100 років тому

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/value-of-british-success-6r3js5prg

April 27, 1917

Value of British success

The last 24 hours have been comparatively quiet, except for artillery and aerial activity. There has been no infantry operation of importance. Except for heavy shelling, the enemy seems to have exhausted himself and we are busy consolidating ground recently won.
It seems a pity that it is necessary to speak of these operations in terms of geography, because, as often on the Somme, the smallness of the theatre, and the comparatively narrow depth of our advance, gives a misleading impression. It is much more valuable in the present phase of the war to put out of action 50,000 Germans and gain half a mile than to gain five miles and only inflict a loss of 10,000. Germany can better afford to give us ground than men, but what our Army wants is fighting. During the last few days the Germans have undoubtedly fought, and in some cases with great determination. It was necessary to delay us, and they were willing to pay an enormous price in order to move back their guns.
The absurdity of the German claims that the last operation was an attempt to break through is shown by the fact that at the nearest points we are still some 6,000 yards from the Quéant line. Precisely how any commander could be expected to attempt an attack on such a line when his men had 6,000 yards to go before reaching it is not easy to understand. The recent operation was purely local for the purpose of gaining certain objectives necessary to a methodical progress towards the Quéant line. The chief of those were the villages of Guémappe and Gavrelle, which we hold. We would have gladly gone farther but the defences here are so prickly that it would be too costly to rush them. There are other less expensive ways of getting such positions.
That the enemy attached supreme importance to the places captured is shown by their desperate efforts to recover them, by which he suffered infinitely greater loss than we declined to face in order to capture Roeux. On the map the operation is small, but interpreted in terms of damage done to German power, its importance is immense.
The weather continues fair, but cold and cloudy, being in the latter respect so much to the advantage of enemy aeroplanes, which like clouds and thick weather to shelter them.

100 Years Ago - Swiss Neutrality

ON THE GERMAN-SWISS FRONTIER NEAR BASEL (BALE).
ITALIANS RETURNING FROM BELLIGERENT COUNTRIES ON THE DECLARATION OF WAR ARRIVE HUNGRY AND TIRED AT BASEL (BALE).
ON THE GERMAN-SWISS FRONTIER.
INTERNED FRENCH SOLDIERS EMPLOYED IN AGRICULTURAL WORK AT ERIENZ.


https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/german-agents-in-switzerland-gzcp67nrw?CMP=TNLEmail_118918_1779768

German agents in Switzerland

Mr Grant Duff, the British Minister, has more than once been the object of malicious calumnies, clearly designed to weaken his influence, and therefore that of England

