#early october is also BEFORE caporetto

[amypihcs]

AAAnd I ended up writing something for this and for the first day of cozytober.

You’re back home

As much as it could be seen as a dismissal, as a lack of appreciation for one’s services, Sherlock Holmes couldn’t but be happy about his husband’s discharge.

He had known of it for at least one day more than his dearest had, working in the intelligence offered striking possibilities when one was showing up to the office and not only working from home, but he had only left London on his own leave when Watson’s letter had arrived.

And there he was, in Sussex, enjoying the sweet October sunshine in the year of our Lord nineteen-seventeen from atop the railing he and Watson had built more than 10 years prior, waiting for his Captain.

Dr Watson wasn’t surprised to not find Holmes waiting for him at the station with their car, it was their agreement. No station Welcomes and Goodbyes as having to stifle their feelings in those moments would have certainly made them more painful. He breathed in deeply the fresh country air and set off for his walk toward their bee-house, as Holmes called it.

Nothing could be better than half an hour of evening walk toward home, or rather, nothing but seeing one’s husband jump down from a railing and grin from ear to ear as one walks into one’s own garden.

Neither of them properly ran toward the other, they weren’t as young as that any more as much as Holmes’ athletics still belied his true age. Holmes waited for him and Watson dove into his arms, breathing in deeply, relaxing after months of tension as he felt his husband’s strong, thin arms around his shoulders and his solid, sinewy body in his arms.

“I missed you.” He sighed, breathing in his scent, tobacco, lemons, aftershave.

Holmes broke the hug with a smile. “I missed you too.” He answered, then he kissed him, his hands buried in his hair, moaning as he felt his Watson’s arms tighten once more on his back as he answered the kiss with just as much vigour.

“I’m back home.” Gasped Watson when they separated out of need for air.

“You are, my dearest. – Holmes’ breath was just as laboured as he replied, ruffling his husband’s hair with his fingers. – Short hair doesn’t suit you my love.”

“It will grow again, I also liked it better before this war. Is that my vest?” Chuckled the doctor, well used to his husband’s sometimes strange demonstrations of affection.

Holmes laughed as he played with his Watson's uniform’s belt and buttons. “How did you deduce?”

It was a game, of course, their game. “It’s too large on you, my darling, and a bit too short. Also, you have no clothes of this colour. – The doctor stroked one of his Holmes’ sharp cheekbones. – You needn’t look so worried, Holmes. What do you deduce of me?”

Holmes smiled once more, and in that golden light he looked just like the young chemist he was when they had met. “You lost almost a stone, but you will be better in some weeks. You need to sleep properly as you are quite tired. Those dark circles under your eyes speak of anxiety, my John, and of pain. I could say your leg more than your shoulder, if I didn’t know that you’ve been hurt two weeks ago…” Holmes let his voice fade softly as he moved his hand to his husband’s side.

“It’s but a graze, my dear. Some shrapnel during a rescue mission, I barely noticed it until I had finished with the poor chap’s surgery. It’s but a scratch, I stitched it close myself.”

“I should like to check for it myself, my dear. As much as I know that your stitches are the best, you must have hidden it from your subordinates for quite a long time to end up stitching it on your own.” He stated

“Those boys were shaking already, I couldn’t let them know that I was hurt. – Watson kissed his husband again and then placed a warning finger on his lips. – I will let you fuss, my dear fellow, but only after some good tea and in preparation for a proper bath.” He smiled.

Mr Holmes grinned at the proposition and lead his husband inside, draping himself on his shoulders as soon as they reached the kitchen. “We are home now, John.”

“Yes. Yes, we are, my dearest Sherlock.” Answered the doctor.

dr watson in his 60s, tanned by the sussex sun, returns to his old service on the outbreak of WW1

this outfit is not historically accurate at all, but i really wanted to draw how i imagined watson in the gorgeous WW1 era h/w fic The Presbury Letters

+ bonus homecoming to angry bee husband

[today-in-wwi]

State of the War: End of 1917

The Battle of Caporetto and its aftermath; nearly knocking the Italians out of the war, this was the most impressive victory by either side in 1917.

