Well, the British and the French are fully mobilised. The British are heading towards Mons, and the Germans will know they have met a real army there. The French are supposedly the best land army in the world but they seem somewhat disorganised.
I understand that the French are now taking care of the Mediterranean and the British the North Sea. The Huns won’t want to show their Naval faces in those places.
Armies have begun to move in the East. Austria-Hungary finally got around to invading Serbia on August 12. (Remember last month, when this was all about Austria-Hungary and Serbia?) The small neighboring kingdom of Montenegro has joined the war, fighting alongside their ethnic kin in Serbia.
Russia invaded Germany on August 17, and has invaded Galicia on today the 18th. The Russian armies are enormous, but their support, training, equipment, and motivation are uncertain.
Still stuck in 1935; the Nazis have not yet perfected their time machine.
Stepping outside the timeline for a moment, were the press calling them the Huns this early in the war?
The Kaiser is quite fond of his navy. But is he the kind of man that loves it so much that rushes out to use it? Or the kind who cherishes it so much that he won’t risk it in battle? There are German warships out there somewhere (the East Asian Squadron), but what will happen to them? I doubt they could stand up to forces the RN can bring to bear.
At this point the SMS Scharnhorst and Gneisenau have left Tsingtao, and are probably rendezvousing with the rest of the East Asia Squadron at some undisclosed location. They may have been recalled to join the High Seas Fleet; if so, they’ll all be coaling up for the trip across the Pacific.
True fact: the original script for The Final Countdown had been kicking around UFA all through the thirties.
Oh, them. :rolleyes: If they see out the year you have my permission to horsewhip me on the steps of the Athenaeum.
Yes - them…fortunately HMAS Australia is still the most powerful vessel in our waters so I guess they won’t stay around long. The Emden is making a nuisance of herself though.
Some unemployed Austrian Artist called Adolph Hitler joined the German Army on August 16. As if he will make an impact on history.
On the Western Front King Albert has ordered the Belgian Army to fall back onto Antwerp. Now, news on the 19th is that the Germans have shot 150 civilians at Aerschot.
Outside with you, and yes “Beware of the Hun in the sun” dates from the Great war. I just referred to “Flying Fury” and the terms Hun and Hunnish are used throughout (it is the diary of James McCudden V.C.).
Today, August 19, President Wilson declared that the US will be absolutely neutral. A lot of folks around me seem to think that we’d automatically side with Britain. But there are a lot of German Americans who vote. And besides, I don’t remember any Germans burning down the White House Almost exactly 100 years ago during the War of 1812. And those Germans we fought in the revolution were on the British side. Besides, this war won’t last long. Either there will be a quick win for somebody or some kind of cease fire will be declared when it gets too expensive for both sides. So neutrality is probably the best course for the US.
Neutrality gets better and better the longer the war goes on. Armies get hungry, and we have more land for growing crops than any European country. AND our farmers won’t have to worry about men and horses advancing/retreating over their fields, trampling their crops. Let the monarchies have their war, our farmers will get rich selling them food.
The term is confusing. Just two days ago, the August 17, 1914 Richmond Times Dispatch carried an article, Austrian Consul Tells Causes of Present War, which equates “the Huns” with the Russians and other Slavic peoples at war with the Germans. For example: “But this we know, we of German birth, of German feeling, that once more the struggle is on between the Hun and the German, between the civilization of Luther, Goethe and Kant, against the civilization of Catherine the Impure, of patriots in Siberia and of grand dukes in Paris; between the ideals of Western Europe and the sensuality of a half-Oriental Hun empire. Once more Germany has to be the bulwark against the invasion of the barbarians and once more it stands alone, except for its one ally, against the might of those innumerable hordes, fearless and true, conscious of the danger and of the cost, but with the undying determination to save the beloved Fatherland, the inheritance of uncounted generations, from the foe who wants to contaminate and dishonor it.”
Depends on whether they head straight for home or stop to do something stupid like raid the Falklands.
(Coal is going to be a problem, especially if they go round Cape Horn. They’re probably going to have to plunder a British coaling station or two, but they should be okay if they choose their targets well.)
I see today’s Telegraph reports the death by suicide of General von Emmich, commander of the German forces in Belgium. Certainly a surprising development. Perhaps the Belgians have some hope after all? Those reports of the fall of Liege a few days ago were perhaps just bluster on the part of the Germans to hide their losses.
Just heard the Germans entered Brussels already. Who would’ve thought?
Seems to have been a news blackout. However, Japan has entered the war on the Allies side. Seems like there is a battle brewing in some place in Russia called Tannenberg- surely the Russians have so many troops it will be a no contest?
British troops are retreating from Mons- this can’t be good.
Japan! Good Lord - is this war going to consume the whole world?
The British Expeditionary Force are still retreating. What are the French doing?
There was a rather large battle between the Teutonic Knights and various Eastern European entities a few hundred years ago, the Germans are still sore about having lost.
As for Mons, that’s like, right next to Waterloo…
Seriously not only have ancient hatred come to the fore, but old battles are being literally refought.