August 9th, 1915

- The first year of the war has seen several large fortress complexes destroyed by the power of modern heavy artillery, most prominently those at Liège and Antwerp in 1914 but also more recently the Russian capture of Przemysl.  From these episodes Joffre has taken the entirely reasonable lesson that pre-war fortifications cannot provide prolonged resistance in the face of a sustained enemy effort to seize them, and concludes that those pre-war forts that remain - most prominently the fortifications around Verdun - are no longer of vital importance.  Writing to his army group commanders today, Joffre states that forts like those at Verdun no longer have an independent role on the modern battlefield, and were only useful to the extent to which they could contribute to the trench lines established by the army in the field.  The logic of this downgrading of the importance of Verdun is that much of the considerable amount of fixed artillery in the forts around Verdun could better be employed as mobile artillery, able to be shifted to those parts of the front either under threat or where offensive operations are to be undertaken.  This reduction in the defensive capability of Verdun makes sense as long as it is just another stretch of the front line; if it ever becomes the target of a major offensive, however, Joffre's instructions could prove problematic.

- In southern Poland the left wing of the Austro-Hungarian 4th Army makes rapid progress today, given that with the Russian retreat they face only cavalry patrols, and is able to reach the north bank of the Wieprz River by this evening.  The army's right wing, however, gets nowhere, given that here the Russians are holding their line as the withdrawal from central Poland continues.

October 4th, 1914

- The German advance at Arras continues today.  North of the city the Bavarians push through Lens and, at 10pm, occupy the heights of Vimy Ridge.  The French 70th Division, on the line north of the city, is pushed back almost to the Scarpe River northwest of Arras.  To the south, the Prussian Guards Division shatters the 81th Territorial Division, killing its commander, and a gap begins to open between the territorial divisions and X Corps.  The French at Arras are threatened with encirclement, and General Maud-huy declares that his detachment is facing another 'Sedan', referencing the disastrous envelopment and surrender of a French army in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War.  The Kaiser, meanwhile, arrives at Rupprecht's headquarters at St. Quentin to observe the anticipated victory.

When Castlenau asks Joffre which direction Maud-huy should retreat in, the latter's response is swift.  He has become convinced that Castlenau is plagued by excessive pessimism, and decides on a reorganization.  First, Maud-huy's detachment is formed into a separate command as 10th Army.  Second, Ferdinand Foch is appointed Joffre's 'deputy' with responsibility to co-ordinate the 2nd and 10th armies and the territorial divisions in northern France.  Castlenau thus finds himself under the command of a former subordinate, but on balance is likely pleased to have retained his command at all.  With Foch moving to northern France, his 9th Army along the Aisne is suppressed, its corps being absorbed by the neighbouring 4th and 5th armies.  Joffre also informs Castlenau that under no circumstances is he to retreat, as the reinforcements en route to the north will allow the Entente line to hold.

The German advance at Arras, October 1914.

- The British Royal Marine Brigade arrives in Antwerp at 1am, having landed at Dunkirk yesterday and traveled to the city by train, and later this morning takes up position along the front line to the southeast of Antwerp.  At the same time, the British Cabinet approves the dispatch of the two naval brigades to augment the British contribution to the defense of Antwerp.  The Cabinet also receives a remarkable request from Churchill.  He has remained in Antwerp, and for the past twenty-four hours has taken to directing the defense of the city, touring the trenches, repositioning units, etc..  He has displayed an almost boyish enthusiasm for war - sitting in the open watching the action as artillery shells fall around him.  He feels to be in his element, and at this moment wants nothing more than to continue to have a direct hand in the ongoing struggle for Antwerp.  His request to the Cabinet is that he resign his position as First Lord of the Admiralty and instead be appointed commander of the forces at Antwerp, with the full authority of a general in the field.  The reaction of the Cabinet can be best described as nervous laughter - Churchill has already gained a reputation as a figure whose enthusiasm often outruns his judgement, and the idea that the head of the most important military office in the country should race off to command forces in the field is incomprehensible.  Churchill’s request is politely denied, and he is informed that General Henry Rawlinson will be arriving shortly to assume command of the British contingent.  For now, though, Churchill remains at Antwerp, play-acting the role of general.