1917 was a year of massive upheaval.  An armistice had been concluded on the Eastern Front after two revolutions in Russia.  Italy had suffered a massive defeat at Caporetto, effectively losing half of their army along with much of Northern Italy.  The British had taken Baghdad and Jerusalem from the Turks.  In the West, the Nivelle Offensive and Battle of Passchendaele had sapped both the French and British armies of much of their strength, even pushing the former to mutiny at times.  The Germans gambled on unrestricted submarine warfare in an attempt to knock Britain out of the war, but only managed to bring the Americans in instead.

The Western Front:

After the hard-fought Allied gains on the Somme in 1916, the Germans decided to shorten their lines by withdrawing from the resulting salient to the south to the so-called “Hindenburg Line.”  This saw the largest change to the Western Front since late 1914, but it greatly reduced the length of German lines and the strength of their defenses.  It also negated, to some extent, Nivelle’s planned spring offensive along the Aisne, the aim of which was to pinch off that salient. 

In preparation for that offensive, the British and Canadians attacked at Arras and Vimy Ridge, respectively, in early April, meeting their tactical objectives.  However, this did not substantially divert German reserves, and when the French attacked a week later on the Aisne, they instantly ran into extreme difficulties.  German resistance was much stiffer than expected and there were extreme logistical troubles, especially in handling the unanticipated numbers of casualties.  Although Nivelle had promised a breakthrough, or a cancellation of the offensive, within days, Nivelle continued to order assaults for weeks before being sacked and replaced by Pétain.  In the meantime, however, the needless attacks had sparked mutinies in many French units, especially those that were being called back up to the front line early.  

Although the mutinies did not appreciably sap French defensive capabilities (as the Germans found out in July), Pétain spent much of the remainder of the year rebuilding French morale and conducting only very limited offensives with overwhelming artillery support, recapturing the original lines at Verdun in August and finally capturing the Chemin des Dames north of the Aisne (as Nivelle had hoped to do) in October.

Despite the French Army’s difficulties, Haig was determined to conduct independent offensives on his own in the summer and fall around Ypres.  In early June, the British took Messines after exploding the largest set of mines in the war.  However, the general offensive around Ypres did not begin until July 31.  Unfortunately for the British, the weather almost immediately turned against them, turning the Flanders clay into thick mud, and the offensive quickly bogged down.  After a change in command and tactics, the British tried again in late September, achieving success with a series of repeated “bite and hold” attacks culminating in a victory at Broodseinde.  Although the resulting gains were (by design) limited, the Germans could find no effective way to stop them and began to panic.  However, the weather turned again after Broodseinde, making it difficult to bring the necessary men and artillery up, and an attack towards Passchendaele failed miserably on October 12.  Although any reasonable chance of a breakthrough (or a supporting amphibious landing on the Flanders coast) was now gone, Haig attacked again at Passchendaele in late October with the Canadian Corps, which finally took the town before the offensive was called off on November 10.

Part of the reason the Passchendaele offensive lasted so long was to keep German reserves occupied and away from Byng’s Third Army, which was preparing an tank attack around Cambrai.  Launched with almost complete surprise on November 20, Third Army and its over three hundred tanks advanced over five miles, in some places breaking through the entirety of the Hindenburg line.  Although it was rightfully hailed as a great victory (and a vindication for the idea of the tank), some local setbacks and a lack of reserves meant the victory could not be exploited, and most of the gains were lost in a German counteroffensive ten days later.

The Eastern Front and Romania:

Nearly three years of war and rampant inflation had taken its toll on Russia.  Protests in Petrograd in early March quickly turned to revolution, as half of Petrograd’s garrison turned against the Czar.  Russia’s generals, unwilling to divert troops to crush the revolt during the middle of a war (and quite possibly spark a civil war), convinced the Czar to step down, and a Provisional Government took power until elections for a Constituent Assembly (to write a new constitution) could be called.

