November 6th, 1914

- At Ypres German attacks are concentrated along the front on both sides of the Ypres-Comines Canal on the southeastern face of the salient, while elsewhere there was the now-regular steady artillery bombardment.  Taking advantage of a thick morning fog, the Germans attack into the woods west of Hollebeke, pre-empting a French attack scheduled for later today.  In the confusion caused by the fog several French cavalry battalions panic, and the Germans are able to advance almost a mile, seizing the entire woods west of Hollebeke, allowing the Germans to advance to within three thousand yards of Ypres.  On the north side of the Canal, the Germans take the French by surprise and pierce the line in three places, allowing the Germans to seize the village of Zwarteleen a mile southeast of Zillebeke.  It takes a counterattack by the British 7th Cavalry Brigade to restore the line.  Though the Germans have not broken through, they have driven a wedge into the junction of the French and British lines, and Haig is now concerned that his I Corps is at risk of having its southern flank turned.

- The Admiralty issues a public statement today on the Battle of Coronel.  It emphasizes that the engagement appears to have been fought with the most bravery, but that without Canopus Craddock’s squadron would have been significantly outgunned.  It establishes what will be the Admiralty line on Coronel - depicting Craddock as epitomizing the bravery and courage of Royal Navy officers, while simultaneously implying that he alone bears responsibility for the defeat by deciding to accept battle without Canopus present.  This, not coincidentally, absolves the Admiralty leadership themselves of responsibility by denying the very significant role their confused signals to Craddock played in the weeks leading up to Coronel.

- General Oskar Potiorek issues orders today for another attempt at invading Serbia, the third of the war to date.  The continued existance of Serbia, to say nothing of the terrible defeats the Austro-Hungarians have suffered at their hands, have undermined the prestige of the Dual Monarchy, potentially decisive in the ongoing efforts to convince the other Balkan states to join the war on their side.  Potiorek's plan is similar to the first two invasions - 5th and 6th Armies will cross the Drina River in the northwest of Serbia, with the aim of advancing to initially Valjevo and ultimately Niš, dividing Serbia in two.

One advantage the Austro-Hungarians would have is that the condition of the Serbian army was deteriorating.  The soldiers were exhausted, food was in short supply, and munitions were even scarcer, such that most of the time the Serbian infantry was fighting with no artillery support at all.  While Britain and France were eager to aid the Serbian defence, the difficulties of sending supplies to a landlocked combatant prevented significant aid from getting through.  General Putnik's strategy was thus to place 'the Serbian national mud between the enemy's fighting line and his supplies.'  Even before the invasion, he has withdrawn his forces in the northwest of the country to the foothills of the Cer mountain range, so as to be out of range of Austro-Hungarian artillery fire.

The third Austro-Hungarian Invasion of Serbia, November to December 1914.

- The Ottoman frontier with Russia is guarded by 3rd Army, consisting of three corps - IX covers the northern portion of the border and XI the southern, with X in reserve further west.  Today elements of XI Corps assembling at Hasankale and Köprüköy launch a counterattack against the Russian column advancing on the former.  However, given the heavy snow and rain and the lack of reconnaissance, they were unable to turn the Russians back.

- From August the Admiralty has been expressing concern about the security of its oil supply from Persia, which reaches the Persian Gulf by pipeline at Abadan Island and where the major refinery is located.  Abadan Island is on the far western portion of Persia's coast, adjacent to the Ottomen Empire's outlet to the Persian Gulf at the Shatt al-Arab.  In the event of war with the Ottomans, Abadan Island would be an obvious target.  Moreover, concern had also been raised by the India Office regarding the importance of demonstrating British hegemony in the Gulf and not allowing an Ottoman challenge to undermine the authority of British rule over its Muslim subjects.  As such, Indian Expeditionary Force D had been formed, consisting of an infantry brigade, and was dispatched to the Gulf in October, arriving in Bahrein on the 23rd.  As war became increasingly likely, it planned to undertake a landing at the Ottoman fort of Fao on the Shatt al-Arab where it meets the Persian Gulf.

This morning the transports carrying IEF D are off Fao, escorted by the pre-dreadnought Ocean.  The small Ottoman garrison puts up a brief resistance, exchanging fire with Ocean for an hour before, being heavily outnumbered, they withdraw northwards from Fao.  By this afternoon landing parties have secured the village and fort at Fao, the first step in the Mesopotamian Campaign.

The opening moves of the Mesopotamian Campaign, 1914.

- The British landing at Fao is not the only Entente move of concern to Persia.  Today Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Sazonov states that Russia will continue to occupy Persian Azerbaijan, suggesting that the easiest route by which the Ottomans can invade the Russian Caucasus is through Azerbaijan, as opposed to the mountain passes on the Ottoman-Russian frontier.  The war thus makes Russian involvement in Persia even more essential in the view of Petrograd.