January 24, 1916

On Friday an article was published in The Times on the arrest of two Correspondents of The Times in Switzerland, and on Saturday another, on the subject of the Swiss Etat Major. One of the main objects underlying these articles was to call renewed attention to the way in which the many difficulties which the Swiss Government and people are inevitably called upon to face during the war are increased by the untiring efforts of German agents, high and low, in all parts of the country. Sometimes the ostensible object of the work of these industrious Teutons is to prepare the way for peace - a pax Germanica - as was supposed to be the case with Prince Bulow’s gigantic organization at Lucerne. Sometimes, as in certain Circles in Geneva, it aims at stirring up strife in other countries, such as India, where it is likely to be embarrassing to the cause of the Allies and especially of England. Sometimes, as at Lugano and on the Italian frontier and in one or two of the German Consulates, it moves in more mysterious ways, and the only thing certain about it is that its tendency is inimical and dangerous to England, France, Italy, and Russia, and, incidentally, to everyone who may be presumed to have the interests of those countries at heart.
UNDERGROUND MANOEUVRES.
Naturally, nearly the whole of this work is done below the surface, and, therefore, except in rare instances, it is almost impossible for the Swiss Government to deal with it, however neutrally they may be disposed, and however mischievous and harmful to their own country they may consider it. That they have the wish to suppress it is certain. In January last the then President, M Motta,in the course of a conversation with a special Correspondent of The Times, made use of the following significant phrase: “Whoever violates our neutrality will free us to become the allies of his enemy.” And without doubt the use of Switzerland for much of the propaganda and plotting carried on by these German agents, since it has a tendency to draw the country against its will nearer to the brink of war, is a distinct violation of its neutrality.
Nor is it all underground work. Much of it has been done, especially in the first months of the war, in a certain section of the Swiss Press which is notoriously financed by German money, and even controlled by German editors. One of these newspapers, La Depeche Suisse, published but not written in Geneva, was in October, 1914, suppressed by the Swiss authorities, and the Government at about the same time prohibited the circulation in Switzerland of the notorious Munich weekly, Simplicissimus. It is also significant of the change of feeling which has taken place in the German-speaking cantons that the tone of the German-Swiss newspapers is not nearly so violently pro-German and unfair and hostile to the Allies as it used to be. The proprietors have learnt that their readers are not as much attracted by that particular presentation and distortion of the facts, as they used to be.
BRITISH MINISTER CALUMNIATED
One point which must have been especially troublesome to the Swiss Government is that both in this special section of the German-Swiss Press and in other quarters this German influence has been particularly violent in attacking and inconveniencing the diplomatic representatives of the Allied Powers resident in Berne. Mr Grant Duff, the British Minister, has more than once been the object of malicious calumnies, clearly designed to weaken his influence, and therefore that of England. He was actually publicly accused in a German newspaper of having taken observations of Friedrichshafen from the neutral soil of Romanshorn, and another charge made against him was that he had endeavoured to persuade the President to lease to the British Government for the duration of the war the St Gothard wireless station. In both instances the Swiss Government publicly contradicted these lying absurdities, the German source of which was made perfectly evident. But even in Switzerland itself there have been “incidents,” in which Mr Grant Duff was not the only sufferer, which ought not to have happened to the diplomatic representatives of friendly Powers. On one occasion the motor-cars of the French, Italian, and British Ministers were held up on the public road by a squad of soldiers with fixed bayonets, and on another they were refused admittance to an invitation lecture, which was to have been given in Berne, on the atrocities in Belgium, although they had taken the precaution, before accepting their invitations, to ascertain from the police and from a still higher authority that the delivery of the lecture was officially authorized.
Nor are these the only instances of similar gaffes. There have been others, and it is unfortunate, as has been remarked more than once in the French-Swiss Press, that the victims of them always happen to belong to the same side - the side, that is to say, of the Allies. Perhaps a firmer support of those official victims by the Governments which they represent would have led to their being less frequent. In Switzerland itself these “unfortunate incidents” are popularly attributed, in a large part of the country, to the German influences and militarist tendencies with which, from the Federal Council downwards, the people as a whole are showing signs of being utterly wearied and disgusted.
“We have good will towards all the nations,” said President Motta in the conversation to which I referred above. That is and must be the motto of a united Switzerland. But it is a motto which cannot be truly and effectively carried out unless these under- ground influences of one of the nations-of Germany-are firmly and sternly repressed whenever and wherever they show their ugly heads.

100 Years Ago

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/a-republican-society-for-great-britain-fh8bscnj2

April 21, 1917

A Republican Society for Great Britain

To the Editor of The Times
Sir, Will you permit me to suggest that the time is now ripe to give some clear expression to the great volume of Republican feeling in the British community? Hitherto that has neither needed nor found very definite formulation. Our Monarchy is a peculiar one; the British system is in its essence a “crowned Republic” and it is doubtful whether even in Ireland there is any considerable section disposed to go beyond the implications of that phrase. But it will be an excess of civility to the less acceptable pretensions of Royalty and a grave negligence of our duty to liberal aspirations throughout the world of thinking men if we do not now take unambiguous steps to make clear to the Republicans of Europe, Asia, and the American Continent that these ancient trappings of throne and sceptre are at most a mere historical inheritance, and that our spirit is warmly and entirely against the dynastic system that has so long divided, embittered, and wasted the spirit of mankind.
The ending of this war involves many permanent changes in Eastern Europe and Western Asia. In particular there is the question of the future of the reunited Polish people. The time has come to say clearly that the prospect of some puppet monarch, some fresh intriguing little “cousin of everybody”, as a King in Poland is as disgusting to liberal thought in Great Britain as it is to liberal thought everywhere. We have had two object-lessons in Bulgaria and Greece of the endless mischief these dynastic graftings cause.
For the demonstration of such sentiments as these, for the advancement of the ends I have indicated, and for the encouragement of a Republican movement in Central Europe some immediate organization is required in Great Britain. To begin with, it might take the form of loosely affiliated “Republican Societies” centring in our chief towns, which could enrol members, organize meetings of sympathy with our fellow-Republicans abroad and form the basis of more definitely purposeful activities. Such activities need not conflict in any way with one’s loyalty to the occupant of the Throne of this “crowned Republic”. Very sincerely yours,
H G WELLS,
Easton Glebe, Dunmow, Essex.

