You may be new to our channel or may have forgotten what’s come before, so every few
months we’re doing a general recap special so you can refresh your memory or catch up,
and that’s what I’m doing today.
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to a Great War Recap special covering the months of November
and December 1915 and January 1916.
As November began, there were major offensives in progress on both the Western and Italian fronts.
On the Italian front, the Third Battle of the Isonzo River ended early in the month,
but only a week later, the Fourth Battle of the Isonzo River begins, with pretty much
the same objectives. Casualties were high for both the Italians and their Austro-Hungarian
opponents and heavy winter weather put an end to the Fourth Battle December 10th. Italian
troops going home for Christmas leave brought tales of misery and suffering that caused
morale to plummet throughout Italy, but Army Chief or Staff Luigi Cadorna planned to pursue
the same tactics of frontal assault in the new year, even though it was often against
machine gun positions and unbroken barbed wire. Over the winter, Austria-Hungary would
recruit over 800,000 middle ages men aged up to 49 to replenish the ranks of the fallen.
On the Western Front, two great Offensives in Artois and Champagne came to an end in
early November with casualties in the hundreds of thousands. For the remainder of the year
and in January 1916 there were skirmishes along the whole front, artillery duels, and
increased action in the skies, but no major battles as both sides hatched plans for enormous
new offensives that would take place in the New Year. The British commander in chief,
John French, resigned in December after losing the confidence of his troops and was replaced
by Sir Douglas Haig. General Joseph Joffre remained in charge of the French troops in
France, but was raised to commander in chief of the French troops everywhere else as well.
And winter set in.
But winter had already arrived on the Eastern Front by the beginning of November, and in
the north, the frozen ground made it impossible to quickly dig trenches, thus ending major
offensive maneuvers there. Just after Christmas further south, the Russians launched a big
offensive in Bessarabia and Eastern Galicia and scattered actions as far north as the
Pripet Marshes, but this offensive was beset by supply problems that nearly starved the
soldiers, and though it continued for three weeks of so, it didn’t manage to take any
new ground and just produced thousands upon thousands of dead Russian, German, and Austro-Hungarian
soldiers.
Late in January, Russia also launched another offensive, this one through the Caucasus into
Anatolia, and as the month ended they had pushed back the Turks toward Erzurum, almost
surrounding them at one point.
In spite of that, things were looking up for the Ottoman Empire.
In December and January the British evacuated all of their troops from Gallipoli, conceding
failure after eight months of bloody stalemate, and in Mesopotamia, a British army that had
been advancing up the Tigris River toward Baghdad found itself trapped and under siege
at Kut-al-Amara in December. In January a rescue operation tried and failed to relieve
them so there they remained.
And throughout this whole period there was action in the Balkans.
The invasion of Serbia by Bulgarian, German, and Austro-Hungarian forces that began in
early October continued in November to its successful conclusion, and the remnants of
the Serbian army along with hundreds of thousands of civilian refugees fled into the freezing
mountains of Albania, trying to get to the coast. 200,000 of them would die on their
journey, but by mid-January the Allies were taking them daily by the thousands from Albanian
ports to the Greek island of Corfu where the Serbian army could hopefully regroup and be
reconstituted into a fighting force.
Also in January, the Austro-Hungarian army continued its Balkan adventures by invading
Montenegro. Within a couple of weeks the country had been overrun and had accepted Austrian
terms of surrender. Much of the Montenegrin army, however, had fled into Albania, so the
Austrian army invaded Albania as the month drew to a close.
The British and French forces that had tried to help the Serbs during the invasion of Serbia
were pushed out of Macedonia by the Bulgarian army in November and early December and were
now stationed at Salonika, which they turned into a huge military base, despite both rampant
malaria and the protests of the Greek government and people, who vehemently objected to their
neutrality being repeatedly violated by the Allies.
In Africa a new front opened in November, the Libyan Front, and Senussi tribesmen there
harassed British and Egyptian forces while further to the south German Cameroon had all
but fallen to British, French, and Belgian forces.
And that’s where we stand, 13 active war zones and fighting in progress in Europe,
Asia, and Africa. The British blockade of Germany continues, German U-boats continue
their attacks, and the Russian Black Sea fleet sinks hundreds of Ottoman ships. Serbia has
fallen, as has Montenegro, and Albania is now under attack. The combined casualties
on the Eastern, Western, and Italian fronts for just these three months are over half
a million men as those three fronts fall quiet for the time being. The British leave Gallipoli,
are under siege at Kut, and fortify at Salonika with the French, violating Greek neutrality
even though they went to war in the first place when Germany violated Belgium’s neutrality
only 18 months ago.
Only 18 months. Casualties in the millions. New nations being drawn into the conflict
month after month. Offensives on a scale never before imagined being planned. As January
1916 ended two things were very clear; there was no end in sight and the war was only going
to grow larger.
If you want to refresh your knowledge about the first year of World War 1, click here
for our recap playlist.
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