The revolutionary spirit quickly spread to the Army, resulting in mass indiscipline and desertions.  Kerensky (the new War Minister) and Brusilov were convinced that only a large offensive could restore purpose and cohesion to the army.  The so-called “Kerensky Offensive” was launched at the beginning of July, and did result in some impressive gains.  However, many units refused to follow up after the first few days’ of fighting, leaving those that did exposed, and a German counterattack a few weeks later erased all of Russia’s gains from the previous two years and largely ended Russia’s offensive capability.

To the south, the Romanians launched their own offensive in late July with some success, although their necessary reliance on the Russians meant the scope for any truly independent operations was limited.  In August, the Germans launched two separate offensives in an attempt to knock the Romanians out of the war entirely, but these failed after only limited gains.

In early September, a surprise offensive making extensive use of stormtrooper tactics captured Riga in a matter of days.  This was quickly followed by the embarrassment of the Kornilov Affair, in which Kerensky (perhaps mistakenly) accused his top general of plotting a coup and then arresting him once he actually tried to.  This essentially removed support for Kerensky among the officer corps, and strengthened the radical Bolsheviks, who were given arms to forestall the threat from Kornilov. In mid-October, making use of a substantial part of the High Seas Fleet, the Germans landed on the islands in the Gulf of Riga and quickly secured them.  The threat of a similar German naval strike on Petrograd caused panic in the capital and further weakened Kerensky’s government.

In early November, the radical Bolsheviks seized power in a swift coup (an abortive uprising to the same end in July had failed).  Armed resistance to the Bolsheviks by Kerensky and the Moscow city government was quickly crushed.  Alexeyev and Kornilov tried to organize armed resistance in the Cossack lands, but attracted little support by the end of the year.  Knowing their relative weakness, the Bolsheviks let the Constituent Assembly elections proceed as planned, and they won no more than 25% of the vote.  The Constituent Assembly had not convened by the end of the year, however, and the Bolsheviks continued with their agenda, including an immediate peace.  Although Lenin and Trotsky failed to get the other Allies to participate, the Russians agreed to an armistice with the Central Powers at Brest-Litovsk by mid-December; the Romanians were forced to follow suit.

The war in the East was thus over (for now) by the end of 1917, and the Russian army was quickly melting away.  Peace negotiations had begun, with the major contention being the fate of Russia’s minority populations in the West, many of whom were already on German-occupied territory.  The Germans wanted resources for their war effort from these territories, but also wanted to move troops west for an offensive in 1918 (which the armistice technically prevented them from doing).

Italy:

The Italians launched the Tenth Battle of the Isonzo in mid-May, making some modest gains around Plava and on the Karst.  Another attempt in late August was more successful, completely breaking through the Austrian lines on the Bainsizza plateau.  However, instead of exploiting this success, they soon became bogged down in a month-long battle for Mt. San Gabriele.  The Austrians knew that another such attack might lead to a total collapse, however, and they appealed for German help.

In late October, the Austrians and Germans attacked on the upper Isonzo, in the mountains around Caporetto.  They quickly broke through the unprepared Italian lines into the plains below, essentially destroying the Italian Second Army; hundreds of thousands of PoWs were captured, and many others simply deserted. The Italians were forced to abandon their hard-won gains on the Isonzo and fall back over fifty miles west to the Piave.  Cadorna attempted to blame his troops for the disaster, but was quickly sacked. The Austrians spent much of the rest of the year trying to cross or outflank the Piave, which would have resulted in the capture of Venice and possibly much of the rest of northern Italy.  However, supply troubles, difficult terrain, British and French reinforcements, and the arrival of winter ultimately defeated these efforts.  By the end of the year, the Italians had largely stabilized their lines, and the Italian government and people seemed committed to continuing the war despite their losses.

The Balkans:

The French forced King Constantine of Greece to abdicate in June; he was succeeded by his second son, Alexander.  The Greek government was reunified by the end of the month, with Venizelos as PM, and Greece joined the Allies by the end of July. 

The front around Salonika was relatively quiet in 1917.  An Allied offensive north of Monastir failed in May; later in the summer, the British withdrew much of their force for service in Palestine.  The French conducted some limited operations in Albania, but these were swiftly halted after political objection from France’s allies.  This contributed to Sarrail’s sacking by his political rival, the new French PM Clemenceau, in December.

