Diary January 4, 1916

01-1916, Diary WWI, Year 1916 / 1 minute of reading

Field telephone used by a US soldier during the fighting in the Argonne in late 1918.

Diary for Tuesday, January 4, 1916:

Home Fronts

Britain: Lord Derby’s recruiting report published, 2,675,149 volunteers to date but over 2 million of military age unattested justifies conscription.
Fuller-phone (non-tappable) approved for production and distribution to BEF (10,000 hand-made sets plus c.5000 for US Army 1917-18).

Middle East

Mesopotamia – First British attempt to relieve Kut: General Aylmer’s 19,000-strong Tigris Corps begins advance astride river, probes Sheikh Saad defences on January 6, but facing overall 30,000 Turkish troops with 83 guns.

Western Front

Champagne: German trench raids.

Politics

Britain: Government answers Germany on Q-ship Baralong affair, offers impartial tribunal if three alleged similar German cases included, Germany contests on January 14.

Secret War

Austria – CoS Conrad to Count Tisza: ‘There can be no question of destroying the Russian war machine; England cannot be defeated; peace must be made in not too short a space, or we shall be fatally weakened, if not destroyed’.

About The Author

Kretaner

My name is Norman 'Kretaner' and since my childhood I am interested in history and strategy games. Later, I have learned programming and the development of computer games, and finally with the Internet, also web design. I'm in the fortunate position to combine all my interests with my work and to live on a place of my choice, on Crete. All information, figures, specifications and statistics used here had been compiled from a variety of sources and the large, over decades collected, library of the author about military history, WW2 and weapons.