- The German East Asiatic Squadron returns to Más Afuera in the Pacific.  While Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Nürnberg had called at Valparaíso, Leipzig had stayed offshore, and had managed to seize a French merchant with 3600 tons of Cardiff coal.  The sailors start working on distributing the coal to each of the warships of the squadron.

November 4th, 1914

- At Ypres the day is cold and wet, mist turning to rain in the afternoon.  The British and French notice a distant lessening in the frequency of German infantry attacks, though German artillery bombardments continue, while French attacks, as in prior days, effect no change to the front line.  General Haig informs Field Marshal French today that 1st and 7th Division of I Corps desperately need to be relieved, as so heavy have been the losses, particularly for the latter, that they simply cannot hold a continuous trench line.

On the German side, Falkenhayn officially orders 6th Army to make one last push at Ypres, focusing on the line north of the Ypres-Comines Canal.  He hopes that with reinforcements a final attack will finally achieve the success that has eluded him on prior occasions.

- The raid on Yarmouth yesterday has an unfortunate coda for the Germans today.  A portion of the High Seas Fleet had left port and patrolled the Heligoland Bight yesterday in case they were needed to support or rescue Hipper's battlecruisers.  Overnight, however, there was a dense fog that prevented the warships from re-entering Wilhelmshaven.  At dawn today the armoured cruiser Yorck receives permission to proceed to Wilhelmshaven for repairs to its fresh-water tanks.  The fog is still so thick that it is impossible for the warships to see each other, however, and a change of current takes the unsuspecting Yorck into a defensive minefield.  It strikes two mines within a minute and rapidly sinks, and two hundred and thirty-five men drown.

The German armoured cruiser Yorck, lost today in a friendly minefield.

- The German occupation of almost all of Belgium has put an immense strain on the food supply of the latter's civilian population, as prior to the war three-quarters of all food consumed in Belgium had to be imported.  The perspective of the German government is that Belgium should continue to rely on imported food - why should they have to take responsibility for feeding them?  The counterargument of the British is that by conquering the country the Germans had assumed responsibility of the civilian population, and if food was allowed to be imported Belgium there was no guarantee that it would not be diverted to the German population.

The solution to the impasse was the formation of the Committee for the Relief of Belgium.  Headed by American mining magnate Herbert Hoover, the Committee took over responsibility for the feeding of the Belgian population by supervising the importation and distribution of food, ensuring that such supplies were not expropriated by the Germans.  Today the first food supplied by the Committee arrives in Brussels, helping to stave off starvation over the coming winter.  The Committee also makes the international reputation of Hoover, and propels him to the American Presidency.

- In London the first reports of the Battle of Coronel reach the Admiralty this morning, through sparse accounts that appear in the German press.  Though the Royal Navy makes no public comment, orders are immediately dispatched to British warships in the South Atlantic to converge, in preparation for the German East Asiatic Squadron moving around Cape Horn.  As a result, Rear Admiral A. C. Stoddart, who had been send to command the new squadron formed in the South Atlantic in October (as stated in the Admiralty's October 14th message to Craddock), will have four armoured cruisers, a force roughly equal in strength to Admiral Spee's.  However, after the humiliation of Coronel, no one at the Admiralty is interested in a fair fight.

- Without any sign from the Ottoman government repudiating the attacks undertaken by Admiral Souchon's warships on October 29th, Russia formally declares war on the Ottomans.

- At noon today Indian Expeditionary Force B begins its advance overland from its landing beaches to the town of Tanga.  The advance is as badly managed as everything else to do with this expedition.  Its commander had decided not to unload his artillery believing he could rely on the light cruiser Fox, but its captain, still fearful of mines, refused to approach close enough to Tanga to provide fire support.  The day is hot, and units lose touch with each other in the dense bush, only to stumble onto German positions at ranges under fifty yards.

The right of IEF B, comprised of its best units, manages to fight its way into Tanga itself, but the left comes under heavy fire and is halted.  One battalion on the left breaks and flees, and the rest on the left move northwards towards the more-successful right.  Thus despite British forces in the town itself, Colonel Lettow-Vorbeck is optimistic that his plan will work, and at 430pm orders his reserve company to hit the British southern flank.  The striking power of the maneouvre is muted, however, when a second company simply follows the first into the British position, instead of extending the German envelopment of IEF B even further westwards.

By nightfall confusion reigns on the battlefield.  In an effort to regain control of their units, German company commanders order their buglers to sound a recall.  The British commander, however, misinterprets this as signalling an imminent German charge, and believing himself defeated, withdraws his force back towards the landing beaches, even as the Germans also pull back to reorganize.

The British approach to Tanga and the German flanking maneouvre, November 4th, 1914.

- At the start of the war, the German light cruiser Karlsruhe was in the Caribbean, and since that time has attacking Entente shipping, capturing eighteen merchants.  Its run of good fortune comes to a sudden end today, when near Barbadoes Karlsruhe is blown in half by an internal explosion, most likely caused by unstable ammunition.  Its fate remains unconfirmed for months, until the survivors return to Germany, and for many weeks ahead the Admiralty continues to fear and plan around the existance of Karlsruhe.