Meanwhile, the continuing bombardment of Fort Kessel finally forces the evacuation of its Belgian garrison today.  The Germans also begin to bombard the north bank of the Nethe River, in preparation for an attempt to force a crossing and pierce the line of defense established along the river after the first forts had fallen.

- West of Verdun, General Mudra's XVI Corps launches another offensive against the French lines in the Argonne.  The German attackers make widespread use of Minenwerfers, or trench mortars, for the first time.  Such small mortars, firing a small projectile in a high arc, are well-suited for use against trenches, as the trajectory allows the shell to plunge into trenches before detonation.  The Germans have also prioritized Minenwerfers as they use less powder, an important consideration given the economic blockade of the country.  Despite the use of such weapons, the Germans make little progress, facing fierce French resistance.

- The past few days have seen desperate fighting near Augustow just east of the German-Russian frontier as the Russians attempt to push into the rear of the German 8th Army retreating from the Niemen River.  While the Germans opposing the Russian advance suffer grievous losses, they succeed in slowing the Russians sufficiently to allow the remainder of 8th Army to evacuate Suwalki and withdraw to the border.

- As the German 9th Army continues its movement northeastwards from Krakow, the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army takes up position on the southern flank of 9th Army and joins the advance, with the Austro-Hungarian 4th and 3rd armies to the south moving westward towards the San River.  Despite bad weather and roads being reduced to mud, the Germans are able to maintain a marching rate of thirty miles a day, making using of requisitioned Polish carts better able to cope with the deep mud.  With the withdrawal of three Russian armies from Galicia to Poland to participate in the proposed offensive against German Silesia, the remaining Russian armies in Galicia fall back to avoid being outflanked to the north by the advance of the German 9th Army.

- General Potiorek officially calls off the second invasion of Serbia today.  Though the effort has at least secured a small bridgehead in northwestern Serbia, it has overall been another dismal failure.  Desperate to deflect blame from himself, he argues that a lack of shells has been to blame.

- Under the guise of reinforcing Maritz, Smuts dispatches new units to Upington under the command of Coen Brits, whose loyalty is unquestionable - the latter is said to have told Botha, 'My men are ready; who do we fight - the English or the Germans?'  Brits' force is positioned to fight Maritz if the latter rebels.

- As the German East Asiatic Squadron crosses the Pacific, it hears the signals of the German light cruiser Dresden, which has passed through the Straits of Magellan from the Atlantic and is now off the Chilean coast.  Admiral Spee today signals Dresden to meet his squadron at Easter Island.  This message, however, is intercepted by a British wireless station at Suva in the Fiji Islands, and when relayed to London gives the Admiralty concrete evidence that the German squadron is bound for South America.

- An appeal 'To the Civilized World' is published today in Germany.  Written by Ulrich von Wilamowitz, it contains the signatures of a hundred of Germany's leading artists, scholars, and intellectuals, including such world-renowned figures as the scientists Max Planck and Wilhelm Röntgen.  The document justifies German conduct in the war and seeks to counter the growing international perception of German cruelty, especially with respect to the occupation of Belgium.  In line with the general tone of German propaganda, it seeks to blame the victim:

It is not true that the life and property of a single Belgian citizen have been infringed upon by our soldiers, unless the most desperate self-defense made it necessary . . . the Belgian population shot at our troops from ambush, mutilated the wounded, and murdered doctors while they were performing their healing work.  One can falsify matters no more basely than to remain silent about the crimes of these assassins, to turn the punishments that they have justly suffered into crimes committed by Germans.

It is not true that our troops have wreaked brutal havoc in Louvain.  They were compelled reluctantly to bring a sector of the city under fire, in order to retaliate against raging inhabitants who had treacherously attacked them here. . . .

They also appeal to the sense of European racial superiority to denigrate the enemies of Germany:

Those who have allied themselves with Russians and Serbs, and who present the world with [the] shameful spectacle of inciting Mongolians and Negroes against the white race, have the very least right to portray themselves as the defenders of European civilization.

