General situation at the end of 1914

Gand Duke Nicholas.
His end of year message suggested the
British should attack Turkey

1914 drew to a close after five tumultuous months of war since Austria- Hungary’s declaration of war on Serbia. In terms of its duration, only 10% had passed and yet most of the major battles had been fought and many strategic dice had been cast. The major players took stock and reviewed their plans; and major players so far little involved reviewed their positions.

On 30^th December the Russian Commander-in-Chief Grand Duke Nicholas proposed a British expedition against the Turks to ease the developing Russian situation in the Caucasus, and we will see in detail where this led in 1915.

The Western and Eastern Fronts had played out as described. Paris and the channel ports were saved; and there was a degree of stability on both main fronts. The British Army was being transformed by Kitchener’s efforts (and by the loss of so many of officers and men of the small professional army that started out as the BEF in August). By Christmas over 2 million men were under arms, either for home defence or foreign service.

The French spirit was intact following the defence of Paris and the consolidation of the Western Front. Joffre’s position was stronger than the politicians and he embodied the pride of France.

Russia had suffered badly in eastern front confrontations, but her immense reserves of men and territory still presented a massive threat to the central powers. (Buchan) "The statesman who marvelled at Russia’s apparent strength and exulted in her alliance, did not realise the she represented a stage of development wholly unlike that of Western nations…… Her mystic communism had no affinities with the shallow materialism and the capitalistic tyranny which had been the working creed of western Europe and the United States……… they forget that the humanity admired in Russian idealism might as easily have its roots in moral apathy and intellectual slovenliness as in divine wisdom and that qualities which may characterise the saint may also be an attribute of the mollusc." (as far as I can tell this was written before the Revolution of 1917, if so, prescient)

Although in a strong position militarily, Germany’s threat on the high seas was now limited to the North Sea and the U-boat campaign. In the medium to long term its position was difficult. Except through Scandinavia and Holland to the north, and Italy and Roumania to south and east, communications with the outer world were cut, and import of goods of all types was problematic.

Austria was reduced to a weak and inferior German partner with little autonomy in how she conducted her preferred approach to the war. She had to face the prospect of aggression from the south, in Italy, which had been part of an apparent triple alliance only months earlier.

Italy held an important strategic position on the flank of both Austria and Germany. Its membership of the Triple alliance dated back to 1881 and the Congress of Berlin, (which gave Cyprus to Britain and Tunis to France) but Italy was a new power, not naturally or historically linked with Austria or Germany. At the outbreak of war she had better relations with both Britain and France and her neutrality was not surprising. As Austria came under increasing pressure opportunism might push Italy into declaring for the Allies.

Romania and Bulgaria were smaller nations but potentially influential depending on the continuation, or not, of their neutrality. Both had had reversals of fortune during the first and second Balkan wars, and might move in either direction. Roumania had strong relations with Italy, and for the moment would follow Italy’s lead, and Bulgaria in turn would likely follow Roumania – but nothing was certain, and Bulgaria’s king was pro German. As we have seen the entry of Turkey into the war had raised the tension in the Balkan theatre

Across the Atlantic, the USA had started the war period with an avowedly neutral stance, and President Wilson worked hard to emphasise this. Despite large German and American Irish sympathies, the majority American opinion was more supportive of the allies than the central powers, but it seemed unlikely that any important intervention would come from the USA, although large numbers of Empire Canadians were flocking to the British army’s cause.

Naval Situation December 1914

Apart from the successful transport of the BEF to France in August, the Royal Navy’s first few months had brought more frustration and embarrassment than success. The hapless pursuit of the Goben and Breslau ended in their escape to the Black Sea where they caused severe damage to the allies - physically and diplomatically. The Battle of Coronel off South America's tip brought Britain’s first defeat in a major naval action in over 100 years, albeit swiftly revenged at the Battle of the Falklands. The sinking by German mines of the ‘super-dreadnought’ battleship HMS Audacious off Donegal on 27^th October was such an embarrassment that news of it was suppressed until after the war.