November 3rd, 1914

- At Ypres General d'Urbal orders another French attack between Zonnebeke and Langemarck, to be undertaken by the 17th, 18th, and 31st Divisions.  Unfortunately for the French, the Germans opposite have been reinforced by units that formerly were along the Yser, but whose presence there is no longer required due to the flooding.  Not only is the French advance halted, but at Bixschoote they are actually forced backward, the village falling to German hands once more.

For the BEF there are no major enemy attacks today, though there is the usual sniping and shelling.  General Haig attempts to compose a corps reserve, but so thin is his line that only three hundred men can be found.  He also pulls some of his artillery back from the fighting, as there is no point in exposing them to shellfire when they lack sufficient ammunition to return fire.

On the German side Prince Rupprecht of 6th Army concludes that unless Army Group Fabeck is reinforced, no decisive success could be achieved at Ypres.  To this end, he transfers more heavy artillery to Army Group Fabeck and allots it all of the ammunition assigned to 6th Army as a whole.  He also issues orders for further reinforcements - 2nd and Bavarian Cavalry Divisions from 6th Army reserve are reassigned immediately to Army Group Fabeck, while several units elsewhere on the Western Front are instructed to redeploy to the Ypres battlefield.

- The Kaiser's edict that the High Seas Fleet is to remain on the defensive in the North Sea, issued in the aftermath of the Battle of the Heligoland Bight, does not extend to the battlecruisers, and thus an operation is ordered for four light cruisers to lay mines along the Norfolk coast, escorted by four battlecruisers under Admiral Franz von Hipper.  The warships departed yesterday afternoon, and by dawn are are off the port of Yarmouth.

Yarmouth on the Norfolk coast of Britain.

As the light cruiser Stralsund lays a line of mines, the German force stumbles upon the British minesweeping gunboat Halcyon, on patrol off Yarmouth.  The Germans immediately open fire, and indeed all four battlecruisers target Halcyon and the destroyer Lively that comes to her aid - this is the first time any have sighted an enemy ship in wartime, and are eager to get their shots in.  The problem is that with all of the shell splashes, it is impossible to tell which shells were fired from which ship, making accurate spotting impossible.  At 740am Hipper decides that he is wasting his time going after such small warships, and turns to disengage.  The battlecruisers fire a few shells in the direction of Yarmouth, but succeed only in rearranging sand on the beach.  The only achievement of the raid comes when a British submarine strikes one of the German mines and is lost.

The response of the Admiralty to the initial report from Halcyon is to do nothing - no one can believe that the battlecruisers of the High Seas Fleet would sail into danger just to lob a few shells onto an English beach.  The prevailing assumption is that it must be a diversion from another, more significant German operation.  Thus for several hours no warships are ordered to pursue the Germans as they wait for the other shoe to drop.  By the time they realize there is no other shoe, Hipper and his force have made their escape.  There is no small amount of public commentary on the apparent ability of the Germans to sail to the English coast and escape.  At the Admiralty it is decided to redeploy the Grand Fleet back to Scapa Flow - if it stays in its bases on the west coast of Scotland and the north coast of Ireland, it is simply too far away to respond to German action in the North Sea.

On the German side, the results were disappointing - when the Kaiser awards Hipper an Iron Cross for the operation, the latter declares, 'I won't wear it until I've done something.'  The apparent ability of the German force to escape without being intercepted, however, is encouraging should further such operations be undertaken in the future.

- At the Admiralty Fisher convenes a meeting of naval officials and private shipbuilders to launch an emergency shipbuilding effort.  Fisher's focus is on increasing the number of orders to the greatest amount possible, and in particular wants a significant expansion of the submarine force.  To the Director of Contracts he threatened 'to make his wife a widow and his house a dunghill if he brought paper work or red tape into the picture; he wanted submarines, not contracts . . . if he did not get them within eight months, he would commit hara-kiri.'  Commodore Roger Keyes, present at the meeting, laughs at Fisher's remark, at which point the latter turns on Keyes with a ferocious glare, saying 'If anyone thwarts me he had better commit hara-kiri too.'  Such are Fisher's management techniques.

- Ludendorff begins today to plan for the next phase of operations in Poland.  Falkenhayn believes that the chief of staff of Ober Ost is merely developing a local counter-attack, but such mundane operations are beneath Ludendorff, who only plans campaigns of sufficient breadth and audacity as suits his genius - at least, that's how Ludendorff sees it.  His plan is to shift the bulk of 9th Army from the Krakow area to between Posen and Thorn to the northwest of Russian Poland, and attack towards Lodz, taking in flank the anticipated Russian invasion of Germany.

- In an effort to dissuade the Ottomans from entering the war on the side of German, the British government decides on a display of naval power, to illustrate Ottoman vulnerability should they stand against the Entente.  Two British battlecruisers and two French battleships steam to the entrance to the Dardanelles and bombard the Ottoman fort protecting it, destroying its magazine.  The effort makes no difference, however, as the war party are now in control in Constantinople.

