November 27th, 1915

- Conrad and Falkenhayn meet at Pless today to discuss next steps in the Balkans with Serbia now defeated, and the Austro-Hungarian chief of staff strongly wants to invade Montenegro and Albania.  Falkenhayn, however, views the offensive in the Balkans as having run its course, with the land link to the Ottoman Empire now opened.  Though he is willing to entertain the idea of attacking Montenegro - its forces had after all fought alongside the Serbs in the recent campaign - he does view Albania as worth the time or effort.

- There is again desperate fighting west of Görz near Oslavija and the heights of Podgora, and in a heavy assault on the latter the Austro-Hungarian defenders, having run out of grenades, resort to hurling rocks at their attackers.  The Italians are repulsed, though the extent to which this can be attributed to the flying stones is unclear.

November 14th, 1915

- N-Abt, the intelligence department of OHL, produces a report today on the Entente armies on the Western Front.  They estimate that the current size of the French army, including the class of 1916, to be approximately three million, which was four hundred thousand less than the size of the army at the outbreak of war.  N-Abt further estimates that under normal conditions the French are losing seventy thousand men per month.  At this rate, they estimate that the French will be experiencing severe shortages by September 1916 and will be forced to call up younger classes earlier and earlier to meet shortfalls in manpower - for instance, they anticipate the Class of 1918 being called up in June 1916.

The strength of the British army, however, is more difficult for N-Abt to assess.  They estimate that the British currently deploys approximately forty-two divisions consisting of 1 057 000 men, including 270 000 regulars, 170 000 Territorials, 400 000 in the 'New Armies', 60 000 Indians, and 47 000 Canadians.  However, though it is understood that the British army will grow to about seventy divisions, N-Abt is not able to conclude when this would occur.

Overall, N-Abt's report demonstrates that the Entente are numerically superior to the Germans on the Western Front, and that manpower shortages in the French army will in time be compensated by the growth of the British army.  This assessment of the balance of strength on the Western Front will be at the forefront of Falkenhayn's thoughts as they turn to planning operations on the Western Front in 1916.

- Today the commander of the Italian 2nd Army, Lieutenant-General Pietro Frugoni, orders VI Corps to continue the offensive west of Görz.  Seeing the setback yesterday at Oslavija as emblematic of the exhaustion of his soldiers, Lieutenant-General Luigi Capello, commander of VI Corps, objects to the order, writing to Cadorna that in the miserable conditions his men are little more than walking clumps of mud, and that further attacks would be pointless.  Cadorna sides with Capello, and suspends operations at Görz.  To the south, however, the Italian 3rd army continues its attempt to capture Mt. San Michelle.  In the heaviest fighting of the 4th Battle of the Isonzo to date, attacks are launched from both flanks towards the summit, but by the end of the day all the Italians have gained is a small stretch of the first enemy trench southwest of St. Martino.  Here the Austro-Hungarians simply establish a new trench line two hundred yards east of their old position, and otherwise nothing changes.  However, repulsing the enemy assaults costs the Austro-Hungarian VII Corps over 1700 casualties today, and 5th Army sends forward three battalions from reserves.

- Meeting in Rome, the Italian cabinet discusses the evolving situation in the Balkans.  Their French allies have requested the deployment of an Italian contingent to Salonika, which Cadorna supports (on the basis that tying down enemy forces here keeps them from the Italian Front).  His political masters, however, have their eyes focused on Albania, both closer and seen by the government as within Italy's sphere of influence.  Cadorna's advice is ignored, and the formation of an expedition to deploy to Albania is agreed upon.

- The German battlecruiser Goeben is attacked by the Russian submarine Morzh off the Bosphorus while escorting transports.  The German warship only narrowly avoids Russian torpedoes, and the decision is made that despite the marked inferiority of the Ottoman navy, Goeben cannot be risked as a mere escort for steamers.

October 31st, 1915

- It has become clear to General Putnik that the Austro-Hungarians and Germans intend to isolate and destroy his armies in central Serbia, and that significant aid from the British and French at Salonika cannot hope to arrive in time.  His top priority is the preservation of the Serbian army as a fighting force, an objective that takes precedence even over holding Serbian territory.  The strategic goals of the Serbian government have been reduced to stark simplicity: survival.  Even if it was necessary to go into exile, an independent Serbian government and army needed to exist to keep alive the notion of a sovereign Serbian state.  Putnik thus reluctantly orders his armies to abandon central Serbia - 1st Army is to withdraw through Kraljevo and 3rd Army through Paracin to Grebac, while 2nd Army would attempt to hold its position to cover 3rd Army before itself retreating.  Overall, the Serbian army is to fall back to Kosovo in the southwest of the country, which also holds open the possibility of a further retreat west and southwest into Albania.  The retreat, however, will have to occur in terrible weather conditions and over rough and mountainous terrain - for all of their losses over the past month, their suffering is only beginning.

