#december 1918

[dailytrue]

The Outbursts of Everett True — A.D. Condo

December 14th, 1918

[lonestarbattleship]

USS PENNSYLVANIA (BB-38) anchored in Brest, France. She, along with 10 destroyers, escorted President Woodrow Wilson, aboard USS GEORGE WASHINGTON (ID-3018), to the Peace Negotiations being held there.

Note: she was the Flagship of Rear Admiral Henry T. Mayo.

Photographed on December 13, 1918.

NARA: 86730290, 86706786

[today-in-wwi]

Returning German Soldiers Parade in Berlin

Soldiers of a regiment of the 37th Division returning to Berlin; the placard lists the battles in which the regiment fought (mainly on the Eastern Front).

December 10 1918, Berlin--On December 10, nine German divisions returned to Berlin from the front, and were granted a parade through the Brandenburg Gate.  The details had been carefully arranged between Ebert’s government and the Army--the soldiers would be allowed to keep their arms, but not any ammunition.  Tensions were high in Berlin--soldiers had opened fire on a Spartacist rally on the 6th--and Ebert did not want to add nine divisions of armed soldiers to the mix as well.

The atmosphere was almost that of a victory parade.  The decorations reminded astute observers of 1814, when Prussia’s victorious armies returned after defeating Napoleon the first time.  The black, white, and red flag of the German Empire was to be seen everywhere.  Ebert addressed the troops (though it is likely he was not heard over the noise of the crowd) telling them that “No enemy has vanquished you...you return undefeated from the battlefield.”  This outraged the Allies when they heard of it, and this and similar sentiments certainly contributed to the “stab-in-the-back” myth that Germany was not defeated on the battlefield but by the people and politicians at home (chief among them, ironically, Ebert himself).

As the troops came through the Brandenburg Gate, they found that no way had been cleared for them on the other side; the soldiers simply mixed into the crowd of 100,000.  Thus the German army began its demobilization.

Sources include: Gregor Dallas, 1918: War and Peace.

[mote-historie]

Władysław T. Benda, There was a woman standing in the door as though posed in the dark wood of a frame, Published in: The Sunburned Lady by Melville Davisson Post, Hearst's magazine, December 1918.

Cabinet of American illustration (Library of Congress).

[dailytrue]

The Outbursts of Everett True — A.D. Condo

December 21st, 1918

[today-in-wwi]

President of Portugal Assassinated

A 1919 postcard depicting the assassination of President Pais.

December 14 1918, Lisbon--The end of the war did not improve the political situation in Portugal.  President Pais, who had opposed the war before he seized power in December 1917, had largely cut off further reinforcements for Portuguese troops on the Western Front.  After the Germans destroyed much of the Portuguese Expeditionary Force on the Lys in April, they had largely been pulled off front-line duty.  Even after the Armistice, however, there was not enough transport available to bring the Expeditionary Force home, and they remained stranded in France and Belgium until at least April 1919.

At home, President Pais had been forced to declare a state of emergency in October 1918 in response to the increased unrest against his unconstitutional rule.  This only increased the left-wing opposition to his rule, however.  On December 5, he avoided an assassination attempt at a ceremony honoring the survivors of a naval action against a German U-boat in October.  On December 14, he was killed by a left-wing activist, José Júlio da Costa, in a Lisbon train station.  In the aftermath of his death, monarchists briefly seized power in Porto.  Although the monarchists were defeated after less than a month of fighting, Portugal remained highly unstable.  Between Pais’ death and the 1926 coup that ended the First Republic and paved the way for Salazar’s dictatorship, Portugal saw 27 different governments.

[today-in-wwi]

British Ships Arrive in Tallinn

A sentry on board the HMS Caradoc at port in Tallinn during December 1918.

December 7 1918, Tallinn--The end of the war also gave the Allies a free hand in the Baltic for the first time ever.  Once the German High Seas Fleet was safely interned the British dispatched a small force of five cruisers and nine destroyers into the Baltic “to show the British flag and support British policy as circumstances desire.”  In practice, this meant stopping the Russians from re-establishing themselves in the areas the Germans were now evacuating, most notably Estonia.

The minesweepers meant to accompany the British squadron had to take on more coal in Denmark, while the oil-powered cruisers and destroyers continued on.  On December 5, the cruiser Cassandra struck a German mine off the islands in the Gulf of Riga; 11 men were killed when she sank, while three other ships were forced to return home due to other damage suffered en route.  

The remaining ships arrived in Talinn on December 7, to an enthusiastic reception.  The Estonian government was desperate, and even offered to become a British protectorate in return for troops.  The British had no such plans, but promised guns and ammunition were on the way, and soon began using their ships to shell Russian supply lines and land Estonian troops behind the front lines.  Around the same time, the Estonians were bolstered by the arrival of a contingent of around 2000 Finnish volunteers, veterans of their civil war.

Sources include: Prit Buttar, The Splintered Empires.

[today-in-wwi]

Royal Navy Captures Russian Destroyers

December 26 1918, Tallinn--The arrival of British ships in Tallinn had shifted the balance of power in Estonia.  In addition to the 5,000 rifles that were brought for the Estonians, the ships themselves could shell the Russian supply lines.  The Red Army asked for help from the Baltic Fleet, but it was in poor condition since the upheavals of the revolution, and could only spare one battleship, one cruiser, and three destroyers, and even those suffered mechanical problems.

The commander of the task force, a commissar Raskolnikov, decided to test the British forces by sending two destroyers, the Avrotil and the Spartak, to Tallinn; if they encountered any warships, they would return to Gogland island (a distance of over 90 miles), where the cruiser Oleg would wait to ambush the British.  The Avrotil tasked for the plan ran into mechanical issues, but Raskolnikov went ahead with just the Spartak.  The Estonians observed the destroyer shelling islands off of Tallinn, and informed the British, most of whose sailors were in a celebration on shore.  Hurrying back to their ships, they then pursued the Spartak.  The Spartak was not much faster than the British cruisers, and slower than their destroyers, and to add to her woes, soon ran into mechanical problems herself.  Although outnumbered, she attempted to engage the British, but doing so while fleeing them required her to turn her guns at a dangerous angle, and her shells hit her own bridge.  The Spartak then ran aground on a sandbank, and attempts to scuttle her failed.

The British captured the Spartak and her crew, and found the details of the Russian plan.  The British cruisers were dispatched to Gogland to find the Oleg (to no avail, as it turned out) but encountered the Avrotil on the way, which was similarly captured.  The crews (less Raskolnikov) were turned over to the Estonians, who, despite British pleas, executed over 40 of them.

Sources include: Prit Buttar, The Splintered Empires.