24 October 1916
 

Western Front
German and Britain agree to exchange prisoners over the age of 45.
Battle of Verdun: "First Offensive Battle" of Verdun begins [French name and date.] (until December 18th). Nivelle and Mangin send 3 picked and compass-guided divisions (29 battalions) to assault 7 tired and depleted German divisions (only 16 battalions in front line) through mist, reoccupy Fort Douaumont (see February 25th, August 31st, October 23, and November 1st), and claim the capture 6,000 PoWs (two other sources say 4500). (French Army now back to positions held by it in May).

Eastern Front
Romania: Falkenhayn south of Torzburg Pass and fighting near Kimpulung.
Dobruja: Mackensen reaches Mejidia on Danube-Black Sea railway, occupies Cernavoda on Danube after Rumanians blow bridge on October 25. German and Bulgarian troops advance 16 miles north of Constanza, as Romanian forces fall back. German/Bulgarian forces claim 6,700 prisoners.

Southern Front
Macedonia: Serbian troops capture Bulgarian trenches on a front of 800 yards in the Cerna Valley and along the Vardar River.
To the west, communications established between Italians (at Koritsa) and the French (south-west of L. Prespa).

Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Arabia: Lawrence first meets Feisal at Hamra, decides he is the potential leader. HMS Hardinge arrives at Rabegh with Egyptian mountain guns from Jeddah.

25 October 1916
 

Western Front
Allied (British naval and French) air raid on steel works (Hagendingen) north of Metz.
Battle of the Somme: Boelcke‘s Jasta 2 shoots down 3 RFC artillery observation aircraft.
Many supply trucks stuck in deep mud around Montauban, ammo shortages hamper Allied guns.
Battle of Verdun: Lieutenant Louis Franchet d’Esperey (son of general) of 401st Infantry Regiment killed before Fort Vaux, aged 18.
German counter-attacks at Verdun repulsed.
Stamp commemorating the French recapture of Douaumont at Verdun: http://imgur.com/pQRsexc
Maxime Lenoir, French flying ace with 11 aerial victories, is killed in action: http://imgur.com/oXxorxr

Eastern Front
Dobruja: Cernavoda captured by Bulgarian forces (see 22nd).
Russian victory at Dorna Vatra (Moldovia).

Southern Front
Macedonia: Five RNAS aircraft leave Imbros to fly to help Rumania, 4 reach Bucharest; 4 more aircraft sent on November 21.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Sir Reginald Wingate's despatch of 8 August published describing revolt and conquest of Darfur (January 1915 to 22 May 1916).

Naval and Overseas Operations
Mediterranean: 26 U-boats assigned (including 4 in Black Sea and 8 en route or preparing to leave).
East Africa: General Gil with Portuguese, crosses River Rovuma.

Political, etc.
United States: Henry Ford grants women equal pay with men. All workers in his factories will receive minimum wage of $5 a day (about $110 today).
Due to a spinal injury, socialist writer and activist Helen Keller cancels her lecture engagements for the season to recover.
Greece: Greek Government issue decree disbanding class 1913 and the men called up on 10 September, and agree to transfer of two corps to Peloponnesus.
Reported at Athens that “Protecting” Powers had sanctioned loan to Salonika Provisional Government.

26 October 1916
 

Western Front
Battle of the Somme: Private Thomas Alfred Jones is awarded the Victoria Cross today for capturing 102 Germans during the Battle of Morval.
Battle of Verdun: At Verdun, the Germans have made 9 counterattacks over the past two days to reverse French advances, but are driven off.

Eastern Front
Romania: Tirgu Jiu: Rumanian First Army routs lone 11th Bavarian Division (2,000 PoWs and 4 guns captured), pursues until November 2).
German and Austro-Hungarian troops begin their invasion of the Oltenia region in Romania.
British and French aircraft reach Bucharest.

Naval and Overseas Operations
First German destroyer raid in Dover Straits (night 26th/27th) (see April 20th, 1917). 11 German destroyers (Captain Michelsen) from Zeebrugge raid in Dover Straits (night October 26-27). 24 German ships transferred from High Seas Fleet (October 23) to aid U-boat passage of the Straits. 7 net barrage drifters and 2 destroyers sunk for no loss despite Dover Patrol‘s 18 alerted destroyers (6 ‘Tribals’ from Dover briefly engage). British destroyer Zulu mined, sister ship Nubian torpedoed (Nubian undamaged bow section and Zulu stern section salvaged and mated to create unique HMS Zubian; she sinks UC-50 (February 4, 1918). Von Bethmann-Hollweg informs German High command question of unrestricted U-boat warfare exclusively Kaiser’s concern as C-in-C.

