General Maud'huy to discuss the Artois offensive, to be undertaken by the latter's 10th Army.  Foch emphasizes to Maud'huy that the battle should be approached as if he were undertaking a siege, which means thorough and meticulous preparation combined with a methodical advance, ensuring that the infantry is supported by overwhelming firepower at every stage of the engagement.  Maud'huy thus slows the planned pace of the operation, spreading the attack over multiple phases to ensure each attack is strongly supported.  Despite the focus on preparation, the French units dedicated to the attack are not sufficiently equipped - 77th Division, which will be leading the main attack, requires over a hundred wire cutters to pierce the German barbed wire defences, but reports today that it has only fifteen.

- In addition to the two major attacks, Joffre is coordinating a number of diversionary attacks designed to distract the Germans from French preparations and force the enemy to commit their reserves elsewhere.  One of these secondary operations is begun this morning by units of the French XVI and XXI Corps and the British II Corps in the line south of Ypres.  The advancing infantry, however, are slowed by deep mud and intact barbed wire defences, and are unable to make any real progress.  Only a small number of British soldiers are able to reach the first German trench line on the western edge of the Petit Bois woods, but this does not pose a risk to the overall German position.

- For the past month and a half the German High Seas Fleet has sat in port, immobilized by the Kaiser's edict that his prized dreadnoughts are not to risk annihilation in a major battle with the British Grand Fleet.  The inaction is concerning to Admiral Ingenohl, commander of the High Seas Fleet, who worries about the morale of his sailors, while Admiral Hipper, commanding the Fleet's battlecruisers, is eager to undertake another attack on the British coast along the lines of that attempted against Yarmouth on November 3rd.  Meanwhile, the destruction of the German East Asiatic Squadron on the 8th spurs a desire to secure a victory to restore the public image of the German navy, while the Battle of the Falklands Islands also gave notice that several British battlecruisers are absent from the Grand Fleet.  Under these circumstances approval is given to another raid on the British coast - Hipper and his battlecruisers are to bombard Scarborough and Hartlepool.  To support the operation, Ingenohl and the High Seas Fleet will sail to the eastern edge of Dogger Bank in the middle of the North Sea, not to seek battle, but to provide support if Hipper fins himself overwhelmed.  There is also at least the chance that the Germans might stumble upon one part of the Grand Fleet divided from the rest, presenting the opportunity to even the odds in the North Sea.  The Germans are to sail tomorrow morning, with the bombardment scheduled to occur on the morning of the 16th.

As the High Seas Fleet prepares for its raid, wireless signals are sent back and forth among the German ships.  Unknown to them, these signals are being intercepted by the British, and though they are coded, the British have managed to break the German codes, thanks to the acquisition of several different German code books over the past few months.  In Room 40 at the Admiralty in London, the signals are deciphered, and at 7pm this evening the First Lord and First Sea Lord are informed that the Germans are coming.  Crucially, however, Room 40 has intercepted only a portion of the German signals - they inform the Admiralty leadership that the German battlecruisers are intending to raid the British coast, but they have no information that the entire High Seas Fleet will also put to sea.  Thus it appears to Churchill and Fisher that only Hipper's five battlecruisers will be undertaking the operation, and so they order Admiral Jellicoe to dispatch an appropriately-sized force to destroy it - the four battlecruisers of Admiral Beatty's Battlecruiser Squadron and the six dreadnoughts of Vice-Admiral Sir George Warrender.  Together these warships would be more than sufficient to defeat the German battlecruisers, but if they stumble onto the High Seas Fleet, the Germans would have overwhelming numerical superiority.  Thus Churchill's and Fisher's response to the intelligence of Room 40 is to give the Germans precisely the opportunity they crave to destroy part of the Grand Fleet in isolation and level the playing field in the North Sea - depending, of course, on the Germans taking advantage of the opportunity.

- Since the Yarmouth raid of November 3rd, Admiral Hipper, commander of the battlecruisers of the German High Seas Fleet, has been eager to undertake another sortie against the British coast.  Admiral Ingenohl, meanwhile, as overall commander of the High Seas Fleet is increasingly concerned about the morale of his sailors, given they have spent almost the entire war in port due to the Kaiser's edict forbidding the fleet from seeking out a major naval battle with the British.

- The Russian armies between the two bends of the Vistula River begin today the eastward retreat ordered by Grand Duke Nicholas yesterday.

The front lines in Poland on December 14th (on the left) and December 31st
(on the right), illustrating the Russian retreat.

- In response to the message of General Frank regarding the state of his army, General Potiorek orders 5th Army to retreat north over the Sava and Danube Rivers and abandon Belgrade to the advancing Serbs.

- For two weeks the schooner Ayesha, with its German crew from the light cruiser Emden, has been at the rendezvous point in the Indian Ocean it had signaled to the German merchant ships in Padang.  During this time it has twice sighted English steamers, one of which the Germans suspected to be an armed auxiliary cruiser.  When the cruiser approached, the crew of Ayesha did all they could to appear to be lost and hapless.  First they asked the cruiser for their current position, and when the cruiser asked Ayesha for its name, the German response was to raise a jumble of signal flags that meant jibberish.  Convinced that Ayesha was crewed by harmless incompetents, the cruiser had departed, leaving the German schooner to continue its wait.

Today their patience is rewarded when the German merchant ship Choising appears out of thick fog.  The intention of First Officer Mücke and his men is to transfer to the merchant, but are prevented by the rough seas.  Instead Ayesha signals Choising to follow it in sailing south, hoping to find calmer weather.