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| The Battle of Tanga by Martin Frost |
Britain and France declare war on Turkey, "owing to hostile acts committed by Turkish forces under German officers."
Showing posts with label German East Africa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label German East Africa. Show all posts
Wednesday, 5 November 2014
November 5
German forces in German East Africa succeed in repelling the Allied attack in the Battle of Tanga.
Britain and France declare war on Turkey, "owing to hostile acts committed by Turkish forces under German officers."
Britain and France declare war on Turkey, "owing to hostile acts committed by Turkish forces under German officers."
Sunday, 2 November 2014
November 2
The Battle of Messines comes to an end with neither British or German forces able to force a victory. The Battle of Armentieres also ends.Russia declares war on Turkey.
Members of the Indian Expeditionary Force B, led by Major General Aitken, begin landing at Tanga, German East Africa.
The 26th Brigade RFA remains in action, entrenched near the Ypres-Menin road.
Saturday, 16 August 2014
August 16 - Gunner Croft Goes to War
For the first time in this digest, one of my relatives appears, as he is called up and goes to war. 19721 Gunner Edward Croft was attached to the 26th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery.
According to the Brigade's War Diary, preserved in the National Archives [WO 95/1250/1], the Brigade mobilised at Aldershot between 5-11 August. I do not know when Edward was actually called up, presumably from the Reserves, but at the latest he would have been in barracks by the 11th.
On August 16 the Brigade proceeded to Southampton. The 26th Brigade probably travelled to Aldershot Station (on the London & South Western Railway's system) and thence to the docks. At 5.30pm they embarked on the SS Cardiganshire for France. The Brigade formed part of the British Expeditionary Force.
In the widening war, Serbian forces face Austro-Hungarian forces at the Battle of Cer, which ends in victory for the Serbs.
In Turkey, the Goeben and the Breslau (see August 12) having now reached Constantinople, both vessels were transferred to the Turkish Navy, becoming respectively the Yavuz Sultan Selim and the Midilli, though they retained their German crews.
In Africa, On August 16, 1914, Lake Nyasa was the scene of a brief naval battle when the British gunboat SS Gwendolen, commanded by Captain Rhoades, received orders to, "sink, burn, or destroy" the German Empire's only gunboat on the lake, the Hermann von Wissmann, commanded by Captain Berndt. Rhoades's crew found the Hermann von Wissmann in a bay near Sphinxhaven, in German East African territorial waters. Gwendolen disabled the German boat with a single cannon shot from about 2,000 yards. This brief conflict was hailed by The Times as Britain's first naval victory of the war.
According to the Brigade's War Diary, preserved in the National Archives [WO 95/1250/1], the Brigade mobilised at Aldershot between 5-11 August. I do not know when Edward was actually called up, presumably from the Reserves, but at the latest he would have been in barracks by the 11th.
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| Cavalry joining a boat train for the Continent. A scene possibly taken at Aldershot |
On August 16 the Brigade proceeded to Southampton. The 26th Brigade probably travelled to Aldershot Station (on the London & South Western Railway's system) and thence to the docks. At 5.30pm they embarked on the SS Cardiganshire for France. The Brigade formed part of the British Expeditionary Force.
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| The troopship SS Cardiganshire, which transported Edward Croft and the 26th Brigade, RFA from Southampton to Boulogne |
In the widening war, Serbian forces face Austro-Hungarian forces at the Battle of Cer, which ends in victory for the Serbs.
In Turkey, the Goeben and the Breslau (see August 12) having now reached Constantinople, both vessels were transferred to the Turkish Navy, becoming respectively the Yavuz Sultan Selim and the Midilli, though they retained their German crews.
In Africa, On August 16, 1914, Lake Nyasa was the scene of a brief naval battle when the British gunboat SS Gwendolen, commanded by Captain Rhoades, received orders to, "sink, burn, or destroy" the German Empire's only gunboat on the lake, the Hermann von Wissmann, commanded by Captain Berndt. Rhoades's crew found the Hermann von Wissmann in a bay near Sphinxhaven, in German East African territorial waters. Gwendolen disabled the German boat with a single cannon shot from about 2,000 yards. This brief conflict was hailed by The Times as Britain's first naval victory of the war.
Friday, 15 August 2014
August 15 - British East Africa invaded
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| British East Africa |
The Prince of Wales's National Relief Fund reaches the astonishing figure of £1,000,000 within a week.
It was on
7 August that the Prince of Wales made an urgent appeal in The Times:
"All must realise that
the present time of deep anxiety will be followed by one of considerable
distress among the people of this country least able to bear it. We must earnestly pray that their suffering
may be neither long nor bitter, but we cannot wait until the need presses
heavily upon us. The means of relief must be ready in our
hands. To ally anxiety will go some way to stay distress. A National Fund has been founded, and I am
proud to act as its Treasurer. My first duty is to ask for generous and
ready support, and I know that I shall not ask in vain. At such a moment we all stand by one
another, and it is to the heart of the British people that I confidently make
this earnest appeal. Edward." The British Medical Journal apologises for its reduction in size. "The main reason for this curtailment is the shortage of paper, which has become a very serious difficulty for the periodical press. The consumption is greater owing to the enormous demand for the many editions of the newspapers, and the supply has greatly diminished owing to the stoppage of exports of paper and material from the Continent and the other side of the Atlantic. The supplies from the latter source will, it is hoped, shortly increase ..."
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