100 Years Ago - Dutch Neutrality

THE GERMAN DESTROYER V 69 AT YMUIDEN GERMAN WOUNDED FROM V 69 IN THE DUTCH MILITARY HOSPITAL AT AMSTERDAM. CROWD READING THE BULLETINS A GERMAN AEROPLANE WHICH LANDED BY MISTAKE AT AARDENBURG, JULY 1917


https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-actions-in-the-north-sea-jqq8rwh02?CMP=TNLEmail_118918_1735391

The actions in the North Sea

The destroyers were at Zeebrugge, and stole out under cover of the darkness to avoid being frozen in. They were probably making for Emden or Wilhelmshaven

January 25, 1917

The two naval engagements off the coast of Holland on Monday night were fought in darkness, and it is not surprising that the details are scanty. The principal action seems to have been between a dozen or so German destroyers and a patrol of British “light forces,” which presumably included vessels larger than destroyers. A German survivor now in Holland speaks of “big ships,” but the statement is evidently relative.
There is no doubt about the port of departure of the German flotilla. The destroyers were at Zeebrugge, and stole out under cover of the darkness to avoid being frozen in. They were probably making for Emden or Wilhelmshaven. A comparison of the various narratives, including those of German combatants, seems to suggest that the British “light forces” probably expected a sortie, and were in waiting.
The British Admiralty statement says that the enemy flotilla was met “near the Dutch coast,” and there was “a short engagement.” One of the German destroyers was sunk, and the rest scattered, having suffered considerable punishment.”’ Again there is no doubt about the “scattering,” for the crew of the large German destroyer V 69 acknowledge that the rest of the flotilla fled. V 69, the flagship of one of the divisions, limped into the Dutch harbour of Ymuiden on Tuesday morning in a badly battered condition. She had been trying to reach Emden, but sought shelter in neutral waters on sighting more British warships. She had lost one of her funnels, her bridge had been destroyed, her steering gear disabled, and she had been rammed and damaged by a British destroyer. The officers and crew had suffered many casualties and the commander of the division had been killed. If the other German vessels endured an equal hammering, as is probable, they must have been well punished. Men of the V 69 seem to have thought that several of their consorts were sunk.
The second engagement, according to the British Admiralty, was fought between destroyers only near the Schouwen Bank, off the mouth of the Scheldt. A British destroyer was hit by a torpedo, and three officers and 44 men were killed. The destroyer was afterwards sunk by our own ships, and there were no other British casualties.
The German official version is characteristic. It speaks of only one engagement, claims the sinking of the destroyer which our Admiralty acknowledge, alleges that a second British destroyer was seen in a sinking condition, admits, for it could do no otherwise, that the V 69 ran into Ymuiden, and asserts that all the other destroyers returned. In other words, the German Admiralty, according to their wont, conceal the whole story except in regard to the lost British destroyer and the V 69. As our Naval Correspondent points out, the German bulletin smacks very strongly of the first enemy account of the Battle of Jutland. Few destroyer actions can ever have been fought under more trying conditions, in pitch blackness and on a wintry night. There is every reason to hold that our daring seamen achieved a very gallant feat. and that they have given the enemy a severe lesson.
The German destroyers which made Zeebrugge their base have had a fairly long innings, and have caused much interruption to the mercantile traffic at the southern end of the North Sea. They were caught at last, and we trust that henceforth their depredations will be more constantly countered. Our destroyer flotillas in these waters have in the past been held in leash too much, through no fault of their bold commanders, but a new policy is evidently at work, and this successful enterprise is its first fruits.

