March 1915

It's the end of March, one hundred years ago.  Repeated efforts to force the Dardanelles with naval forces alone have failed, and the Allies are now preparing an amphibious assault on the Gallipoli Peninsula.  The British Army in France overruns the German position at Neuve Chapelle but is unable to exploit its initial success.  Great Britain responds to Germany's declaration of submarine warfare by announcing the commencement of total economic warfare, declaring that all ships bound for Germany will be intercepted and their cargoes subject to confiscation.  The United States objects, but does so mildly.  Colonel House is in Europe making the rounds of the warring nations' capitals, but his peacemaking attempts bear no fruit.  German submarine warfare claims its first American victim off the coast of Wales.  The German cruiser S.M.S. Dresden is run to ground on a Chilean island.  The long Russian siege of the Austrian fortress of Przemysl ends with an Austrian surrender.  In the United States, the Sixty-third Congress comes to an end.  Former President Roosevelt is harshly critical of the administration's foreign policy with regard to Mexico.  A new motion picture, "The Birth of a Nation," opens in New York to overflow crowds.

*****

Admiral Carden

After several days of bombardment had neutralized the Turkish forts guarding the entrance to the Dardanelles, minesweepers (converted fishing trawlers) were sent into the Straits on the night of March 1 in an attempt to clear mines from the Narrows.  Escorted by a light cruiser and four destroyers, the minesweepers made slow progress against the current.  When they reached the Narrows they were illuminated by searchlights and driven back by heavy fire from the forts and mobile howitzer batteries on both banks.  Blinded by the searchlights, the escorts' return fire was ineffective.  Over the next several nights, repeated attempts to sweep the minefields failed.  On March 15 Admiral Carden, taken ill with an ulcer,  resigned his command and was replaced by his deputy, Admiral John de Robeck.

Admiral de Robeck

Victims of Turkish Mines

Admiral de Robeck decided to reverse the order of attack, sending his battleships into the Straits to silence the Turkish guns before sending the minesweepers through the Narrows.  On March 18 sixteen British and French battleships entered the Straits and engaged in a furious artillery battle with the Turkish forts.  Although the portion of the Straits in which the battleships were operating had been swept for mines and declared clear, five battleships struck previously undetected mines as they were maneuvering to withdraw, and were sunk, abandoned, or otherwise put out of action.  At a conference on March 22 aboard Admiral de Robeck's flagship, HMS Queen Elizabeth, attended by his senior commanders and the recently arrived General Sir Ian Hamilton, de Robeck decided that the attempt to force the Straits by naval action alone should be abandoned.  Instead, he ordered General Hamilton to prepare a landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula to be followed by occupation of the heights overlooking the Straits.  First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill wanted to order de Robeck to continue the naval assault, but Prime Minister Asquith and the cabinet declined to overrule the commander on the scene.  The focus of activity has now shifted to military operations on the Peninsula under General Hamilton's command.  Although Churchill remains at his post at the Admiralty, primary responsibility for the conduct of the Dardanelles campaign now lies with Lord Kitchener, Secretary of State for War.

Sir John French

Field Marshal Sir John French, commanding officer of the British Expeditionary Force in France, believes that the British Army would be more usefully deployed on the Western Front than in the eastern Mediterranean.  On March 10, in an operation perhaps designed to demonstrate the point as Army units are being sent to Gallipoli, forces under French's command attacked a thinly defended portion of the German lines in the vicinity of Neuve Chapelle.  The attack began with a heavy artillery barrage, followed by an infantry assault that exploited the element of surprise and achieved a breakthrough.  French's hopes for a decisive victory, however, were not realized.  Delay in following up, due in large part to breakdowns in communication, caused the attack to falter after the initial success.  German counterattacks beginning March 12 succeeded in halting the British advance and regaining much of the lost ground.

Prime Minister Herbert Asquith

The British government responded this month to the submarine warfare policy announced last month by Germany.  On March 1, Prime Minister Asquith read a statement in the House of Commons that was sent simultaneously to the capitals of the neutral powers.  Formalized in an Order in Council on March 11, it declared that, because the new German policy "substitutes indiscriminate destruction for regulated captures ... with the avowed object of preventing commodities of all kinds, including food for the civilian population, from reaching or leaving the British Isles or Northern France," the Allies are "driven to frame retaliatory measures in order in their turn to prevent commodities of any kind from reaching or leaving Germany."  The statement acknowledges that the new policies "in some measure involve a departure from previous practice," but states that they will be enforced "without risk to neutral ships or neutral or noncombatant lives, and in strict observation of the dictates of humanity."  "Ships carrying goods of presumed enemy destination, ownership or origin" may be detained and taken into port, but the ships and their cargoes will not be confiscated "unless they would otherwise be liable to confiscation."  In presenting the statement, the Prime Minister said "to our enemy -- on behalf of the Government, and I hope on behalf of the House of Commons -- that under existing conditions there is no form of economic pressure to which we do not consider ourselves entitled to resort.  If, as a consequence, neutrals suffer inconvenience and loss of trade, we regret it, but we beg them to remember that this phase of the war was not initiated by us."

What remains unclear, perhaps even within the British government itself, is how the new policy will be enforced against commerce between neutrals, particularly with the so-called "northern neutrals" (Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands).  One thing that is clear is that the March 11 Order in Council represents a firm rejection by the British of the modus vivendi proposed last month by American Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan.

Robert Lansing

The United States responded this month to the British Order in Council.  The note was drafted by State Department Counselor Robert Lansing and revised by President Wilson after comments by Secretary of State Bryan.  Delivered March 30, it pointed out that international law does not permit the blockading of neutral ports (such as Rotterdam), and that the Order in Council in effect claims the traditional rights of a blockading squadron for British naval forces that are not in fact blockading an enemy coast, such as those patrolling between Norway, the Faeroes and Iceland.  The American note goes to some length, however, to avoid a direct confrontation with Great Britain on points of international law.  It states that it assumes the Order in Council's reference to "retaliatory" measures, presumably intended to justify any departure from international law, is meant "as merely a reason for certain extraordinary activities on the part of His Majesty's naval forces and not as an excuse for or prelude to any unlawful action," and that "it is confidently expected that the extensive powers conferred by the order in council [will be exercised] in such a manner as to modify in practical application those provisions of the order in council which, if strictly enforced, would  violate neutral rights and interrupt legitimate trade."

Colonel House

"Colonel" Edward M. House has been in Europe since early last month as President Wilson's unofficial representative.  The first several weeks after his arrival were spent in England, where he and Mrs. House were entertained by the political and social elite.  During his visit, Colonel House had an hour's audience with the king and met extensively with Foreign Minister Sir Edward Grey, but found little encouragement for his attempts at peacemaking.  Grey told House that any settlement must include German evacuation of Belgium and payment of an indemnity.  He rejected House's "freedom of the seas" proposal, that a settlement should include immunity of merchant shipping from attack during wartime, saying that such a rule would deprive Great Britain of its most effective weapon.

On March 11 the Houses left for France on a ferry that sped across the English Channel escorted by a British destroyer.  In Paris Colonel House met with Foreign Minister Theophile Delcasse, but there as in England he found little interest in achieving peace short of victory.  The Houses then traveled by way of neutral Switzerland to Berlin, where the colonel met with Arthur Zimmermann, the Deputy Foreign Secretary.  Zimmermann likewise showed no inclination to negotiate an end to the war.  Even before House left England, Zimmermann had rejected the idea of a settlement based on German withdrawal from Belgium, with or without an indemnity, saying any such settlement would mean "taking as a basis a more or less defeated Germany."

