Dinge en Goete (Things and Stuff)

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

This Day in World War 1 History: AUGUST 18, 1917 : ITALIANS LAUNCH THE 11TH BATTLE OF THE ISONZO

On this day in 1917, the Italian army launches their 11th battle against Austro-Hungarian troops on the Isonzo River, near Italy’s border with Austria-Hungary.

With its mountainous terrain, the Italian front was the least well-suited of all the fronts of World War I for offensive warfare. Nonetheless, since 1915 the Italian army had launched no fewer than 10 attempts to overwhelm Austro-Hungarian forces, often with superior numbers, along the Isonzo, located in the eastern sector of the front in present-day Slovenia. After several quick initial successes by both sides, battle had settled into a stalemate, as it had on other fronts of the war. Desperate to make headway and please his more powerful allies, Italian Chief of Staff Luigi Cadorna continued to throw his men against the enemy at the Isonzo, where it was deemed essential to stop the Austrian advance over the mountains into Italy.

For this 11th attempt, Cadorna sent 51 divisions of men and 5,200 guns against the Austrian enemy. The Italian advance was impressive, pushing back the Austro-Hungarian line all along the front, with particular gains in the north by the Italian 2nd Army, led by Luigi Capello. In total, the Italians captured five mountain peaks and took over 20,000 Austrian (and some German) prisoners before the offensive ran out of steam and the Austro-Hungarian line eventually held their positions. The Italian attack was halted on September 12; they would make no further attempts on the Isonzo. The Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo—also known as the Battle of Caporetto—in late October 1917 marked a spectacular success for the Central Powers, and almost succeeded in forcing Italy out of the war altogether. With substantial Allied aid, and a new commander in chief, Armando Diaz, replacing Cadorna, Italy continued the fight. By the time World War I ended, in November 1918, half of the entire number of Italian casualties—300,000 out of 600,000—had been incurred along the Isonzo.

Article Details:

August 18, 1917 : Italians launch the 11th Battle of the Isonzo

Author

History.com Staff
Website Name

History.com
Year Published

2009
Title

August 18, 1917 : Italians launch the 11th Battle of the Isonzo
URL

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/italians-launch-the-11th-battle-of-the-isonzo
Access Date

August 18, 2015
Publisher

A+E Networks

Monday, August 17, 2015

This Day in World War 1 History: AUGUST 17, 1914 : RUSSIAN TROOPS INVADE EAST PRUSSIA

On this day in 1914, the Russian 1st and 2nd Armies begin their advance into East Prussia, fulfilling Russia’s promise to its ally, France, to attack Germany from the east as soon as possible so as to divert German resources and relieve pressure on France during the opening weeks of the First World War.

The Russian 1st Army, commanded by Pavel Rennenkampf, and the 2nd Army, led by Aleksandr Samsonov, advanced in a two-pronged formation—separated by the Masurian Lakes, which stretched over 100 kilometers—aiming to eventually meet and pin the German 8th Army between them. For the Germans, the Russian advance came much sooner than expected; counting on Russia’s slow preparation in the east, they had sent the great bulk of their forces west to face France. By August 19, Rennenkampf’s 1st Army had advanced to Gumbinnen, where they faced the German 8th Army—commanded by General Maximilian von Prittwitz—in battle on the River Angerapp on August 20.

During the Battle of Gumbinnen, Prittwitz received an aerial reconnaissance report that Samsonov’s 2nd Russian Army had advanced to threaten the region and its capital city, Konigsberg (present-day Kaliningrad) as well. With his forces greatly outnumbered in the region, he panicked, ordering the 8th Army to fall back to the Vistula River, against the advice of his staff and against the previous orders of the chief of the German general staff, Helmuth von Moltke, who had told him “When the Russians come, not defense only, but offensive, offensive, offensive.” From his headquarters at Koblenz, Moltke consulted with Prittwitz’s corps commanders and subsequently dismissed the general, replacing him with Paul von Hindenburg, a 67-year-old retired general of great stature. As Hindenburg’s chief of staff, he named Erich Ludendorff, the newly anointed hero of the capture of Belgium’s fortress city of Liege earlier that month.