Finally, they ground the 'Appeal' on self-defense - that the most heinous and cruel of acts are justified in the name of German victory:

Were it not for German militarism, German culture would long ago have been eradicated.  For the protection of German culture, militarism arose in a land that had for centuries been plagued like no other by predation.  The German army and the German people are one and the same.

As much as the 'Appeal' was published to counter Entente propaganda, it was also aimed at the German public, seeking to justify not only the war itself but German conduct of it.  It reflects the widespread and almost universal enthusiasm for the war among intellectuals, common to all of the major combatants.

September 26th, 1914

- Though fighting continues south of Péronne, Rupprecht decides to use his II Bavarian Corps to outflank the French line from the north.  The Bavarians, having entrained at Metz on the 18th and marched from the railhead at Valenciennes, seize Bapaume today, but collide with the French XX Corps moving in the opposite direction, and heavy fighting ensues.

Falkenhayn has also ordered attacks to be undertaken along the Aisne River to pin the Entente armies there and prevent the further movement of units north.  Launched primarily by 7th Army, the attacks fail to make significant progress while suffering heavy casualties, especially in fighting with the British Expeditionary Force, and have no substantial impact on Joffre's redeployments.

- Winston Churchill today visits the headquarters of the British Expeditionary, and while there the First Lord of Admiralty discuss future operations with Sir John French.  Churchill assures the Field Marshal that should the BEF be redeployed to Flanders and Belgium, it would be supported by the Royal Navy via the Channel.  This assurance calms French's fears, and he now agrees that the BEF should be moved north.

- West of Verdun, the offensive of General Mudra's XVI Corps comes to a halt, having advanced approximately eight kilometres along a twenty kilometre stretch of the front over the past week.  The Germans have captured the main town of the region - Varennes-en-Argonne - and more importantly have seized the heights at Vauqois.  From this position artillery observers are able to keep watch on the Verdun to Paris railway line, and guns in the rear are now close enough to hit a portion of the tracks.  Once observers have pinpointed the coordinates, it becomes possible for German artillery to hit trains attempting to pass to Verdun.  This limits train movement to night, and only when the track has been repaired after prior bombardments.  This effectively severs the last rail line to Verdun - though it can be reached by road from Bar-le-Duc, it strains the supply situation at the most important French fortifications on the Western Front.

- The Lahore Division of Indian Expeditionary Force A arrive in Marseilles today, having sailed from India via the Arabian Sea and the Suez Canal.  IEF A also includes a second division - the Meerkut Division - and a cavalry brigade, which are scheduled to arrive in France in several weeks, their delay resulting from the presence of the German light cruisers Emden and Königsberg in the Indian Ocean.  Each division consists of three infantry brigades, which in turn contain one British and three Indian battalions.  These units are drawn from the peacetime Indian Army, and are being deployed to France to serve with the British Expeditionary Force.

Indian soldiers parade in Marseilles, September 26th, 1914.

- At Duala in German Kamerun, the small German garrison abandons the city and retreats inland.  They well understand that holding the port in the face of British naval power is impossible, but they do not intend to retreat far, in order to continue to pose a threat to the anticipated British occupation of Duala and force the British to continue to maintain a significant presence to hold it.

- Along the Orange River on the southern border of German South-West Africa, an advance guard of Force A has crossed the river at Sandfontein, consisting of three hundred men and two artillery pieces.  Though the South African government has learned that the main German force is not opposing the recent landing at Lüderitz but rather moving on the Orange River, but has not informed General Henry Lukin, commander of Force A.  Thus his advance guard is unsupported, and the Germans today sweep down and, having encircled the South Africans, capture the entire force after a brief firefight.

The defeat reflects the hasty improvisations necessary to put the three forces into the field at an early date, and the lack of adequate communications between them.  This is overshadowed, however, by Lukin's insistence that Force B ought to have advanced simultaneously, in order to divide the German defenders.  General Maritz of Force B insists that his force is still unready to move, being insufficiently trained.  Such disobedience does not reflect well on his loyalty to the South African government, despite the collapse on the 15th of the first acts of insubordination.  Defense Minister Smuts now faces the prospect of dealing with a recalcitrant general with a body of soldiers under his command.