R.M.S. Falaba

On March 28 R.M.S. Falaba, an unarmed British passenger steamship en route from Liverpool to British West Africa, was intercepted off the coast of Wales by a surfaced German submarine.  The U-boat commander gave Falaba ten minutes to put her passengers and crew in lifeboats, then extended the deadline twice.  When an armed British trawler came on the scene while the lifeboats were still being lowered, the submarine fired a torpedo into Falaba, sinking her.  One hundred and four passengers drowned, including one American, a mining engineer named Leon C. Thrasher.  Mr. Thrasher is the first American to lose his life as a result of a German submarine attack.  His death focuses attention on the language of last month's note in which the United States warned Germany that it would be held to "strict accountability" for any naval action destroying "an American vessel or the lives of American citizens."

S.M.S. Dresden in Cumberland Bay

After her escape from the Falkland Islands following the defeat of the German East Asia Squadron in December, the German light cruiser S.M.S. Dresden became the object of an intense search by Royal Navy forces, now commanded by Captain John Luce of H.M.S. Glasgow.  On March 8, H.M.S. Kent sighted Dresden off the coast of Chile.  Dresden ran to Cumberland Bay on the Chilean island of Mas a Tierra, where Kent, joined by Glasgow, found it on March 14 and opened fire.  Dresden returned fire, but after a few minutes hoisted a white flag.  When Captain Luce rejected Dresden's claim that she was interned under the protection of the Chilean government, Dresden's Captain Ludecke ordered his crew to open the sea valves and abandon ship.  Dresden sank twenty minutes later.

Field Marshal Conrad von Hotzendorf

The Austrian fortress of Przemysl, in the Carpathian Mountains of Eastern Galicia, has been under siege by the Russian Army since October.  In January an Austro-Hungarian offensive under the command of Field Marshal Franz Conrad von Hotzendorf began, designed to relieve the besieged fortress and evict the Russians from Galicia.  The campaign failed, stalled by bitter winter weather and a vigorous Russian counter-offensive.  Przemysl surrendered on March 22, and by month's end the Russian Army had succeeded in driving the Austrians from the Carpathians.

Speaker of the House Champ Clark

In the United States, a weary Sixty-third Congress expired on March 4 without passing the administration's Ship Purchase Bill, which would have put the government in the shipping business by authorizing the purchase of merchant ships, including interned German ships, for use in American international trade.  The shipping industry opposed the bill, not welcoming the federal government as a major competitor.  Another major obstacle to passage was that Great Britain, having just succeeded in clearing the seas of German shipping, objected to the potential reappearance of those same ships under a neutral flag.  A Senate filibuster instituted by Republicans was joined by some Democrats in defiance of the administration, and the bill was returned to committee, where it died.  Another bill that failed to pass prior to the expiration of the Congress would have provided for self-government of the Philippines with a view to eventual independence.  On the positive side, Congress passed the Naval Appropriations Bill, authorizing funds for the development of aviation and for ship construction, including seagoing and coast defense submarines, torpedo-boat destroyers, a fuel ship and, last but not least, five super-dreadnought battleships.  The bill also establishes a Naval Reserve, creates a post of Chief of Naval Operations, and authorizes the ranks of Admiral and Vice Admiral for officers in command of the Atlantic, Pacific and Asiatic Fleets.

Former President Roosevelt

With the work of Congress ended, President Wilson turned his attention to the ongoing civil war in Mexico, where President Carranza's forces, led by General Alvaro Obregon, evacuated Mexico City on March 10, urging Americans to do the same.  Revolutionary troops led by Emiliano Zapata and Francisco ("Pancho") Villa occupied the city the next day.  On March 15, under American pressure backed by the threat of military intervention, Carranza withdrew the gunship that had been blockading the port of Progreso on the Yucatan Peninsula.  Former President Theodore Roosevelt weighed in this month with an article in Metropolitan Magazine entitled "Uncle Sam and the Rest of the World."  The article denounces the Wilson administration's inconsistent policy in Mexico, first supporting Villa against Huerta, then abandoning Villa in favor of Carranza, as "fundamentally as evil a declaration as has ever been put forth by an American President in treating foreign affairs."  He calls for a return to "straightforward sincerity in American public life."

Theatrical Poster for "The Birth of a Nation"

For the first time, a major Broadway theater has been used for exhibition of a motion picture film.  "The Birth of a Nation," which opened March 3 at the Liberty Theatre on West 42d Street, was produced and directed by D.W. Griffith.  It is based on "The Clansman," a novel by Thomas Dixon, and tells the story of Reconstruction after the Civil War from the point of view of the defeated South.  As the novel's title suggests, it presents the Ku Klux Klan in a favorable light.  Efforts by the recently formed National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to prevent its showing have been unsuccessful.  Despite protests, thousands have lined up to see it in Los Angeles and New York.  Dixon, a friend and colleague of President Wilson's from his years on the faculty at Johns Hopkins, persuaded the president to attend a private showing in the White House, which took place last month with Wilson's daughters and cabinet members also in attendance.

Charles Francis Adams, Jr.

Charles Francis Adams, Jr., who died March 19, was the great grandson of the second president of the United States, grandson of the sixth, and son of the American minister to Great Britain during the Civil War.  He fought for the Union during the war, rising from the rank of first lieutenant to colonel and brevet brigadier general of volunteers.  After the war he was active in the railroad business, becoming president of the Union Pacific and later a member of the Massachusetts Board of Railway Commissioners.  He was the author of several books, including a biography of his father.

Lincoln Beachey in a Biplane Looping the Loop Over the Exposition

The famous aviator Lincoln Beachey, who thrilled the crowds on the opening day of the Panama Pacific Exposition last month, was thrilling them again on March 14 when his monoplane crashed into San Francisco Bay.  He was performing a maneuver he had accomplished numerous times in a biplane, shutting off his power and dropping vertically before pulling out of his dive at the last second.  As he attempted to pull out this time, the aircraft's wings crumpled and the machine plunged into the water.  His body was recovered over an hour later, still strapped in his seat.

March 1915 – Selected Sources and Recommended Reading

Contemporary Periodicals:

American Review of Reviews, April and May 1915
New York Times, March 1915

Books and Articles:

A. Scott Berg, Wilson
Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis 1911-1918
John Milton Cooper, Jr., Woodrow Wilson: A Biography
John Milton Cooper, Jr., The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt

Patrick Devlin, Too Proud to Fight: Woodrow Wilson's Neutrality

David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace: Creating the Modern Middle East, 1914-1922
Martin Gilbert, The First World War: A Complete History

Martin Gilbert, A History of the Twentieth Century, Volume One: 1900-1933
Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill Volume III: The Challenge of War, 1914-1916

Richard F. Hamilton and Holger H. Herwig, Decisions for War, 1914-1917

August Heckscher, Woodrow Wilson: A Biography

Godfrey Hodgson, Woodrow Wilson's Right Hand: The Life of Colonel Edward M. House
John Keegan, The First World War
Nicholas A. Lambert, Planning Armageddon: British Economic Warfare and the First World War
Erik Larson, Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

Arthur S. Link, Wilson: The Struggle for Neutrality, 1914-1915

Arthur S. Link, Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era, 1910-1917

Robert K. Massie, Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea
G.J. Meyer, A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918

J. Lee Thompson, Never Call Retreat: Theodore Roosevelt and the Great War

Barbara W. Tuchman, The Zimmermann Telegram

February 1915

In February 1915 Germany makes a crucial decision, adopting a strategy of submarine warfare against commercial shipping that will eventually bring the United States into the war.  The Lusitania, on its way from New York to Liverpool, flies the American flag as she transits the Irish Sea; this time she completes her voyage safely.  As diplomatic notes are exchanged on the subjects of submarines, flags, contraband, and the rights of belligerents and neutrals in wartime, it becomes clear that the old rules regarding the blockade of ports and the interception and search of merchant ships at sea probably won't work very well in the age of the submarine.  French offensives on the Western Front and German and Austro-Hungarian offensives on the Eastern Front meet limited success.  In the Mediterranean, a combined British and French fleet begins the bombardment of Turkish forts at the entrance to the Dardanelles.  Japan, having driven the Germans out of the Shantung Peninsula, presents twenty-one demands to China, reflecting its low regard for that nation's sovereignty.  In the United States, President Wilson suffers an embarrassing political defeat as the Democratic Congress is unable to pass the administration's Ship Purchase Bill.  The Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco celebrates the newly opened Panama Canal, and another icon of the Old West passes from the scene as Jesse James's brother dies in Missouri.