The last minutes of HMS Audacious.
Censorship of press and official information was so strict, that the
loss of a major capital ship in home waters was suppressed for years

In home waters during November and December 1914, there was great uncertainty about the intentions of the Germans. Jellicoe, as C-in-C, was very cautious, and at odds with Fisher and Churchill at the Admiralty re his dispositions. There were also continuing anxieties about a German invasion during November, and defensive preparations were made all along the East Coast.

16^th December saw a naval bombardment of Hartlepool and Scarborough. The British set out to trap the four responsible German battleships in a pincer movement from north and south as soon as they heard about it. Bad weather supervened, and in mist the Germans made an improbable retreat. In fact, this action came close to a major sea battle, since the German battle cruisers were the vanguard of von Ingelhohl’s High Sea Fleet near the Dogger Bank; but von Ingelhohl turned tail and ran back to Cuxhaven when the fleets were only a few miles apart. The whole event was another PR embarrassment for the Admiralty, but was of no strategic significance. 

There will be short pause in these blogs before we move on to cover the events of 1915

Turkey and the Caucasus are drawn into the war

Ceremonial Declaration of War on the Entente
by the Ottoman Empire November 13th 1914 

 To the east of the power blocs of Europe - the triple alliance and the triple entente - the continental land mass stretched away through Turkey and the Balkans and on to the middle east and the Caucasus. For the previous 600 years most of this land had been part of the Ottoman Empire, or at least under its influence. Like its opponent the Habsburg Empire, the Ottoman was in long term decline, and by the outset of the War effectively comprised only the nation of Turkey. With its differing relationships across the patchwork of  Balkan and Caucasus nations, Turkey's stance was viewed as of strategic importance by all the great powers.  Most of the smaller nations were either strongly pro-German or pro-Entente. Turkey was more ambivalent but was always likely to be anti-Russian, given Russia's longstanding designs on Constantinople as the gateway to Mediterranean for its fleet and trade. The Young Turks, who had taken control in 1909, were anti-Islam, anti-National and politically unscrupulous. Britain had an uneasy relationship with Turkey because of its geographical position vis a vis the empire. Churchill was there in 1911 to build alliances and meet the Young Turks, led by Enver Pasha who was avowedly pro-German. Although he had little time for them, Churchill did commit Britain to building and supplying two Dreadnought battleships. This arrangement was to have profound consequences in the build up to war when the British felt compelled to impound the ships just as they were about to launched from Newcastle.

The Balkan wars of 1912-13 had pitted Turkey against Greece, and it was difficult to see them declaring for the same side in the great conflict now engulfing the continent. Also key was the role of Bulgaria, which did most of the heavy and successful fighting in Turkey in the first Balkan war, only to see Greece and Serbia take the territory it had gained. Bulgaria attacked them in response, allowing a Turkish counter attack in the second Balkan war, and an incursion into northern Bulgaria by Roumania. At the end of the second Balkan war, Bulgaria was left as a brooding, bitter, threatening neutral party, led by its influential (and Germanophile by family links) King, Ferdinand.
On 18th August, at the outbreak of the war, the Ottoman government declared neutrality. On 19^th August, Venizelos, the Greek Prime Minister, put all his country’s resources at the disposal of the Entente. Churchill and others were keenly in favour, seeing this as a way of getting Greece, Serbia, Roumania and Bulgaria on side, as in any case it seemed likely that Turkey would drift to Germany. At that stage such a group could easily take the Gallipoli peninsula and protect the Dardanelles for the Allies. Grey, however, did not want to accept the Greek offer – he preferred to keep Turkey (and the region in general) as neutral. There was a lot of prevarication on all sides, but it was later discovered that a secret Turco-German treaty had been signed as early as 2^nd August.

