What happened this Month 100 years ago - the run up to war" ?

[kenf48]

Just gets better, and more interesting!

Ken

[bruce]

Bravo, Cent.

Looking forward to May now!

Bruce

[maxi]

Centurian

This is a fantastic thread and I am most grateful for all your efforts in compiling it.

Keep taking the potions and thanks again.

Maxi

[centurion]

May 1913

Naval Affairs

• In May 1913 the Canadian navy is effectively moribund with some of its larger ships unseaworthy and most of their armament removed. There are only about 300 Canadians serving in it and much of the force is provided by RN personnel. The Canadian Tory government has a plan – the building of 3 battleships will be financed by a Canadian government bond issue. These ships will be loaned to the British Admiralty, who will bear the running costs, and will form the nucleus around which a new Canadian navy can be built and sailors trained. The Canadian Navy Bill to finance the building of Canadian battleships is debated in the Canadian lower house. It is opposed by the Liberal opposition who favour a small ‘coastal navy’ made up of torpedo boats and coast guard vessels. The Liberals backed by other elements attempt to talk the bill out using filibustering tactics. A Parliamentary guillotine is introduced for the first time in Canada and the bill is passed. It is then defeated by a Liberal majority in the Senate. Canada is left with no naval policy.
  
• Sir Charles E. Kingsmill director of the Naval Service of Canada is promoted to vice admiral
  
• George V, The Tsar and the Kaiser meet at the wedding of the Kaiser's daughter Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia to Ernst August III, Duke of Braunschweig. German officials anticipate that George V will raise the subject of a ‘Battleship holiday’ (see earlier months) and offer further concessions to Germany’s position. He does not and spends most of his time talking to the Tsar about horses and racing. The Naval arms race continues.
  
• König class Battleship SMS Grosser Kurfürst launched.
  
• SMS Seydlitz, a 24,988-ton battle cruiser built at Hamburg, Germany, commissioned
  
• Kaiser class battleship SMS Kaiserin commissioned
  
• HMS Centurion, King George V class Battleship, commissioned
  
• Shipyard labour disputes delay delivery of Battle cruiser HMS Queen Mary
  
• Alfonso XIII ,España-class dreadnought battleship of the Spanish Navy, launched
  
• After visiting all major ports in New Zealand The battle cruiser HMS New Zealand leaves to return to the UK.
  
• The Australian Minister for the Navy approves the formation of the Australian Naval Dockyard Police. This will have more men than there are Canadians in the whole of Canadian Navy.
  
• Australia’s first submarine AE-1 launched
  
• First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill sails on the Admiralty yacht Enchantress, to visit every important ship of the British fleet and “learn all he could about his ‘trade.’” This will eventually take eight months. The first leg is the Mediterranean and on this he is accompanied by the Prime Minister Asquith. This allows them to keep an eye on the operation by ships of “the five great powers” (France, Germany, Great Britain, KuK and Russia) in the occupation of Scutari (see April 1913). The opportunity is taken to put pressure on the Greek government in connection with the RN use of Greek islands should war break out.
  
• Churchill's pocket is picked at Cannes and £500 (winnings at the casino) and a pocket book containing "secret notes on naval affairs" taken. Two well dressed men and an attractive young woman are sought by the French police.
  
• The US Navy Department issues a statement regarding the theft of plans of new battleship Pennsylvania. The plans disappeared during celebrations in connection with the Presidential inauguration.
  
• Sir Owen Philipps, president of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, informs the stockholders of his company that the large steamers of the company are equipped so as to be able to carry guns for defensive purposes.
  
• Korvettenkapitän Karl von Müller becomes the last commander of SMS Emden
  
• Fog and ice bergs in the North Atlantic. Two British ships , SS Chiltern Range and SS Snowdon Range hit a 150 foot high berg. Fortunately they had reduced speed and both are able to make port.
  

[centurion]

May 1913

In the Air

• First German naval flying units are established by a Allerhöchste Kabinettsordre issued by the Kaiser ordering the creation of two units; Marine-Luftschiffabteilung located at Johannesthal / Berlin and Marine-Fliegerabteilung located at Puzig near Danzig.
  
• The Kaiser authorises a German Sea Pilots Badge (Abzeichen für Marineflugzeugführer auf Seeflugzeugen )
  
• HMS Hermes (appropriately a Highflyer-class cruiser) is fitted with facilities for flying off sea planes using wheeled trollies and a crane for retrieving them and becomes Britain’s first seaplane carrier.
  
• Formation of a Naval Flying Wing (Reserve) announced in the Commons
  
• Flight Commander Christopher Courtney delivers the first landplane to Yarmouth naval air station.
  
• IJN establishes the Aeroplane Factory, Ordnance Department at the Yokosuka Naval Air Technical Arsenal's torpedo factory
  
• The Avro 503H sea plane makes its first flight with John Alcock (of Alcock and Brown fame) as passenger. Purchased by the German navy it will later make the first North Sea crossing by air flown by Lt. W. Langfeld from Wilhelmshaven to the Island of Heligoland, followed by a successful return trip to Cuxhaven. The design is pirated by Gotha as the unlicensed copy the WD1 and sold to the German and Turkish navies. Five 503s are also used by the RNAS in WW1.
  
• The Martin Model 1912 Pusher 'Sonora' piloted for the Carrancista rebels by Didier Masson carries out bombing attacks on Mexican Federal warships. First naval bombing in the Americas.
  
