March 26th, 1915

- The Landships Committee has reported to Churchill the preliminary results of its investigations of possible vehicles that could be adapted to combat use, and has focussed on two potential designs: a six-wheeled vehicle and a tracked vehicle using Pedrails.  Today, Churchill authorizes the construction of prototypes of each for testing.

- Due to a lack of resources, Joffre cancels an attack planned in the Vosges, originally intended as a preliminary diversionary operation prior to the main offensive against the St.-Mihiel salient.

- Today the French 152nd Infantry Regiment, alongside 1st Chasseur Brigade, succeed in wresting control of the summit of Hartmannswillerkopf from the Germans.

- Admiral Robeck sends a further telegram to the Admiralty today, providing a more detailed justification of his decision to abandon the naval assault on the Dardanelles:

I do not hold the check on the 18th to be decisive, but having met General Hamilton . . . I consider a combined operation essential to obtain great results and object of campaign . . . To attack the Narrows now with fleet would be a mistake, as it would jeopardize the execution of a better and bigger scheme.

February 20th, 1915

- After authorizing the release of a division from IV Corps to reinforce 4th Army, Joffre is dismayed to learn that it may take several more days before the reinforcements enter the line and allow for renewed advances.  The French Commander-in-Chief sends a reduke to General de Langle of 4th Army, insisting on the importance of attacking as soon as possible to prevent the Germans from constructing new defensive positions faster than the French can fight through them.

On the German side, 1st Guard Division arrives in 3rd Army's sector, an increase in strength that appears to secure the army's left flank against further attacks.

- The Hankey Memorandum of December 28th, 1914, which included a proposal regarding the used of tracked vehicles on the Western Front, had led to an investigation by a War Office committee, which after unpromising tests had concluded that the concept would not be practical.  However, the memorandum has also caught the attention of Churchill, who has also been receiving suggestions from officiers of the Royal Naval Air Service for vehicles more capable than their armoured cars.  Today he authorizes the formation of the Landships Committee, chaired by Director of Naval Construction E. H. T. d'Eyncourt, to investigate the different ideas put forward for the used of tracked and/or armoured vehicles.

- In the eastern Carpathians the Austro-Hungarian 10th Cavalry Division, part of General Pflanzer-Baltin's army group, occupies the town of Stanislau this morning after its evacuation by Russian forces.  However, reinforcements from the Russian 9th Army are arriving in the region, and by the afternoon the Russians counterattack near Stanislau.  Only the timely arrival of a brigade from 36th Division allows the Austro-Hungarians to hold the town.

- At the Dardanelles the weather has taken a sharp turn for the worse, with heavy rain and high seas.  Admiral Carden is unwilling to waste ammunition when poor visibility prevents accurate targeting, and thus given the conditions the British and French warships are unable to continue the bombardment of the Ottoman forts begun yesterday.

December 28th, 1914

- In Britain the primary decision-making body regarding the conduct of the war is the War Council, comprised of Prime Minister Asquith, relevant Cabinet ministers, and the service chiefs.  The secretary of the War Council is Colonel Maurice Hankey, whose position gives him more influence over British strategy than most generals.  Today he circulates to some of the members of the War Council a memorandum on the future conduct of the war he had begun to draft two days earlier, and this 'Boxing Day Memorandum' is notable on two accounts.  First, he wonders whether British strength is best concentrated on the Western Front, or whether they should look elsewhere, especially in terms of where British seapower can most usefully be employed.  One of the alternatives Hankey mentions is against the Ottoman Empire, either along the Syrian coast or, significantly, against the Dardanelles.  Second, Hankey has been in communication with Colonel Ernest Swinton, formerly an Assistant Secretary under Hankey and now the official war correspondent on the Western Front.  Swinton had learnt before the war of an American firm that produced farm tractors with caterpillar treads, and while at the front had come to wonder whether a vehicle so-equipped could have military applications.  Swinton passed the suggestion to Hankey, and Hankey has included it in his Boxing Day Memorandum, proposing the following machine:

Numbers of large heavy rollers, themselves bullet proof, propelled from behind by motor-engines, geared very low, the driving wheel fitted with a caterpillar driving gear to grip the ground, the driver's seat armoured and a Maxim gun fitted.  The object of this device would be to rol down the barbed wire by sheer weight, to give some cover to men creeping up behind and to support the advance with machine gun fire. 

This proposal contains the core elements of what will become the tank, and Hankey's circulation of this suggestion is one of the first steps in its development.

- The German occupation of most of Belgium and northeastern France has meant that a significant amount of industrial resources, including everything from coal mines to locomotives to river barges, is now under German control.  The exploitation of these resources, however, has been problematic.  As a KRA report of today notes, nobody knows who actually owns these resources, which makes coordinating their exploitation next to impossible.  Private businesses in Germany proper want to secure a share of the booty for themselves, while alternatively not wanting utilization of these resources by KRA and other state agencies to, for example, drive down the price of coal in Germany.  The exploitation of the occupied territories is far from a straightforward proposition, a theme that will recur in other lands conquered by Germany and ensure that it never receives the full economic benefit from its conquests.

- In German Kamerun the French column that occupied Baturi on December 9th has advanced westward to Bertua, but over the past few days has been halted in a series of engagements with German forces.