The final weeks of 1915

The daily Last Post ceremony at the
Menin Gate, Ypres

As 1915 drew to a close, there were very few positive points for the Entente powers to reflect on - defeated on the Eastern front and at Gallipoli; almost pushed out of the Balkans, and under siege in Mesopotamia. Belgium and large areas of north eastern France were still under German occupation, and the costly stalemate of the Western Front was increasing the pressure on the French political and military leadership. Despite this, the central powers were, if anything in a worse long term position at the year's end. Their leadership realised that they were committed to a long and drawn out war, in which the superior numbers and resources of the Entente powers would eventually succeed. Their civil populations, notwithstanding propaganda and censorship, were coming to the same viewpoint. In the first year of the war, the 'Burgfrieden', or political truce, achieved by Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg ensured full and patriotic home support for the campaigns of the military at the front. By late 1915, increasing cost and scarcity of food, plus the mounting losses of friends and family at the front lines, were relentlessly gnawing away at morale on the German and Austrian home fronts - and it would get much worse through 1916 and 1917. The Central Powers' strategy began to turn more towards a peace settlement negotiated from a position of maximum strength, rather than outright victory. 


In England Churchill, having resigned from the Government, wasted no time in enlisting with his regiment, the 2^nd Battalion of Grenadier Guards, and crossing to France to familiarise himself with the trench warfare on the Western Front. Via his contacts, he learned from a distance about the continuing efforts of de Wemyss (now replacing de Robeck as senior officer of the Eastern Mediterranean Fleet) and Keyes to advance their plan to cut off the Turks on the Gallipoli Peninsula and to prevent, by bombardment, reinforcements reaching them. However, on December 9^th, the decision to evacuate was transmitted. This brought a vehement and passionate protest from de Wemyss, but he was overruled and ordered to withdraw from the Dardanelles and prepare for evacuation. The immediate consequences of failure at Gallipoli were:

•        Serbia destroyed
•        Bulgaria joining the Central Powers in war
•        Romania and Greece “frozen in territorial neutrality”
•        Twenty Turkish Divisions released for duty to the west, north and south east.  
•        Loss of access to Russia for supplies in both directions

Leadership changes

Recruitment Poster late 1915.
Civilian populations on home fronts of all
combatants had low morale and increased
anxiety by end 1915.

Lord Kitchener. The failure of Gallipoli was fatally damaging to Kitchener. He had backed the latest costly engagements on the Western Front for no gains, and his increasingly confused pronouncements regarding Gallipoli exposed the effects of the great strain he had been carrying on his own shoulders. On December 3^rd the War Committee resolved to support him (effectively replacing him) by recreating the Imperial General Staff at the War Office. Sir William Robertson, who had been doing a remarkable job as Quartermaster General to the BEF in France, was recalled to become the Chief of this staff (CIGS). Kitchener was thereby relieved of many of his duties and burdens.

Sir John French. The decision was also taken in London to relieve Sir John French as Commander in Chief of the BEF. He was put in charge of the British Home Forces, and replaced by General Douglas Haig. French’s indecision with the reserve at Loos was the final straw, but he had been under something of a cloud since the Great Retreat of 1914, and his altercation with Kitchener over the Marne. French did not take the decision well, and accused Haig of engineering it. Both Churchill and Buchan make generous analysis of French’s qualities as a soldier, if not as a man. However, his infamous self justifying post-war memoirs lost him a lot of respect. Haig was the obvious and outstanding candidate to replace him. Apart from his own personal wobble on the Great Retreat, his conduct to date and his performance had been excellent, particularly at Ypres 1. History has given us mixed views, at best, about Haig, but clearly he was the best man at that time to take on an enormous and thankless task.

France In France there was also pressure on the government, and even on Joffre, after 1915’s unsuccessful carnage in Champagne and Artois. Delcasse had resigned as Premier on 13^th October, exhausted by events on the Western Front and disagreements over Balkans policy. He was replaced by Briand, who formed a new government in early November. Briand replaced Millerand as War Minister with the veteran General Gallieni, the redoubtable defender of Paris during the Marne crisis. Joffre was ‘moved upstairs’ to a government office in Paris, as ‘general of generals’. Ostensibly a promotion, this moved Joffre out of day to day control of any French army, while Castelnau was installed as Supreme Commander of the armies in France.

As the year drew to a close, the strategic failure of the Gallipoli campaign brought both sides to the realisation that they were locked in a long war of attrition and exhaustion. For all their convincing victories during the year, the Germans were still locked in struggle on two enormous fronts – and the Eastern front now had its extension into the Caucasus and the Middle East. Britain’s sea losses during 1915 were numerous, but even had it lost fifty ships, this would have represented only a small proportion of the total fleet, and made no impact on the ability to patrol the oceans, protect trade supplies and enforce blockades against the enemy. Germany realised that success on land could not bring real victory unless Britain’s navy could somehow be negated. This was the real meaning of sea power. Churchill and the British public wanted regular Trafalgar style triumphs, but this was more effective.

There were only one or two instances of a Christmas truce to end the year, compared with what happened spontaneously along the British stretch of the front in 1914. A further year of bitter struggle and loss had hardened hearts, and in any case the Military Commanders were more prepared this time, and threatened executions for any connivance with the enemy. Despite this there were a few brief episodes of truce, and one reliably recorded impromptu football match.