A Century On: A Diary of the Great War

- In an effort to expand aircraft production, the French government orders that skilled workers from aircraft factories who had enlisted or ...

- The German industrialist Walther Rathenau resigns today as head of Kriegsrohstoffsamt (KRA), the government agency overseeing the allocati...

- After the directive of the 29th regarding the defensive of current positions, today OHL issues a second directive regarding the training o...

- As the major combatants seek to increase the production of war material, one means that comes to the fore is 'dilution', whereby s...

- Financial representatives from Britain, France, and Russia meet today in Paris to discuss the financing of the war.  Britain objects to a ...

- Though the war has now passed the six-month mark, there are still some within financial circles who feel that hostilities will have to sho...

- A meeting of the War Council in London is scheduled for 1130am.  Beforehand, Churchill receives a letter of resignation from Fisher over t...

- After closing on the outbreak of war in August, the London Stock Exchange reopens today. - The ability of the French army to increase it...

- In Britain the primary decision-making body regarding the conduct of the war is the War Council, comprised of Prime Minister Asquith, rele...

- In the first months of the war the French government had imposed a number of what it had described as temporary moratoriums on a range of ...

- Today can be seen as marking an important watershed on the Western Front.  For the Entente, the arrival of I Corps in Flanders today me...

- The orders for the British II Corps is to advance to cover Béthune, placing it on the left flank of the French 10th Army.  By today, II Co...

- After yesterday's failed attacks, General Heeringen of the German 7th Army orders another push by VII Reserve Corps against the Britis...

- Today the advance of the 1st and 2nd German Armies through Belgium is in full motion - 1st Army is attacking the lines of the main Belgian...

- Today the Royal Navy sinks its first German U-boat of the war.  As anti-submarine weapons do not exist as of yet, the light cruiser Birmin...

- The economic impact of the outbreak of war has reached the neutral United States, as Europeans withdraw funds from American banks.  As a r...

- At dawn, Goeben  and Breslau  arrive at the Italian post of Messina on Sicily in order to replenish their stock of coal.  The Italian auth...

- At 4am, Admiral Sir John Jellicoe receives orders from the Admiralty to take command of the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet as Commander-in-C...

- This morning the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister receives a copy of the telegram from Moltke to Conrad sent the prior afternoon, urging ...