100 Years Ago

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/the-captain-who-could-not-be-killed-mlb5t6pc7

OCTOBER 8, 1918

The captain who could not be killed

In the fighting of Friday and yesterday the adventures of the American Tanks are a thrilling story. Yesterday I visited the headquarters of a Tank unit — a wooden hut, furnished with but a few camp beds and chairs. The commander told how the Tanks preceded the infantry in the attack, how the enemy with anti-Tank rifles and mobile field guns had fired at point-blank range at the advancing monsters, and how the Tanks, shaking off the opposition as a dog shakes off water, had pressed onward, performing every feat that was asked of them.

There was one captain who led his Tanks on foot through the fog. Suddenly he missed his footing and, falling down a trench, discovered to his dismay that 12 Germans were waiting for him. He was promptly disarmed of his pistol and held as prisoner. But only a few moments had elapsed when the nose of a Tank peeped over the top of the trench. The Germans fled before the apparition and the captain, after recovering his pistol, climbed out of the trench and set forth to resume his command. On his way he was knocked over by a shell, and found lying unconscious on the battlefield. He recovered later, and finding that no bones were broken went off again to find his Tanks. This he eventually did, but a gas shell that burst near him penetrated his mask, and he was gassed. He had no intention of giving in, however, and, in spite of all entreaties, continued to lead his Tanks throughout the day, reporting to the headquarters where I was at 7 at night. “What did he say when he reported?” I asked the commander. “Blank, blank, I wouldn’t have given three cents for my life out there.”

This Tank unit has a mascot, a French boy named Leo Gerard, 14 years of age, from Lorraine. He was picked up in France, dressed in khaki, and has made himself quite the pet of the Tanks. He speaks American, is as brave as a lion, willing to go anywhere, even to the front in a Tank, and generally enjoys himself wandering around the lines making friends with all the officers and men. He told me he wants to go to America after the war to study at a university, and then become an officer in the American Army. He is in good hands, for the majority of the Tank officers are men from Harvard and Yale, and other famous universities of the United States.

100 Years Ago - The Bolshevist murder

SEPTEMBER 5, 1918

The Bolshevist murder

Bolshevist soldiers have broken into and sacked the British Embassy at Petrograd, looted the Embassy, destroyed the papers, murdered Captain Cromie, the British Naval Attache, who gallantly defended the building, mutilated his body, and even refused an English clergyman leave to pray over the dead. Our Government telegraphed to the People’s Commissary for Foreign Affairs a demand for immediate reparation and for the prompt punishment of all concerned. By the immemorial law of all communities who have emerged from primitive barbarism the persons and domiciles of foreign representatives are sacrosanct. The British people will regard this infamous act with the deepest horror and indignation, and require that searching and impartial investigation shall be made as to responsibility for the deed. We do not want hecatombs of the ruling party’s political enemies, such as they offered to the Germans after the murder of Count Mirbach, or executions confined to insignificant underlings. The report of the murder given in the official Bolshevist organ shows that the armed invasion of the Embassy was the considered act of the Soviet Government, and not a mere outbreak of irresponsible brigandage.

The Government have warned of the measures they will take if the Soviet Government fail to give complete satisfaction. About a hundred of our fellow-countrymen, including our distinguished Petrograd Correspondent, are believed to be still in Bolshevist Russia. There are also Bolshevists in England, among them M Litvinoff, the representative of the Soviet Government, and his staff. They have been placed under arrest until all British subjects under Bolshevist control have been set at liberty and allowed to proceed to the Finnish frontier. A group of 25 were to have left our shores on Tuesday, as a token of our good will, although negotiations for the mutual repatriation of British and Russian citizens had not been concluded. The treaties signed by the Bolshevists with Germany on Tuesday provide, we are told, that Russia will fight against the Entente in Northern Russia. If this is correct, they would seem to regard themselves as in a state of war with us. But only savages begin war by assassination.

100 Years Ago

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/king-at-baseball-match-krzfp3llt

JULY 5, 1918

King at baseball match

Yesterday’s baseball match on the Chelsea Football Ground was an awakener for London, a revelation of America at play. The afternoon was as strenuous as a pillow-fight in a boys’ dormitory, and took us away to those distant times when we could rejoice under a blue sky without looking for Zeppelins and Gothas.

The afternoon passed in such a pandemonium as was perhaps never heard before on an English playing-field; not even on a football ground. The United States seemed to be shouting in chorus and Great Britain joined in. Never, moreover, was a football ground so arrayed. The dingy surroundings were shut out by a square mile or two of flags, “Old Glory” and the Union Jack predominating. The grandstand was gorgeously draped, and the King and Queen went to their seats by a flowery way. Both for distinction and for enthusiasm the gathering was without precedent in baseball, or rather “the ball game,” as the more knowing spectators were careful to call it. The Army players wore green with blue caps, the Navy blue trimmed with red. They assembled before the Royal box, and the King, descending among them, shook hands with the captains.

