The central powers had taken a few capital cities
and major regional capitals, but not for quite a while.
That changes this week though. Far to the north
with the fall of Riga
I'm Indy Nidel, Welcome to the Great War.
There was action at Verdun, on the Banjšice Plateau and on the Black Sea last week
But also a lot of action away from the field,
as the counter revolutionary Moscow state conference was held
Here is what followed.
Well as I said the fall of Riga followed
That city, at the mouth of the Daugav River, on the Baltic coast
had long been an objective of the Germans
but it had been a formidable obstacle.
The Russian defenses were on the eastern bank of the river, but they had a strong bridgehead on the western one
and the river itself was nearly half a kilometer wide here.
German General Oskar von Hutier now launched his attack
He had 750 big guns and 550 mortars
but he also had the brilliant artillery officer Georg Bruchmüller
Who was known as Durchbruchmüller
the guy for breaking through anything guiding them
Now he had come up with a system of quick intense bombardment
that left defenses too stunned to respond when the main attack was launched
The plan was to use 75% gas shells and 25% high explosive ones
The region would be saturated with gas
which meant the Russians would all have to put on masks
which would reduce their ability to do anything else
and communications centers would be destroyed by high explosives
thus blinding Russian command and isolating it from events
Hutier was also using stromtroop tactics
with specialist assault squads
They were mostly armed with light machine guns, hand grenades and flamethrowers
and they were to bypass centers of resistance
and breakthrough to attack gun batteries and headquarters
heavy guns and follow up infantry would mop up what they had passed
but with the river in the mix they were also trained in amphibious operations
and could establish bridgeheads
so that engineers could set up pontoon bridges
at 4 A.M. September 1st the barrage began
and it worked wonders
Russian guns were silenced
and much of the Russian infantry abandoned its post in terror
The river crossing that followed begining at 8:30 didn't face much opposition
The Russians fell back
and their front line would stabilize around 30 km north east of Riga
as the Germans took the 4th largest city in Russia
with relative ease
On the 6th the Kaiser himself came to Riga to review the troops
Russia was still having alot of problems at home too
There was the growing popularity and power of the Bolsheviks to deal with
Reporter John Reed says
many of the army officers prefer a defeat to Germany over Bolshevism
Army commander Lavr Kornilov now summoned 4000 officers
and promised to hang every last bolshevik.
Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky visited the front
and promised several generals that soon
he will create a directory that will assume
military control of the country
Kornilov agrees with the idea of a military dictatorship
just with one change leave out Kerensky.
Kerensky thinking Kornilov is in agreement with him
asks Kornilov to send a cavalry to Petrograd
but Kornilov hestitates
Kerensky realises in a couple of days
that every thing is not exactly hunky dory between them
and then Kornilov demands that Kerensky reassign his army to Petrograd
Kerensky refuses and the week ends the usual complete chaos in the Russian government
There was a bit of chaos in the French Government as well this week too
Prime Minister Alexandre Ribot dismissed interior minister Louis Malvy
and in response his whole government resigned
He himself will not leave government but becomes
foreign minister in new Prime Minister Paul Painlevé's government
that is established next week
There was fighting in France in the field this week
The Canadians were still holding on at Lens
surrounded by nests of Germans and pretty continuous fire
they attacked the night of the 3rd
taking 250 meters from the Germans on half a kilometer front
also on the 6th
British Colombian troops captured a 300 meter row of houses
occupied by 4 companies of Germans
So you can see that the micro fighting of the war continued day after day
even without major offensives
of course there were major offensives underway as well
on the Italian front the 11th battle of the Isonzo River was still in progress
with heavy fighting on the Banjšice Plateau and Mount Saint Gabriel
The Italian storming of the mountian came September 3rd
and the London Times described it so
Reads quote on screen
Another bonus for the Italians was on the Banjšice Plateau
some Austrian positions had been abandoned with such haste
that they had left behind whole wagons of arms and munitions
which the Italians were happy to retrieve
and one big offensive was coming to an end in Romania
the battle of Merisheshki
on the third a Romanian and Russian attack made little progress for heavy losses
and both sides then adopted a defensive posture along the front
though there were local clashes
on September 5th Romanian volunteer and heroine Ecaterina Teodoroiu
was killed leading her platoon
and on the 8th German general Karl von Wenninger will be killed by artilery fire
by virtually all accounts
the battle of Merisheshki was a Romanian success
yet Martin Gilbert claims kind of the reverse and that the Germans took 18 thousand prisoners
which I can't find corroborated anywhere
Teodoroiu was originally a nurse but began fighting on the front lines last October
captured in November
she escaped by killing her German guard
in action again she was wounded by artilery and sent to hospital
upon her release she was decorated and promoted and given her platoon command
von Wenninger was a decorated Generalleutnant, Lieutenant General
one of the highest German general ranks in the army
who had commanded the defenses in Flanders, Arras and the Somme
during the war until his death
Those armies weren't the only ones working on defense through
at sea the allied adoption of the convoy system
as defense against German submarines had slowly been introduced
and was a pretty complex operation to get going
for example
it required constant vigalence so ships either didn't collide with other ships
or lose touch with the whole convoy
and thats pretty tricky if your steaming along at night with no lights
Reads quote on screen
but the hard work was paying off
by the end of this month
83 convoys had arrived in Britain totaling 1306 ships
only 18 ships had been sunk and 8 of those had dropped out of their convoy
only 2 ships had been sunk in 55 outward bound convoys
German uboats suddenly found the ocean empty too
since a tightly packed convoy was only a little more visible than a single ship
so you now had one thing moving through the sea
instead of a dozen or more seperate targets
and even when they did find a convoy
it was really risky to try to down a ship
since it was protected by destroyers and depth charges
so the rate at which allied shipping was being sunk was dropping sharply
and the rate at which u boats were being sunk was rising
it looked like Britain was not going to be starved out of the war after all
though the Germans were trying from the skies as well
on the 3rd 6 German planes bombed Sheerness
132 people were killed 96 injured
on the 4th came a raid on London and the south east counties
with 19 killed and 71 injured
that same day 4 Americans were killed in an air raid on a British base hospital in France
the first American army personnel to die in France during the war
and on September 6th American General John Pershing
moved the American headquarters from Paris to Chaumont
French president Raymond Poincaré came to inspect the troops that day
he was not impressed
neither was Pershing
it would take time especially when US Secretary of War Newton Baker
said that no Americans would go anywhere near the front
until they were fully trained and ready
Georges Clemenceau pointed out that
nobody was ever fully ready for this and france was exhausted and needed help
and that was the week, fighting in Italy and Romania
convoys at sea, a new French government, and the fall of Riga
another notch in the German lipstick case
would the Russians keep retreating, would the Germans march on Petrograd
for all the chaos there at least Russia was still in the war
and at least some of the army was still willing to fight
if Petrograd falls, if Russia falls
then what would that mean for the allies
only time will tell
if you want to learn more about the defense mechanisms against German uboats
you can click right here to watch our totally under appreciated special episode about that
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