- At dawn Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Nürnberg of the German East Asiatic Squadron enter the harbour at Valparaíso, while Leipzig and Dresden remain at sea escorting colliers.  Admiral Spee and the men of his ship receive a rapturous welcome from the German community in the city, including from hundreds of German sailors on merchant ships who volunteer to join the squadron.  Spee, however, is aware that, despite the crushing victory two days ago, there are still obstacles before his squadron.  Both of his armoured cruisers used half of their ammo at Coronel, and there is no possibility of resupply short of returning home.  Moreover, there could be no doubt that the British would redouble their efforts to hunt down and destroy his squadron.

Meanwhile, today the telegram from the British consul at Valparaíso, reporting the presence of the German East Asiatic Squadron but not of the battle, arrives at the Admiralty.  Fisher urges reinforcements for Craddock's squadron, and a signal is sent to Craddock informing him that Defence was en route to join his warships.  It was the order Craddock had long waited to receive, but of course it was no use to him now.  As Churchill was later to write, 'we were already talking into the void.'

- Near Tanga the disorganized landing of Indian Expeditionary Force B continues this morning - the beach is a mass of confused and demoralized soldiers, battalions being hopelessly mixed up.  An attempt begins at 430am to advance on Tanga with the first units landed, but co-ordinated progress in the dense bush proves impossible, and they are back at the beachhead by 10am.

At the same time, inland Indian Expeditionary Force C attempts its advance on German positions at Longido just south of Mount Kilimanjaro.  After initial fighting checks IEF C short of its objective, it is forced to withdraw after its supply arrangements collapse and the soldiers are left without water.

The failure of IEF C allows Colonel Lettow-Vorbeck to deploy all but three of his companies of Schütztruppen to Tanga.  By this evening Lettow-Vorbeck has arrived himself at the port and undertakes a personal reconnaissance of the British beachhead by bicycle.  With seven companies now available, and a further two scheduled to arrive tomorrow, he decides to hold a line east of Tanga before the British while positioning his reserves on his right to take the enemy in their flank.

- For the past month, the Japanese force beseiging Tsingtao has been steadly advancing in the face of determined German resistance.  In conducting their offensive, they apply the lessons learned during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5 - instead of throwing their men against the German defences, they have conducted a methodical artillery bombardment, digging trenches as close to the enemy lines as possible, and attacking at night.  The result is that the stout defences of Tsingtao are falling one by one.  After seizing Prince Heinrich Hill earlier in October, since the 31st the Japanese have been bombarding the inner defences and the port itself, and today an assault carries the Japanese forces into position to assault the inner line of trenches protecting the last German forts on three hills just northeast of Tsingtao itself.

The defenses of the German naval base at Tsingtao in China.  As of today the besieging Japanese are just before the
'Inner Line of Trenches' marked on the map.

- Today the 'Manifesto of French Universities' is published in the French press.  Endorsed by the faculty councils of all French public universities, the Manifesto is a line-by-line repudiation of the German appeal of October 4th, posing provocative questions including: Which nation had wanted war?  Which nation had violated Belgian neutrality?  Which nation had burned Louvain and bombarded Rheims cathedral?  It is another salvo in the dispute over the origins and conduct of the war, in which the academic and intellectual elite vie with the most strident nationalists in their condemnation of the enemy.

November 2nd, 1914

- At Ypres there is further hard fighting today as Army Group Fabeck continues to push into the Entente lines.  Its most notable success today is retaking the village of Wytschaete, which had been gained and lost the day before, while they also manage to nearly annihilate a British battalion near Gheluvelt.  Still, however, there is no breakthrough, and the ground gained is merely of tactical, not strategic, advantage.

The French, meanwhile, continue to take over more responsibility for the Entente line at Ypres.  By today, in addition to the northeastern portion of the Ypres salient, they hold five miles of the front to the southeast between I Corps to the north and the Cavalry Corps to the south.  Once again a series of French attacks are ordered by Foch for today, including to regain Messines, and once again they are unsuccessful, and indeed it was the French who were pushed out of Wytschaete today - generally, the German attacks were launched before the French, so the latter never got the opportunity to advance.

- At dawn the ships of the German East Asiatic Squadron find themselves alone, the surviving British warships having fled the scene and only the distant shore of Chile on the horizon.  Meanwhile, the British consul at Valparaíso learns today of the presence of the German squadron, though not of the naval battle, and sends a telegram to the Admiralty informing them of the enemy ships nearby.