Baseball is one of the fastest and most exciting methods of getting breathless ever invented. It calls for great skill, and its rewards are salaries beyond the dreams of avarice. The dignity of cricket it disowns; the tremulous tumult of football is as the recreation of well-mannered mice by comparison. The players think by lightning and field, catch, and throw with the certainty of a stopwatch. As if the chaff of the spectators were not sufficient for them, they chivy one another. The catcher is padded like an armchair, and must be able to take punishment with the calm of a prize-fighter.

We should not care to say which was the better side because, frankly, we do not know. But the Navy won by two to one and appeared to deserve its victory. Naval officers rubbed shoulders with Army officers, the uniforms of the United States with those of the United Kingdom. The Stars and Stripes was waved by every man, woman, and child; and there could be no doubt of a whole-hearted acceptance of America as a comrade in play and a near relation in the great work that lies before the two big English-speaking families.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2018-07-04/register/influenza-epidemic-spreading-jdj86nz3c

JULY 4, 1918

Influenza epidemic spreading

The influenza epidemic shows no sign of abatement and in many large towns schools have been closed and business is seriously hampered. The Irish Registrar-General reported five deaths due to influenza in Dublin last week. There have also been fatal cases in London. In Birmingham and district the doctors are at their wits’ end to know how to deal with the number of patients. One found 178 waiting for him when he arrived at his surgery. Last week there were 10 deaths in the city traceable to the disease. Many teachers and hundreds of children are away from school. The munition factories and ironworks are seriously affected. Numbers of men and women have had to be sent home in ambulances owing to the suddenness of the seizure. The doctors’ surgeries in Manchester are not only crowded, but queues have to be controlled outside dispensing centres. Schools have been closed, and large business firms are severely handicapped. The authorities agree that the present disease resembles a form of West Indian fever known as “deugnes”. Sixty tramway-car drivers and guards are off duty, and at the sheds absentees number 200. A prisoner at the assizes could not be tried for bigamy because he was suffering from influenza. There are many victims in Newcastle, on Tyneside, and in Northumberland. Several of the city policemen and firemen have been overcome, and a few persons have collapsed in the streets. Numbers of nurses and medical students are affected. In the surrounding country the epidemic is equally severe. Coalminers especially have been attacked. One colliery had 18 underground lads “off” in a single day. The Nottinghamshire collieries have had similar experiences. In a pit at Mansfield 250 men were out one day, and the hosiery and boot factories have lost many of their women workers. One of the biggest mills has had to close and several deaths are reported. The epidemic is spreading in Surrey, particularly in the Egham and Woking areas.

At an inquest at Deptford on two boys of 10 years of age the doctor said that the evidence pointed to influenza being the cause of death. He expressed the opinion that germs entered by the mouth and nose. To rinse the mouth and nostrils every morning with a tepid solution of salt and water was a good safeguard.

First World War: the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, as it happened

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one/10930863/First-World-War-centenary-the-assassination-of-Franz-Ferdinand-as-it-happened.html

First World War centenary: the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, as it happened

On Sunday June 28 1914 in Sarajevo, Gavrilo Princip fired the shot that killed
the Archduke and started the train of events that led to global war. Here is
a step by step account of how the dramatic day unfolded

The Daily Telegraph, June 29 1914

100 years ago - Russia capitulates

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/the-bolshevist-capitulation-w358krgcw

february 12, 1918

The Bolshevist capitulation

Following the signature of peace terms with the Ukraine, a German telegram from Brest announces the conclusion of peace with Russia. The Bolshevists, according to this message, without signing any formal treaty of peace, declare the state of war with the Central Powers to be at an end, and order the demobilization of the Army, or, in more direct phraseology, an unconditional surrender, leaving the peoples in occupied Russia to their fate.

The text of the Treaty of Peace with the Ukraine is published. It provides that the frontier of the new Ukrainian Republic on the south-west shall follow the frontier of Galicia, to the north of which an area of territory, at present occupied by the enemy, in the Governments of Volhynia, Lublin, Siedice, Grodno, and Minsk, becomes part of the new Ukrainian State, and is to be immediately evacuated. Both parties renounce the reimbursement of their war costs, and elaborate provisions are laid down for the exchange of agricultural and industrial products, the amounts of which are to be fixed by a Joint Commission.