*****

Admiral Hugo von Pohl, Advocate of Submarine Warfare

In the war against commerce, February was a month of major escalations.  It began with the outbreak of the war.  On August 20 and October 29, 1914, the British government issued Orders in Council designed to prevent war supplies from reaching Germany by expanding the scope of "contraband" subject to seizure on the high seas.  Then on November 2, citing the "indiscriminate" laying of mines by German ships disguised as fishing vessels, Britain declared the entire North Sea a war zone, warning all ships entering it that they did so at their own risk.  Following U-boat attacks last month, the British Admiralty on January 31 issued instructions authorizing civilian merchant ships to display neutral flags.  On February 4, at the urging of Admiral Hugo von Pohl, Chief of the German Naval Staff, the German government declared its own war zone:

"The waters around Great Britain and Ireland, including the whole English Channel, are declared a war zone from and after February 18, 1915.  Every enemy merchant ship in this war zone will be destroyed, even if it is impossible to avert dangers which threaten the crew and passengers.  Also, neutral ships in the war zone are in danger, as in consequence of the misuse of neutral flags, ordered by the British Government on January 31, and in view of the hazards of naval warfare, it cannot always be avoided that attacks meant for enemy ships endanger neutral ships.  Shipping northward, around the Shetland Islands in the eastern basin of the North Sea and in a strip of at least thirty nautical miles in breadth along the Dutch coast, is endangered in the same way."

The day after the German announcement, Admiral von Pohl assumed command of the High Seas Fleet at Wilhelmshaven.

R.M.S. Lusitania

Before the German announcement was made, the British passenger liner R.M.S. Lusitania had left New York on its regular voyage to Liverpool.  On February 5, the day after the announcement, the Lusitania arrived at the south coast of Ireland, where it encountered rough weather.  Near Queenstown it received a message that German submarines had been sighted.  The crew prepared the lifeboats for immediate use if necessary, and in accordance with the Admiralty's January 31 advice the captain ordered the American flag hoisted.  As the weather improved, the Lusitania raced at full speed through St. George's Channel and the Irish Sea to Liverpool, arriving safely at the mouth of the Mersey at 9:00 Saturday morning, February 6.

A Word to the Wise

The German threat to sink enemy merchant ships without warning runs counter to international law as it has been previously understood, which forbids the destruction of merchant vessels without removing the passengers and crew to a place of safety.  In addition, the threat to neutral shipping implied by the reference to the use of neutral flags raised concerns in noncombatant nations including the United States.  On February 10 the State Department delivered a strong objection, calling the attention of the German government "to the very serious possibilities of the course of action apparently contemplated."  Noting the reference to the use of neutral flags, the note pointed out that under international law warships of belligerent nations have the right of visit and search on the high seas, a principal purpose of which is to determine a vessel's true nationality.  It warned that if German naval action were to destroy an American vessel or the lives of American citizens "it would be difficult for the Government of the United States to view the act in any other light than as an indefensible violation of neutral rights which it would be very hard indeed to reconcile with the friendly relations now so happily subsisting between the two Governments."  In such a case "the Government of the United States would be constrained to hold the Imperial German Government to a strict accountability for such acts of their naval authorities and to take any steps it might be necessary to take to safeguard American lives and property and to secure to American citizens the full enjoyment of their acknowledged rights on the high seas."  It concluded with the statement that the United States had also made "representations" to the British government "in respect of the unwarranted use of the American flag for the protection of British ships."

A Note for Each of You

In that note, delivered the same day, the State Department referred the British government to its January 31 authorization to use neutral flags, as well as to the Lusitania's actual use of the American flag on February 5.  It advised the British government to consider "the serious consequences which may result to American vessels and American citizens if this practice is continued," and expressed "the grave concern which this Government feels in the circumstances in regard to the safety of American vessels and lives."  Responding to Great Britain's reliance on the accepted practice of employing a "ruse de guerre," the American note drew a distinction between the occasional use of a false flag "under the stress of immediate pursuit and to deceive an approaching enemy" and the "explicit sanction by a belligerent government for its merchant ships generally to fly the flag of a neutral power."

John Bull Flying the American Flag

Germany replied to the American note on February 18, the announced effective date of its new policy.  The note adopted the same cordial tone as the American note to which it responded, but offered few if any concessions.  Germany says its new policy "is in no way directed against legitimate commerce and legitimate shipping of neutrals, but represents solely a measure of self-defense, imposed on Germany by her vital interests, against England's method of warfare, which is contrary to international law."  It says "the German Government is resolved to suppress with all the means at its disposal the importation of war material to Great Britain and her allies."  Although there is no intent to attack neutral ships, "neutral vessels which ... enter these closed waters will themselves bear the responsibility for any unfortunate accidents that may occur.  Germany disclaims all responsibility for such accidents and their consequences."  Its efforts to protect legitimate shipping of neutrals in the war zone, the note argues, will be rendered more difficult by "the misuse of neutral flags by British merchant vessels"  and the "contraband trade ... especially in war materials, on neutral vessels."  The right of visit and search is insufficient because "the British Government has supplied arms to merchant ships and instructed them forcibly to resist German submarines," a policy that exposes submarines and searching parties attempting to exercise that right to the risk of destruction.

The next day Great Britain responded to the American note regarding the use of the American flag.  It argued that it would be "unreasonable to expect his Majesty's Government to pass legislation forbidding the use of foreign flags by British merchant vessels to avoid capture by the enemy, now that the German Government have announced their intention to sink merchant vessels at sight with their noncombatant crews, cargoes, and papers, a proceeding hitherto regarded by the opinion of the world not as war, but piracy."  It argues that "the United States could not fairly ask the British Government to order British merchant vessels to forego a means, always hitherto permitted, of escaping not only capture, but the much worse fate of sinking and destruction."  It reminded the American government that "instances are on record when United States vessels availed themselves of this facility during the American civil war" and argued that the United States should not "grudge British ships the liberty to take similar action" in the present circumstances.

In a separate note delivered the same day, the British government advised the United States that the cargo of the American steamer Wilhelmina, seized by the Royal Navy, would be held for the decision of a prize court.  The decision is significant because it indicates a hardening of the British government's attitude toward foodstuffs (previously considered conditional contraband) en route to Germany.  In a related development, it was announced on February 28 that the former German merchant ship Dacia, purchased by the American Edward Breitung, transferred to American registry and bound for Rotterdam with a cargo of cotton, had been seized by a French cruiser in the English Channel and taken to the French port of Brest.  Its disposition will now be determined by a French prize court, in which the law regarding a change of registration in wartime is more favorable to the position of the Allies than it would have been in a British court.  Seizure by the French rather than the Royal Navy also avoids aggravating further the already strained relations between the United States and Great Britain on the subject of neutral rights.

Trying to Keep His Balance

Responding to the apparent impasse on the subject, United States Secretary of State Bryan informally proposed a modus vivendi whereby Great Britain would permit the importation of foodstuffs to Germany for distribution to civilians under American supervision, Germany would agree not to use submarines to attack merchantmen except under the rules of warfare applying to surface ships, and both nations would agree not to use neutral flags.  Reports at month's end indicate that Great Britain will reject any compromise proposal and instead will announce a policy of reprisals designed to cut off all imports to Germany.