On 28th September, Turkey closed the Dardanelles to naval traffic. These were vital for Russian commerce and for communications between the Western Allies and Russia. By this time two battle cruisers of the German fleet - the Goben and Breslau - were safely in the Black Sea, having escaped a prolonged British Navy pursuit in the first days of the war. This highly embarrassing episode arose by combination of vacillation and incompetence by the Fleet, and heads had rolled.  
On the 19 October, Goben and Breslau were donated by Germany to the Ottoman Navy, thereby compensating them for the refusal of Britain to release the two commissioned Dreadnoughts. The German crews stayed with the ships, and on 29th October bombarded the Black Sea ports of Sebastopol and Theodosia. The Grand Vizier expressed regret to Allies for the unsanctioned operations of the Navy, but this was the final straw for Russia. They declared war, and despite diplomatic activity, on 5th November the United Kingdom and France also declared war on the Ottoman Empire. On 14 November, the Ottoman majority government, following a very public ceremony on 13th (pictured above) stated a "declaration of existence of the war". An ever present source of antagonism to Britain and its allies during this time was General Liman von Sanders, a German adviser to the Turkish army. He would bring much more suffering to the Allies the following year. 

Tsar Ferdinand I of
Bulgaria. Pro German
and angry

The first action anticipated after declaration of war was against Suez by the Turks. There were great movements of the British Fleet from India to Suez – easier now that German surface raiders had been dealt with. Also the great convoy of ANZACS arrived in Egypt, via the Red Sea. In these months from August to November, so many seeds had been sown for the inevitable failure of the Dardanelles campaign that was to follow in early 1915. 

The Caucasus

Enver Pasha
Leader of the Young Turks
1914-18

 Another front now started to open up in December in the east, where Enver Pasha was determined to lead an assault against the relatively weak Russian border forces. Leading 150,000 Turks, he invaded the Caucasus against 100,000 Russians, just as the winter was setting in.  It became a disaster. Stuck in the mountains in mid winter, and unable to progress against well defended Russian positions the Turks became stranded. By the New Year they were dying in their thousands from starvation and exposure. 

The fate of Serbia

The pot-pourri of peoples comprising Austria-Hungary
Not surprising there was such instability

One answer to my rhetorical question re Poland in the previous blog might be Serbia. Serbia suffered dreadfully during the first world war and on many occasions since but, unlike Poland, was not blameless in the long sequence of events leading up to WW1. Serbia, as a small nation striving for autonomy for the southern Slav peoples had been exhausted and weakened by the first and second Balkan wars in 1912 and 1913, and yet had to face the onslaught of Austria, fuelled by righteous indignation after the assassination in Sarajevo, in the very opening phases of the war in late July. Following the Balkan wars of 1912 and 1913 Serbia had to beware of its southern and eastern borders where Bulgaria, Greece and Albania all had designs on its newly gained territories. In July 1914, against all expectations, the Serbs routed the Austrians in the first exchanges, but then followed another of WW1's see saw struggles. Once Austria had benefited from significant German reinforcements, the Serbian nation suffered terribly in the forced winter retreats through the mountains towards the Adriatic sea, and its misery continued through 1915 to the end of the war.

Although all had expected Serbia to be destroyed quickly by Austria, this had not happened. The Serbs even advanced into Bosnia in Autumn 1914 to strike at Sarajevo, but at this point the Austrians re-established control and sent them back into Serbia – to Valjevo and the river Kolubara. The Austrian public demanded revenge for the earlier humiliations, and the Austro-German strategy of gains in the east - to create a corridor through to the Aegean sea - meant that German strength was added to the Austrian forces.

Potiorek - previously
nominated as one of the
failures of WW1

Initial success for Potiorek, commander of the Austrians, opened up the possibility of advancing to Belgrade and seizing the railway that opened up the route to Turkey. The Serbian Crown Prince’s army was completely dwarfed by the wide sweep of the Austrian advances from rivers Danube, Sava and Drina, and was forced to retreat into the mountains to the south east. Yet again Potiorek misjudged events with disastrous consequences. He decided that the retreat of the Serbians to the mountains marked the end of any effective resistance. He detached three of his army corps to leave Serbia and join the fighting in Galicia.  The Austrians actually entered Belgrade, but they were weakened and exhausted, and vulnerable to a Serbian counter-stroke. Their offensive plan was to move on south east with a pincer movement to enclose the Serbian army, and they moved to cover the line between Mladenovatz and Ushitza on 1st December. They advanced into a trap, and a fierce and desperate Serbian counter attack came on 3rd December, all along the front. By dawn on 6th the Austrians were routed and in full retreat north and west to Austria and Hungary, even beyond their own borders.