- Along the Isonzo River the Italian 2nd and 3rd Armies launch only small-scale attacks for the second day while keeping up a steady artillery bombardment.  The Austro-Hungarians, though they have largely held their positions, have suffered heavy losses - several brigades report casualties of over a thousand in the past week of fighting, and overall losses exceed thirty-five thousand.  The lull in the fighting (and the Austro-Hungarians recognize that it is merely a lull) allows for the relief of the most heavily-engaged formations; overnight 43rd Regiment of 20th Honved Brigade, which had held the summit of Mt. San Michele for nine days, is relieved and sent to a reserve camp to recover.  For his part Cadorna hardly intends to abandon the offensive, as he still has several divisions in reserve to throw into the attack, and today he issues orders for a resumption of operations tomorrow.

June 28th, 1915

- Overnight the Russian forces north of the German 11th Army pull back again, allowing the Germans an uncontested advance that sees them reach their objectives for the day by noon.  The rapid march to the northwest, however, serves to further draw 11th Army away from the Austro-Hungarian 2nd Army on its southern flank, and the German 119th Division has to be sent into the line between the Beskid Corps and 11th Bavarian Division to avoid a dangerous gap opening.

- In the Balkans, the First World War is in many ways merely an extensive of conflicts between the various states and ethnic groups of the region stretching back decades.  Thus the focus of Serbia and its neighbouring ally Montenegro is not simply on defeating Austria-Hungary, but their attention is also directed towards the south.  The state of Albania had only come into existence in the aftermath of the Balkan Wars, and has become a failed state 'governed' by various tribal groups.  Already both Italy and Greece have taken advantage of the distraction of the Great Powers to occupy portions of Albania, and both Serbia and Montenegro are loath to the let what they perceive to be their rightful share slip away.  As a result, even as Russia is begging Serbia to attack Austria-Hungary, both Serbia and Montenegro this month have sent forces to secure a portion of northern Albania, the latter occupying Scutari today.  The Balkan states have no intention of allowing the greatest conflict in the history of mankind to distract them from settling scores with their neighbours.

- After the minor French success on the 21st, today it is the turn of the British on Cape Helles to launch a small-scale attack with overwhelming artillery concentration.  Their objective are trenches along Gully Spur and the adjacent Gully Ravine, and by the time the main attack is launched at 11am just over 16 000 shells, constituting almost half the entire British supply on Cape Helles, have been fired at the Ottoman lines.  When the infantry goes in, 29th Indian Brigade is able to make progress up the coastal side of Gully Spur while 1st Dublin Fusiliers fights its way up a portion of Gully Ravine.  As with the French attack of a week prior, the British operation is a success, though not one of sufficient scope to be of great significance to the wider campaign on Gallipoli.  By nightfall, the Ottomans begin launching what will be a series of mass counterattacks to retake the lost positions.

- In German Kamerun the Anglo-French column that had attempted to advance on Jaunde from the west, only to retreat in the face of German pressure and casualties, returns to Ngwe today.  The two Nigerian battalions of the column have lost half their strength, and the sickness of many of the survivors combined with the scarcity of supplies, combined with the imminent rainy season, rules out any resumption of the offensive in the near future.  To the British and French, therefore, it appears that their effort to seize the heart of the German defense in Kamerun has failed.  In practice, of course, the attack was aimed in the wrong direction; Ngaundere to the north, not Jaunde in the south, has been the focal point for the Germans.

Ironically, today a British column moving southward after the capture of Garua earlier this month occupies Ngaundere; without intending to, and without being aware of it, the Entente have actually won a significant success.  The Germans have been counting on the food and resources of the northern plateau of Kamerun to sustain their forces, and now that they have been deprived of the region the only alternative is to focus on the south and the trade link with the neutral Spanish colony of Muni.

- In German East Africa the force assembled in May under the retired major-general Kurt Wahle has crossed over the southwest frontier of the colony to enter British Rhodesia, and today attacks the post of Saisi, east-south-east of the town of Abercorn.  The defenders, consisting of Rhodesian police and Belgian soldiers, hold off the Germans, and the latter fall back.

The frontier between German East Africa and British Rhodesia.

December 25th, 1914

- Along certain stretches of the Western Front remarkable scenes play out today.  In what will become famous as the 'Christmas Truce', soldiers on both sides cease firing and for a time congregate in No Man's Land.  These episodes are most common in Flanders, where British soldiers (as of yet less prone than the French to hate the Germans, as it was not their country that had been invaded and occupied) and Germans from Saxony and Bavaria (it being generally accepted that Prussians were more war-like).  On both sides, Christmas Eve had seen the arrival of all kinds of care packages and donations from the home front, and some trenches were decorated with whatever greenery or 'ornaments' one could find.  At night the sounds of singing often echoed across the trenches as one side, then another, would sing Christmas carols.  In the daylights hours signs appear over the trenches, often proclaiming in the language of the other side: 'You no shoot, we no shoot.'  Soldiers then climb out of the trenches, first cautiously, then eagerly, and move out into No Man's Land.  Often the first task undertaken was the burying of the dead, who had lain out of reach for weeks and months.  Once completed, the two sides would mingle, frequently trading cigarettes, tinned-meat, and other recent gifts from the home front, while attempting to converse.  In some places they even play an improvised game of soccer across the mud and ruin of No Man's Land.  Diary entries by soldiers today often speak of sympathy with those on the other side, sharing as they did the terrible conditions of life in the trenches.  These 'truces' often continued for much of the day, neither side being in any great rush to return to their lines.  When they do depart, it is often with an informal agreement not to immediately resume firing.