100 Years ago - CHARGING TO THE MAORI WAR-CRY

IN TRAINING IN EGYPT: CHARGING TO THE MAORI WAR-CRY ANZAC DAY IN LONDON: NEW ZEALANDERS ON THE MARCH TO WESTMINSTER ABBEY. April 25, 1916-the anniversary of the landing of the "Anzac" troops in Gallipoli-was celebrated by a memorial service in Westminster Abbey, attended by the King and Queen and a great number of survivors of the campaign. BRIGADIER-GENERAL BROWN INSPECTING NEW ZEALANDERS IN FRANCE GALLIPOLI DAY AT THE NEW ZEALAND HEADQUARTERS IN ENGLAND. General Sir William Birdwood decorating Sergeant Tavender with the Distinguished Conduct Medal. Sir Thomas Mackenzie, High Commissioner for New Zealand, is on the left.


https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/from-new-zealand-to-st-pauls-pr0c02scz?CMP=TNLEmail_118918_1683345

From New Zealand to St Paul’s

God grant that before long Prince and people may again meet in thanksgiving for a peace, which, when we had it, we did not value

August 5, 1915

(By a wounded New Zealander)
Twelve thousand miles away in New Zealand there is a slate-roofed, ivy-covered college chapel, where, almost a year ago, every seat in chancel and nave was occupied by pupils past or present. The masters in hood and surplice, the choir-boys in their black cassocks, filled the back benches, and in front privates and officers sang for the last time the end of term hymn and listened to the farewell sermon. These men were on the eve of departure, volunteers going without question to succour a land that most of them had never seen.
Then the scattering of all shadows,
And the end of toil and gloom.
The notes echoed in the chapel rafters, and from the lectern the hopeful words of the Benediction fell on the bended heads of the men. Not a year has elapsed, and many of those present that evening are lying in nameless graves among the dwarf oaks of Gallipoli.

Yesterday, one of those who had passed through the Valley of the Shadow heard the words of the same hymn sung beneath the dome of England’s greatest Cathedral. They awakened sad memories, but soon the majesty of the scene and service, almost oppressive in ceremonial grandeur, filled mind and eye. Personal loss and pain both were forgotten, and, in their place, came a sense of immeasurable pride and thankfulness, pride in being a citizen of so great an Empire, thankfulness for the steadfast courage of England in her dark days.
THE SENSE OF SOLEMNITY
To many of these men from overseas the magnificence and solemnity of the ceremony was overwhelming. To them all the pageantry and panoply that pass almost unnoticed in a great Imperial city were strange. The intensity of their patriotism, the fervour of their loyalty, had been fostered by no such outward show. So it was that the splendour of the grand old church, the pealing organ, the angel-voices that soared to the misty roof, the gathering of the greatest in the Empire, formed never to be forgotten impressions that will be handed down as heirlooms.
Ignorant of Monarchy, the New Zealander looked almost reverently on the khaki-clad figure of him for whom he had fought, weIl content with the quiet dignity that gives such confidence. The National Anthem, which now means so much more than it did a year ago, was sung with thrilling fervour, and its passionate patriotism and loyalty must have in some measure compensated for the anxieties and responsibilities that beset a Throne.
Midway through the service, as the Archbishop’s fervent prayer arose, a ray of sunlight flooded the gloom, striking into sudden brightness the ring on his lifted hand. A whisper of good omen was heard as the shadows fled before the sunbeams. God grant that it may be so, and that before long Prince and people may again meet in thanksgiving for a peace, which, when we had it, we did not value.
Never have the ties of Empire been so close. They are cemented with the life-blood of the Colonies, and the King rules over an undivided dominion - God save the King!

