Kizzia Mildmay

For this post, I’m simply going to give you a run-down of the main events that occurred during February 1915, across all theatres of war. Where I’ve been able to track down photographs or illustrations of the events listed, I’ve included them with credit as to where I found them.

1 February
A Turkish attack on the Suez Canal was repulsed by fire from British Ships.

Russian forces counter-attacked against a German advance in continued fighting at Bolimow

2 February
Forward elements of Turkish forces reached the Suez Canal

3 February
Turkish troops attacked El Firdan and crossed the Suez Canal but were beaten back by Indian and Gurkha troops along with three French ships.

Three of the conspirators involved in the killing of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were hanged by Austrian authorities.

4 February
The commander of the German High Seas Fleet publicly declared a war zone around the British Isles and announced that all merchant shops would be sunk without warning when a blockade of Britain began on 18 February.

5 February
The British, French and Russian Governments agreed to pool their financial resources.

6 February
British ocean liner RMS Lusitania arrived at Liverpool flying the flag of the United States.

7 February
The Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes, also known as the Winter Battle of the Masurian Lakes, began between Russian and German forces.

9 February
After being stationed at Salisbury Plain in England (pictured), units of the 1^st Canadian Division embarked for France.

11 February
US President Woodrow Wilson warned Germany that attacks on US ships breached US neutrality whilst simultaneously protesting to Great Britain about the misuse of the American flag on British ships.

12 February
French troops began an offensive in Champagne on the Western Front.

14 February
German troops captured British trenches near St Eloi on the Western Front

15 February
Allied governments suggested to Greece that it should intervene in support of Servia and promised military support at the port of Salonika.

The sepoys of the Indian 5^th Light Infantry mutinied again the British in Singapore. The mutiny was put down harshly, the mutineers executed:

16 February
The British Government decided to send the 29^th Division to Gallipoli.

17 February
Two German Zepplins were forced down by high winds in north-west Denmark.

18 February
The German submarine blockade of Britain came into force.

French forces made slight gains near Verdun, in Artois, Champagne and Vosges.

19 February
The Allied naval bombardment of the Dardanelles and Gallipoli began.

The Norwegian ship SS Belridge was torpedoed by a German submarine near Folkestone in Kent – the first neutral victim of the German blockade.

20 February
The British Government issued orders for the deployment at Gallipoli of Australian and New Zealand troops who were in Egypt.

22 February
The Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes ended in a German victory with the Russians suffering heavy losses.

23 February
The Royal Marines landed at the island of Lemnos in the Aegean Sea.

24 February
The First British Territorial Division left England for France.

25 February
British ships resumed their bombardment of the Dardanelles forts.

26 February
German troops employed liquid first for the first time against French troops in the Verdun Sector.

27 February
The Russians recaptured Przasnysz during the First Battle of Przasnysz in Poland.

28 February
The troops of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry stage the first trench raid of the war near Ypres, Belgium.

If anyone knows where I can find pictures or illustrations of any of the other events listed above, I’d love to hear from you.