A Massive Concentration of Warships. Turks Fortify Strategic Waterway; Constantinople Threatened. Special to The Great War Project (14-16 March) A fleet of sixteen British battleships is gathering in the Aegean Sea just outside the Dardanelles. This is the narrow, strategic waterway that leads from the Mediterranean to Constantinople, the Ottoman capital and on to the…
Tag Archive for churchill
BRITISH BOMBARDMENT OF THE DARDANELLES
by Mike Shuster
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…
THE SECRET GOALS OF THE WAR
by Mike Shuster
For Allies,Total Victory is Necessary; For Germany It’s World Domination. Special to The Great War Project (19, 20, 21 January) Significant developments these days a century ago in several theaters of the war. On January 20th,1914, according to historian Martin Gilbert, “the Germans launched their first bombing raid on Britain, when two Zeppelins crossed the…
NEW OFFENSIVE IN WEST STALLS.
by Mike Shuster
Now Largely a Defensive War. Casualties High, War Aims Hardening. Special to The Great War Project (16-17 January) Although the Western Front is mired in stalemate, there are still attempts, on both sides to break out of it. They are all futile. The mood is shifting in Allied capitals. A negotiated peace is now out…
THE BIG PICTURE IN THE NEW YEAR
by Mike Shuster
Stalemate in the Trenches; Enormous Ottoman Losses. A Prototype of the Tank. Special to The Great War Project (5-6-7) January) “The year 1915 opened with blood being poured out without respite.” That’s the way historian Martin Gilbert assessed the situation in the war at the start of the New Year. Typhus strikes both Austrian and…
A BRITISH PLAN TO DEFEAT THE TURKS
by Mike Shuster
Proposed British Naval Action in the Dardanelles; ‘Knock the Props Out’ From Under Turkey and Germany Special to The Great War Project (1-4 January) The terrible stalemate on the Western Front has the allies struggling to find another way to stop what now seems to be endless slaughter and force an end to the war.…
DEVASTATION FROM FLANDERS TO SERBIA.
by Mike Shuster
Nothing but Cruelty and Suffering. Kill them: the White Flag Be Damned. Special to The Great War Project (22-23 December) It keeps getting crueler and crueler. On December 22 a century ago, Winston Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty, lets it be known that orders now require… …British soldiers to bring “instant fire” to…
THE TERRAIN OF DEATH
by Mike Shuster
Letters from the Frozen, Blood-Soaked Battlefield. Every Man Wants it Ended “At Once.” Special to The Great War Project. (4-5 December) In these days of freezing temperatures and mounting fatalities, an extraordinary exchange of letters takes place involving Winston Churchill, the British First Lord of the Admiralty and one of Britain’s most aggressively pro-war senior…
WITH TURKEY IN IT, THE WAR TURNS GLOBAL
by Mike Shuster
Churchill’s Most Bellicose Mood. From Safety of Switzerland, Lenin the Prophet. Special to The Great War Project (4-5 November) With the Turkish and Russian declarations of war, the conflict now spreads to the Middle East. And it is Winston Churchill, British First Lord of the Admiralty, who has a plan for a quick and deadly…