The Middle East:

Having recovered after the disaster at Kut the previous year, the British launched a new offensive in Mesopotamia early in the year.  In late February, a surprise crossing of the Tigris outflanked the Turkish lines around Kut; by mid-March, the British had entered Baghdad.  The British mainly spent the remainder of the year securing the approaches to the city (to prevent the Turks from flooding it) and preparing for a counteroffensive by the Turkish-German Yildirim Army Group (commanded by Falkenhayn) that never materialized.

The British finished their crossing of the Sinai, taking Rafah in early January.  Attempts to push on and secure Gaza in March and April both failed, the latter despite the first use of tanks in Palestine.  During the summer, Hashemite Arab forces captured Aqaba, securing the British flank to the east.  The British tried another offensive at the end of October, after a change in command and arrival of substantial reinforcements, taking Beersheba in a surprise attack and with a cavalry charge.  After a month’s determined fighting, the Turks surrendered Jerusalem in early December, a welcome “Christmas present" to the British people, in Lloyd George’s words.

The February Revolution in Russia largely brought an end to active fighting in the Caucasus; as the Provisional Government was fighting for a peace without annexations, further offensives into Turkish territory made little sense. Similarly, the Turks were too busy to the south to make any attempts of their own.  The Brest-Litovsk armistice in December finally ended all fighting in the theater for now.

Africa:

Lettow-Vorbeck’s forces continued to hold out in the southwestern portions of German East Africa, with Smuts’ 1916 offensive coming to an end early in the year.  For much of the year the Allies were distracted by a raiding column under Max Wintgens, but began a renewed attempt to root out Lettow-Vorbeck in September, culminating in the Battle of Mahiwa in mid-October.  Although technically a German victory, it exhausted their supplies.  The German Navy attempted to resupply Lettow-Vorbeck by Zeppelin, but the mission turned around over Sudan once they believed they would no longer be able to complete their mission safely.  In late November, Lettow-Vorbeck crossed the Rovuma into Portuguese Mozambique, where they found abundant supplies.  By the end of the year, German East Africa was entirely in Allied hands, but Lettow-Vorbeck’s forces in Mozambique were still very much at large.

The Naval War and the United States:

Bowing to pressure from the Navy (and the German people), the Kaiser agreed to resume unrestricted submarine warfare, beginning at the start of February.  Wilson almost immediately broke off diplomatic relations, but hoped to avoid war.  However, this was made more difficult when Americans were informed by British intelligence of the Zimmermann telegram, a German alliance offer to Mexico in the event of war that promised them the return of California, Arizona, and New Mexico.  Revealed to the public at the beginning of March (and soon admitted to by the Germans), the American public was outraged.  War was soon made inevitable by the sinking of multiple American ships, and the United States declared war on April 6, followed shortly thereafter by its puppet governments in Cuba and Panama.  Later in the year, Liberia, Siam, China, and Brazil followed suit.

The United States had only a small professional army, and it would take some time for them to contribute substantially to the land war in Europe.  The first American division did not enter the front line until October.  In the meantime, the United States instituted conscription and began raising an army, and dispatched a large number of destroyers to Europe; American dreadnoughts followed in December.

The submarines that brought America into the war also did wreak havoc on British shipping, sinking hundreds of thousands of tons and scaring off even more.  To counter this threat, the British reluctantly adopted convoys, starting on an experimental basis in May but becoming a regular feature of Atlantic trade by July.  Despite the Germans’ claims that Britain would be forced out of the war by October, they had not even instituted food rationing by the end of the year.

The German High Seas Fleet mainly stayed in port during 1917, apart from its participation in the landings on the islands in the Gulf of Riga, and a simultaneous cruiser attack on a convoy to Norway in October.  Harsh discipline and terrible food led to mutinies in August, though these were swiftly crushed.