German and English soldiers in No Man's Land on Christmas Day, 1914.

The Christmas Truce is the most prominent example of the 'live and let live' attitude that is emerging along stretches of the front - outside of major battles, there is a desire among the common infantry to avoid unnecessary shelling and rifle fire whose only effect can be to prompt reprisals.  In other words, for some the attitude is 'if you don't make our lives any more miserable, we won't make yours any more miserable.'

- A half hour before dawn this morning, Commodore Tyrwhitt's force reaches its launch position in the Heligoland.  By 630am the seaplanes are in the water, and at 659 the signal is given to take off.  Two seaplanes suffer engine failure before takeoff, so seven in total lift into the air and head southeast towards Cuxhaven.  At sea the visibility is perfect, but as the aircraft pass over the coast they discover the landscape below covered by thick fog.  In good weather the Zeppelin hanger at Nordholz would have been visible a dozen miles away, but today the fog obscures it completely.  The seaplanes split up searching for the hanger, but none are able to find it - one drops its bombs on fish-drying sheds by mistake.  Only two seaplanes come close to inflicting harm on the Germans.  The first, passing over German warships in the Jade estuary, aims its three bombs at the light cruisers Stralsund and Graudenz; the closest falls 200 yards from the latter.  The second passes over German warships anchored in the Schilling roads, and though it suffers damage from anti-aircraft fire, its observer, Lieutenant Erskine Childers, is able to pinpoint the location of seven dreadnoughs and three battlecruisers below.

The German North Sea coast targeted by the British seaplanes.

Having failed to accomplish anything, the seaplanes head back out to sea.  Running low on fuel, only two reach the seaplane carriers.  A third lands beside a British destroyer which takes aboard its crew, and three more come down near British submarines positioned by Keyes near the coast for precisely this reason.  The crew of the seventh, meanwhile, is picked up by a Dutch trawler, and are able to convince the Dutch authorities that they are 'ship-wrecked mariners', not combatants, and are thus able to return to Britain.

The British seaplane carrier Empress, one of three to attack the German coast today.

As the British force recovered the seaplanes and aircrew, they came under sporadic attack by German Zeppelins and seaplanes.  Though there were some near misses, no British warship is damaged.  The German fleet, meanwhile, remains in port the entire time.  Convinced that only the entire Grand Fleet would dare approach this near the German coast, the High Seas Fleet stays in port fearing that it is a British trap to lure them out to destruction.  By the time they realize that Tyrwhitt's small force is by itself, they have already departed for home.  This is another blow to morale in the German navy - the British have been able to sail close enough to launch airplanes with impunity.

- In the Carpathians Russian attacks continue to batter the Austro-Hungarian 3rd Army.  The latter are short on ammunition and lack sufficient infantry to cover the entire front.  When Russian units push through Jaslo between two of 3rd Army's corps, its commander accepts the inevitable and at 10pm cancels the proposed offensive of his eastern wing and informs his corps commanders that they are permitted to withdraw to the Carpathian watershed if hard-pressed by the enemy.

- Though Albania has existed for less than two years, it has already become a 'failed state'.  A recent rebellion has driven out the old monarch, the German Wilhelm of Wied, who had been appointed by the agreement of the Great Powers before the war.  A central government, for all intents and purposes, does not exist in Albania, and thus though it is formally neutral, it is entirely unable to defend its sovereignty.  Today Italy takes advantage of Albanian disorder to occupy the port of Valore, Albania's second largest city and close to the narrowest point in the Adriatic Sea before it empties into the Mediterranean.  The occupation of Valore gives Italy greater control over the Adriatic, which Italian nationalists view as an Italian lake.  Such an action would normally have provoked the ire of the other Great Powers, especially Austria-Hungary, but given not only the ongoing war but also the desire to secure Italian support, neither side in the Great War objects.  Thus Italy is not only using the war to secure territorial bribes to end its neutrality, but also as a cloak for unprovoked aggression against other states.

- Today the 'Ottoman' battlecruiser Goeben strikes a Russian mine at the entrance to the Bosporus after returning from a sortie in the Black Sea.  Though the warship is never in danger of sinking, it will be out of commission for some time.

- The elimination of the German East Asiatic Squadron removes the major impediment to British amphibious operations in the south Atlantic, and today a South African force lands at Walvis Bay on the coast of German South-West Africa.

- A small British detachment of four Indian companies occupies the coastal town of Jasin, located at the mouth of the Umba River and sitting on the border between British East Africa and German East Africa.  The occupation is not directly intended as a threat to the Germans - being sixty-four kilometres to the north, it is remote from Tanga, and the move is primarily designed to stabilize the frontier tribes in the Umba Valley inland.