"She's Done, By Ginger"

(A Cartoon from the Cleveland Plain Dealer)

The Ship Purchase Bill, authorizing the United States government to create a government-owned merchant fleet, has been strongly supported by President Wilson, but is opposed by most Republicans and supported only lukewarmly by Democrats.  At the president's insistence, Democrats in the Senate rejected an amendment proposed by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge to exclude ships owned by citizens of belligerent nations.  In the Senate the Bill encountered a filibuster beginning February 8, and on February 10 the Senate adjourned without bringing the Bill to a vote.  After a personal appeal by the president in a visit to Speaker Clark's home, the House of Representatives passed the Bill on February 17.  When it returned to the Senate, however, it was sent to a conference committee where it is expected to die with the expiration of the 63rd Congress on March 4.

Conrad von Hoetzendorf

As a French offensive achieved small and hard-won gains in the Champagne region, the main efforts of Germany and her ally Austria-Hungary were concentrated on the Eastern Front.  A combined Austrian-German offensive is under way in the Carpathians under the command of Field Marshal Franz Conrad von Hoetzendorf, Chief of the Austro-Hungarian General Staff.  Its goal, so far unachieved, is to relieve the Russian siege of Przemysl.  Farther north in the vicinity of the Masurian Lakes, the German Eighth Army, under the command of General Erich Ludendorff, launched an attack on February 9 aimed at expelling Russian forces from East Prussia.  After advancing some seventy miles, the offensive was halted by a Russian counterattack on February 20.

H.M.S. Inflexible Opening Fire on Turkish Forts

A combined British and French fleet under the command of British Vice Admiral Sackville Hamilton Carden has been assembled to begin the Allied attack on the Dardanelles.  The objective is to force the Straits with naval forces alone, notwithstanding the presence of Turkish forts commanding the Straits and the threat of mines, especially in the Narrows, where the waterway is less than a mile wide.  The attack began on February 19 with a bombardment of the outer forts, but weather forced a withdrawal after the first day.  The bombardment resumed on February 25, resulting in the reduction of the forts on both sides of the entrance to the Straits. The success of the attack thus far is due in part to the Allied ships' ability to stay out of range of the Turkish guns while concentrating their fire on the narrow targets presented by the forts at the extreme end of the peninsulas that define the entrance to the Straits.  Those favorable conditions will no longer exist when the time comes for the Allied warships to enter the narrow confines of the Straits themselves.

Earlier in the month, on the day the German government declared its war zone around Great Britain, Turkish forces in the Sinai abandoned their attempt to drive the British from the Suez Canal.

 

Japanese Foreign Minister Takaaki Kato

A developing crisis in American relations with Japan came to a head this month.  Japan has followed up its recent conquest of the German leased territories on the coast of China, as well as its previous victories in the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars, with a set of demands that threaten the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China itself.  The demands, twenty-one in number, were presented to Chinese President Yuan Shikai in January, but their full scope was not apparent until the Chinese government revealed them on February 18.  The American government has expressed its concern because the demands appeared inconsistent with Secretary of State John Hay's Open Door Policy of 1900, which sought to protect China's territorial integrity and open China to trade with all nations on equal terms, and with the 1908 Root-Takahira Agreement, in which Japan agreed to abide by the Open Door Policy.  In response to inquiries from the United States, the Japanese government has moderated its position somewhat, indicating that it will not insist for the present upon compliance with the most extreme demands.

An Aerial View of the Panama Pacific Exposition

Some 50,000 people gathered on February 20 in San Francisco for the ceremonies opening the Panama Pacific Exposition.  They began at 9 o'clock in the morning Pacific Coast Time and were attended by Governor Hiram Johnson, Mayor James Rolph, Jr., and Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane.  Secretary Lane, representing the federal government, gave an address in which he praised "The American Pioneer": "Without him we would not be here.  Without him banners would not fly nor bands play.  Without him San Francisco would not be today the gayest city of the globe."

At noon, President Wilson pressed a button in the White House that sent a surge of electricity to the Tower of Jewels, the centerpiece of the Exposition.  By 3 o'clock in the afternoon, 225,000 fair-goers had been admitted to the grounds, far surpassing the previous daily record set by the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904.  The exposition grounds cover over 600 acres, extending from Fort Mason to the Presidio along San Francisco Bay.  Aviator Lincoln Beachey entertained the crowd on opening day with a flight over the South Garden and around the Tower of Jewels, during which he released several "peace doves" from his aeroplane to the delight of the thousands of spectators below.

Frank James

Frank James died on February 18 at the James farm in Clay County, Missouri.  He and his younger brother Jesse fought for the Confederacy in the American Civil War and then embarked on a life of crime, robbing banks, trains and stagecoaches as members of the notorious James-Younger Gang.  Shortly after Jesse was shot and killed in 1882, Frank surrendered to the authorities, and spent the last thirty years of his life as a law-abiding citizen.

February 1915 – Selected Sources and Recommended Reading

Contemporary Periodicals:

American Review of Reviews, March and April 1915
New York Times, February 1915

Books and Articles:

A. Scott Berg, Wilson
Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis 1911-1918
John Milton Cooper, Jr., Woodrow Wilson: A Biography
John Milton Cooper, Jr., The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt

Patrick Devlin, Too Proud to Fight: Woodrow Wilson's Neutrality

David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace: Creating the Modern Middle East, 1914-1922
Martin Gilbert, The First World War: A Complete History

Martin Gilbert, A History of the Twentieth Century, Volume One: 1900-1933
Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill Volume III: The Challenge of War, 1914-1916

Richard F. Hamilton and Holger H. Herwig, Decisions for War, 1914-1917

August Heckscher, Woodrow Wilson: A Biography

Godfrey Hodgson, Woodrow Wilson's Right Hand: The Life of Colonel Edward M. House
John Keegan, The First World War
Nicholas A. Lambert, Planning Armageddon: British Economic Warfare and the First World War

Arthur S. Link, Wilson: The Struggle for Neutrality, 1914-1915

Arthur S. Link, Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era, 1910-1917

Robert K. Massie, Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea
G.J. Meyer, A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918

Hew Strachan, The First World War Volume I: To Arms
J. Lee Thompson, Never Call Retreat: Theodore Roosevelt and the Great War

Barbara W. Tuchman, The Zimmermann Telegram

January 1915

It's January 1915, and the war, now a World War, shows no sign of abating.  New technology is changing warfare.  Submarines and Zeppelins prove themselves formidable weapons against civilian as well as military targets.  War on the ground grinds toward stalemate.  The German High Seas Fleet suffers a reverse in a major naval engagement in the North Sea.  Cardinal Mercier tells the Belgians they owe no obedience to the Germans.  Colonel House sails for Europe on one of the Lusitania's last voyages, as the United States and Great Britain struggle to resolve their differences over neutral rights.  The Ottoman Empire's entry into the war vastly expands its geographic scope.  A devastating earthquake kills thousands in Italy, as Germany and Austria-Hungary grow suspicious about its continued neutrality.  Political chaos reigns in Mexico.  Preparedness is at the top of the agenda in America, as former President Roosevelt shares his strong views on the issue.  A woman suffrage amendment fails in Congress.  Alexander Graham Bell places the first coast-to-coast telephone call.  The Castles are starring on Broadway.  For the last time (so far) a baby is born in the White House; President Wilson's grandson will grow up to become the long-serving Dean of the National Cathedral and march in Selma with Dr. Martin Luther King.

*****

H.M.S. Formidable

On the first day of the new year, the British pre-dreadnought battleship H.M.S. Formidable, on patrol in the English Channel, was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine ("U-Boat").  Such attacks have not been limited to warships: this month U-Boats have begun attacking merchant ships in waters adjacent to Great Britain.  On January 31 the British government reacted by issuing instructions authorizing passenger liners and merchant ships to display the flags of neutral nations to avoid attack.  The British view this as a legitimate "ruse de guerre," similar to that used by the world's navies for centuries and recognized as legal under international law.

