Something I've been doing for a different website, thought I'd start it up here. Cobbling together things from different websites, comparing sources, and more-or-less liveblogging the First World War. Just 100 years late.

I have chosen today to start because one of the most significant developments of the entire War started today. To whit, the disastrous Battle of the Somme, which, despite much British propaganda to the contrary, did not in fact, result in the attrition of the German Armies in the West to a significantly greater degree than that of the British & French Armies. In fact, quite the opposite happened.

Western Front
Battle of Verdun: German forces at Verdun suspend their attack on Fort Souville due to heavy casualties. Heavy fighting at Fleury and west of Thiaumont. French thwart attempted German advance west of Fort Thiaumont. French gains in Fumin-Chenois Woods. War Minister General Roques visits.

Preliminary British bombardment along Somme front and northwards. British and French forces, stocked with 3 million artillery shells, begin preparatory bombardment of German lines at the Somme. (This much is standard Allied propaganda. What they don’t tell you is that the week-long bombardment was largely a failure, due to several factors:
1. Many, many, many of the British shells were duds, due to poor quality control & manufacturing practices in the British munitions industry.
2. A mistaken belief that shrapnel (actual shrapnel shell, a specific type of shell, unlike the more modern meaning of the word ‘shrapnel’) was effective in cutting barbed wire. In fact, shrapnel is almost useless for this purpose. As a result, roughly 75% of the shells fired by the british were shrapnel. Only about ¼ of the shells were high explosive.
3. Many of the British & French guns were the subset of Artillery known as “Guns” (as opposed to Howitzers or Mortars), which had insufficient elevation to hit a lot of the obstacles & trenches the Germans had installed on reverse slopes.
4. The Germans had partially adopted the idea of “Defense in Depth”: that is, the outermost line of fortifications & defensive positions, which usually (and at the battle did) receive the heaviest bombardment, were only lightly held. Most of the defensive troops were held in the second or third lines (where available), or sometimes even further back, for counterattacks. As a result, many of the German soldiers weren’t touched by the initial bombardment.)

British and French troops at Bray-sur-Somme as the Allied troops prepare to launch its offensive : http://imgur.com/4ioByXX

Royal Flying Corps spots 154 targets (5 German batteries silenced), fights 16 air combats and shoots down 6 German kite-balloons.

Flanders: BEF shell Lens.


Eastern Front
Russian advance from Bukovina; fighting on Dniester.


Southern Front
Trentino: Italians retake Asiago, Posina and Arslero regained (June 27), as Austrians begin silent and orderly general retreat from salient (night June 25) to prepared line holding 2/3 of gains since May 15 (until June 26).
Salonika: Sarrail told he may have to attack soon with French and Serbs alone.
Armenia: Turks after surprise crossing of Pontic Alps overwhelm 19th Turkistanski Regiment. By June 30 within 15 miles of coast road but held at ‘Serpent Rock Hill’.


Political, etc.
Roger Casement trial begins.

President of the German Food Regulations Board admits the rationing of meat is currently being considered for September onwards.

British War Office announces 500 more women have been accepted as army cooks, bringing the total up to 2000.

French Chamber of Deputies appropriates 25 million Francs for propaganda purposes overseas.

Araba Revolt: British in Cairo intercepts Djemal radio message to Fakhri Pasha in Medina allowing £5,000 spending in English gold. In Cyrenaica, Sayyid Idris meets Allied Mission for talks (until September).

Anglo-Italian Agreement not to sign separate deal with Senussi (June 31, France adheres March 1917).


Naval and Overseas Operations:

An Admiralty post-Battle of Jutland inquest with Jellicoe and Beatty agrees to improve armor protection.

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On the kinkometer, my kink measures as a sine wave.

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Eudaimonia

BEF shell Lens.

British Expeditionary Force shells town of Lens.

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Calm, quiet, smooth, devastating

Western Front
Battle of Verdun: French gain near Thiaumont work, but two-brigade attack fails at Fleury. German attacks west of Hill 304 and near Fleury. French 407th Regiments 1,200 survivors (from 2,800 on June 21) withdrawn.
British patrols active.
Battle Of the Somme: Allied bombardment continues. Royal Flying Corps observers engage 161 targets. 5 F. E. 2bs (1 lost) of No 25 Squadron including Capt A W Tedder (future Air Marshal of RAF) shoot down 2 Fokker Es; 3 German kite-balloons brought down in flames.

Eastern Front
German troops from the Western Front replace Austro-Hungarian troops from Kovel to Brody in order to face the Russians.

