100 years ago - Russia

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/baghdad-in-british-hands-7d3n0rwrz


March 13, 1917

Baghdad in British hands

The British Army of Mesopotamia captured Baghdad yesterday, and shattered the dream which the Pan-Germans have been dreaming for more than twenty years. The German route to the East is blocked, and the existing terminus of the Baghdad Railway has passed into our hands. Great though this achievement may well be reckoned from the military point of view, the moral effect will be even greater. To the watching East it will seem to sound the knell of German aspirations. To the Germans themselves it will mean the ignominious collapse of a scheme to which they devoted infinite subtle and secret labour, and the frustration of one of the principal objects for which they wantonly set the world ablaze. In Oriental eyes the capture of Baghdad will count for much more than the rout of a Turkish Army, for, though the city has been shorn of much of its former greatness, it is venerated because of its “dead past, which cannot die”.
At a time when a controversy concerning the internal administration of India is clouding the political horizon at home, let us not forget that India has played a great and worthy part in the triumph of Baghdad. We are too apt to think the troops under General Maude’s command are exclusively British. It should be remembered that a very large proportion of the forces he has guided to victory are Indian regiments. The cavalry which hung on the flanks of the demoralized Turkish Army, and chased it to the confines of Baghdad, must have been almost exclusively Indian cavalry. The infantry which bore many months of privation and proved in the end the masters of the Turks included Indian units, which had already fought heroically in France, in Gallipoli, and in Egypt. Whatever mistakes the Indian military administration may have made in the earlier stages of the campaign, the valour of the Indian troops who have contributed so largely to our successes on the Tigris has never been in question. In the last few days there have been discussions which imply that India’s help in the war has chiefly consisted of a belated offer of financial aid. She has done far more, for, in common with ourselves, she has given the blood of some of her best and bravest, and nowhere more than in the deserts of Mesopotamia.


http://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-03-11/register/food-disorders-in-petrograd-3zn28nlwr

March 11, 1917

Food disorders in Petrograd

The streets this afternoon present an extraordinary spectacle of animation. Cavalry patrols are moving in every direction. The crowds cheer the troops, and the soldiers cheer the crowd. Were it not for endless queues waiting for hours outside the bread shops, one might regard the whole affair without misgivings. In the outlying and manufacturing quarters, however, much damage is reported to have been done to shops. No news has been received from Moscow, where the food crisis has reached an acuter stage than in Petrograd.
The following semi-official statement is published: The very heavy falls of snow during the past winter have caused great difficulties in the transport of cereals by railway and their regular and timely arrival at Petrograd. These difficulties have led the population to entertain fears, which are not justified, that supplies of bread may soon be exhausted. Some of the inhabitants of the capital gave way to panic, and began to make raids on the bread supplies, thus creating an appreciable scarcity. These disturbances, however, were of a limited character, and, owing to the energetic measures taken, did not assume anywhere a serious aspect. At the same time various exceptional measures were taken, including the public sales of bread in different quarters of the city which were organized by the municipal authorities. Meanwhile, with the diminishing falls of snow, the railway lines are being gradually cleared and the foodstuffs arriving at Petrograd are approaching normal quantities.
The extraordinary conference which was held here yesterday evening on the initiative of M Rodzianko, President of the Duma, to deal with the food problem resolved to place the management of all food supplies in the Petrograd district in the hands of the municipal authorities. A proclamation issued by General Khavaloff, commander of the troops in the Petrograd District, regarding “the disorders of the last few days, the acts of violence, and the attempts against soldiers and the police”, forbids all assemblages in the streets and warns the inhabitants of Petrograd that the troops have been ordered to use their arms in case of necessity and to stop at nothing to preserve order in the capital.
The Petrograd newspapers are not appearing and trams not running.






http://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-03-10/register/the-advance-towards-baghdad-70pgrwj0z

