This Day in World War 1 History: MAY 20, 1915 : BRITISH RENEW ATTACKS IN BATTLE OF FESTUBERT

On May 20, 1915, British, Canadian and Indian troops launch a new round of attacks against a reinforced German line around the village of Festubert, located in the Ypres Salient on the Western Front.

The Battle of Festubert formed part of the large-scale Artois Offensive spearheaded by Joseph Joffre, commander in chief of the French forces. Launched by British commander Sir Douglas Haig after pressure applied to the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) by Joffre, Festubert marked the BEF’s second attack of the offensive, after a largely unsuccessful assault on May 9 at Neuve Chapelle.

A four-day-long artillery bombardment of the German positions by over 400 Allied guns firing over 100,000 shells preceded the attack on Festubert. Although the bombardment failed to cause significant damage to the German front line, the initial attack, conducted by two predominately Indian divisions in fair weather conditions on the night of May 15, advanced rapidly, as the German Sixth Army (commanded by Crown Prince Rupprecht) retreated to positions directly in front of the village of Festubert.

The British 2nd and 7th divisions continued the attacks on May 16, but within two days had to be withdrawn due to heavy losses. On May 18, under heavy rain, Canadian troops began another onslaught, but were forced to retreat under heavy German artillery fire. The Allied troops hurried to build trenches to consolidate the small gains made so far, as the German command sent a fresh injection of reserves to reinforce their lines.

On May 20, the Allies renewed the attacks at Festubert; over the next four days, they were able to capture the village from the Germans, a position that would be held by the Allies until the final German spring offensive in 1918. Still, by the time the Allied command called off the attacks on May 27, the Battle of Festubert had resulted in gains of less than one kilometer of territory—at a cost of 16,000 Allied casualties.

Article Details:

May 20, 1915 : British renew attacks in Battle of Festubert

• Author

  History.com Staff

• Website Name

  History.com

• Year Published

  2009

• Title

  May 20, 1915 : British renew attacks in Battle of Festubert

• URL

  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/british-renew-attacks-in-battle-of-festubert

• Access Date

  May 20, 2015

• Publisher

  A+E Networks

This Day in World War 1 History: MAY 07, 1915 : GERMAN SUBMARINE SINKS LUSITANIA

The earlier German attacks on merchant ships off the south coast of Ireland prompted the British Admiralty to warn the Lusitania to avoid the area or take simple evasive action, such as zigzagging to confuse U-boats plotting the vessel’s course. The captain of the Lusitania ignored these recommendations, and at 2:12 p.m. on May 7, in the waters of the Celtic Sea, the 32,000-ton ship was hit by an exploding torpedo on its starboard side. The torpedo blast was followed by a larger explosion, probably of the ship’s boilers. The Lusitania sank within 20 minutes.

Germany justified the attack by stating, correctly, that the Lusitania was an enemy ship, and that it was carrying munitions. It was primarily a passenger ship, however, and among the 1,201 drowned in the attack were many women and children, including 128 Americans. Colonel Edward House, close associate of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, was in London for a diplomatic visit when he learned of the Lusitania‘s demise. America has come to the parting of the ways, he wrote in a telegram to Wilson, when she must determine whether she stands for civilized or uncivilized warfare. We can no longer remain neutral spectators.

Wilson subsequently sent a strongly worded note to the German government—the first of three similar communications—demanding that it cease submarine warfare against unarmed merchant ships. Wilson’s actions On the afternoon of May 7, 1915, the British ocean liner Lusitania is torpedoed without warning by a German submarine off the south coast of Ireland.

Faced with the overpowering size and strength of the British Royal Navy at the outset of World War I, Germany realized its most effective weapon at sea was its deadly accurate U-boat submarine. Consequently, in February 1915, the German navy adopted a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare, declaring the area around the British Isles a war zone, in which all merchant ships, including those from neutral countries, would be subject to attack.