(Buchan):On the 15^th the capital was retaken, and while the Austrian rearguard was fighting in the northern suburbs, King Peter was on his knees in the cathedral giving thanks for victory.

Of the 200,000 Austrians who crossed the Drina and Sava, not 100,000 returned. The disaster was indeed for Austria what Tannenberg had been for Russia: it virtually destroyed a field army. Potiorek was removed (finally) from his command, and all talk of the conquest of Serbia by Austria alone died away.
Sadly for Serbia, strengthened central powers forces would return and force them into the nightmare retreat back across the mountains that effectively finished the country as a theatre of war. (Wikipedia)The Serbian Army declined severely towards the end of the war, falling from about 420,000 at its peak to about 100,000 at the moment of liberation. The Kingdom of Serbia lost more than 1,100,000 inhabitants during the war (both army and civilian losses), which represented over 27% of its overall population and 60% of its male population. These figures are not matched by any other country.

The Eastern Front Part 6 - The battles for Warsaw

The course of the Vistula from the
Carpathians to the Baltic, at Gdansk

          After their humiliation at Tannenberg, what a glittering prize the taking of Cracow and an advance into German Silesia must have seemed to the Russians. Despite their victories at Lemberg against the sub-standard Austro-Hungarian armies, they had been comprehensively outfought and out thought by the Germans in the north.  Not only would such a move now occupy German land and the road to Berlin, it would cut the direct route between Berlin and Vienna. They were egged on by the French, desperate for any actions that would detract from the German effort on the Western Front. Ironically, the threat to Cracow at this point compelled Germany to make its main advance on Warsaw itself. With similar logic to Prince Nicholas, Hindenberg saw it also as an ideal winter HQ, but it was his necessity to draw Russian pressure way from Cracow that precipitated the assault. For a while the wings of the opposing armies were wheeling gigantically clockwise, with the Russians looking to move west and north to threaten Silesia, and the Germans, from their strong positions in the north, looking to move south and west to pressurise and envelop Warsaw - and then through the centre would come some titanic and see-saw battles for the control of Poland. Hindenberg's initial moves towards Warsaw were held off at great cost, and then reversed by the Russians

The course of Poland's great river the Vistula dictated much of the action. From its source in the Carpathians, it winds north eastwards before turning back north west to run towards Warsaw . The key city of Ivangorod (today Deblin) fifty miles upstream was the only other crossing point of note. At Warsaw was the main crossing of the river for central Poland. Most of the city lay on the west bank, but its main railway station, the nodal point of the Polish lines was in the suburb of Praga across the river. The other opportunity to cross the Vistula lay in the narrowed section at Josefov. With a railway base at Ostroviets a few miles to the west the Germans had a good launch pad for an attempt. 

Sensing the attack through the centre that could ruin his own plans, the Crown Prince pulled all his forces behind the Vistula and the San (in the south), hence Ivanov’s significant withdrawal from near to Cracow. He still hoped to counter attack if the German attempt at Josefov failed.

Hindenberg’s two leading general for the campaign were Drieffel in the south and Mackensen in the north. On 10th October, Hindenberg’s centre was at Lodz; Dankl was on the left bank of the Vistula near Sandomierz, and even the Austrian right wing had reach as far as Tarnow well to the east of Cracow. On 14th the German left was at Plock, on the Vistula north west of Warsaw; its centre was at Lowicz nearing Warsaw; and its right between Radom and Ostrevietz. On 15th the battle was joined all along the line of the Vistula. The fighting was hard, and the progress was slow. The 9^th Army under Mackensen drove for two full days to penetrate the Warsaw defences, and their cavalry appeared in Pruskov, a western suburb 8 miles from the centre. Stubborn resistance came from the Siberian corps, recently arrived at the front. Rennekampf, who had been reinforced, was able to strike at the right of Mackensen’s lines from the north in the area of the river Bzura, and compel it to a defensive orientation east to west, rather than north south. The battle was now resolved into two separate actions – those of Mackensen to the north; and Dankl plus the Austrians to the south of the river Pilitza (a tributary of the Vistula between Warsaw and Ivangorod). Russian numerical superiority told and they began to drive the Germans into heavy country on the western side of the Vistula. Through great areas of forest there were countless small encounters and desperate hand to hand fighting. By the beginning of November the German front was clearly broken into two sections either side of the Pilitza. The southern army was retreating towards Czestochova and Cracow, and the northern group westwards to the line of the river Warta. They were in serious trouble, and the only continuing success had, ironically been the Austrians, who in the very south and south east of the front had moved across the San and re-taken both Jaroslav and Przemysl (though not for long).

