WWI Timeline

WWI Timeline - 1918

31/12/2018

7th March – Trotsky signs peace treaty with Germany at Brest-Litovsk.
23rd March – Germans use new Storm Trooper assault teams west of St Quentin, taking 16,000 british prisoners.
23rd March – Artillery bombardment at Paris.
23rd March – German assaults reach the Somme line. The greatest air battle of the War takes place with 70 aircraft involved. Queensferry lost 5 men and Dalmeny lost 4 men during the Somme 21st March -1st April.
26th March – French Marshall Foch becomes Supreme Commander of all allied forces.
1st April – Royal Air Force founded by combining Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service.
21st April – Legendary German ace Manfred Von Richtofen, known as the Red Baron is shot down and killed.
10th May – British launch a raid on Ostend. HMS Vindictive scuttled. German cruisers are no longer able to use the Port.
19th May – German Air Force launches its largest and last air raid on London. 49 civilians are killed and 177 wounded.
15th July – Start of collapse of German Army at second Battle of the Marne.
17th July – Russian Tsar and his family shot by Bolsheviks.
8th August – Second battle of Amiens. German resistance is sporadic and thousands surrender.
27th September – The Great British Offensive on the Cambrian front leads to the storming of the Hindenburg Line. Queensferry lost 2 men here.
30th September – British and Allied troops take Damascus, capturing 7,000 prisoners and securing stability in the Middle East.
4th October - Germany asks allies for an armistice.
17th October – The whole of the Channel Coast in the West of Flanders is liberated.
20th October – Germany suspends submarine warfare
29th October – Sailors aboard the German High Seas Fleet at Jade, Northern Germany, mutiny and refuse to engage the British Fleet.
30th October – The Turkish army surrenders to the British in Mesopotamia. Turkey signs an armistice treaty with the allies. Queensferry's Robert Fossett died of pneumonia, here on 24th October just before the armistice was signed.
8th November – Armistice negotiations between allies and Germany begin in Ferdinand Foch's railway carriage H.Q.
9th November – Germany's Kaizer William II abdicates.
11th November – Germany signs armistice at 6am, fighting ends at 11 am.
11th November – At 10.15 am American Private Henry Gunther is killed - the last soldier to die in action on the Western front. Dalmeny lost John Livingston, aged 23, in Archangel, Russia on same day.
21st November – 9 German Battleships, 5 Battle Cruisers, 7 Cruisers and 49 Destroyers arrive at Rosyth to surrender.
12th December – The British Cavalry cross the Rhine and begin occupation of Cologne.

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WWI Timeline - 1917

1/1/2018

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16th January – German Foreign Secretary proposes alliance with Mexico
                                     against the USA.
31st January – Germany continues with unrestricted submarine warfare,
                          hoping to starve Britain into submission
3rd February – The USA severs diplomatic relations with Germany as U Boats
                           threaten US shipping.
23rd February – Germany begins its withdrawal to Hindenburg Line.
15th March – Russian Czar Nicholas II abdicates.
26th March – First battle of Gaza, Palestine, as British attempt to cut off the
                          Turkish in Mesopotamia, from their homeland. Queensferry lost
                          one man here in trench warfare after the Battle of Gaza
6th April – USA declares war on Germany. Troops begin to mobilise
                    immediately.
9th April – Second battle of Arras begins. British successfully employ new
                   tactics of creeping Barages. Queensferry lost 4 men here and
                    Dalmeny lost 2 men.
12th April – Canadian victory in the battle of Vimy Ridge.

7th June – The Battle of Messines Ridge, 19 mines detonated under German
                    lines. Explosions are heard from England.
13th June – First successful heavy bomber raid on London killing 162.
25th June – First American troops land in France.
31st June – Battle of Passchendaele begins.
17th July – Royal Family adopt name of House of Windsor.
28th July – Formation of Royal Tank Corps.
15th August – Battle of Hill 70. Canadians take hill, only 15 feet higher than
                          surrounding land, but allies lose 9,200 men.
9th October – Third phase of the Ypres Offensive begins with rain falling on
                         saturated ground. Battlefield turns into a quagmire. Queensferry
                         lost 5 men here and Dalmeny lost 5 men.
15th October – Dutch spy Mata Hari executed in Paris. (Margaretha Geertruida
                           "Margreet" MacLeod (née Zelle; 7 August 1876 – 15 October
                             1917), better known by the stage name Mata Hari, was a
                              Dutch Frisian exotic dancer and courtesan who was convicted
                             of being a spy.)
15th October – The last airship raid on Britain is carried out by 112 zeppelins.
2nd November – British Government supports plan for Jewish homeland in
                              Palestine in Balfour Declaration.
10th November – Battle of Passchendael ends. Allies have advanced only 5
                                miles, half a million men are casualties.
17th November – Second Battle of Heligoland Bight.

