#august 1917

[becausekaiserislousy]

I read a chapter in Krasnov's memoirs and drew a comic based on it! 😎

I sort of like how casual Krasnov looks! (drew him this way to distinguish him from Kerensky)

[hjmarseille]

Off Duty. Lt Young being force fed by Armstrong, McCall, Rutherford and Soden. Burk-sur-Mer, August 1917 (L Rogers)

Photo and caption featured in No 60 Sqn RFC/RAF (Aviation Elite Units) by Alex Revell

[today-in-wwi]

Nurse is First American Casualty of the War

A 1915 picture of MacDonald, from an identification badge she later preserved in a scrapbook.

August 17 1917, Lozinghem--Many of the first American military personnel in France were medical staff, attached to serve with British units.  Among them was New York nurse Beatrice MacDonald, who had previously volunteered in an ambulance service in France in 1915.  At the outcome of the war, she departed again for France along with a team from New York Presbyterian.  On the night of April 17, the British clearing and triage station she was working at was attacked in a German air raid.  While still working, her tent was hit by a German bomb, and she received a serious head wound, eventually losing an eye.

MacDonald would be the first serious American military casualty of the war; all previous American casualties were either volunteers unaffiliated with the military, or too minor to necessitate any departure from duty.  MacDonald demanded to return duty after her recovery, saying "I've only started doing my bit."

Today in 1916: Bulgarians Launch Offensives into Greece Today in 1915: Kovno Fortress Falls to Germans Today in 1914: Russians Invade East Prussia

Sources include: Radcliffe Institute

[today-in-wwi]

Black Soldiers in Houston Strike Back at Police

August 23 1917, Houston--Although the US Army was decidedly not integrated, the large contingents of new black soldiers at camps throughout the South was seen by many racist southerners as a challenge to the white-dominated order of society.  Black soldiers were still subject to the Jim Crow laws of the South, and were often given no additional respect by authority figures there.  This caused understandable resentment among the black soldiers, especially among those from the North, for whom Jim Crow laws were unfamiliar.

On August 23, two Houston police officers dragged a black woman, Sara Travers, from her home in a state of partial undress, apparently during a search for a player from an illegal craps game.  A passing black soldier, Private Alonzo Edwards, approached the officers; he was immediately set upon and beaten.  In the words of one of the police officers: “I beat that nigger until his heart got right.  He was a good nigger when I got through with him.”  Soon after, Corporal Charles Baltimore, a black military police officer, arrived at the scene and inquired after Edwards.  Baltimore, like other black MPs in Houston, was unarmed, in apparent deference to the racist attitudes of the city.  The police began shooting at Baltimore, who had no choice but to flee; the police eventually caught him, gave him a severe beating, and arrested him.

When news of this reached Camp Logan (home of the two soldiers), many soldiers began to discuss a counterattack against the police.  While their officers ordered them not to do so, they were not dissuaded, and eventually seized an a supply of ammunition (mortally wounding a fellow black soldier in the process) and marched out of camp, chanting “On to the Police Station.”  They eventually ran into two police officers (including one of the ones who had beaten Edwards and Baltimore) and killed them; several civilians were also killed on the way.  They ran into another man in uniform shortly thereafter; they killed him as well, thinking he was a police officer.  However, he was a captain in the Illinois National Guard.  Beginning to realize what they had done, the soldiers mostly began to disperse and trickle back to camp; one officer killed himself.

The soldiers involved were arrested over the next day.  Many would be executed in the following months.  Houston was placed under martial law, which prevented any mass violence against the black community like that in East St. Louis.  Nevertheless, the rate of migration north from Houston markedly increased after the riot.

As in East St. Louis, the NAACP conducted their own investigation of the events.  The final report, published in The Crisis in November, concluded:

The primary cause of the Houston riot was the habitual brutality of the white police officers of Huston in their treatment of colored people.

Today in 1916: First “Jasta” Fighter Squadron Created Today in 1915: Turkish Ambassador Departs Rome After Italian Declaration of War Today in 1914: Germans Attack British Expeditionary Force at Mons

Sources include: A. Scott Berg (ed.), World War I and America.

[today-in-wwi]

Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo

An Italian anti-aircraft gun during the Eleventh Battle.  A few days before, Austrian planes had attempted a rare raid on Venice; Emperor Charles was usually very wary of permitting bombing that might cause civilian casualties.

August 19 1917, Gorizia--Cadorna was determined, once again, to achieve a breakthrough on the Isonzo. None of the ten previous attempts had succeeded; only the sixth, in which Gorizia was captured, had seen anything beyond tactical successes.  Nevertheless, there was still some cause for optimism.  Many of the previous offensive had come very close to succeeding, often stopped by a single determined Austrian unit at a key moment.  By late Summer 1917, the Austrians, fighting a three-front war, were exhausted and out of reserves, Russia's Kerensky Offensive in July essentially depleting the last of them.  Along the Isonzo, the Italians now held a three-to-one superiority in infantry and a four-to-one superiority in artillery.

As in the tenth battle, the main Italian attack was planned with the Second Army on the Bainsizza plateau, to the northeast of Gorizia, while the Third Army would make a subsidiary attack on the Karst to the south.  The artillery barrage opened on the morning of August 18, severing Austrian communications and destroying all but the most-hardened defenses.  The main attack came at 5:30 AM on August 19.  On the northern edge of the Bainsizza, the Italians crossed the Isonzo by boat, covered by heavy fog, and were able to overwhelm the Czech defenders in what had once been a quiet sector of the front.  By 10AM, six bridges had been thrown across the Isonzo and the Italians were rushing across the river and onto the plateau.

