On November 30th 2015, Dennis Cross published the latest instalment to his Centennial Countdown blog. Here’s his email summary of the posting:
“The Serbian Army, supported by Allied forces in Salonika but overwhelmed by Austrian, German and Bulgarian attacks, retreats across the mountains to Albania, accompanied by King Peter and thousands of civilian refugees. Lord Kitchener, Great Britain’s Secretary of State for War, makes a personal visit to Gallipoli and recommends evacuation; the newly formed War Committee of the Cabinet agrees. A violent thunderstorm and flooding followed by snow and freezing temperatures strike the peninsula, causing severe hardship and numerous deaths among the Allied troops. Former First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, who was demoted to a minor cabinet position in the new coalition government and is now excluded from the War Committee, resigns from the government and goes to the Western Front. In Mesopotamia, the advance of the British Army toward Baghdad stalls at Ctesiphon and the British withdraw to Kut Al Amara. Einstein announces his theory of general relativity. In the Mediterranean a German submarine flying the Austro-Hungarian flag attacks and sinks the Italian liner S.S. Ancona en route from Messina to New York; nine Americans are drowned. Woman suffrage goes down to defeat in New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. The United States formally objects to Great Britain’s interference with neutral trade, and President Wilson advocates preparedness “not for war, but only for defense.” Henry Ford will take a “peace ship” to Europe, hoping to stop the war. In football, Harvard beats Yale and Army tops Navy.”