On November 1st 2014, Dennis Cross published the latest instalment to his Centennial Countdown blog. Here is his email summary of the posting:
“I’ve just posted the October installment of my Centennial Countdown blog, reviewing the events of 100 years ago this month. In October 1914, the extension of the Western Front northward from the River Aisne ends when both armies, failing in their attempts to outflank each other, reach the Belgian North Sea coast, where the Belgians succeed in stopping a final German attempt to turn the Allied flank. The siege of Antwerp ends with the surrender of the city to the German Army. The British successfully defend the area around Ypres, an important crossroads between the German Army and the channel ports of Calais and Dunkirk. As the armies dig in, they create a network of trenches that stretches over 475 miles from the English Channel to the Swiss Alps. The German East Asia Squadron continues its journey across the Pacific, and the light cruiser S.M.S. Emden, detached from the squadron in August, wreaks havoc in the Indian Ocean. Japanese and British Army troops capture Tsingtao. Turkey enters the war on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary. A British dreadnought strikes a mine and sinks off the coast of Ireland and a British cruiser is torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine in the Straits of Dover. The senior officer in the Royal Navy resigns his post and is replaced by one of his predecessors.”
Posted by: CN Editor