Damage in King's Lynn

German Zeppelins attacked the towns of King's Lynn and Great Yarmouth on the North Sea coast of England during the night of January 19-20, dropping bombs that killed and injured several civilians.  Some bombs fell near the royal residence of Sandringham Palace, but the royal family was not in residence at the time and there was no damage to the palace.  On the continent, the largest aeroplane raid of the war so far took place on January 10 when a dozen or more German armored biplanes flew over the French coastal city of Dunkirk.  The airmen threw some thirty bombs to the ground, causing only minor damage.

On the Western Front, the story of the month was one of trenches gained, lost and regained from the Swiss frontier to the North Sea, with little or no net advantage to either side.  The town of La Boiselle, northeast of Amiens, was captured by the Germans and recaptured by the French in a two-day period on January 17 and 18.  On January 22 the French Army advanced on Le Pretre Woods, near the German fortifications around Metz, but the Germans quickly recovered most of the ground lost.  The month ended with the commencement of a German offensive in the Argonne Forest and assaults on the French at Soissons, near Paris, and on the British line at La Bassee near the Belgian border.

S.M.S. Blucher Sinking

Following his successful raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby last month, Admiral Franz Hipper decided to attack British fishing boats on the Dogger Bank, which he suspected were providing intelligence to the British about German naval movements in the North Sea.  He took his squadron, consisting of battle cruisers, light cruisers and torpedo boat destroyers, to sea on January 24, hoping to complete his mission before the British could react.  The British, however, had intercepted the German communications, and Admiral Beatty's battle cruiser squadron moved to attack the German force as it approached the Dogger Bank.  When they saw the British ships approaching, the Germans reversed course and raced for home.  In the ensuing stern chase, the British ships had a speed advantage, gradually overtaking the Germans and attacking and sinking the last in line, the battle cruiser S.M.S. Blucher.  Due to British miscommunications, however, the pursuit was broken off and most of the German squadron escaped.  Admiral Beatty's flagship, H.M.S. Lion, and the destroyer H.M.S. Meteor were damaged severely but survived and were towed into port for repairs.  In addition to the Blucher sinking, three German cruisers were badly damaged but survived.  British casualties totaled 15 killed and 80 wounded.  Most of the German casualties -- 951 killed and 78 wounded -- were aboard Blucher.

Cardinal Mercier

Last month Cardinal Desire-Joseph Mercier, Archbishop of Malines and Roman Catholic primate of Belgium, wrote a pastoral letter to be read on Christmas Day.  In it he told the Belgian people that the occupation of their country was illegitimate and that they owed the Germans "neither respect, nor attachment, nor obedience."  The German Army forbade the reading of it, seized 15,000 copies, and fined the printer.  Copies of the letter were circulated by hand and served as a source of inspiration to the Belgian people.  On January 2, the cardinal was detained, interrogated, and ordered not to attend services scheduled for the following day.  When presented with a letter of retraction, he refused to sign it.  On January 18 a report summarizing these events, smuggled through German lines, was delivered to Pope Benedict XV in Rome.

Colonel House

The Cunard liner R.M.S. Lusitania sailed from New York on January 30, bound for Liverpool.  On board were three hydroaeroplanes (or "seaplanes") destined for service with the Royal Navy.  Formerly it had been reported that the liner would also be carrying large guns manufactured by the Bethlehem Steel Company, but those were apparently not ready in time for this voyage.  Also on board the Lusitania were presidential adviser Colonel Edward M. House and his wife.  Colonel House will represent President Wilson in talks with representatives of the warring nations in an attempt to find common ground and ascertain whether the United States can play a constructive role in negotiations.

British Friendship as Seen from America

The British government has replied to the American note sent last month protesting the restrictions on American commerce brought about by November's announcement closing the North Sea to commercial traffic.  The tone of the note was conciliatory, but the British insisted on Britain's right as a belligerent nation to stop and search neutral vessels for contraband.  The United States acknowledges that right, but objects to the long delays occasioned by the diversion of her merchant ships to British ports and their confinement there pending clearance.  The difference between the American and British positions may be simply a question of whether the search for contraband takes place in a British port or on the high seas, but that does not make the issue any easier to resolve.

Senator Stone

Another source of tension between the United States and Great Britain is the potential reentry into service of German merchant ships interned in American ports.  The Ship Purchase Bill introduced in the new Congress by Senator William J. Stone of Missouri, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, would authorize the purchase and operation of those ships by the United States government.  Great Britain objects strongly, both to the return of German vessels to sea under the American flag and to the infusion of cash to the German war effort that would result from the sale.  She also objects on legal grounds.  Under international law as restated in the 1909 Declaration of London, transfer of an enemy ship to a neutral flag after war begins is invalid unless the owner can prove that the reflagging was not done to avoid capture, a showing that would be difficult to make under the circumstances.  Notwithstanding the British objections, the Wilson administration supports the Ship Purchase Bill.

Edward N. Breitung

 
Without waiting for the Ship Purchase Bill, on January 4 Michigan industrialist Edward N. Breitung purchased one of the interned German ships, the steamer Dacia, from the Hamburg-America Line, transferred it to American registry, and asked the U.S. State Department to clear it for a voyage from Galveston to Rotterdam with a cargo of cotton.  The ship's manifest states that the cargo's ultimate destination is Bremen, in Germany.  (Rotterdam is in neutral Holland, but is a major port of entry for Germany).  The State Department granted clearance and asked Great Britain to allow the voyage to take place without interference, but the British government declined on the ground that it would set a dangerous precedent.  Dacia set sail from Galveston on January 31.  If it is intercepted by the Royal Navy, as seems likely, the disposition of its cargo will be determined by a British prize court.

Sultan Mehmed V

The Ottoman Empire's entry into the war on the side of the Central Powers, accompanied by Sultan Mehmed V's declaration of holy war, or "jihad," against the Allies, has removed any doubt that the war being waged between the nations of Europe is a World War.  In addition to casting in a new light the age-old issue of Russian access to the Mediterranean, Turkey's entry caused immediate combat operations to begin on three new fronts: one in the Persian Gulf, where the Ottoman Empire now threatens British petroleum interests; one in the Sinai, where it threatens British access to India and Australia through the Suez Canal; and a third in the Caucasus, where it shares a border with a part of Russia populated largely by Muslims.  With the declaration of war in November, Great Britain landed a contingent of troops at the head of the Persian Gulf which proceeded to the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and occupied Basra, the principal city of southern Mesopotamia.  Last month Great Britain terminated Ottoman suzerainty over Egypt and closed the Suez Canal to enemy shipping.  This month Turkish troops responded by crossing the Sinai and attacking British forces guarding the Canal, hoping not only to drive the British from the Canal but also to spark an Arab rebellion against British rule in Egypt.  In the Caucasus, a Turkish offensive was launched, but turned back by Russian counter-attacks aided by difficult mountainous terrain and bitter winter weather.

A fourth front may be about to open in Turkey.  Russia's plea for military operations to divert Turkish forces from the Caucasus, added to the need for improved access for supply and communication between Russia and its western allies, has caused the British cabinet to adopt a proposal of First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill.  The plan is to mount a naval operation to establish control over the Dardanelles, Bosporus and Sea of Marmara, capturing Constantinople and opening the route between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.  Such an operation, if successful, would force Turkey out of the war and materially advance Allied war aims in the Balkans. At the very least, it is expected to provide a much needed victory to boost the morale of the British public in the midst of a frustrating and bloody stalemate on the ground in Flanders.