100 Years Ago - Air War

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/airmens-part-in-arras-battle-l5rpds0qt?CMP=TNLEmail_118918_1616303

Airmen’s part in Arras battle

Probably to the airmen, almost more than to anybody else, we owe the completeness of our victory

April 20, 1917

The weather continues impossible. In place of the howling wind and squalls of the last few days steady rain set in during the night and has been falling all day, shrouding everything in a thick, November-like mist. It is as if the elements themselves hated the war.
Unthinking people may say it is the same for both sides, but this is not true. Apart from the difficulty of rapid movement necessary to the attacking party, the thick mist robs us of all the advantage of our air supremacy and observation. We have the high ground now commanding the battlefield and a mastery in the air hardly less complete than in the Battle of the Somme. Each day enemy machines make, perhaps, a dozen crossings of our line, sometimes a few more, sometimes a few less, but, on an average, about a dozen, and every time a German machine comes over it scurries back again.
Since the Battle of Arras began we have made daily over 400 crossings of his line - not hasty dashes, but deliberate reconnaissances, with careful observation, taking thousands of photographs and making long-distance raids and excursions over German territory. Probably to the airmen, almost more than to anybody else, we owe the completeness of our victory, for it is the information brought by our airmen that enables the guns to smash up the enemy’s batteries and pound his defences to pieces. Our guns smothered every enemy battery within range; the observation of our airmen and the practice of our guns being equally admirable.
It is wonderful to see everywhere along the line in the captured German positions, not only heavy guns knocked out by direct hits, but small machine-gun emplacements, and always the firing is done as the result of aeroplane observation. Our flying men have paved the way for victory. The nation will never be grateful enough to the Royal Flying Corps for what it did on the Somme and is doing here today, in spite alike of the enemy and the storms.
In the thick mist which veils everything as I write, enemy aeroplanes stay at home, safe from attack, and his infantry and gunners know they are safe from the eyes that watch from above, and the immediate sequel to whose watching is the terrible work of our guns. The bad weather is all in his favour, and all to our disadvantage.

The official communique informed you that the number of guns we have captured now amounts to 230. I understand that at the beginning of the battle the enemy had out 600 guns on the front attacked. We have taken, therefore, considerably over one-third of his artillery. Of course the much larger part of it was further back than the positions to which we have penetrated. In the country overrun the number of guns he got away was very small, and, as already reported, in almost all cases, he left ammunition behind.

100 years ago - Battle in the Air, America, Russia

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/battle-on-a-grand-scale-zsktwwq8l


April 10, 1917

Battle on a grand scale

A new battle on a grand scale began this morning. At half-past 5, when it was not yet half-light, we attacked on a wide front between Lens and St Quentin. It was like the beginning of the Battle of the Somme again, and the Battle of Arras, if that is what it is to be called, may prove no less disastrous to the Germans.
The opening of the bombardment in the grey of the dawn was as stupendous a spectacle as anything ever seen in war. The heavy shelling of the last few days had portended the advent of operations on a large scale, but hardly anybody was prepared for the magnitude of the artillery concentration which we brought to bear this morning. In an instant, it seemed, the whole of the enemy line broke into flame. Beyond the flicker of our guns, and amid the flash of our bursting shells, the enemy’s rockets, calling for help, rose from the whole circuit of the horizon — red, white and green fountains of golden rain. Between our guns and the front trenches, from a small wood a great flight of rooks rose into the dawn air and swung in panic round and round, silhouetted against the background of flames like a devil’s dance above the eternal fires. Then other birds came, slowly droning, from behind us, flying very low, and headed straight for the enemy’s country — our aeroplanes, hardly visible against the grey sky, but going serenely through the storm as if there was neither wind around nor death ahead of them.
As daylight grew, the outlines of Arras on the right and the vague line of Vimy Ridge on the left began to define themselves. Before 6 o’clock, however, the light drizzle changed to a heavy storm of rain, which later became mixed with snow, and all the battlefield was sheeted in flying mist. It was not the weather for the attack we had hoped for, and the surface of the ground again became slippery and shining with moisture. We are under no misapprehension as to the strength of the position which we are attacking. Behind the enemy’s front line system, strengthened in every possible way, extends a network of trenches and strongholds, line beyond line. Such a battle as has begun this morning cannot be fought without heavy casualties. We must be reconciled to that. But the enemy will suffer, more than we, and we shall break him here as we broke him on the Somme.