The Second Army's other attacks, at Tolmein, Plava, and Mt. Santo, failed with heavy casualties.  The Third Army had some success on the Karst, but only on a small area of the front.  As a result, Boroević was optimistic at the close of the day, though the Austrian collapse on the upper Bainsizza was highly worrying.

Sources include: John R. Schindler, Isonzo; Mark Thompson, The White War.

Today in 1916: British, German Fleets Narrowly Miss Each other in North Sea Today in 1915: U-24 Sinks Passenger Liner Arabic; Baralong Sinks U-27 Today in 1914: French Offensives in Alsace-Lorraine Reach Their Crest

[today-in-wwi]

Lenin Flees to Finland

Lenin in disguise.

August 21 1917, Razliv--The Bolsheviks had inspired the July uprising in Petrograd, and many of its members helped to organize it.  Lenin had been on vacation in Finland when it began, and had rushed back to the city as soon as he could, but did not commit to backing it, issuing tepid platitudes at most while the uprising evaporated.  Despite this, Lenin received much of the blame from the Provisional Government, who accused him of being a paid agent for the Germans.  Lenin had to go into hiding in and around Petrograd, but by late August even this was not sufficient.  Shaving his beard and wearing a wig, he fled for Finland, mostly by train but occasionally on foot.  He would not return to Petrograd until October.

Today in 1916: UK Bans Almost All Exports to Sweden Today in 1915: Final Allied Offensive at Gallipoli Fails Today in 1914: German Forces Cross the Sambre

[today-in-wwi]

Toscanini Conducts Band On Captured Mountain

Toscanini (center) and his military band, pictured sometime in August.

August 26 1917, Mt. Santo--The Austrians abandoned the Bainsizza plateau on the night of August 23, falling back in good order.  The Italians were exhausted after several days of fighting and did not follow through on their successes of the previous days, and Cadorna, for once, was too timid to order them to do so.  The Austrians also abandoned Mt. Santo, which had guarded the southern approach to the plateau for over two years.  The Italians occupied the mountain the next day, hailing it as their largest victory since the capture of Gorizia.  Instead of striking east from the Bainsizza towards their hastily-manned last lines of defense, Cadorna instead ordered an attack on Mt. San Gabriele, another of the “Tre Santi” that dominated Gorizia from the northeast, hoping after its capture to break through to the east with cavalry and bicyclists.

Among those jubilant after the capture of Mt. Santo was the famed conductor Arturo Toscanini.  He was at the front at the time, visiting his son Walter, who served in the artillery in the Second Army.  Toscanini had persuaded its commander, General Capello, to let him form a band to play for the soldiers and boost their morale.  After the capture of Mt. Santo, he was determined to lead his band to the summit to play there; he got his way, and on August 26 the band managed to carry their instruments over 2000 feet up a mountain that had been in Austrian hands less than three days prior.

The band played from the late afternoon well into the night, and was enthusiastically received by the nearby troops, as Toscanini shouted “Viva l’Italia!” after each piece.  The front on Mt. San Gabriele was less than a mile away, and the Austrians tried to silence the band with their artillery.  They were unsuccessful, however, managing only to rip the bass drum with shrapnel; no musicians were harmed.  Despite Toscanini’s best efforts, however, San Gabriele remained firmly in Austrian hands.

Today in 1916: French Planes Reach Bucharest Via Russia Today in 1915: Kaiser Orders No Attacks on Passenger Ships Without Warning Today in 1914: German Colony of Togoland Surrenders to British and French

Sources include: John R. Schindler, Isonzo

[today-in-wwi]

Canada Enacts Conscription

An anti-conscription march in Montreal in May 1917.

August 29 1917, Ottawa--Britain’s overseas dominions, though they had an initial enthusiastic call-up of volunteers, were deeply divided on the issue of conscription.  Whether men should be drafted to serve in a war on another continent was a matter of great debate.  In Australia, conscription was narrowly defeated in a plebiscite in late 1916, while in New Zealand it had been enacted a few weeks earlier.  In Canada, there was severe opposition to conscription in Québec.  French-speakers were not well-treated in the Canadian Army, which only had one belatedly-created French-speaking battalion.  Additionally, there was little affection for Great Britain (or even France) in Québec; the war in Europe was not viewed as Québec’s concern.

Despite these objections, in the summer of 1917, PM Borden’s government (which had already delayed mandated elections due to the war) pushed for conscription.  Canadian manpower in Europe was running low after years of war, and new volunteers were not forthcoming.  Additionally, the United States’ entry and own conscription program now threatened to put Canada to shame.  On August 29, Parliament passed the Military Service Act, which would call up unmarried men between 20 and 34 on November 10, though there were broad exemptions available.

The news was met with immediate protests in Montreal, where on the same day over 5000 people marched against conscription.  Resentment in Québec would continue for the rest of the war and beyond, and anti-conscription protests would increase in size and intensity in 1918.

Today in 1916: Falkenhayn Out; Hindenburg & Ludendorff In Today in 1915: $55 Million in Gold and Securities Arrives in New York from Britain Today in 1914: Russian General Samsonov Commits Suicide After His Army Is Destroyed at Tannenberg