Previous Years: State of the War: End of 1916  State of the War: End of 1915 State of the War (Late November 1914)

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 10.24

AD 69 – Second Battle of Bedriacum, forces under Marcus Antonius Primus, the commander of the Danube armies, loyal to Vespasian, defeat the forces of Emperor Vitellius. 1260 – Chartres Cathedral is dedicated in the presence of King Louis IX of France; the cathedral is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 1360 – The Treaty of Brétigny is ratified at Calais, marking the end of the first phase of the Hundred Years' War. 1590 – John White, the governor of the second Roanoke Colony, returns to England after an unsuccessful search for the "lost" colonists. 1605 – Coronation of Jahangir 1641 – Sir Felim O'Neill of Kinard the leader of the Irish Rebellion issues his Proclamation of Dungannon justifying the uprising and declaring continued loyalty to Charles I 1648 – The Peace of Westphalia is signed, marking the end of the Thirty Years' War. 1795 – Third Partition of Poland: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth is completely divided among Austria, Prussia, and Russia. 1812 – Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Maloyaroslavets takes place near Moscow. 1851 – William Lassell discovers the moons Umbriel, and Ariel, orbiting Uranus. 1857 – Sheffield F.C., the world's oldest association football club still in operation, is founded in Sheffield, England. 1861 – The first transcontinental telegraph line across the United States is completed. 1871 – An estimated 17 to 20 Chinese immigrants were tortured and lynched in the Chinese massacre of 1871 in Los Angeles, California. 1901 – Annie Edson Taylor becomes the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. 1911 – Orville Wright remains in the air nine minutes and 45 seconds in a Wright Glider at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. 1912 – First Balkan War: The Battle of Kirk Kilisse concludes with the Bulgarian victory against the Ottoman Empire. 1912 – First Balkan War: The Battle of Kumanovo concludes with the Serbian victory against the Ottoman Empire. 1917 – Battle of Caporetto; Italy suffers a catastrophic defeat by the forces of Austria-Hungary and Germany on the Austro-Italian front of World War I (lasts until 19 November - also called Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo). 1917 – Bolshevik Red Guards began takeover of buildings in Russia, among the first events associated with the October Revolution. 1926 – Harry Houdini's last performance takes place at the Garrick Theatre in Detroit. 1929 – "Black Thursday" stock market crash on the New York Stock Exchange. 1930 – A bloodless coup d'état in Brazil ousts Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa, the last President of the First Republic. Getúlio Vargas is then installed as "provisional president". 1931 – The George Washington Bridge opens to public traffic. 1944 – World War II: The Japanese battleship Musashi is sunk by American aircraft in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. 1945 – Founding of the United Nations. 1946 – A camera on board the V-2 No. 13 rocket takes the first photograph of earth from outer space. 1947 – Famed animator Walt Disney testifies before the House Un-American Activities Committee, naming Disney employees he believes to be communists. 1949 – The cornerstone of the United Nations Headquarters is laid. 1954 – Dwight D. Eisenhower pledges United States support to South Vietnam. 1957 – The United States Air Force starts the X-20 Dyna-Soar program. 1960 – Nedelin catastrophe: An R-16 ballistic missile explodes on the launch pad at the Soviet Union's Baikonur Cosmodrome space facility, killing over 100. Among the dead is Field Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin, whose death is reported to have occurred in a plane crash. 1963 – An oxygen leak from an R-9 missile at the Baikonur Cosmodrome triggers a fire that kills seven people. 1964 – Northern Rhodesia gains independence from the United Kingdom and becomes the Republic of Zambia (Southern Rhodesia remained a colony until the next year, with the Unilateral Declaration of Independence). 1975 – In Iceland, 90% of women take part in a national strike, refusing to work in protest of gaps in gender equality. 1977 – Veterans Day is observed on the fourth Monday in October for the seventh and last time. (The holiday is once again observed on November 11 beginning the following year.) 1980 – The government of Poland legalizes the Solidarity trade union. 1986 – Nezar Hindawi is sentenced to 45 years in prison, the longest sentence handed down by a British court, for the attempted bombing on an El Al flight at Heathrow Airport. After the verdict, the United Kingdom breaks diplomatic relations with Syria, claiming that Hindawi is helped by Syrian officials. 1990 – Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti reveals to the Italian parliament the existence of Gladio, the Italian "stay-behind" clandestine paramilitary NATO army, which was implicated in false flag terrorist attacks implicating communists and anarchists as part of the strategy of tension from the late 1960s to early 1980s. 1992 – The Toronto Blue Jays become the first Major League Baseball team based outside the United States to win the World Series. 1998 – Launch of Deep Space 1 comet/asteroid mission. 2002 – Police arrest spree killers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, ending the Beltway sniper attacks in the area around Washington, D.C. 2003 – Concorde makes its last commercial flight. 2004 – Arsenal Football Club loses to Manchester United, ending a row of unbeaten matches at 49 matches, which is the record in the Premier League. 2005 – Hurricane Wilma makes landfall in Florida resulting in 35 direct 26 indirect fatalities and causing $20.6B USD in damage. 2007 – Chang'e 1, the first satellite in the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, is launched from Xichang Satellite Launch Center. 2008 – "Bloody Friday" saw many of the world's stock exchanges experience the worst declines in their history, with drops of around 10% in most indices. 2014 – The China National Space Administration launches an experimental lunar mission, Chang'e 5-T1, which will loop behind the Moon and return to Earth. 2015 – A driver, arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence (DUI), crashes into the Oklahoma State Homecoming parade in Stillwater, Oklahoma, killing four people and injuring 34.

