October 14th, 1914

- Along the Channel coast, the retreating Belgians reach the Yser River, where they begin to entrench between Nieuport and Dixmude.  To the east, the pursuing German III Reserve Corps occupies Bruges.

- Early today the British 3rd Cavalry Division makes contact with the British Cavalry Corps at Kemmel, linking the British force retreating from Antwerp with the BEF deploying between Béthune and Ypres.  By this evening Rawlinson's 7th Division has taken position just east of Ypres, covering the arrival of the French 87th Territorial Division in the town.  To the south the Cavalry Corps has secured village of Messines, while III Corps takes Bailleul, abandoned early by the Germans.

- As the XXII, XXIII, XXVI, and XXVII Reserve Corps begin their march west from Brussels today, Falkenhayn orders Rupprecht's 6th Army to halt offensive operations, to give time for the reserve corps to reach the front and to avoid giving the Entente indications of the coming attack.  Instead, 6th Army will hold on a line from Menin southwards, and today the XIII and XIX Corps take up position between Menin and Armentières.

- At 7am this morning, the first ships of an important convoy arrive in Plymouth in southwest England.  The ships had departed Quebec City on October 3rd, and contained twenty-five thousand volunteers for military service, as well as a further five hundred from the separate Dominion of Newfoundland.  These soldiers comprised the Canadian Contingent, whose formation and organization had been agreed to in August.  As in most other combatants, the onset of war had seen a rush of volunteers, and it was decided that, in addition to the existing militia, they would be sent to Britain for service on the Western Front.  They will be a part of the British army, and initially Lord Kitchener wanted to scatter the Canadians throughout British divisions as replacements and individual battalions.  This course of action was fiercely opposed by Sam Hughes, the Canadian Minister of Militia and a figure of considerable energy as well as controversy, in a meeting with Kitchener.  After appeals to the British government the Canadians got their way - after several months training in England, the Canadian Contingent will be reformed as the 1st Canadian Division, and will operate as such in France.

- Despite the usefulness of its 75mm artillery pieces, the French army has been hindered in its operations over the first months of the war by an overall relative lack of artillery as compared to the German army.  Today Joffre outlines what will become known as the 'October 14th Programme', which establishes the requirements of the French army with respect to heavy artillery.  Joffre also stipulates that henceforth all artillery rounds use smokeless rather than black powder, as the smoke that results from the latter gives away the position of guns that fire it.  This illustrates that the 'shells crisis' that has and will afflict all of the major combatants in the first phases of the war is not simply about the number of shells available, but also their quality as well as the availability of the most effective types of artillery pieces.

- In Britain, it was the navy that had priority on munitions, given the widespread assumption that in a future war it would be the fleet that would experience the most combat.  Given the contrast between the continued commitment of the British Expeditionary Force to heavy fighting in France and the relative inactivity of the navy, the Admiralty reluctantly agrees to release a thousand tons of cordite from its reserves to the army for use in munitions production.

- In German Kamerun British forces undertake a second attempt to seize Jabassi.  This time, the advancing columns are directing along both sides of the river to divide the German defenders, and the British commander accompanies the advance by boat to supervise their coordination.  The result is the capture of Jabassi after a brief fight.

- A closer bombardment attempt at Tsingtao sees the British pre-dreadnought Triumph struck by a German shore battery.

- In the Pacific Japanese forces have landed on and captured the undefended German islands in the Marshall, Caroline, and Mariana island chains, formerly attached to the German New Guinea colony.  This leaves only Tsingtao as the sole German colony in the Pacific still under their control.  The British position is that the final disposition of these German colonies will be decided after the war; in practice, the Japanese have no intention of yielding them.  Indeed, the islands they secured without casualties or combat in 1914 will cost the Americans thousands of lives to take in the course of the Second World War.

- At Easter Island the German light cruiser Leipzig arrives today to join the German East Asiatic Squadron.  Having been off the west coast of North America upon the outbreak of war, it has brought three colliers with a thousand tons of coal each to the island, and the other German ships begin to top up their coal bunkers.  The squadron is now composed of two armoured cruisers and three light cruisers.

- The Admiralty finally responds today to Rear-Admiral Craddock's two telegrams of October 8th and 11th.  They signal their agreement with his suggestion of forming a separate squadron to cover the South Atlantic, and among the ships to be assigned to the new squadron is the armoured cruiser Defence.  Crucially, this new squadron is to be a separate command, not under the direction of Craddock.  By having the new squadron independent, and by assigning Defence to it rather than Craddock's command, the implication appears clear to the Rear-Admiral - the Admiralty believes that his squadron as presently constituted, and with only the old pre-dreadnought Canopus en route as reinforcement, is sufficient to engage the German East Asiatic Squadron.

September 17th, 1914

- The French 6th Army attacks today along its front, reclaiming the ground lost to the Germans in recent days.  6th Army also undertakes the first attempt to outflank the German line from the north, as IV and XIII Corps are pushed northwards along the Oise River in the direction of Noyon.  They soon run into the German IX Reserve Corps, just arrived from Belgium to cover the exposed flank of 1st Army, and their advance slows.

To the east, General Bülow launches the attack agreed to yesterday by Falkenhayn.  Though the right of the BEF is able to hold, the Germans are able to push the French 5th Army southwards, capturing the high ground at Brimont, just 9000 yards north of Rheims.

Machine gun position of the 1st Battalion, The Cameronians outside a wood
 at Venizel on the Aisne, September 17th, 1914.

