The war has grown larger and larger and ever more countries have joined the fight, and
this week, one neutral nation takes one big step closer to war.
This week, the United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany.
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to the Great War.
Last week Germany declared unrestricted submarine warfare, where any ship in the war zone is
subject to being sunk on sight without warning.
There was scattered small action on all the European fronts, and more political turmoil
in Russia as the Foreign Minister resigned.
Let’s jump right in with the big news of the week.
On February 3rd, 1917, the United States severed diplomatic relations with Germany and their
respective ambassadors were recalled.
This was an inevitable consequence of Germany reintroducing unlimited submarine warfare,
which violated the agreement reached after the sinking of the Sussex in 1915.
Now, no shipping in the war zone is safe from sudden death.
American President Woodrow Wilson told congress that if American lives were taken, he would
ask for the means to protect them.
He also encouraged other neutrals to break off diplomatic ties with Germany.
Most didn’t, though Brazil, China, Chile, and Argentina sent notes to Germany that they
would follow suit if threats to their shipping were carried out.
Still, the first American ship sunk after the proclamation of the 1st was the freighter
Housatonic on the 3rd.
Before sinking the ship, the submarine crew gave warning, allowed the Housatonic’s crew
to man the boats, and then towed them 150km toward land.
A British patrol vessel appeared and the sub fired a signal to get its attention before
disappearing beneath the waves.
Under the new rules, though, the Housatonic should have been sunk without warning.
This might seem promising, but it turned out to be an act of grace extended toward a neutral
ship that left its homeport before unrestricted warfare went into effect.
It was not repeated.
The British ship Eavestone was sunk and its crew was shelled by the sub as they took to
the boats.
The captain and three seamen, one an American, were killed.
Something that really was a flagrant violation of the Sussex agreement was the torpedoing
of the Anchor Liner “California” off the Irish coast with 230 people aboard, including
some Americans.
There were no American casualties among the 41 victims, but attacks on passenger liners
without warning, regardless of the menace to American lives, were the centerpiece of
the crisis between Germany and America.
The California sank in 9 minutes and no effort was made to save the victims.
This “overt act”, the specific kind of overt act that Wilson said he was waiting
for before any open enmity broke out, brought the breaking point nearer.
The Japanese Prince and the Mantola were sunk without warning, and though they were British
steamers, there were 30 American cattlemen on the Japanese Prince, who were all rescued,
and an American doctor on the Mantola, who also survived.
These acts were acts of war and were reasons enough to declare war, but for now Germany’s
single offenses were being overlooked.
But what will the cumulative effect be?
This was something that was just beginning, but something else was just finishing this
week.
On the Libyan front, perhaps the most forgotten front of the war.
Ottoman backed Senussi tribesmen had harassed the British forces in Egypt for over a year,
but this week a British expedition set out from Egypt to break the power of Said Ahmed,
Senussi leader, and it came to a head at the Siwa Oasis.
After an all day battle the Senussi were defeated.
They evacuataed by night and headed for Shiyata, but British cavalry cut off their retreat
by taking the Munasib Pass and forcing the tribesmen to disperse south into the waterless
desert.
The Senussi power in the Western Desert was now completely broken.
But the British were having problems on another front that was just gearing up after winter,
the Macedonian front.
Now, east of Lake Doiran the Bulgarian 9th “Pleven” Infantry Division had taken up
defensive positions a couple of months ago.
They were led by Major-General Stefan Nerezov and Colonel Vladimir Vazov, who would soon
be promoted to general and take command there.
What Vazov, and indeed most of Bulgarian High Command, wanted was an all-out offensive toward
Salonika that would drive the Allies out of Greece and close that front.
The German High Command did not agree with this.
They argued that this front needed to be kept open to divert troops from the Western Front.
This was understandable since the Allies were currently sending and would continue to send
hundreds of thousands of men to Salonika.
So since there would be no huge offensive, Vazov decided to dig in and dig in properly.
He requested that Germany supply building materials like concrete and this the Germans
were happy to do.
What Vazov’s men constructed over the winter and spring was perhaps the most impressive
defensive lines of the whole war.
They included two new main positions with two rows of continuous trenches, those trenches
being up to 2 meters deep and linked with communications passages.
In front of these was a two-lined system of barbed wire.
Behind them were concrete galleries that could be used as fire positions for artillery or
ammunitions platforms.
In front of the main position there were smaller fortifications, while secondary positions
were 2-5 km to the rear.
The advance positions were called Zemlyaks, and were little hills connected by a single
trench.
They were lightly manned but filled with machine guns.
Their purpose was to halt an attacker’s forward momentum and force him to get down
long before he could reach the first trench line, and leaving him vulnerable.
Vazov also ordered concrete bunkers built, some as deep as 17 meters underground.
These were large enough to hold the entire 9th Division’s 34,000 men.
The total amount of trenches was dozens of kilometers long and Bulgarian historians say
that it’s larger than the amount of digging done for the Sofia Metro 90 years later.
Vazov also set up farming communities behind the lines.
They were fairly far back but were looked after by the soldiers to bring in crops and
livestock.
This was because the supply system was so shaky, and having a nearby source of fresh
food did wonders for the soldiers’ morale.
The British had no idea about all of this until this week on February 9th when they
attempted to storm Bulgarian positions.
They did have small initial success, but the counter attacked completely repulsed them.
It also left them thinking about just what they would have to do to break the Bulgarian
defenses.
Interesting to see defenses on relatively new fronts being built up to match those of
the long stalemate on the Western Front, where small attacks continued this week.
On the 3rd, East of Beaucourt and North of the River Ancre, the British advanced 500m
in a front over a kilometer wide, taking 100 prisoners.
The next day in same region the British took 500m of trenches and 100 more prisoners
On the Italian front there were similar skirmishes.
On the 6th there was intense artillery fighting in the Astico Valley.
In the Sagana Valley an Austrian detachment trying to take Italian positions on Monte
Maso was routed, leaving their guns and ammo on the ground as they fled.
The following day in that valley, the Austrians tried again on the right back of the Brenta,
but Italian infantry and field batteries were too much for them, while on the 9th, east
of Gorizia the Austrians attack Italian positions, 1000 Italian prisoners were taken.
And here are a couple of notes to end the week.
On the 4th, Mehmed Talaat Pasha became new Ottoman Grand Vizier when Said Halim resigned
for health reasons.
This is roughly equivalent to Prime Minister.
Talaat had served as Minister of the Interior and Minister of Finance and is one of “the
three pashas” that pretty much ran the Ottoman Empire during the war.
It was he who ordered the arrest and deportation of Armenian intellectuals in Constantinople
in April 1915 that is usually seen as the “official” beginning of the Armenian Genocide.
And that was the week.
The Senussi tribesmen broken in North Africa, the British running up against unexpectedly
strong Bulgarian fortifications in Macedonia, some small skirmishing in Italy and the West,
and a new Ottoman Prime Minister.
And the US breaking off diplomatic relations with Germany.
And Germany sinking vessels with neutral American civilians aboard.
So what would follow?
It seems there are three choices for the United States: do nothing and let your people be
killed, which was unacceptable, stop shipping, stop trade - including the lucrative trade
with the Entente powers - and limit the rights of your people to travel the seas, which was
what much of Congress considered, but Wilson rejected, which was also unacceptable, or
go to war and fight back.
So starting this week, it looks like the war is going to get even larger and even bloodier.
Madness.
If you want to learn more about Bulgaria in the war and how they joined the central powers,
click right here.
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See you next time.