100 Years Ago - Kaiserschlacht

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/the-renewal-of-the-battle-3x63c6nlz

april 6, 1918

The renewal of the battle

The Germans began the second phase of the battle in France on Thursday morning by delivering a very formidable attack on the front between the Somme and Montdidier. They renewed their offensive some days earlier than was expected, and within the great salient they have created they are moving their troops and guns about with menacing rapidity. The size of their salient gives them ample elbow-room in the southern half, though they are still cramped and constricted in the north. On the other hand, the very magnitude and shape of the salient makes it vulnerable in the south between Montdidier and the Oise. Orders found on prisoners show that their objective was the main railway line from Amiens to Paris. As they are within three miles of the line at one point, and as they also hold heights which bring it within range of their artillery, it must be assumed that this route is no longer very safe. The principal purpose was to make a converging attack upon Amiens.

British forces south of the Somme joined in confronting Thursday’s attack. It is not quite clear where the French now link up with our right flank, but evidently we still hold the “Roman road” a mile or two south of the river. Our line touched the Somme close by the village of Hamel, which we appear to have lost. The enemy got into the Hamel and Vaire woods, and last night’s British bulletin speaks of “severe and persistent” fighting on Thursday east of Villers-Brettonneux, where we still hold most of the high ground.
The dominating factor was plainly the rain, which is converting the approaches to the battlefield into swamps. A falling barometer tends to the discomfiture of the Germans, but it affects us almost as adversely. We are fighting on a new line, and the change makes a heavy demand on our road transport. Some of our lateral field railways are now in the hands of the foe, and if the Germans find it difficult to maintain the conflict, we have similar difficulties.
There were no attacks yesterday, possibly because part of the ground over which the Germans are operating becomes marshy after heavy rainfall. United States units are now entering the battle-line and by today, the anniversary of the entry of the United States into the war, we may conceivably hear of their participation in the conflict.

The Anti-submarine War, 1915-1918

A DEPTH CHARGE EXPLODING

A "CAMOUFLAGED" FRENCH TRANSPORT

CREATING A SMOKE-FOG

TOWING AN OBSERVA 'PION BALLOON INTO POSITION


https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/disguise-at-sea-vbcg85wzp?utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=newsletter_118&utm_medium=email&utm_content=118_04.04.2018%20submarines%20(1)&CMP=TNLEmail_118918_3117876_118

Disguise at sea

The theory of rendering ships invisible at sea by painting them various colours is no longer tenable

January 14, 1918

An official statement declares that it has been stated at various times in the Press that the Admiralty have not realized the value of carmounage as a means of assisting to defeat the attacks of enemy submarines on mercantile shipping, and that such camouflage as has been tried is not of British origin. The statements referred to have not appeared in The Times.
The official document continues: lt can be stated that the Admiralty are fully alive to its value, and several months ago a system of camouflage was originated. The principles governing it cannot be divulged at present, but it may be said that it has not invisibility for its basis.
The theory of rendering ships invisible at sea by painting them various colours is no longer tenable. Endless endeavours have been made in this direction, and numerous schemes have been given fair trial by the Admiralty under actual conditions at sea. The results of these trials have invariably been disappointing, and it has been finally established that unless a vessel and her smoke can be rendered absolutely invisible no useful purpose is served.

The application of Thayer’s Law is most commonly put forward as a means of obtaining invisibility. This, broadly speaking, is an adoption of Nature’s means for eliminating shadows and so reducing the visibility of birds and animals at close quarters either for purposes of attack or defence, and it is stated that this can be applied to ships by painting the ceilings of promenade decks or other projecting structures white, in order to eliminate all shadows. Actual experiences at sea have proved that this is a fallacy, and that the paint itself, being dependent on the light of the sky, will not overcome shadows.
The scheme now in use has been extensively taken up, not only by the British, but also by the Allied Governments, and no stone is being left unturned to utilize this important asset, which is only one of the many devices which are used to combat the enemy’s submarine activity.

Geffrye Museum

Невеликий, але цікавий музей побуту середнього класу 16-20 ст https://www.geffrye-museum.org.uk/ На жаль, зараз ёго закрили на 2 роки, але ось що там було

Marengo (2)

Marengo - Museum of the battle

На жаль працює не щодня

First World War: ‘Fire waltz’ delivers a terrifying blow on the Western Front

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/first-world-war-fire-waltz-delivers-a-terrifying-blow-on-the-western-front-88m0rg86s

In 1918 the Germans began to view the war as a race against the expansion of the American Expeditionary Force

Allan Mallinson

A propaganda photograph showing German soldiers loading a Minenwerfer short-range mortar during the Operation Michael spring offensive on the Western Front in March 1918ALAMY

In his memoir, General Erich Ludendorff, Erste Generalquartiermeister of the German army, effectively running the war and wielding increasing power over German politics and industry, wrote that in early 1918 “the condition of our allies and of our army all called for an offensive that would bring about an early decision. This was only possible on the Western Front.”
The Royal Navy’s blockade was beginning to cripple German civilian morale, as well as constricting supplies for the front. One deserter, Heinrich Fleischer, volunteered to work for the British Secret Service Bureau after going on leave to Berlin and finding his family “white and emaciated, with nothing to eat but turnips and watery potatoes”.
If Ludendorff could not force a decision on the Western Front by the end of the year, more than a million newly arrived Americans would be poised to decide matters in 1919.

With the signing of the peace treaty with the Bolshevik government at Brest-Litovsk, Ludendorff could turn his back on the Russian front and transfer the remaining troops to France. “I set aside all idea of attacking in Macedonia or Italy. All that mattered was to get together enough troops for an attack in the west,” he wrote. When he told the kaiser that he planned to assemble 900,000 men for what would be called Der Kaiserschlact (the Kaiser’s Battle), the reply was: “Add another hundred thousand and make it a million.”

First World War: Lenin’s pragmatic approach to Russia’s Islamic regions

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/first-world-war-lenins-pragmatic-approach-to-russias-islamic-regions-t3tsqtpdk

An open-mindedness towards Muslim issues by the Bolshevik leader was welcomed during the early days of the revolution

Michael Tillotson

March 31 2018, 12:01am, The Times

Lenin sweeps away the old ways, including in 1917 removing special privileges based on faith or nationalityREX FEATURES

Writing in the Bolshevik newspaper Novaya Zhizn (New Life) in 1905, Vladimir Lenin pronounced: “As a system of belief, religion adds to the oppressive woes of the exploited, coarsening and darkening the spiritual and moral life of the masses.”
An atheist from age 16, this reflected his thinking of religion broadly and did not take account of the likely obstacles that Islam would place on the spread of Bolshevism. This was a surprising omission because the census of 1897 revealed almost 14 million Muslims mainly living in the Caucasus, the Volga-Ural regions and Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. These regions considered themselves suppressed by the tsars and the widespread rejoicing that greeted the fall of Nicholas II might have given Lenin grounds for optimism for their willing adoption of his political and social convictions. When conflict between Bolshevism and religion began to emerge as an issue of importance, he was to prove more pragmatic in his approach to Islam than to the various schisms of the Christian faith.

Shortly before he moved the Congress of Soviets from Petrograd to Moscow in March 1918, Lenin was reported to be furious when a mob bawling the Internationale burnt down a Russian Orthodox church in Petrograd. Clearly his fury had not arisen from any religious consideration. He simply did not wish to alienate the churches of Russia while his grip on the country was still tenuous and regional.