Diary December 13, 1914

12-1914, Diary WWI, War Diary, Year 1914 / 1 minute of reading

Return of the British submarine B11 from Dardanelles — Return of the British submarine B11 (Lieutenant Holbrook) after the sinking of the Turkish battleship in the Dardanelles. Holbrook’s B11 was making the first deep-water penetration of the Dardanelles strait and diving beneath the Turkish mines. Finding the battleship ‘Messudieh’ lying at anchor, he hit her with a single torpedo at 800 m; she went down quite rapidly but opened a heavy fire on B11, which had troubles submerging in the very shallow water. B11 escaped down the straits in an epic nine-hour submerged journey.

War Diary World War One for Sunday, December 13, 1914:

Sea War

Dardanelles – First battleship sunk by submarine: old Turk battleship Messudieh sunk at anchor in shoal water north of Kephez Point by RN submarine B11 (Holbrook) after passing five rows of mines and returning without compass. Holbrook awarded first naval Victoria Cross of the war.

Western Front

Flanders: Germans pull back from Yser Canal.

Southern Fronts

Serbia: Frank informs Potiorek that Belgrade cannot be held. Serb Third Army retakes Obrenovac. Serb First Army reoccupies Loznica-Sabac line. Fighting in the west almost over.

Neutrals

Italy: Mussolini speaks in Parma ‘Neutrals never dominate events. They always sink. Blood alone moves the wheels of history’.

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.