Italian Premier Antonio Salandra

Italy has so far remained neutral, despite its pre-war membership in the Triple Alliance.  Its erstwhile partners, meanwhile, alarmed by recent reports of Italian troop concentrations on the border with Austria-Hungary, have moved troops into the Tyrol.  The German ambassador in Rome has warned the Italian government that further troop buildup on the border may lead Germany and Austria-Hungary to denounce the Triple Alliance and demand Italian guarantees of neutrality.  Nature also took a hand this month when, on January 13, a massive earthquake struck central Italy.  The town of Avezzano, east of Rome in the Apennine Mountains, was hardest hit.  In all, some 30,000 people were killed and 90,000 injured.

Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg

German Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg says he was misinterpreted when he described the Belgian neutrality treaty as a "scrap of paper" in his last conversation with the British ambassador on August 4.  He meant, he says, that the treaty had become obsolete through Belgium's forfeiture of its neutrality, and that it was Great Britain who considered the treaty a scrap of paper in comparison to her reasons for entering the war.  His latest comments were made on January 24 to a representative of the Associated Press at the German Army Field Headquarters in northern France.  He felt compelled to respond, he said, by the fact that his words had been misused in America in discussions about the origin of the war.  Two days later, British Foreign Minister Sir Edward Grey issued a statement ridiculing the German Chancellor's comments, stating that it is "not surprising" that he should be anxious to "explain away" his words, which have "made a deep impression because the progress of the world largely depends upon the sanctity of agreements between individuals and between nations, and the policy disclosed in Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg's phrase tends to debase the legal and moral currency of civilization."  The Chancellor, Sir Edward said, "now asks the American public to believe that he meant the exact opposite of what he said: that it was Great Britain who regarded the neutrality of Belgium as a mere trifle, and that it was Germany who 'took her responsibilities toward the neutral states so seriously.'"  This, he says, is "in flat contradiction of the plain facts."

Colonel Roque Gonzalez Garza

The political situation in Mexico remains unstable and confused, with multiple governments claiming power.  Under increasing pressure from revolutionists Francisco ("Pancho") Villa and Emiliano Zapata, interim President Eulalio Gutierrez fled Mexico City on January 16, taking his government with him.  The Aguascalientes Convention that had named Gutierrez in November then announced its assumption of all legislative, executive and judicial powers and named Colonel Roque Gonzalez Garza, an ally of Villa and Zapata, as "Executive of the Convention."  President Venustiano Carranza, meanwhile, has refused to resign.  On January 27 he and his forces reentered Mexico City and Colonel Garza moved his government to Cuernavaca.

 Secretaries Bryan and Daniels with President Wilson;

Assistant Secretary F.D. Roosevelt on the Far Right

The recent naval operations in and around Veracruz, which cost nineteen American lives and a large number of wounded sailors and marines, highlighted the need for a replacement of the Navy's only hospital ship, U.S.S. Solace, a small (3,300 ton) vessel that is over twenty years old and showing its age.  Congress has so far failed to appropriate the necessary funds, but it appeared that a solution was at hand when it was discovered that some $2,000,000 of unspent funds available from prior appropriations could be used to purchase a modern liner and convert it to a hospital ship.  When Secretary of the Navy Daniels happened to mention this in a conversation with Secretary of State Bryan, however, Mr. Bryan expressed concern that such a move might give the impression that the United States was preparing for war.  At his insistence, the plan for a new floating hospital has been shelved.  Solace will accompany the Atlantic Fleet to its winter exercises this year off Guantanamo, the first the fleet has conducted in three years.

Uncle Sam Out for a Walk

The outbreak of the World War has brought the issue of American preparedness to the fore.  The Secretary of State's view is reflected in his veto of a new ship, even a hospital ship, for the Navy; and President Wilson's position was succinctly stated in last month's State of the Union address when he asked rhetorically "what is it suggested that we should be prepared to do?"  The latest salvo in the debate was fired this month when former President Roosevelt published America and the World War, a collection of his articles and letters expressing his views on the subject.  In his foreword the former president pulled no punches.  Referring to the State of the Union address, he wrote that he finds it "difficult for an honest and patriotic citizen to understand how the president could have been willing to make such statements."  Comparing the country's lack of preparedness to that at the time of the War of 1812, when "reliance on the principles President Wilson now advocates brought us to the verge of national ruin," Roosevelt denounced the president's "overanxiety not to offend the powerful who have done wrong," causing him for example to make "no protest against the cruel wrongs Belgium has suffered" or the "violation of the Hague conventions at Belgium's expense."  Roosevelt expressed alarm at the president's unwillingness to "take any efficient steps to prepare means for our own defense" and asserted that the country can be true to itself only by "definitely taking the position of the just man armed; for a proud and self-respecting nation of freemen must scorn to do wrong to others and must also scorn tamely to submit to wrong done by others."

Anna Howard Shaw

A proposed woman suffrage amendment to the Constitution was defeated in the House of Representatives on January 12.  The vote was 174 (86 Democrats, 72 Republicans, 12 Progressives, 3 Progressive-Republicans and one Independent) in favor and 204 (171 Democrats and 33 Republicans) against.  President Wilson, representing the view of many in his party, has told suffrage advocates that they should carry their fight to the states rather than seek a constitutional amendment.  Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National Suffrage Association, rejects that approach, arguing that the House of Representatives would not have considered and voted on a constitutional amendment if the question were not a national one.  Miss Alice Paul, President of the Congressional Union, agrees, saying that her organization will begin work immediately to schedule a vote in the Senate, where the prospects, though hardly bright, may be somewhat better.  Last year a proposed equal suffrage amendment received a vote in the Senate of 35 in favor to 34 against, well short of the required two-thirds majority.

Francis B. Sayre, Jr., and his parents

The president's daughter Jessie Wilson Sayre gave birth to a seven and a half pound baby boy in the White House on January 17.  The boy will be named after his father, Francis B. Sayre, an assistant to the president of Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts.  Mr. and Mrs. Sayre spent the Christmas holidays with her father in Washington, and Mrs. Sayre remained at the White House when her husband returned to Williamstown.  Mr. Sayre was summoned by telegraph and reached Washington on the Congressional Limited at 8:30 P.M., about four hours after his son's birth.

Commissioner Woods (left) and Mayor Mitchel Reviewing Troops with General Leonard Wood

With the new year, Manhattan District Attorney Charles S. Whitman became governor of New York.  Among his first items of business was a petition from the Anti-Saloon League asking him to remove New York City Mayor John Purroy Mitchel and Police Commissioner Arthur Woods for failing to enforce the law against the sale of liquor on Sundays.  The petition was supported by affidavits reporting that the League's inspectors had found 721 saloons open for business the previous Sunday.  When asked about the petition, Governor Whitman acknowledged that he had received it.  "But," he said with a smile, "I do not think that I shall remove either, at least not tonight."

The Statue Atop the Telephone Building

The first telephone conversation took place a little over thirty-eight years ago when, on October 9, 1876, the telephone's inventor Alexander Graham Bell and his assistant Thomas A. Watson spoke with each other over a two-mile wire stretched between Cambridge and Boston, Massachusetts.  Improvements in wires and apparatus since then have made telephonic communication possible over greater and greater distances.  On January 25 of this year, the same two men conducted the first coast-to-coast telephone conversation.  Dr. Bell was in a reception room on the 15th floor of the American Telephone & Telegraph Building at Broadway and Dey Street in New York City, and Mr. Watson was in a building on Grant Avenue in San Francisco, some 3,400 miles away.  Hundreds were present by invitation at both locations and at other locations connected on the line.  Besides Dr. Bell and Mr. Watson, participants included the mayors of New York and San Francisco, President Charles C. Moore of the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, President Wilson at the White House, and A.T.&T. president Theodore N. Vail at his home in Jekyl Island, Georgia.