[today-in-wwi]

Italians Retreat from the Isonzo

Some of the more than 250,000 Italian PoWs captured in late October and early November.

October 27 1917, Udine--By early on October 27, the Germans and Austrians had completely broken through around Caporetto.  The fall of Gran Monte, to the west of the town, along with Rommel’s capture of Mt. Matajur just to the southwest, meant that the way was now open to the plains and the Adriatic below.  The Italian forces on the lower Isonzo, which had fought for the last two years to secure a few miles on the far side of the river, now risked being trapped.  At 2:30 AM, Cadorna ordered a general retreat back to the Tagliamento, thirty miles to the west.  Many soldiers of the Third Army openly wept as they abandoned their hard-fought gains and the graves of hundreds of thousands of fellow soldiers.

Meanwhile, the Second Army was in full retreat from the advancing Germans and Austrians.  Most of its troops, those who did not face the initial attack, were still in good order. However, they were largely abandoned by their commanders. The Second Army’s commander had been taken ill only a few days before the attack, while Cadorna put the blame squarely on his soldiers, telling a subordinate, “What could I do? The army was swarming with worms.”  His official response to Rome, sent the next day, was little better: “the failure to resist on the part of units of the Second Army, which cravenly withdrew without fighting or ignominiously surrendered to the enemy, has allowed the Austro-German forces to break through...”  Cadorna himself left his headquarters in Udine for Treviso, over 60 miles to the west, safely behind the Piave, while leaving the Second Army to retreat over the few bridges over the upper Tagliamento (reserving the others for the Third Army).

The soldiers of the Second Army rightly felt abandoned.  One soldier recalled that on hearing that the generals had left:

“Then we’re going too,” someone said, and we all shouted “That’s right, we have had enough of the war, we’re going home.”  The lieutenant said, “You’ve gone mad, I’ll shoot you,” but we took his pistol away. We threw our rifles away and started marching to the rear.  Soldiers were pouring along the other paths and we told them all we were going home and they should come with us and throw their guns away.  I was worried at first, but then I thought I had nothing to lose, I’d have been killed if I’d stayed in the trenches and anything was better than that.  And then I felt so angry because I’d put up with everything like a slave till now; I’d never even thought of getting away. But I was happy too, we were all happy, all saying “it’s home or prison, but no more war.”

Cadorna, having lost faith in his own soldiers, and recognizing that he desperately needed help, accepted an offer from Foch for four French divisions to bolster the Italians.  Lloyd George, long a proponent of British aid to the Italian front, also ordered two divisions there, though he knew they would not be used for an offensive there as he had hoped.

Today in 1916: Australian Ministers Resign Over Conscription Today in 1915: Bulgarian and Austro-Hungarian Forces Meet in Serbia Today in 1914: HMS Audacious Sunk by German Mine In View of RMS Olympic

Sources include: Mark Thompson, The White War; Randal Gray, Chronicle of the First World War; John R. Schindler, Isonzo.