Monthly Archives: February 2015

NEW WEAPONS HIT THE BATTLEFIELDS

Will Flamethrowers and Grenades Break Deadlock? Russia’s Problem: Desperate Shortage of Rifles. Special to The Great War Project (25-27 February) Many areas of the Western Front are inactive and confined to trenches. Despite the stalemate though, attacks and counterattacks are a regular and in some cases murderous presence in many sections of the extensive trench…

AUSTRIA FACES COLLAPSE UNDER RELENTLESS RUSSIAN PRESSURE

On Eastern Front, A String of Austrian Defeats; Germany on Its Own. Special to The Great War Project (22-24 February) Stalemate remains the order of the day on the Western Front, but on the Eastern Front, the war is more fluid. “The scale of battle remained a formidable one,” reports historian Martin Gilbert. Consequently, there…

BRITISH BOMBARDMENT OF THE DARDANELLES

Turkish Forts in Ruins. Attack on Strategic Straits To ‘Knock Turkey Out of War.’ Special to The Great War Project. (19-21 February) British warships are bombarding the ancient forts in the Dardanelles in western Turkey. The British bombardment is successful. It reduces two forts there to rubble. The Dardanelles is a very narrow strait that…

GERMAN DECLARATION OF WAR ON NEUTRAL SHIPPING.

Retaliation for British Blockade of Germany. In Singapore, Mutiny Against British Fails Special to The Great War Project (15-18 February) Germany’s announcement that it intends to sink all Allied and neutral ships approaching the British Isles makes big headlines in the United States. The New York Tribune trumpets that news on its front page on…

THE U.S. LEANS TOWARD THE ALLIES

Col. House in London Lends Support to Britain. British Hold the Line at Suez. Special to The Great War Project (11-14 February) Colonel Edward House, the closest adviser to Woodrow Wilson, the American president, arrives in London on February 6. He sails on an American-flagged ship called the Lusitania . The passage is uneventful, but…

WAR IN THE AIR AND AT SEA EXPLODES

Germany Declares War on All Ships, Neutral or Military. United States Vows to Protect American Ships and Citizens. Special to The Great War Project (22 January-10 February) By this time a century ago, the air war is widening as pilots on both sides are becoming more skilled and effective. “In the skies above the German-occupied…