- Though most of the German 6th Army is to be redeployed to northern France, some units are to remain to hold the line in Lorraine.  Today, those units are formed into Army Detachment Falkenhausen, named for its commander, General Freiherr von Falkenhausen, formerly commander of the Ersatz Corps.  In this context, an 'army detachment' is precisely that - a detached portion of an army under a separate commander and assigned different tasks.  It reflects Falkenhayn's intention that the front south of Nancy is to be largely quiet, as units are transferring to the open northern flank.

- In Galicia, though the armies of Austria-Hungary have retreated to the San River, they find it provides no security.  With superior numbers, the Russians are still able to move on the Austro-Hungarian flanks (8th Army from the south and 9th Army from the north), and have crossed the San River in multiple places.  Given the deteriorating situation, Conrad today orders the retreat of his four armies in Galicia to continue.  In doing so, he is breaking contact with Przemysl, the largest Austro-Hungarian fortified zone in Eastern Europe and comparable to Verdun in France.  With its large garrison, it now awaits the approach of the Russians.

- The governor of German New Guinea has been facing an increasingly impossible situation in his defense of the colony since the landing of the Australians six days earlier.  In addition to being overwhelming outnumbered and without any prospect of reinforcement, he feels he can no longer rely on the loyalty of his indigenous soldiers, and his German soldiers are increasingly waylaid by dysentry and malaria.  As such, the German governor surrenders New Guinea to the commander of the Australian expedition, delivering the entirety of the colony, both its islands and the mainland, to Australian occupation.

- In Australia, Labour party leader Andrew Fisher becomes Prime Minister after his party emerged victorious from the recent election which had been called just before the outbreak of war in Europe.  Fisher is fully committed to supporting the British war effort - in a campaign speech on July 31st, he had famously declared that Australia will defend Britain 'to our last man and our last shilling'.

September 11th, 1914

- At 4am, Moltke departs OHL to visit the headquarters of 3rd through 5th armies.  At 5th Army, its commander Crown Prince Wilhelm assures Moltke that the situation is satisfactory, and paints an overly-rosy picture of the previous days' assault.  At 11am he arrives at 3rd Army headquarters, where General Hausen argues that his force can hold its ground, despite several divisions being pushed back by Foch's 9th Army.  Moltke, however, is concerned that the overstretched 3rd Army is barely combat effective.  Just before 1pm Moltke arrives at 4th Army headquarters, where Duke Albrecht says he is confident he can hold his position and can loan units to 3rd Army to his west to shore up Hausen's line.  While there, however, a message from Bülow arrives, stating that indications are the French are driving on Vitry-le-François, which poses a grave threat to 3rd Army.  Moltke again gives in to his innate pessimism - fearing that 3rd Army is about to be shattered, he orders 3rd through 5th armies to retreat in conformity with 1st and 2nd Army.  Thus the retreat of German forces now encompasses all those west of Verdun.  Ground bitterly fought over and won in recent days is now yielded to the enemy and, his defeat now comprehensive, Moltke returns to the gloom of OHL.

The Germans are able to make good their retreat, as, despite a series of short, sharp fights between cavalry and German rearguards, the exhausted British and French forces remain unable to bring the bulk of the German armies to battle.  A sudden rainfall and cold snap further impedes the Entente advance, deep mud slows horse-drawn carts and artillery.  Clouds and mist, meanwhile, prevent aerial reconnaissance, leaving the Entente commanders in the dark as to German dispositions.  Crucially they are in the dark as to whether the Germans are in a disorganized rout or are conducting a well-managed retreat and likely to halt and fight in the next couple of days.  Overall, the British and French forces advance only fifteen kilometres.

- In Lorraine, under pressure from the counterattack of the French 2nd Army, the German 6th Army falls back from before Nancy.  Advancing French columns are able to reoccupy villages that the Germans had spent so much blood capturing in the previous week, and the Germans have left behind mountains of ammunition along with large numbers of wounded in their retreat.  However narrowly, the German threat to Nancy has been driven off, which allows Joffre to redeploy units as necessary from his right to his left.

- With the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army in full retreat, and the Russian 5th Army pouring around his northern flank unopposed, the commander of the Austro-Hungarian 4th Army orders a retreat to the southwest today to avoid encirclement.  With two armies now retiring, even Conrad is able to realize that his armies in Galicia have suffered a decisive defeat, and understands that the continued advance in particular of the Russian 5th Army threatens their annihilation.  Facing the inevitable, Conrad orders all of his armies to retreat to the San River.  The retreat is chaotic and disorderly - no preparations had been made for a retreat, believing it would demoralize the soldiers, so roads are overcrowded and massive amounts of food and supplies have to be burnt as there is no transportation available to move them westwards.  Total casualties for both sides combined in the Battle of Rawa-Ruska are approximately 150 000.

The Austro-Hungarian retreat after the Battle of Rawa-Ruska, Sept. 11th to 26th, 1914.

- The Australian Squadron arrives this morning off Rabaul on the island of New Pommerania (modern New Britain), capital of the German colony of New Guinea (the colony also included Kaiser Wilhelmsland on the island of New Guinea itself, and other surrounding islands).  Naval reservists are sent ashore, and while Rabaul was undefended, a small force of German reservists and indigenous soldiers impeded the Australian advance to the wireless station at Bitapaka, the capture of which was a key reason for the invasion.  After several hours of fighting, the German force is defeated, and the wireless station occupied.

German New Guinea.