- Indian Expeditionary Force B arrives off the port of Tanga in German East Africa this morning, and at 705am the captain of the light cruiser Fox lands in the town to inform the German district officer that the British no longer consider the prior agreement on neutralization regarding Tanga and Dar es Salaam to be in effect.  The hope is that the German official will surrender Tanga rather than face a British invasion.  Instead, the district officer gives no response, and after waiting for three and a half hours Fox signals the convoy carrying IEF B to begin landing.  The operation, however, is already a debacle - the pre-dreadnought Goliath, which was supposed to provide fire support, broke down in Mombasa and was left behind, while the captain of Fox refuses to sail into the harbour at Tanga for fear of mines.  Thus instead of landing at Tanga itself, IEF B is landed on an unfamiliar beach sufficiently far away from the town to be undefended.  The soldiers of IEF B, moreover, have been aboard their ships for almost a month, and as a result are in no shape to conduct a landing with any speed or discipline.  Thus the first battalions only begin landing at nightfall, and as the operation continues the landing area is a scene of confusion and delay.

When the British first arrived this morning, there was only a single company, composed mainly of ex-police officers, at Tanga for its defence.  The district officer, however, immediately informed Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, commander of the Schütztruppen, or colonial infantry, of German East Africa.  He is with the bulk of his Schütztruppen companies to the northwest at Moshi near Mount Kilimanjaro, expecting the main British attack to be overland.  The railway connecting Moshi and Tanga, however, makes the rapid redeployment of his forces possible, and three companies are immediately sent to reinforce Tanga.

The frontier between British Kenya in the north and German East Africa in the south, including the
port of Tanga and the town of Moshi.

- In light of the increasing likelihood of war with the Ottoman Empire, British officials in Egypt today declare martial law, so as to maintain public order once the conflict begins.

November 1st, 1914

- Despite the ground gained yesterday east of Ypres, Army Group Fabeck failed to achieve the desired breakthrough.  General Fabeck decides that while the offensive will continue, its focus will shift slightly.  After failing to exploit the temporary breach in the British line at Gheluvelt yesterday, today's attacks will be launched between Messines and Wytschaete.

On the Entente side, the French plan three attacks, to be undertaken in large part to relieve the pressure on the British - the first from north of Wytschaete, the second from Zonnebeke, and the third a diversionary attack by the rest of IX Corps.  Each of these attacks fail to accomplish anything today, but they also speak to the growing importance of French forces in the Ypres salient.  The past two week have severely reduced the BEF's strength - of its eighty-four infantry battalions, nine have fewer than a hundred men, while another thirty-one have between one and two hundred.  In comparison, a full battalion would have just over a thousand men.  There are also very few reinforcements in Britain that can be sent immediately to the front - the only regular army units not yet in the fight are the battalions of 8th Division, assembling in Britain after being located around the Empire on the outbreak of war.

The main German attack begins at 1am by nine battalions of the 6th Bavarian Reserve Division.  At Wytschaete the British are outnumbered twelve to one, and by 245am the village is in German hands.  More importantly, as the battle continues German units begin to infiltrate between British positions on the ridge between Wytschaete and Messines, as the defenders here are too few to man an entire trench line at once.  Those British soldiers who remain on the ridge at dawn realize they are in danger of encirclement, and pull back.  By 735am the Germans are in possession of the middle part of the high ground.  This outflanks the British defenders still clinging to the village of Messines itself, and they are ordered to retreat at 9am.  The British fall back to the next line of high ground to the west,  while shelling their former trenches at Messines to impede the German occupation of them.  A British counterattack manages to re-enter Wytschaete later in the day, but otherwise the Entente line here has been pushed back.  On the other hand, the German victory is merely a tactical one, as though the British retreat they are not routed, and a new defensive line stands in the Germans' way.

- The Kaiser arrives near the front today, visiting several cavalry divisions near Courtrai and Lille.  The British intercept several messages regarding his journey, but misinterpret his itinerary to suggest that he will be much closer to the front.  British artillery prepare an appropriate welcome at the villages where they think the Kaiser will be during the day.

The fighting around Ypres, November 1st to 4th, 1914.

- Behind the front, Lord Kitchener is meeting President Poincarè, Joffre, and Foch at Dunkirk to discuss the course of the war.  Kitchener informs them that there are no substantial British reinforcements available until the spring of 1915, as he will not send untrained men into battle.  However, subsequently the size of the BEF will expand rapidly as the 'New Armies' of wartime volunteers come into the field.  Also, know of the sometimes-testy relationship between Joffre and Sir John French, Kitchener offers to replace the latter with General Sir Ian Hamilton.  Joffre declines, believing (ironically, given his own record) that changing the BEF's commander in the middle of a battle would not work out.  Unfortunately for Kitchener, this offer very quickly reaches the ears of Field Marshal French, which earns Kitchener the enduring emnity of the latter.

- By today the German 9th Army has fallen back to the line from which it had started its advance into Poland just over a month ago.  Despite Ludendorff's claims of success, and the generally confused nature of the fighting, the Battle of the Vistula River is a Russian victory - it can hardly be otherwise when the Germans were the attackers and they end the battle where they started.  Nevertheless, the past month have shown the continuing logistical and command problems plaguing the Russian army - the attempt to pursue the retreating Germans has completely broken down, and today it is formally called off.