Though the United States was officially neutral at this point in the war, Britain was one of the nation’s closest trading partners, and tensions arose immediately over Germany’s new policy. In early May 1915, several New York newspapers published a warning by the German embassy in Washington that Americans traveling on British or Allied ships in war zones did so at their own risk. On the same page, an advertisement announced the imminent sailing of the British cruise liner Lusitania from New York back to Liverpool.

On his second note, Wilson rejected the German arguments that the British blockade was illegal, and was a cruel and deadly attack on innocent civilians, and their charge that the Lusitania had been carrying munitions. William Jennings Bryan considered Wilson's second note too provocative and resigned in protest after failing to moderate it. His successor, Robert Lansing, took quite a different view of the situation: the sinking of the Lusitania had convinced him that the United States could not maintain its neutrality forever, and would eventually be forced to enter the war against Germany.

On the German side, fear of further antagonizing Wilson and his government led Kaiser Wilhelm and Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg to issue an apology to the U.S. and enforce a curb on the policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. By early 1917, however, under pressure from military leaders who advocated an aggressive naval policy as an integral component of German strategy in World War I, the government reversed its policy, and on February 1, 1917, Germany resumed its policy of unrestricted U-boat warfare. Two days later, Wilson announced that the U.S. was breaking diplomatic relations with Germany; the same day, the American liner Housatonic was sunk by a German U-boat. The United States formally entered World War I on April 6, 1917.

Article Details:

May 07, 1915 : German submarine sinks Lusitania

• Author

  History.com Staff

• Website Name

  History.com

• Year Published

  2009

• Title

  May 07, 1915 : German submarine sinks Lusitania

• URL

  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/german-submarine-sinks-lusitania

• Access Date

  May 07, 2015

• Publisher

  A+E Networks

This Day in World War 1 History: MAY 06, 1915 : SECOND BATTLE OF KRITHIA, GALLIPOLI

After a first attempt to capture the village of Krithia, on the Gallipoli Peninsula, failed on April 28, 1915, a second is initiated on May 6 by Allied troops under the British commander Sir Aylmer Hunter-Weston.

Fortified by 105 pieces of heavy artillery, the Allied force advanced on Krithia, located at the base of the flat-topped hill of Achi Baba, starting at noon on May 6. The attack was launched from a beach head on Cape Helles, where troops had landed on April 25 to begin the large-scale land invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula after a naval attack on the Dardanelles failed miserably in mid-March. Since the first failed attempt on the village, Hunter-Weston’s original force had been joined by two brigades of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) to bring the total number of men to 25,000. They were still outnumbered, however, by the Turkish forces guarding Krithia, which were under the direct command of the German Major-General Erich Weber. Weber had been promoted from the rank of colonel after supervising the closure and mining of the Dardanelles six months earlier.

Facing superior enemy numbers and suffering from a shortage of ammunition, the Allies were able to advance some 600 yards, but failed to capture either Krithia or the crest of Achi Baba after three attempts in three days. Hunter-Weston’s troops suffered heavy losses, with a total of 6,000 casualties. Two British naval brigades engaged in the battle saw half their number, some 1,600 soldiers, killed or wounded.

The British regional commander in chief, Sir Ian Hamilton, after pushing for more supplies and ammunition, ordered Hunter-Weston to continue the pressure on Achi-Baba; a third attack on the ridge was launched in early June. As heavy casualties continued to be sustained across the region, with little real gains for the Allies, it became clear that the Gallipoli operation—an Allied attempt to break the stalemate on the Western Front by achieving a decisive victory elsewhere—had failed to achieve its ambitious aims.

Article Details:

May 06, 1915 : Second Battle of Krithia, Gallipoli

• Author

  History.com Staff

• Website Name

  History.com

• Year Published

  2009

• Title

  May 06, 1915 : Second Battle of Krithia, Gallipoli

• URL

  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/second-battle-of-krithia-gallipoli

• Access Date

  May 06, 2015

• Publisher

  A+E Networks