September 4th, 1915

- Just three days after the German ambassador in Washington delivered the Arabic Pledge to not attack passenger ships without warning, the German submarine U24, which had sunk Lusitania in May, torpedoes and sinks the British liner Hesperian off the coast of Ireland without warning.  Though Americans were aboard, none were among the thirty-two passengers who drown.  Nevertheless, the American government sees the sinking as flagrantly defying the Arabic Pledge, and demand further assurances that similar attacks will no longer occur.

The British liner Hesperian, torpedoed and sunk today by the German submarine U24 off Ireland.

- After two revisions, General d'Urbal of 10th Army submits today a plan to Foch that is acceptable to the commander of the Army Group of the North.  Along the thirty-two kilometre stretch of the line held by 10th Army will be deployed six corps, four of which are to make the primary attack north of Arras, and two a supporting attack south of the city.

- On the Eastern Front the German 8th Army captures the fortress of Grodno, between Vilna and Bialystok.  Further south, Austro-Hungarian forces have been battering against the Russian defensives along the Sereth River to no avail; in just four days of marching and combat, the Austro-Hungarian IV, XIX, and V Corps have suffered eight thousand casualties.  Moreover, supply problems bedevil the Austro-Hungarian formations, who report being short of ammunition and food.  Finally, dysentery and stomach flu claim numerous victims in the terrible conditions.