Southern Front
Austria-Hungary retreats along a 20-mile front in Trentino, Italy to transfer troops to the Eastern Theater.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Russians advance west in northern Persia.
Turks prepare to leave Mosul.
Turks driven from Lake Urmia (Persia).

Political, etc.
General demobilisation ordered in Greece.
Germans threaten to stop Swiss coal supply if their cotton purchases are not delivered.
Frankford Arsenal in Philadelphia announces it is producing gas bombs, incendiary bombs, and grenades for the U.S. Army.
Serb Prime Minister Pasic visits Paris.
President Wilson rejects a proposal by Latin American diplomats who offered to mediate between the U.S. and Mexico to avoid war.
Funeral of former President and Emperor of China Yuan Shikai takes place in Peking.
Rumania: 9 killed in Galati workers anti-war demo.
Britain: 7,000 Vickers Barrow engineers lose strike against partial call-up (until July 3).

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On the kinkometer, my kink measures as a sine wave.

The Battle of Verdun, 1916

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Eudaimonia

Western Front
Battle of the Somme: British bombardment continues. Despite Allied bombardment at the Somme, German “dugouts are still good. The [Germans] appear to remain…completely sheltered.” [Allied Intelligence report]
157 active German batteries reported by Royal Flying Corps.
Photo showing gas attacks by the British against German lines at the Somme: http://imgur.com/05227Sk
Battle of Verdun: Further local German attacks repulsed at Fleury.
German attack repulsed at Ypres.
British reconnaissance raids from La Bassee canal to Somme line.


Eastern Front
German troops under von Linsingen capture Russian positions in Volhynia, while German aeroplanes bomb Dvinsk (Daugavpils).
Germans repulsed in Riga and Dvinsk areas. (Note: these were likely ‘raids’, rather than attacks with intent to seize ground, thus, ‘repulsed’ is likely an overstatement).
Russian advance from Kolomea (Bukovina).

Southern Front
Trentino: Italians take Posina and Arsiero; continued advance from the Bernta to the Adige. But otherwise, the Italians resume pursuit too slowly.
Carnia: Italian XII Corps ‘rectification operations’ (until June 29) cost 3,662 casualties.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Arab Revolt: Fakhri Pasha sorties from Medina, massacres Arab suburb; Feisal blockades at distance.

Naval and Overseas Operations:
East Africa: British Lake Force (2,000 soldiers, Crewe GOC since June 17) advances south from river Kagera and via Lake Victoria. Major-General Gill and part of 3,000-strong Portuguese Expeditionary Force land (until September 6) at Lourenco Marques.

Political, etc.
Austria: A letter from the ambassador in Berlin says ‘Monarchy can no longer survive the war’.
Greece: King signs demobilization decree.
German Hentig enters Chinese Turkestan, escapes Russian cordon.
Recommendations of Allied Economic Conference ratified (see 14th). [http://www.greatwar.co.uk/timeline/...-1916.htm#june]
Chinese navy threatens to revolt.

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On the kinkometer, my kink measures as a sine wave.

The sources, principally are:
http://www.greatwar.co.uk/ particularly the "timeline" pages, which give a brief listing on what they think the major events are. It's a good starting place, but they do tend to miss a significant number of what other people consider to be "major".

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/researc...ine/interactive -aviation-timeline.aspx Again, the most useful pages on the site are the timeline; but they of course, tend to focus on the air war, and again, miss a number of events that don't directly involvespecifically British Military Aviation. The anniversary of the death of Oswald Boelcke, for example, isn't mentioned at all.

http://www.firstworldwar.com/onthisday/1914_08_05.htm has a day-to-day calendar, and give a great amount of detail that others often miss; but one of the weaknesses of this site is that it is positively jingoistic at times.

https://twitter.com/centuryagotoday is an excellent site for much of the non-warfare, political/social events that I list. This is also the original page that leads me into the side forays into imgur.

Finally, http://ww2-weapons.com/ which used to be labelled World War One .net, is a great supplemental source; often providing excellent details, on the level of the third listed reference, but with significantly less bias.

...and of course, there are occasional other sources I quote or link to, like the dreaded wikipedia; also, I've picked up a considerable amount of my own background knowledge over the years from some many different places, I can't possibly remember them.

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On the kinkometer, my kink measures as a sine wave.

WOW!! You really are a history buff. I like history and enjoy threads like this but my problem is I can't remember much of it. I read it and forget it. It made test taking in high school really hard. Oh well, enough of that.... need to read todays entry. Thanks again gg.