As for Falkenhayn, his attention remains firmly fixed on the Western Front, and is willing to leave matters on the Eastern Front in the hands of Hindenburg and Ludendorff.  As such, Hindenburg is today appointed commander-in-chief of all German forces in the east, with Ludendorff as his chief of staff and the command to be known as Ober Ost.  General Mackensen is also promoted to take command of 9th Army.

- With the entry of the Ottoman Empire into the war almost inevitable after the events in the Black Sea, the Shah of Persia, its eastern neighbour, declares the neutrality of his state.  The statement, however, is more theoretical than practical.  Though Persia is nominally independent, both Britain and Russia have significant interests and influence within it.  The newest dreadnoughts burn oil, not coal, and with the oilfields of southern Persia being a key source for the Admiralty, the British government controls them through owning a majority share of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company.  To the north, Russia already has five thousand soldiers garrisoning Persian Azerbaijan, seeing the endemic instability of the region as necessitating Russian control.  The Shah himself is only 17 years old, and lacks an effective army to maintain internal order.  Persian neutrality means little when major combatants sees their interests as necessitating intervention within its borders.

- At Coronel the British light cruiser Glasgow slips out of port at 915am, and meets the rest of Craddock's squadron just after 1pm.  The four ships then spread out in a line, sailing north in search of the supposedly-isolated Leipzig.  The German East Asiatic Squadron is doing much the same thing in pursuit of Glasgow, except moving south.  At 420pm Leipzig and Glasgow sight each other, drawing both squadrons together.

The approach of the German East Asiatic Squadron to Chile and the Battle of Coronel, November 1st, 1914.

Upon confirming the presence of the entire German East Asiatic Squadron, Craddock knows that his force is markedly inferior to the Germans.  He decides, however, to fight - first, his armed merchant liner Otranto was not fast enough to escape; and second, he felt bound by the Admiralty's orders to engage the enemy.  Craddock turns his squadron around so that both forces are sailing southwards, roughly parallel to each other.  With the sun setting to the west, Craddock hopes to force an action when the sun is blinding the eyes of the German gunners, giving the British a window of opportunity.  At 618pm Craddock aboard Good Hope signals the rest of his ships to follow him in closing with the Germans.

Spee, however, knows just as well as Craddock the impact the setting sun can have, and when the British ships turn to close the gap, he orders his ships to simply turn as well, maintaining the distance between the two squadrons.  Thus the sun sets without a single ship being fired, and now all of the advantages are with the Germans - the British are now silhouetted against the twilight sky.  At 650pm the Germans turn towards the British, and open fire at 704pm.

Craddock never had a chance.  Despite the rough seas, the excellent marksmanship of Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, honed to near-perfection in peacetime gunnery exercises, is immediately obvious.  The third salvo of Scharnhorst strikes Good Hope, destroying one of its 9.2-inch guns, and henceforth the German armoured cruisers pour accurate and rapid fire on Good Hope and Monmouth.  The British attempt to fire back, but most of their 6-inch shells fall short and the single 9.2-inch gun remaining operational on Good Hope can hardly hope to win the battle by itself.  In less than an hour Good Hope is reduced to a flaming wreck, and having absorbed thirty-five hits from Scharnhorst, explodes and sinks at 750pm.  Monmouth survives only an hour more, sinking at 858pm.  As Spee's focus is naturally on the two largest opponents, both Glasgow and Otranto are able to make their escape in the night.

All aboard Good Hope and Monmouth, including Craddock, are lost.  On the German side, only Gneisenau was hit even once by shells that exploded, and it suffered no serious damage and only three sailors were slightly wounded.  Glasgow manages to warn Canopus sailing north with the squadron's colliers of the disaster, and the survivors escape southwards.  The German East Asiatic Squadron has won a notable and completely-lopsided victory at the Battle of Coronel, the first significant defeat of British warships at the hands of the enemy for a century.

The Battle of Coronel, November 1st, 1914.

- As in Canada, the outbreak of war saw thousands of volunteers come forward in Australia and New Zealand.  However, the continued presence of German cruisers in the Pacific and Indian Oceans required that the convoy carrying the volunteers be delayed until sufficient escorts could be assembled.  Today, protected by British, Australian, and Japanese warships, thirty-eight transports carrying almost 21 000 Australian and just under 8500 New Zealand soldiers departs Australia today.  Their destination is Egypt, where they will undergo training.

October 31st, 1914

- Between Nieuport and Dixmude the waterlogged soldiers of the German III Reserve Corps make their way eastward back across the flooded fields and over the Yser River to dry land.  Due to the battered state of the Belgian army the Germans are able to undertake the retreat without significant losses, but there is no masking the bitter taste of the outcome of the Battle of the Yser.  At the moment when a breakthough appeared to be at hand, the Germans have victory snatched from their grasp, not by the enemy army, but by the sea, the one remorseless enemy they cannot overcome.  By letting in the sea, the Belgians have created an impenetrable barrier from Dixmude to the Channel.  This gives the Belgian army the opportunity to rest and recover, and indeed it can be said that the flooding saves the army from destruction and Belgium from complete occupation.  As a result, a tiny corner of Belgium will remain in Belgian hands for the duration of the war.  Of course, just as the Germans cannot advance across the flooding, the Belgians cannot counterattack either.  Knowing this allows the Germans to move forces south to reinforce the fighting elsewhere in Flanders.