20th November – The Battle of Cambrai begins. Royal Flying Corps drop bombs
                                on German anti-tank guns. Queensferry lost 3 men here
11th December – Britain liberates Jerusalem ending 673 years of Turkish Rule.
23rd December – Russian Armistice with Germany.

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WWI Timeline - 1916

1/1/2017

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8th January - Gallipoli Campaign ends with evacuation from Helles.
27th January – Conscription introduced in the UK.
29th January – British first tested tanks in Hatfield in Hertfordshire.
21st February – Battle of Verdun begins. The battle lasts 10 months and more than one million men become casualties.
28th March – Women's Army Auxiliary Corps founded.
2nd April – Zeppelin raid on Edinburgh, 13 die, 24 wounded.

Zepplin over Edinburgh, image reproduced with permission -http://lzdream.net/dirigeables/zeppelin/ficheszep/46/index.php

5th April – The Battle of Kut. The final allied attempt to relieve Kut in Mesopotamia flounders in the mud along the River Tigris.
24th April – Easter rising in Dublin against British Rule.
29th April – Besieged allied forces surrender to Turkish forces at Kut after 143 days -9,000 British and Indian troops captured.
31st May – Battle of Jutland begins. The German fleet ends up irreparably damaged for the rest of the War.
5th June – T E Lawrence – Laurence of Arabia aids Grand Sharif of Mecca in the Arab revolts against the Turks in Hejaz.
5th June – HMS Hampshire sunk off Orkney Islands. Lord Kitchener is lost along with 643 crewmen.

HMS Hampshire

1st July – Battle of the Somme sees 750,000 allied soldiers in action. In one day 60,000 are dead, wounded or missing. Of 1916 Deaths, Queensferry lost 12/18 men here, and Dalmeny lost 4/5 men here.
27th August – Italy declares war on Germany.
2nd September – First German airships shot down over Hertfordshire.
15th September – First mass use of tanks at Somme.
18th November – Battle of Somme ends. More than 1.5 million men were killed, wounded or listed as missing.
21st November – HMS Brittanic, sister ship of HMS Titanic, sinks after hitting a German mine.

Painting of HMS Britannic sinking, by Ken Marshall, reproduced with permission from Ken Denley

25th November – John Jellico becomes first Lord of the Sea.
5th December - Henry Asquith resigns as Prime minister.
7th December – David Lloyd George becomes Prime minister.
12th December – Germany delivers Peace Note to allies suggesting compromise.
18th December – The battle of Verdun ends. It is the longest and costliest battle on the western front.

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WWI Timeline 1915

1/1/2016

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1915 Timeline

During 1915, Queensferry lost 10 men and Dalmeny lost 8 men.
Queensferry lost 1 man during winter operations in January and Dalmeny lost 1 man.
January 19th – First airborne attack on Britain saw bombs dropped Zeppelins on Great Yarmouth, killing 5 civilians.
February 4th – Germans begin using submarines against merchant vessels.
February 18th – Blockade of Britain by German U -B oats begins. All vessels are considered viable targets.
February 19th – The Gallipoli Campaign begins. March 10th - The British offensive at Neuve Chapelle begins. Allied losses amount to 12,8000 in 2 days. Queensferry lost 4 men here, September, June and 2 on way to Gallipoli in August and Dalmeny lost 1 man in September
April 22nd – Start of Second battle of Ypres in which Germany first used Poison Gas. Queensferry lost 3 men here in April and Dalmeny lost 2 men 1 in April and 1 in May.
April 23rd – Poet Rupert Brooke died of blood poisoning on way to the Dardenelles.
April 25th – Allied landings at Gallipoli, 70,000 British, Commonwealth and French troops come under heavy fire.
May 7th – British liner Lusitania is sunk by a German U-Boat.
May 23rd – Italy declares war on Germany and Austria.
May 25th – The 'Shell Crisis' exposes the failings of the government. Discontent over rising casualty figures grows. (The Shell Crisis of 1915 was a shortage of artillery shells on the front lines of World War I that led to a political crisis in Britain.)
May 30th – First Air raid on London kills 7.
June 9th – British troops in France first issued with hand grenades.
June 30th - German Troops use flame throwers for the first time against the British Lines at Hooge, Ypres.
August 16th – A U Boat bombards Whitehaven proving Britains defences can be breached by German Submarines
September 6th – First tank "Little Willie" trialed.