Political, etc.
Germany: Von Bethmann-Hollweg visits Pless and opposes military age extension to 60; Groener promoted Lieutenant General to head new War Munitions Office (created November 1).
United Kingdom: £60m New York loan announced. Rumania Flag Day.
United States: Wilson tells Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce ‘I believe that the business of neutrality is over. The nature of modern war leaves no state untouched’. Further, “This present war is the last war of this or any kind involving the world that the United States can keep out of.”
New York City police raid the first birth control in the U.S., jailing its founder Margaret Sanger and her assistant.
Norway: Relations between Norway and Germany sour, after more than 20 Norwegian ships were sunk by U-boats in the past few days.
Greece: Under pressure from the Allies, the Greek government agrees to reduce its mobilized army from 60,000 to 35,000 men.

27 October 1916
 

Eastern Front
Romania: Romanian 1st Army in Jiu Valley (Wallachia) assume offensive, Romanians holding positions in Passes.
Western Russia: Russians forced to river Shchara east bank.

Southern Front
Macedonia: Serbs make progress in Cherna region.

Naval and Overseas Operations
Ethiopia: Battle of Chembebit (Sagalle, or Shano): Ras Tafari’s (Haile Selassie) 95,000 royal troops defeat Lij Yasu’s father Negus Ras Mikael of Wollo; he is led in chains to Addis Abeba but Lij Yasu escapes till January 1921.

Political, etc.
Australia: Three Cabinet Ministers resign because of conscription, referendum on October 28 defeats it by 72,476 votes.
Australian troops on the troopship Marathon departs from Brisbane: http://imgur.com/iRCPaA1

I haven't been to Pixies for a bit and fell behind in my reading this. Not sure where I left off. So picking up with this week.

gg, where are you getting all this information from? Thank you for presenting it in an easy to read, clear cut manner without talking it down to us less informed peeps.

I just started reading 'A Farewell to Arms' by Ernest Hemingway. Same war, different presentation.

Hi, TB! Good to see you back ... we miss you when you're not around! And, you're right, GG does a great job presenting this day-by-day narrative on WWI. I've really enjoyed it.

Thanks DB. :)

I've never actually gotten around to reading it: I was always under the impression that it was about (possibly partially based on personal experiences in) the Spanish Civil War that proceeded world War 2.

Maybe I will have to check it out.

Yeah, see you do learn something every day.

As far as my sources go, I use a number of different on-line references, I'll have to list them in a separate post.

28 October 1916
 

Western Front
Battle of the Somme: Captain Oswald Boelcke (40 victories), first great air combat tactician killed, aged 25, in Albatros mid-air collision over Pozieres with Jasta 2 wingman Lieutenant Erwin during a dogfight in which 8 German fighters down 3 RFC artillery observation aircraft and a Nieuport. One of 12 German aircraft losses in October. Boelcke was the man responsible for codifying the first well-known iteration of rules for aerial combat, the “Dicta Boelcke”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dicta_Boelcke

Eastern Front
Romania: Romanians successful actions in north Transylvania Passes.
In Jiu Valley, the Germans/Bulgarians retire leaving 2,000 prisoners.

Southern Front
Macedonia: Bulgarian attack in force on Ormali (Struma front), repulsed with heavy losses.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Fighting near Hamadan (Persia), Russians capture two villages.

Naval and Overseas Operations
(Night of 27/28 October): 23 German torpedo boats raid the Dover Strait. They sink 1 destroyer, 6 naval drifters, and 1 troopship.
Donaldson liner Marina sunk by submarine without warning (18 lost, including six Americans) off Fastnet.
British hospital ship Galeka totally wrecked by mine off Havre: http://imgur.com/nfp8Xrp
U-boat sinks US SS Lanao off Portugal.