- Just after midnight, General Foch arrives at BEF headquarters at St. Omer, asking to see Field Marshal French.  The heavy attacks of yesterday have plunged the BEF commander again into pessimism, giving Foch the impression of panic and telling him 'We are for it.'  Attempting to buoy French's spirits, Foch replies: 'We shall see.  In the meantime, hammer, hammer away, keep on hammering, and you will get there.'

Army Group Fabeck today resumes its attacks on the British line from Gheluvlet to Messines.  At the latter, the first advance comes before dawn, catching the British in the middle of relieving the companies holding the front line.  After initially overrunning two companies of Indian infantry after their British officers had been killed, nearby cavalry rallied to push the Germans back.  This, however, was only a prelude - a heavy artillery bombardment at 8am preceded an attack by twelve German battalions at 9am that outnumbered the defenders by more than six to one.  The Germans break into the village of Messines, and advance house to house, using artillery at point-blank range to demolish British positions.  Reinforcements from II Corps are fed into the battle, as well as the first Territorial battalion to see combat.  Counterattacks suffer heavy losses, but relieve some of the pressure on the British defenders in Messines at by nightfall they remain entrenched in the southern portion of the village.

To the north, the British 2nd Cavalry Division comes under attack from the German 3rd Bavarian Division and 6th Bavarian Reserve Division.  Though German artillery opened their bombardment at 6am, German infantry did not advance until just before 3pm, giving enough time for reserves to be deployed, and the Germans are repulsed.

The most serious situation of the day develops at Gheluvelt, where the line was held by I Corps' 1st Division.  The first attack by the German XXIV Reserve Corps is mostly repulsed, but small elements manage to reach an orchard from which the defenders are unable to eject them.  Under an increasingly intense artillery bombardment and fire from the orchard, part of the 2nd Battalion, Welch Regiment falls back, opening a gap in the line which the Germans find.  Within minutes the British position has collapsed, the 2nd Battalion, Welch Regiment suffering 530 casualties in being effectively annihilated.  British soldiers flee to the rear individually or in small groups, and attempts to rally them by officers fail.  A company of 1st Battalion, Gloucestershires is sent to plug the gap, but under German shellfire it is reduced from eighty soldiers to thirteen by the time they arrive in the line.

Further German attacks are launched north and south of the Menin Road at 10am, and despite enduring intense fire are able to push the British back.  By 1130am the Germans have taken Gheluvelt and broken the British line.  Further, the British command structure is dealt a severe blow at 115pm when the chateau at which the commanders and staff of 1st and 2nd Divisions are struck by artillery shells, killing or wounding almost everyone present.  As time has to be taken to find new commanders for both units, Haig at I Corps HQ informs Field Marshal French, General Foch, and General Dubois that 1st Division has been broken and issues orders for a last line of defence to be prepared to the rear.  One of I Corps' intelligence officers returned from the front and provided a vivid description of the situation:

You cannot imagine the scene.  The road was full of troops retreating, stragglers, wounded men, artillery and wagons, a terrible sight.  All the time there was the noise of a terrific bombardment.  It was impossible to get any clear idea of the situation.  Nobody knew anything except what was happening on his immediate front and that was always the same story.  The Germans were attacking in overwhelming strength and our men were being driven back . . .

A decisive moment of the battle is at hand - if the Germans can exploit the breakthrough, the entire British line could be outflanked and forced back, allowing the Germans to seize Ypres and secure victory.  At I Corps HQ Haig organizes the orderlies and mess servants to make a last stand.  When Sir John French arrives they discuss the breakthrough in what the BEF commander will later describe as the worst half-hour of his life.  French then motors to Foch's headquarters to plead for reinforcements, stating, according to Foch's recollection, that the only men he had left were the sentries at BEF HQ and that he would take them 'where the line is broken, and the last of the English will be killed fighting.'  Foch replied: 'We must stand firm first, we can die later.'  He promises an attack by IX Corps and lends a cavalry brigade and three battalions to the British.

Meanwhile, west of Gheluvelt all of 1st Division's reserves had been committed to the fighting, and only three companies of 2nd Battalion, Worcesters, consisting of seven officers and 350 men, remained as 2nd Division's reserve.  A brigade commander from 1st Division orders them to counterattack, and by 145pm they are moving on Gheluvelt Chateau, on the northeast side of the village.  They have dropped their packs and grabbed extra ammunition to be able to advance as quickly as possible.  The last mile is open ground, and the battalion loses a hundred men as they race across.  When they reach the Chateau, they find Bavarians from three regiments who, in the aftermath of seizing Gheluvelt, have relaxed in the afterglow of victory.  The Worcesters smash into them and the Germans are driven from the Chateau.  The shock of the counterattack leads other German units to abandon Gheluvelt, and with stragglers from other units the Worcesters are able to establish a thin defensive line.  For the loss of three officers and 189 men, the Worcesters had regained Gheluvelt and shattered German momentum.