After his initial exchange of pleasantries with Mr. Watson, Dr. Bell connected an exact replica of his original telephone instrument and repeated the first words ever transmitted by wire.  On March 10, 1876, he and Mr. Watson had been working in different rooms in a Boston boarding house when Dr. Bell said "Mr. Watson, come here, I want you," and Mr. Watson ran excitedly into the room to report that he had heard the one-way transmission.  When Dr. Bell repeated those words from the Telephone Building this month, Mr. Watson replied "It would take me a week to get to you this time."

The line, comprising 2,960 tons of copper wire, crosses thirteen states and passes through Salt Lake City, Denver, Omaha, Chicago and Buffalo, with a branch that runs through Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Washington.  Transcontinental telephone service will begin March 1.  The charge for a telephone conversation between New York and San Francisco will be $20.70 for the first three minutes and $6.75 for each minute thereafter.  It is  estimated that under normal conditions it will take about ten minutes to put a transcontinental call through.

 Vernon and Irene Castle

A few miles up Broadway from the Telephone Building, the husband and wife dance team of Vernon and Irene Castle are starring this month at the New Amsterdam Theater in the musical production "Watch Your Step," with songs by Irving Berlin.  Mrs. Castle's understudy Mae Murray took her place for the January 25 performance, but Mrs. Castle is expected to return shortly.  The production's most popular song is "Play a Simple Melody," recorded here by Elsie Baker (a.k.a. Edna Brown) and Billy Murray (click to play):

January 1915 – Selected Sources and Recommended Reading

Contemporary Periodicals:

American Review of Reviews, February and March 1915
New York Times, January 1915

Books and Articles:

A. Scott Berg, Wilson
Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis 1911-1918
John Milton Cooper, Jr., Woodrow Wilson: A Biography
John Milton Cooper, Jr., The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt

Patrick Devlin, Too Proud to Fight: Woodrow Wilson's Neutrality

David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace: Creating the Modern Middle East, 1914-1922
Martin Gilbert, The First World War: A Complete History

Martin Gilbert, A History of the Twentieth Century, Volume One: 1900-1933
Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill Volume III: The Challenge of War, 1914-1916

Richard F. Hamilton and Holger H. Herwig, Decisions for War, 1914-1917

August Heckscher, Woodrow Wilson: A Biography

Godfrey Hodgson, Woodrow Wilson's Right Hand: The Life of Colonel Edward M. House
John Keegan, The First World War
Nicholas A. Lambert, Planning Armageddon: British Economic Warfare and the First World War

Arthur S. Link, Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era, 1910-1917

Robert K. Massie, Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea

Kenneth Rose, King George V
Hew Strachan, The First World War Volume I: To Arms
J. Lee Thompson, Never Call Retreat: Theodore Roosevelt and the Great War

Barbara W. Tuchman, The Zimmermann Telegram

December 1914

As the year 1914 comes to an end, the World War is five months old and is already unprecedented in geographic scope and its widespread destruction of lives and property.  In December Austria-Hungary attacks Serbia again; this time it occupies Belgrade, but only temporarily.  In the South Atlantic, the long journey of the German East Asia squadron comes to an end as it rounds Cape Horn and approaches the Falkland Islands.  German ships from the High Seas Fleet cross the North Sea to bombard three towns on the east coast of England, barely escaping destruction on the way home.  On the Western Front, in the first major offensive since the opposing armies reached the North Sea, French forces attack German positions in the Champagne region of France.  The new Pope calls for the warring nations to lay down their arms, and in some parts of the Western Front peace breaks out, temporarily, on Christmas Day.  For the first time in history, aircraft carriers launch an airstrike.  In the United States, the short (post-election) session of the Sixty-third Congress begins.  (The Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution, designed in part to eliminate such "lame duck" sessions, will be adopted in 1933.) 

*****

Artist's Rendering of King Peter Reentering Belgrade

This month saw another failed Austro-Hungarian attack on Serbia.  In an offensive that began last month, the Austro-Hungarian Army succeeded in reaching and occupying Belgrade on December 3.  In doing so, however, it weakened its right flank, and a Serbian counter-offensive begun the same day in the vicinity of Arandjelovac inflicted a devastating defeat on the Austro-Hungarian Army, which abandoned Belgrade and withdrew across the Drina River into Bosnia.  The Serbs reoccupied their capital on December 15.

Admiral Sturdee

The German East Asia squadron's long journey across the Pacific ended this month at the Falkland Islands, where it encountered a British naval force under the command of Vice Admiral Doveton Sturdee.  Until recently Chief of the Naval General Staff, Sturdee was an early casualty of last month's change of command at the Admiralty in which Admiral Jackie Fisher replaced Prince Louis of Battenberg as First Sea Lord.  Relieved of his post just as word reached London of the disastrous defeat of Admiral Cradock's squadron off the coast of Chile, Sturdee was given command of naval forces in the South Atlantic and Pacific Oceans with orders to pursue and destroy the German East Asia Squadron wherever it could be found.  The East Asia squadron, meanwhile, replenished its coal supply in Chilean ports and rounded Cape Horn on December 1.  On December 6, anchored at the eastern end of the Beagle Channel, Admiral von Spee made a fateful decision not to proceed directly to Germany but first to conduct a raid on the British Falkland Islands, which he believed to be undefended.  As he approached the eastern end of the Falklands on December 8, Spee discovered Admiral Sturdee's task force, which had arrived the day before and included the South Atlantic cruiser squadron and two additional battle cruisers Sturdee had brought with him from England.  In the ensuing chase, the British, faster and with more firepower than the Germans, sank Spee’s flagship and all the other ships of his squadron except Dresden, the fastest of the German ships, which escaped around the Horn to the coast of Chile, where she remained at year's end.
 

 

 A House in Hartlepool Destroyed by Naval Gunfire

The dispatch of three battle cruisers from the Grand Fleet to join the hunt for Admiral Spee's East Asia Squadron caused the balance of naval power in the North Sea to come as close as it has ever been, and is likely ever to be again, to parity between the opposing fleets.  Taking advantage of this development, Admiral Friedrich von Ingenohl, commander of the German High Seas Fleet, ordered a battle cruiser squadron under the command of Rear Admiral Franz Hipper to conduct a raid on the coast of England.  Hipper's squadron left the Jade Estuary on December 15 and, followed by the main body of the High Seas Fleet, crossed the North Sea to the Yorkshire coast, where on December 16 it shelled the seaside towns of Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby, destroying buildings and killing or injuring hundreds of civilians.  The British, with advance intelligence that a raid would take place, positioned naval forces including Admiral David Beatty's battle cruiser squadron to intercept the Germans as they turned for home.  A combination of worsening weather and poor communications, however, allowed Hipper's squadron to escape.

 British Seaplanes Returning to Their Ships After the Raid on Cuxhaven

Lighter-than-air dirigibles, or Zeppelins as they are called in Germany, pose a new danger to civilian populations.  Since the war began Zeppelin raids have been launched on urban areas on the continent, and the threat to English cities within their reach, a reach that is much greater than that of aeroplanes or land-based artillery, is apparent.  Because they can fly at altitudes much higher than can be reached by aeroplanes, they are effectively immune from attack in the air, so the most effective defense is to attack them on the ground.  On Christmas Day the Royal Navy launched a raid on the Zeppelin sheds at Cuxhaven, at the mouth of the Elbe River.  Seaplanes carrying bombs were carried by specially modified channel steamers, escorted by destroyers and light cruisers, to an area close to the German naval base at Heligoland Island where, screened by submarines, they were lowered by cranes into a placid North Sea.  They lifted off into clear skies, but when they crossed over land they encountered ground fog that made it impossible to locate or effectively attack the zeppelin sheds.  Subsequent attacks on ships in the Jade Estuary were not much more successful.  They flew back to sea, where their naval escorts were able to hoist them aboard and escape before the German naval forces at Heligoland could get under way and overtake them.  The raid on Cuxhaven, which resulted in little or no damage to either side, was the first attack on a military target by carrier-based aeroplanes, but it will almost certainly not be the last.