March 10, 1917

The advance towards Baghdad

Sir Stanley Maude’s pursuing cavalry is almost within sight of the city of Baghdad, and it seems quite possible that the River Dialah may not long be permitted to bar the path of the victorious British forces. The overwhelming rout of the Turkish Army in Mesopotamia conveys a very clear example of the successful conduct of methodical operations under the direct control of a competent General Staff. While complete confidence has rightly been maintained in the judgment of General Maude, every step that he has taken has been carefully scrutinized in London. Whatever its outcome may be, the present British advance towards Baghdad is no wild and casual adventure, undertaken with insufficient forces and supplies and dependent on slender communications. It bears no resemblance to the “gamble” in the Dardanelles with which all the world is ringing today, nor, for the matter of that, to the rash enterprise which ended in the siege of Kut and in the unavailing attempts to relieve General Townshend. The whole difference is that the blow which has now fallen on the Turks was struck under the supervision of a competent General Staff. There have been no hasty improvisations about this campaign. Every movement has been solid and prudent.
More than six months were spent in preparing the overthrow of the Turks below Baghdad. Light railways were built, the waterways improved, wharves constructed, roads were made, wells were dug, and great stores of supplies accumulated. Two months or more were devoted to the actual operations which slowly wrought the Turkish downfall, and it was only when the Turks broke and fled that General Maude finally fell upon them like a thunderbolt and chased them nearly a hundred miles to the very confines of Baghdad.
What the British purpose now may be can only be surmised, but we may be certain that General Maude will act with wise forethought. He has already amply earned the special promotion granted him by the King. The difficulty of campaigning in Mesopotamia is that there is no natural line which may be marked out as the limit of advance. But we are already justified in rejoicing that a powerful Turkish army has been shattered, and that British prestige in the Middle East has been restored.






http://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-03-09/register/the-dardanelles-report-g0x8qdlgm

March 9, 1917

The Dardanelles report

The first Report of the Dardanelles Commission is of melancholy interest in more senses than one. It represents the last great piece of public work carried out by the late Lord Cromer, whose courage, experience, and fine judicial temper marked him out as the ideal Chairman for so grave an inquiry. It is an authoritative and detailed record of the “origin and inception” of a gigantic failure. Incidentally, it is a dispassionate examination of the whole method of conducting war which prevailed in London during the first eight months, and indeed till a far more recent date. This last feature of the Report is sufficient to constitute it a great State document, and for practical purposes it is by far the most important.
The stages of the Dardanelles operations are passing already to the domain of the historian. The relative responsibilities of the individuals concerned are now of moment mainly to themselves, except indeed in so far as proved defects in judgment and character must bar them for ever from similar chances of mischief. But it is of vital and immediate concern to us all to understand the role of a British Government in wartime and to learn the lessons of a bitter experience.
We confess that we should have had serious doubts about the wisdom of so frank an exposure if there were any reason to suppose that the methods of two years ago were still in practice. As things are, we believe that the publication of this weighty document will actually strengthen popular confidence at the present time, that it will justify many changes which have hitherto been approved by instinct rather than by knowledge, and that it will serve as a wholesome warning against any attempt to restore the old conditions and the men who made them.
Our method of conducting the war has been so transformed that the events of two years ago seem as impossible now as some chaotic nightmare. If there are still critics of the small War Cabinet, with its daily session and its unquestioned authority, they are likely, we think, to be less vocal after this appalling revelation of the necessities which produced the change. Mr Lloyd George has not merely systematized and quickened the conduct of the war. He has restored the unity of the supreme control.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-03-08/register/the-ravages-of-british-guns-wtpxd22nd

March 8, 1917

The ravages of British guns

In the account I have given of the dreadful evidence of German losses this winter on the Somme ground as I saw it between their old trenches and Le Barque, I have been at some trouble to verify that this is typical of his whole front there. It is typical. Officers who have been over the ground elsewhere tell me that the evidence of our punishment of the enemy’s late ground by guns this winter has surprised them. They knew it would be pretty bad. It is much worse than they expected.
The vacated German positions are a shocking compost of clay, bodies, and rags. There were no communication trenches to the front line. These had been obliterated. Any roads leading to the front positions cannot be even recognized as roads. They are sloughs containing the bodies of men who were drowned, because such was their state of mind that they would rather take the chances in those sunken ways of bottomless mire and red pools than face the horrors of crossing the open. One large area to the west of where I crossed the country to our outposts has been named the Sahara by our soldiers.
A Staff officer, who went to a farnous position near Miraumont, told me that the result of the shelling there was indescribably hideous. “I had never seen anything so bad.” That is the view everyone takes who has been up to the front: “It could not possibly be worse” and “I know no means of conveying to others the sense that land gives an eyewitness of being not only the death of the world, but also its revolting dissolution.” Anyhow, it dare not be even attempted now.
Since I saw it I have not been able to get it out of my mind, though I have seen some rather ugly things in this war. And, remember, that when up there as far as you can see there is nothing else to be seen. And remember, further, that it was that appalling prospect which had to be faced by all the German troops on that front, whether they were returning or going in or revictualling and providing for their comrades. They had to face it. I understand now why we used to hear that it was usual for German troops to go in fear to the Somme front “with their tails down,” as our men phrase it. It must have ended in madness for some of them and depression and miserable fear for most.