Under this new leadership, and awaiting reinforcements summoned by Moltke from the Western Front, the German 8th Army prepared to face off against the Russians in East Prussia. Meanwhile, confusion reigned on the other side of the line, as the two advancing armies and their commanders, Rennenkampf and Samsonov, were cut off from each other and unable to successfully coordinate their attacks, despite enjoying numerical superiority over the Germans. This lack of communication would prove costly in the last week of August, when the Germans enveloped and devastated Samsonov’s 2nd Army, scoring what would be their greatest victory of the war on the Eastern Front in the Battle of Tannenberg. The battle elevated Hindenburg and Ludendorff to the status of national heroes in Germany. Their partnership, born in East Prussia in the opening weeks of the war, would eventually acquire mythic status, as the two men moved forward together at the heart of the German war effort, right up to the bitter end in 1918.

Article Details:

August 17, 1914 : Russian troops invade East Prussia

Author

History.com Staff
Website Name

History.com
Year Published

2009
Title

August 17, 1914 : Russian troops invade East Prussia
URL

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/russian-troops-invade-east-prussia
Access Date

August 17, 2015
Publisher

A+E Networks

Friday, August 14, 2015

This Day in World War 1 History: AUGUST 14, 1917 : CHINA DECLARES WAR ON GERMANY

On this day in 1917, as World War I enters its fourth year, China abandons its neutrality and declares war on Germany.

From its inception, the Great War was by no means confined to the European continent; in the Far East, two rival nations, Japan and China, sought to find their own role in the great conflict. The ambitious Japan, an ally of Britain since 1902, wasted no time in entering the fray, declaring war on Germany on August 23, 1914 and immediately plotting to capture Tsingtao, the biggest German overseas naval base, located on the Shantung Peninsula in China, by amphibious assault. Some 60,000 Japanese troops, assisted by two British battalions, subsequently violated Chinese neutrality with an overland approach from the sea towards Tsingtao, capturing the naval base on November 7 when the German garrison surrendered. That January, Japan presented China with the so-called 21 Demands, which included the extension of direct Japanese control over most of Shantung, southern Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia and the seizure of more territory, including islands in the South Pacific controlled by Germany.

An internally divided China, struggling after revolution in 1911 and the fall of the powerful Manchu Dynasty the following year, was forced to accept all but the most radical of the 21 Demands; its new president, Sun Yat-sen, founder of the Kuomintang (KMT) or Nationalist Peoples’ party, used Chinese anger over the demands to justify his bid for restoring the monarchy and installing himself as emperor. He reigned only briefly, however, before opposition from China’s military leaders forced him to return the country to a republican form of government.

When China declared war on Germany on August 14, 1917, its major aim was to earn itself a place at the post-war bargaining table. Above all, China sought to regain control over the vital Shantung Peninsula and to reassert its strength before Japan, its most important adversary and rival for control in the region. At the Versailles Peace Conference following the armistice, Japan and China struggled bitterly to convince the Allied Supreme Council—dominated by the United States, France and Britain—of their respective claims on the Shantung Peninsula. A bargain was eventually struck in favor of Japan, who backed down from their demand for a racial-equality clause in the treaty in return for control over Germany’s considerable economic possessions in Shantung, including railways, mines and the port at Tsingtao.

Though Japan promised to return control of Shantung to China eventually—it did so in February 1922—the Chinese were deeply outraged by the Allied decision to favor Japan at Versailles. A huge demonstration was held in Tiananmen Square on May 4, 1919, protesting the peace treaty, which Chinese delegates in Versailles refused to sign. “When the news of the Paris Peace Conference finally reached us we were greatly shocked,” one Chinese student recalled. “We at once awoke to the fact that foreign nations were still selfish and militaristic and that they were all great liars.” A year after the peace conference closed, radical Chinese nationalists formed the Chinese Communist Party, which under the leadership of Mao Tse-tung and Chou En-lai, as well as many other former leaders of the anti-Versailles Treaty demonstrations, would go on to win power in China in 1949.