The Western Front

The attempts by the Allied and German armies to outflank each other on the Western Front ended when they reached the North Sea coast of Belgium.  After another failed attempt to cross the Yser River on December 3, the German Army dug into defensive positions.  The Allies have also constructed trench lines, but they are less satisfied than the Germans with holding the ground they occupy.  The front line north of the Marne is all in French and Belgian territory, and the parts of France that lie behind the German lines comprise its industrial heartland.  It is as important to the French to recover it, therefore, as it is to the Germans to continue to hold it.  On December 20, the French Army mounted offensive operations in the Champagne region, which have been costly in terms of casualties but have yielded little if any gains.

The New High Commissioner

The Ottoman Empire's entry into the war on the side of the Central Powers has deprived it of its nominal sovereignty over Egypt.  On December 28 Sir Edward Grey, British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, gave notice that "in view of a state of war arising out of the nation of Turkey, Egypt is placed under the protection of his Majesty, and will henceforth constitute a British Protectorate.  The suzerainty of Turkey over Egypt is thus terminated and his Majesty's government will adopt all measures necessary for the defense of Egypt and the protection of its inhabitants and interests."  Lieutenant Colonel Sir Arthur Henry McMahon has been appointed High Commissioner for Egypt.

Looking Forward to the Next Congress

In the United States, the 63rd Congress convened on December 7, the first Monday in December, for the short "lame duck" session mandated by Article I, Section 4 of the Constitution.  The next day, President Wilson read his annual message to a joint session.  Resolutions calling for an investigation into the preparedness of the United States for war have been introduced in the Senate by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts and in the House of Representatives by Lodge's son-in-law, Massachusetts Representative Augustus P. Gardner.  Other issues before this Congress, which will expire on March 4, include a woman suffrage amendment to the Constitution, legislation providing relief for cotton farmers whose overseas markets have been affected by the war, and a Ship Purchase Bill providing for the government to purchase and operate merchant vessels interned in American ports.

Prior to delivering his message to Congress, President Wilson announced that he opposes the Lodge-Gardner resolution, and in his message he rejected the argument, made by former President Roosevelt, General Leonard Wood and others, that the United States should increase its military capability in anticipation of possible involvement in the European war.  Responding to those who say the United States is not prepared for war, he said "What is meant by being prepared?  Is it meant that we are not ready upon brief notice to put a nation in the field, a nation of men trained to arms?  Of course we are not ready to do that, and we shall never be in time of peace so long as we retain our present political principles and institutions.  And what is it that it is suggested we should be prepared to do?  To defend ourselves against attack?  We have always found means to do that, and shall find them whenever it is necessary."  The president stated his belief that, because the United States is "a true friend to all the nations of the world," it should rely "not upon a standing army, nor yet upon a reserve army, but upon a citizenry trained and accustomed to arms" and upon a powerful navy maintained for the purpose of "defense ..., never of aggression or of conquest."

Great Britain's agreement to allow American cotton to be shipped to neutral countries without interference has not removed all areas of friction between the two countries regarding trade. By orders in council issued in August and October, Britain attempted to define contraband subject to seizure on the high seas.  In doing so, they modified the 1909 Declaration of London, which although negotiated and drafted under the auspices of the British government, was not ratified by Great Britain.  The Declaration would have modified international law in ways friendly to neutrals.  For example, it distinguished between absolute and conditional contraband, adopted a "free list," and revised the doctrine of continuous voyage, which allows contraband on a ship en route to a neutral port to be seized if its ultimate destination is an enemy country, by limiting it to absolute contraband only.  The orders in council expanded the definition of absolute contraband, and declared that conditional contraband (including food) bound for Germany would be intercepted.  They also declared that cargoes bound for neutral ports, such as those in Holland, Norway and Denmark, would be considered to be bound for Germany unless proved otherwise.  In addition to the orders in council, last month Great Britain declared the North Sea a war zone and warned merchant ships to stay clear of it except by way of narrowly defined routes.  On December 28 the United States sent a note to Great Britain protesting the resulting interference with American trade.

Admiral Mahan

Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan, America's foremost naval strategist and a world-renowned authority on sea power, died of heart disease December 1 at the Washington Naval Hospital.  He was born in 1840 at West Point, New York, the son of a professor at the United States Military Academy.  Despite his Army background, he chose a naval career, and graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1859.  The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783, published in 1890 while he was an instructor at the Naval Academy, was his most influential work.  Kaiser Wilhelm II ordered that a copy of the book be placed aboard every ship in the German Navy.  With the outbreak of the World War, he was much in demand as an expert on naval strategy until President Wilson ordered military and naval officers to refrain from commenting on the war.  The war only heightened his interest in the subject, however, and he was continuing his studies at the time of his death.

The Stock Exchange On Its First Day of Trading Since July

The New York Stock Exchange reopened for trading in stocks on December 12.  It had been closed since July 30, when trading was suspended following the outbreak of the European war to discourage rapid selling of American securities and minimize gold outflow to Europe while enabling the United States to remain on the gold standard.  Since then, American agricultural exports have helped stabilize international commodity markets and currency exchange rates, restoring equilibrium to securities markets.  At the Exchange's opening, minimum opening prices were fixed at the July 30 level, and prices on average advanced during the day.

Pope Benedict XV

As the first Christmas of his papacy approached in a world at war, Pope Benedict XV called for the nations at war to lay down their arms.

British and German Soldiers in No-Man's Land

As if in response to the Pope's message, a spontaneous and unsanctioned cease-fire occurred on Christmas Day on parts of the Western Front.  Christmas carols were sung, Christmas trees were placed on parapets, and German and Allied troops left their trenches to exchange Christmas greetings and token gifts and wishes for peace.  In some areas soccer balls appeared and impromptu games were played.

December 1914 – Selected Sources and Recommended Reading

Contemporary Periodicals:

American Review of Reviews, January and February 1915
New York Times, December 1914

Books and Articles:

A. Scott Berg, Wilson
Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis 1911-1918
John Milton Cooper, Jr., Woodrow Wilson: A Biography
John Milton Cooper, Jr., The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt

Patrick Devlin, Too Proud to Fight: Woodrow Wilson's Neutrality

Vincent J. Esposito, ed., The West Point Atlas of War: World War I
David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace: Creating the Modern Middle East, 1914-1922
Martin Gilbert, The First World War: A Complete History

Martin Gilbert, A History of the Twentieth Century, Volume One: 1900-1933
Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill Volume III: The Challenge of War, 1914-1916

Richard F. Hamilton and Holger H. Herwig, Decisions for War, 1914-1917

Max Hastings, Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War

August Heckscher, Woodrow Wilson: A Biography

Holger H. Herwig, The Marne, 1914: The Opening of World War I and the Battle that Changed the World

Godfrey Hodgson, Woodrow Wilson's Right Hand: The Life of Colonel Edward M. House
John Keegan, The First World War
Nicholas A. Lambert, Planning Armageddon: British Economic Warfare and the First World War

Arthur S. Link, Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era, 1910-1917
Margaret MacMillan, The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914
Gordon Martel, The Month That Changed the World: July 1914

Robert K. Massie, Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea
Sean McMeekin, July 1914: Countdown to War
Michael S. Neiberg, Dance of the Furies: Europe and the Outbreak of World War I 

Kenneth Rose, King George V
J. Lee Thompson, Never Call Retreat: Theodore Roosevelt and the Great War

Barbara W. Tuchman, The Zimmermann Telegram