The peace treaty was referred to by the Kaiser in a speech at Homburg, in which he said that they desired to live in friendship with neighbouring peoples, “but the victory of the German arms must first be recognized”.
A Brest-Litovsk telegram of today’s date says: At today’s sitting the President of the Russian delegation stated that Russia, while desisting from signing a formal peace treaty, declares as ended the state of war with Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria, and simultaneously is giving orders for the complete demobilization of the Russian forces on all fronts.
A telegram from Brest-Litovsk of today’s date, via Berlin, says: It was possible to announce at the beginning of the last pause in the negotiations that a basis for the conclusion of peace between the Quadruple Alliance and the Ukrainian People’s Republic had been found. Thanks to the energetic and untiring work of all the commissions, and thanks to the spirit of conciliation which inspired all parties, an agreement on all points was established in the course of yesterday, so that the final drafting of the treaties and their signature could be carried out.

100 Years Ago - 14 Points

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/war-marriages-a-warning-gh5lzqjws

january 9, 1918

War marriages — a warning

To the Editor of The Times Sir, May I ask you to publish a warning to parents and guardians, and to marriageable girls? lt is required not by reason of special depravity in any particular set of men, but because social conditions are profoundly affected by the war.
A young lady, well known to me, and highly and justly respected, was courted with every apparent circumstance of scrupulous honour by one who had volunteered from another part of the world to fight for the Allied cause. Her family made every inquiry that seemed possible in the case of one whose home was far away, and the engagement was recognized, and had been made known, when — happily before it was too late — the fact came to light that the would-be bridegroom had a wife and child living in the land from which he came.

I have been begged to write this on behalf of the lady and her family, who are anxious to warn others of the risks that may be run if, owing to the difficulty of prosecuting at a distance such inquiries as would be thought indispensable in this country, proposals apparently honourable are too trustfully accepted. It is usually possible at least to find out something about the next-of-kin of a fighting man, and, if he be serving in the ranks, to learn whether they are receiving the reparation allowance.
Yours faithfully,
J B CAPPER, St. Michaels, Reigate, Jan 7.
● At the Central Criminal Court yesterday, Vincent Francis Roberts, 21, soldier, was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment on a charge of bigamy. Mr Cecil Whiteley, for the prosecution, said the prisoner was a member of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. One day, in Regent Street, Westminster, he accidentally knocked a bag out of the hand of a woman clerk named Bennett. He introduced himself, said he had been wounded in Gallipoli, and suggested that they shold become engaged and be married. The young woman replied, “This is sudden, is it not?” but she accepted the proposal and a few days later they were married at a church in Brixton. It was subsequently discovered that the prisoner was already married. It was said that he was a deserter and had been going about in officer’s uniform.

100 Years Ago - Russia

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/fun-for-fighting-men-nzgw7pj7b

january 4, 1918

Fun for fighting men

The Christmas-New Year week has seen a regular epidemic of “shows” up and down the line — not the raids, attacks or fights which the line frivolously terms “a show”, but all kinds of theatrical, concert, and such like performances. For most of the year such shows are a standing feature in local halls, barns, school, huts, or other buildings converted to a theatre. Some of the divisions have Pierrot and concert troupes which have worthily acquired fame, and the men of surrounding divisions crowd to these favourites when the “Follies”, or “Frivolities” or “Duds” or “Dandies” or “Blighty Boys” are due to appear. But during Christmas week every division and brigade and unit blossomed forth in some sort of concert or performance. Local inhabitants behind the lines were canvassed for properties and “civvy” clothes, and where there were no locals the regimental tailor was pressed into service.

The show I went to was in a large building in a town which has been subjected to periodical shellings and air-bombing. The possibility that at any moment the performance might be interrupted by a high-explosive shell did not appear to disturb the khaki audience. The rumble of guns continued during the performance, and every now and then the “thud” and “woof” of a “heavy” interjected into the clowning of the corner man and his partner.
The “turns” were on just the same lines as in a music-hall at home. There was the usual couple — a man in a fantastic, trampish costume and with a brilliantly red nose, and another in fashionable “knuttish” attire, indicated by a stand-up white collar and a relic of a silk hat. The Pierrots consisted of half a dozen men and one boy-girl. He-she was dressed in girl’s clothes, and wore long gloves and incredibly small high-heeled shoes. The hair looked a trifle wiggish, but I confess that if I had not been warned he-she was a soldier, I should have accepted him-her at face value as a rather strapping girl. The songs were calculated to suit all tastes — comic, popular-tune favourites, horribly sentimental, rag-time, and patriotic. The latter were rather coldly received unless they had a very swinging tune. Apparently the men who are ready to fight and die for their country do not like to have it so remarked in music.

Hubris and humiliation at Brest-Litovsk

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-12-30/register/hubris-and-humiliation-at-brest-litovsk-n236qhxl8

Germany’s harsh demands at this peace summit led to Russia withdrawing from the First World War, but they were to pay for their uncompromising stance

Michael Tillotson

December 30 2017, 12:01am, The Times

Military officers from Russia and the Austro-Hugarian Empire meet to sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918