Diary November 5, 1914

11-1914, Diary WWI, War Diary, Year 1914 / 1 minute of reading

Field Marshal Sir John French, Commander of the BEF until November 1915. Although he has great charisma and is brave, he is not an easy man to get along with.

War Diary for Thursday, November 5, 1914:

Western Front

Somme: German attack at Le Ouesnoy-en-Santerre fails.
Flanders: BEF 7th Division withdrawn from line only 2,380 men strong. Foch tells Sir J French that Kitchener had offered him on November 1 to replace him with Hamilton; Prime Minister and Churchill have to send placatory letters.

Eastern Front

Poland: German HQ retreats to Szestochowa). Dankl to Conrad: ‘If the First Army is to be kept in existence…we must fall back’. It retreats, losing heavily, towards Cracow between November 6-10.

Southern Fronts

Serbia: Austrians shell along whole front (night 5/6) especially on Guchevo ridge.

Politics

BRITAIN AND FRANCE DECLARE WAR ON TURKEY.
Zanzibar declares war on Turkey.
Belgium rejects Papal mediation.

Middle East

BRITAIN ANNEXES CYPRUS.

African Fronts

East Africa: IEF’B’ re-embarks and reaches Mombasa on November 8. Tanga fiasco not revealed in Britain.
South Africa: De Wet’s rebels blow up Kroonstad-Natal railway at 3 points, Beyers’ 1000 men trek through loyal troops at Kingswood en route to join de Wet.

Sea War

Adriatic: Austrian U-5 misses French cruiser Victor Hugo.

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.