Subsequent counterattacks on either flank by disparate and already-mauled British units are able to stem the German tide, though at the cost of over a thousand casualties.  By the slimmest of margins, I Corps is able to restore its line and hold the Germans.  Not for the first nor the last time the Germans manage to achieve a breakthrough, only to have it closed before it can be exploited.

- To the south of the main fighting at Ypres today the period of the heaviest fighting has come to an end, as the German 6th Army is no longer attempting to break through the British line between Armentières and La Bassée; daily skirmishes continue, however, mainly comprised of spoiling attacks by the Germans to keep the British opposite from redeploying northward.  Since coming into the line, the British III Corps has suffered 5779 casualties, while II Corps was down to 14 000 infantry after arriving in Flanders with 24 000.  The withdrawal of II Corps from the line is also completed today, with its place taken by all of the Indian Corps.

- When the First World War broke out, Portugal remained neutral, but declared its 'support' for the Entente.  This awkward position arose out of Portugal's longstanding alliance with Britain that stretched back to the Middle Ages, but which did not require Portugal to actually go to war.  Moreover, the British had such little regard for the Portuguese military that they saw no advantage to be gained by Portugal actually participating in the war.  Thus Portugal stands in 1914 as unfriendly but not openly hostile to Germany.

The place of Portugal in the war has ramifications in Africa, considering the non-insubstantial Portuguese colonial empire, and in particular both Angola and Mozambique are adjacent to German colonies (German South West Africa and German West Africa respectively).  In September Portugal had dispatched 1500 soldiers to each to buttress their garrison against potential German aggression.  These forces would also aid in maintaining Portuguese rule over their colonies - parts of Angola in particular were in a state of near-perpetual revolt by the indigenous population.

To their German neighbours, however, these reinforcements could be interpreted as a prelude to a Portuguese invasion.  Moreover, since the fall of Togoland in August direct communications with Germany had been severed,  Thus the governor of German South West Africa is uncertain whether or not Germany and Portugal are at war.  Tensions were heightened on October 19th when a German patrol (according to the Portuguese) or mission (according to the Germans) was arrested at a Portuguese border fort, and in the ensuing scuffle three Germans were killed.  The event appears to confirm suspicions that the Portuguese are an active combatant, and the German governor decides to take advantage of the opportunity provided by the ongoing Boer Rebellion temporarily halting South African operations to the south to deal with the Portuguese to the north.

Today a German detachment approaches the Portuguese post at Cuangar, whose garrison is oblivious to the events of October 19th.  Taken by surprise, the Portuguese defenders are overwhelmed and massacred by the Germans.

- The commanders of Indian Expeditionary Force B and C meet today in Mombada with Kenyan and other British officials to finalize their plan for the invasion of German East Africa.  It is decided that IEF B will land at Tanga on November 2nd, while IEF C will attack across the border in the interior on the 3rd.  Crucially, the naval commander of the force escorting IEF B insists that given the prior agreement to neutralize Tanga and Dar es Salaam, it is necessary to inform the Germans that the British have abrogated the agreement before IEF B can land.

- The British light cruiser Glasgow continues to sit off Coronel today.  Despite the volume of intercepted German wireless traffic, no German warships have appeared, so the captain of Glasgow receives permission from Admiral Craddock to enter Coronel, which it does at dusk.  The ship's intelligence officer goes ashore to collect mail and messages from the British consul, who warns of a large German ethnic community, which means the presence of Glasgow in Coronel may have already been reported to the German East Asiatic Squadron.  In fact, one of the squadron's supply ships was in harbour when Glasgow arrived, and had reported its presence to Admiral Spee at 7pm.  An increase in the volume of German wireless traffic convinces the captain of Glasgow that German warships are approaching, so he decides to sail by 9am tomorrow morning.  Further, Admiral Craddock is bringing the rest of his squadron to Coronel to rendezvous with Glasgow - all of the German signals have had the call sign of the light cruiser Leipzig, and Craddock believes that it is operating in isolation from the rest of the German East Asiatic Squadron, providing an opportunity to sink it in isolation.

That all of the German wireless traffic has had the call signal of Leipzig, of course, is a deliberate ruse by Admiral Spee to mask the presence of his entire squadron off the Chilean coast.  When he learns of Glasgow's presence in Coronel, he decides to trap the British warship when it departs Coronel tomorrow; by law a warship that spends more than twenty-four hours in a neutral port is to be interned.  Thus the commanders of both squadrons believe that they are moving to engage a single warship of the other.