- The German East Asiatic Squadron today arrives at the island of Nuku Hiva in the French Marquesas Islands.  With its lack of defenders and isolated position, Admiral Spee has his ships stop to coal and take on fresh provisions.

September 24th, 1914

- Finding the planned advance on Amiens blocked, General Rupprecht decides to attack on his left in an effort to isolate the French 2nd Army from Paris.  XVIII Corps, joined in the line today by XXI Corps, launch a major offensive at Roye, and the French IV Corps is forced back over five miles.  The ferociousness of the German attack forces the French 2nd Army onto the defensive.  To the north of the German XXI Corps, I Bavarian Corps also comes into the line this evening, pushing the French out of Péronne.

- General Henry Wilson, Deputy Chief of Staff of the British Expeditionary Force, suggests today that the BEF should be redeployed north to Flanders and Belgium, as by taking its place once again on the left flank of the Entente line it will be closer to the Channel ports from which its reinforcements and supplies are derived.  Sir John French, however, is concerned that such a movement might leave the BEF exposed - at present such a move would leave it isolated, as the French front line stretches only to Picardy as of this date.

- South of Verdun Army Detachment Strantz occupy the town of St.-Mihiel and cross the Meuse River to capture Chauvoncourt.

- The Russian 4th, 5th, and 9th armies begin to withdrawn from the front lines in Galicia for their redeployment to Ivangorod and Warsaw as part of the planned Russian offensive into Germany.  Due to the length of time it will take the armies to move up the east bank of the Vistula through the fall mud, Ivanov does not anticipate being in position to launch his attack until October 10th.  However, the circuitous line of march of the Russian armies masks their redeployment from German and Austro-Hungarian reconnaissance.

September 18th, 1914

- The advance of the French IV and XIII Corps along the Oise River is halted today by the German IX Reserve Corps, aided by the arrival of II Corps, which was pulled from the Aisne front expressly for the purpose of extending the German flank northwards.  An entrenched army needs fewer soldiers per mile to hold the line, which allows both sides to send forces into the open spaces north of Compiègne without fatally weakening their existing defensive positions.  Indeed, this points to one of the paradoxes of trench warfare - it was adopted in September 1914  to facilitate, not hinder, further mobile operations by making more forces available to outflank the enemy.  The problem, of course, is that this is equally true for both sides, so the 'mobile' formations created by both inevitably run into each other, and trench warfare replicates itself in order to provide further 'mobile' operations.  Thus trench warfare spreads like a virus along the Western Front, ironically from a desire of both sides to continue a war of movement.  It also feeds the perception of the generals that trench warfare is a temporary phenomenon (i.e. present only to facilitate future mobile operations, at which point trenches will no longer be needed) as opposed to becoming a permanent fixture.

- Further east, German attacks near Rheims continue to push back the French defenders.  Today the Germans seize high ground east of the city, including the forts at Berru and Nogent-l'Abbesse.  The French X Corps, which had begun to march west to join the effort to envelop the German flank past 6th Army, is ordered to return to Rheims to contain the German push.

- Joffre today scales back offensive operations along the Aisne River, it becoming clearer by the day that traditional frontal assaults by infantry on entrenched and prepared German positions are not achieving significant results.  Meanwhile, General Castlenau's new 2nd Army begins to assemble near Amiens.

- The redeployment of the German 6th Army is planned today at a conference at OHL in Luxembourg between Falkenhayn and Rupprecht.  The first corps will arrive on September 21st and bewill be tasked with sweeping away any French infantry between Roye and Montdidier.  A second corps will arrive on September 23rd, and with further units trickling in subsequent days 6th Army as a whole is to turn the enemy flank.  Rupprecht, however, is concerned that the French will be undertaking similar redeployments from east to west, and will benefit from having an intact railway system to move their units faster.  Thus both Falkenhayn and Rupprecht agree that German attacks must be undertaken along the existing front line to tie down French forces and prevent them from redeploying in time to stymie 6th Army.  In addition to further assaults between Compeigne and Rheims, two operations are planned in the Verdun sector.  The first, to be undertaken by the Crown Prince's 5th army, is to attack into the Argonne Forest to the west of Verdun.  The second is an offensive aiming to drive between Verdun to the north and Toul and Nancy to the south by capturing St. Mihiel and reaching the Meuse River.  To facilitate the second operation, the left wing of the 5th Army, comprising those forces southeast of Verdun, is formed into Army Detachment Strantz, named for General Hermann von Strantz, commander of V Corps.  By forming this detachment, there will be a separate command staff for each attack.  In addition to forcing the French to keep significant forces in the east, the operations aim to isolate the fortifications around Verdun, which are the strongest in France and form a key 'hinge' of the French line.