The pendulum was now swinging back, with Russians pushing hard in every direction, towards the Masurian lakes in the north west, and back towards Cracow in the south. By 12th November, the Russians had taken Miechov on the German border, not 20 miles north of Cracow. Dmitrieff’s advance had continued slowly for another three weeks, and by the end of the first week of December he was in the suburbs of Cracow at Wielitza, and his main force was on the line of the river Raba. But on 12th December Dmitrieff heard that the Austrians had taken the key pass of Dukla through the Carpathians, well to the east. He was again compelled to fall back from Cracow. Further news confirmed that Austria was retaking the other main Carpathian passes, and so a major effort was required to address this, so that by 25th December all Galician approaches to the Carpathian passes were back in Russian control. However, the advance on Cracow had been stalled; and the Germans, driven by Mackensen and Ludendorff, saw the opportunity for yet another counter-attack in the centre, back towards Warsaw.

For all their success, the Russian position was now a precarious one. Hindenberg had pursued a drastic scorched earth policy during his retreat, and transport and communications were difficult. Any strong German counter attack might prove decisive, and the Russians were now attempting to hold a front nearly one thousand miles long with just 2 million men. There were dozens of points weakness along the front. 

(Buchan) In late Autumn in Poland there come heavy mists which cover the landscape like a garment. From sunrise to sunset they never break, and the traveller’s vision is limited to a hundred yards of sodden plain……

In such weather the bolt was launched against Russia’s right centre

Mackensen started his new counter-attack from inside German territory.  Again they had been  saved by their railways, so that they were able to move rapidly 200,000 men to support the advance. He advanced east and south-east. The German eastern army rapidly advanced from Thorn in north Poland towards Lodz. Everything came together there in a huge and complex battle with massive Russian numbers superiority. By the evening of 16th November, the Germans had broken right through the Russian centre, with a further critical advance on the 19th across the Piontek causeway between Lodz and Lowicz. They were almost encircling 150,000 Russians in Lodz, and entering the city.

German troops entering Lodz November 1914

The Russian line in its centre fell back and back, till there was a deep sag in it east of Lodz and south of Strykov. The front split apart, with two ragged edges at Rzgov and Koluschky. It looked very bleak for the Russians. But then on23rd November another timely arrival of strong reinforcements from the 2^nd and 5^th armies plugged the gap, and re-established the Russian line. Rapidly, tables turned once more, and Scheffer, the German general, found himself almost encircled. Things looked very bleak for Scheffer and yet by the 24^th he had fought north and broken out of the Russian stranglehold to the safety of the north west, and even retained 10,000 Russian prisoners taken in the early parts of the battle. For his failure in the exercise to close the pincers on the Germans, Rennenkampf was sacked. 

Buchan: "The situation in the east now corresponded exactly with the position in the west. The Russians entrenched themselves on a front against which the enemy’s assault broke in vain. As in Flanders, the severest fighting was in the north, and along the line of a little river. The Bzura and the Rawka were indeed the equivalent of the Yser…."

What is known as the second battle for Warsaw raged for three weeks until Christmas Eve. On this occasion it was less for the relief of Cracow, than the strategic gain of Warsaw itself. Hindenberg wanted it as a Christmas present for the Kaiser, but the defence could not be broken. By Christmas Eve the German attack fizzled out, just as 6 weeks earlier against Ypres in the west. The winter stalemate had finally arrived.