Image – Little Willie Tank Little Willie in Bovington Museum -image CC BY-SA 2.0 (Wikipedia)

September 8th – Tsar Nicholas 2 personally takes command of Russian Army.
September 25th – At the battle of Loos, the British use Gas for the first time but it blows back over their own troops with 2,632 casualties. Queensferrry lost 2 men as a result of this battle in October and November, Dalmeny lost 4 men, 3 in September and 1 in October
September 27th – British and Canadian Regiments take Hill 70 at loos and break the German Line, but can't exploit the breach.
October 12th – British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by German firing squad for helping allied troops escape from Belgium.
October 31st – Steel helmets introduced on the British front.
December 19th – Douglas Haig replaces John French as Commander of the British Expeditionary Force.
December 20th – Allies complete the evacuation of 83,000 troops from Suvia Bay and ANZAC Cove in Gallipoli. No one is killed.
© Queensferry History Group 2015

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WWI Timeline - 1914

31/1/2015

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During 1914, Queensferry lost 5 men, Dalmeny lost 3 men and one of those is also on the Queensferry Memorial.

June 28th – Assasination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria by Bosnian Serb Gaurilo Princip.
July 28th – Austria- Hungary declares war on Serbia.
August 1st – Germany declares war on Russia.
August 3rd – Germany declares war on France.
August 4th – United Kingdom declare war on Germany.
August 4th – United Stated declares neutrality.
August 6th – Cruiser HMS Amphia sunk by German mines in North Sea with loss of 150 men, first British casualties of the War.
August 7th – British Expeditionary Force arrives in France.
August 11th – "Your Country Needs You" slogan is published calling for 100,000 men to enlist in Kitcheners 'New Army'.
August 13th – The first squadrons of the Royal Flying Corps arrive in France.
August 23rd – British Expeditionary Force starts its retreat from Mons. The Angel of Mons is born.(The Angels of Mons is a popular legend about a group of angels who supposedly protected members of the British Army in the Battle of Mons at the outset of World War I.) (Queensferry lost 2 men here, Dalmeny lost 2 men).
August 25th – The Royal Flying Corps claim their first 'kill' as aircraft from 2nd squadron force down a German plane.
August 28th – Royal Navy wins first battle of Helligoland Bight in the North Sea.
September 26th – Battle of the Marne checks German advance with 13,000 British, 250,000 French and 250,000 German casualties.
October 1st - The first battle of Arras, an attempt by the French to stop the Germans reaching the English Channel.
October 16th – The British Indian Expeditionary Force sails from Bombay to the Persian Gulf for the defence of Mesopotamia.
October 18th – First battle of Ypres. (Queensferry lost 3 men here and Dalmeny lost 1 man).
October 29th – Turkey enters the war.
November 2nd – The UK begins naval blockade of Germany.
22nd November – Trenches are established along the entire Western Front.
December 8th – Battle of the Falklands, Royal Navy defeats Von Spere's German Cruiser Squadron.
December 16th – German Fleet shells Scarborough and Hartlepool, killing 137 civilians.
December 24/25th – In parts of the Western Front an unofficial truce is observed between British and German forces.

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WWI Timeline - 1918

WWI Timeline - 1917

WWI Timeline - 1916

WWI Timeline 1915

WWI Timeline - 1914

© Queensferry History Group 2015

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