Political, etc.
Germany: Count von Roedern, German Secretary for the Treasury, estimates the war has cost $62 billion for all the belligerent countries.
Anglo-German Agreement to exchange interned civilians over 45 years of age.
United Kingdom: British news film “Tropical Budget” showing Serbian operations in Macedonia, among other news: http://film.iwmcollections.org.uk/record/index/5400
Austria-Hungary: Dr. Ernest von Körber appointed Austrian Premier (see 21st and December 14th).
Turkey: Halil Bey, Ottoman Foreign Minister, states, “We stand or fall with the Central Powers…The Germans cannot be beaten in this war.
Australia: Australia holds a plebiscite on whether or not to impose conscription. “No” wins with 51.61% of the vote.
United States: Contributions to the Democratic campaign for the upcoming election pass $1 million ($22 million today).
Greece: Venizelos' Provisional Government installed at Salonika.

The sources, principally are:
http://www.greatwar.co.uk/ particularly the "timeline" pages, which give a brief listing on what they think the major events are. It's a good starting place, but they do tend to miss a significant number of what other people consider to be "major".

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/researc...ine/interactive -aviation-timeline.aspx Again, the most useful pages on the site are the timeline; but they of course, tend to focus on the air war, and again, miss a number of events that don't directly involvespecifically British Military Aviation. The anniversary of the death of Oswald Boelcke, for example, isn't mentioned at all.

http://www.firstworldwar.com/onthisday/1914_08_05.htm has a day-to-day calendar, and give a great amount of detail that others often miss; but one of the weaknesses of this site is that it is positively jingoistic at times.

https://twitter.com/centuryagotoday is an excellent site for much of the non-warfare, political/social events that I list. This is also the original page that leads me into the side forays into imgur.

Finally, http://ww2-weapons.com/ which used to be labelled World War One .net, is a great supplemental source; often providing excellent details, on the level of the third listed reference, but with significantly less bias.

...and of course, there are occasional other sources I quote or link to, like the dreaded wikipedia; also, I've picked up a considerable amount of my own background knowledge over the years from some many different places, I can't possibly remember them.

It is WW1. The bf of the main girl in the story was killed in the Somme. So far the story is taking place in Italy. A number of other things you've mentioned in this thread are talked about in the story. A true history buff like yourself may not like it because even though its based on facts it is a novel. It is a love story unfolding during the war. When you have a little time you might want to read it anyway. It's really good.

WOW!! You really are a history buff. I like history and enjoy threads like this but my problem is I can't remember much of it. I read it and forget it. It made test taking in high school really hard. Oh well, enough of that.... need to read todays entry. Thanks again gg. :)

All Quiet on the Western Front is also worth the read.

That's pretty definitive, as the Spanish Civil War never involved any fighting in Italy, or in France.
As far as liking it or not based on the historical drama aspect:




That one, I've read. Seen a couple of different movie adaptations, as well. It's an excellent read, as well as more sobering to the jingoists when it's remembered that it was written by a German, from a German point of view.

29 October 1916
 

Western Front
According to several popular accounts, today in 1916, the Royal Flying Corps dropped a wreath over Jasta 2 which read, "To the memory of Captain Boelcke, a brave and chivalrous foe."
Battle of the Somme: Allies capture Dewdrop and Hazy trenches.

Eastern Front
Romania: Romanian counteroffensive in the Transylvanian passes continues, advancing 7 miles and capturing 3000 German and Austro-Hungarian prisoners.
In Dobruja, Romanians still retiring.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Hussein bin Ali, the Sharif of Mecca, proclaims himself the King of Hejaz and the King of the Arab lands: http://imgur.com/Kv4ZJx2

Naval and Overseas Operations
U-boat torpedoes Greek volunteer transport Angeliki.
2 RNAS seaplanes reconnoiter Schillig Roads ( https://www.google.com/maps/place/53%C2%B042'06.1%22N+8%C2%B001'23.9%22E/@53.7017,8.0233,11120m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d53.7017!4d8. 0233 ) from carrier Vindex but fail to find boom; no CMB attack carried out.
Jellicoe warns of ‘…serious danger that our losses in merchant ships … may by the early summer of 1917 have such a serious effect … as to force us into accepting peace terms’.

Political, etc.
United Kingdom: Field Marshal Viscount French warns volunteers at Derby that a German invasion of Britain is a possibility, not a mere supposition.