- General Ludendorff meets today with General Conrad at Neu Sandec in Austrian Galicia today.  The relationship between the two allies is frosty at best - Conrad blames the failures of his armies in Galicia on a perceived lack of support from Germany, and spends much of the meeting lecturing Ludendorff.  The German army, conversely, believes that Tannenberg demonstrates that it has done more than its share - if nothing else, Ludendorff is convinced of his own genius - and that Conrad and the Austro-Hungarian army have demonstrated particularly impressive ineptitude.  Indeed, so dismissive are the Germans of their putative allies that they have not even bothered to inform Conrad that Moltke has been replaced by Falkenhayn.

Despite the atmosphere of recrimination, agreement is reached for the next stage of operations.  The defeat of the Austro-Hungarian armies in Galicia potentially exposes German Silesia to Russian invasion, which necessitates a German response.  Ludendorff convinces Falkenhayn that a major German force is needed immediately, so 8th Army in East Prussia is reduced to two corps and the remainder redeployed near Cracow to form a new 9th Army of four corps, a reserve division, and a cavalry division.  At Ludendorff's insistence Hindenburg is to directly command 9th Army with himself as Chief of Staff, and while command of 8th Army is transferred to General Richard von Schubert, Hindenburg and Ludendorff are to remain in a supervisory role over their old command.  Conrad, meanwhile, agrees to assign the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army to co-operate with the German 9th Army, while the rest of his armies, after completing their retreat, will, it is hoped, go back over on the offensive.

Falkenhayn's conception of the role of 9th Army is simply to occupy the Russians and help their Austro-Hungarian allies survive - his attention is still primarily on the Western Front, seeking a decisive decision there.  Hindenburg and Ludendorff, however, believe that the most effective route to victory is on Eastern Front.  Their plan for 9th Army is to undertake a major offensive to seize the Russian fortress at Ivangorod and advance on Warsaw, seeking to crush the Russian armies just as they had done at Tannenberg.  They believe that they should have priority for reinforcements, and they begin bombarding not only Falkenhayn but also the Kaiser for additional units for the East.  Falkenhayn thus finds the duo of Hindenburg and Ludendorff to be rivals, not subordinates, and the latter are able to leverage the prestige gained from Tannenberg to raise their profile.  German high command is thus fundamentally divided on grand strategy, divided between West and East.

- In London, the British Admiralty has fallen for Admiral Spee's deception at Samoa four days earlier, and believes that the German East Asiatic Squadron is returning to the West Pacific.  Today they signal Rear Admiral Craddock in the South Atlantic with revised instructions: 'Situation changed  . . . Gneisenau appeared off Samoa on 14th and left steering NW.  German trade on west coast of America is to be attacked at once.  Cruisers need not be concentrated.  Two cruisers and an armed liner appear sufficient for Magellan Straits and west coast.  Report what you propose about Canopus.'  Crucially, the signal says nothing about the modern armoured cruiser Defence - the Admiralty has decided that with the German East Asiatic Squadron sailing westward, it is not needed in the South Atlantic, and can be retained on its present station in the Mediterranean.  Craddock, however, assumes that Defence is still on its way, believing quite reasonably that if the Admiralty had changed its mind, it would have let him know.

- In China, the main portion of the Japanese expeditionary force sent to capture the German enclave at Tsingtao lands at Laoshan Bay, thirty miles from their objective.  The Japanese aim is to assemble overwhelming force, especially in terms of artillery, before advancing on the German positions.