August 17 - Russia Invades Prussia

The Russians invade East Prussia, thereby creating an "Eastern Front" in Europe. The Russian offensive begins with the Battle of Stalluponen.

The Russian invasion of Prussia

Russian cavalrymen form the spearhead of the Russian advance into Prussia

The Belgian Government moves to Antwerp from Brussels.

In the English Channel, Edward Croft and the 26th Brigade RFA on board the SS Cardiganshire remain offshore outside Boulogne from 5am to 5pm. They do not disembark until 6pm.

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.

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.

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.