• Belgian Escadrille I equipped with four Farman HF.16 and HF.20 aircraft flys its first ‘operational’ missions on during a large-scale army exercise at the Camp of Beverlo, Leopoldsburg
  
• Bulgarian military aviation reorganised into 1st and 2nd Aeroplane Sections and the Balloon Section.
  
• George V inspects the RFC at Farnborough . There is a flypast of 17 aircraft - believed to be a new world record for the number in the air at the same time. Demonstrations of bombing are made.
  
• 1st Air Review is carried out by General Smith-Dorrien at Perham Down
  
• The first parachute descent from an aeroplane in Great Britain is made at Hendon by W. Newell from a Graham White Type X
  
• The RE1 designed by De Haviland is completed at the Royal Aircraft Factory
  
• First flight of Caudron G3. Later produced in France Britain and Italy - 2849 built. Used by Belgium, China, Denmark, France, Britain and Italy
  
• Sikorsky flys the rengined Bolshoi – this is the world’s first flight of a four engined aircraft
  
• Nieuport-Macchi founded in Italy
  
• Dunlop start making specialised aircraft tyres
  
• Sopwith 3 seater No.104 is used by Hawker to establish a British altitude record of 11,450 ft
  
• Jacques Ehrlich the future balloon busting ace (18 balloons) enlists in the French army
  
• First flight of LZ-17 Sachsen last per war commercial Zeppelin.(9,837 passengers carried in 419 flights). Requisitioned in 1914 and serves until late 1916
  
• Ernst Heinkel moves to Lake Constance to work on sea plane design
  

[centurion]

May 1913

On the Ground

• The Riechstag budgetary committee approves funds for a significant increase in the size of the German army (see April 1913)
  
• The Three Years Law is passed making changes in the French call-up class system. This was done mostly in anticipation of the approaching conflict and with a desire to rapidly increase the size of the active army. Henceforward, a class would be incorporated into military service in October of the same year of its recruitment (i.e. its recruitment class year).Additionally; each soldier now has to serve a total of 28 years, including three in the active army
  
• M. Dumont French minister of Finance announces a bond issue to pay for the increase in the size of the French army
  
• A limited form of selective conscription is applied to the Muslim population of Algeria. Relatively few are so enlisted but it establishes the principles and mechanisms for war time.
  
• Battle of Sidi Garba is fought in Libya. The Italians take heavy casualties from Arab artillery fire and have to abandon four field pieces
  
• Romanian army is reorganised following the provisions of the Organization Law of 6th of May 1913, which establishes the army corps as a new element of joint service formations.
  
• Double agent Col Alfred Redl commits suicide. Redl served first as a deputy chief of the Evidenzburo, the military counterespionage organization in Vienna, and then as intelligence chief of the Army's VIII Corps, headquartered in Prague. He was discovered to have sold KuK secrets to Britain France Italy and Russia. These included Plan 3, the Austrian mobilization plan against Russia, and the betrayal of details concerning a critical network of fortresses along the Galician border with Russia. Said to have been blackmailed by the Russians over his homosexuality he also appears to have taken payments of the order of £100,000. After interrogation he was invited to “judge himself “ and left in a room with a loaded revolver.
  
• The Kaiser orders the release of 3 British officers jailed for espionage. This is a goodwill gesture for the visit of George V
  
• Berlin police receive warnings of an assassination plot against the Kaiser, this is generally discounted.
  
• The Kaiser is reported to have had two alligator handbags containing personal items stolen on a train returning from Strasbourg
  
• George V inspects the Royal Military Academy and Woolwich Arsenal
  
• Stanley Brenton Von Donop appointed Master-General of the Ordnance
  
• Svetozar Boroevic von Bojna Promoted to General der Infanterie he will take his Corps to war on Mobilization in 1914 as part of General der Infanterie Moritz Ritter von Auffenberg's 4th Army. He later becomes a KuK Field Marshal
  
• Clemenceau, convinced that Germany intends war, and, haunted by the fear that France might again be caught unprepared founds a new daily paper, L’Homme Libre, with himself as editor.to press for re armament
  
• California passes legislation effectively prohibiting Japanese from owning land in the state. This breaks the US - Japanese treaty of 1911 and causes significant anti American reactions in Japan - including calls for military action which puts the stability of the Japanese government at risk.
  
• The Imam of Oman, Salim bin Rashid al-Kharusi, and Sheikh Isa bin Salih start a tribal rebellion against the government, fighting will continue until 1920 and involve British forces
  
• Advertisements are placed in Uganda for men in the reserve to send in their addresses so they can be contacted for mobilisation in the event of war.
  
• Kitchener has to evacuate his box at the Cairo races when five large poisonous snakes are found in it. General panic ensues amongst race officials.
  

[Pighills]

Wow, Centurion, great work! Just read through this thread and already you can feel the tension on all sides. Can't wait for the coming months, even if I do know how it ends

[centurion]

June 1913

Naval affairs

• Winston Churchill, in his capacity as First Lord of the Admiralty, presents the Cabinet with a paper on “Oil Fuel Supply for His Majesty’s Navy.” The Cabinet agrees in principle that the government should “acquire a controlling interest in trustworthy sources of supply.” Following further Cabinet discussions a decision is taken that the British Government itself will become a shareholder in the Anglo-Persian Oil Company
  
• Following this Churchill announces in the Commons that the government will henceforth acquire a controlling 51% holding in the Anglo Persian Oil Company (APOC) . He accuses Royal Dutch Shell of using its current APOC holdings to rig oil prices to the detriment of the RN
  
• Discussions are arranged between a Mr Greenway representing the Anglo Persian Oil Company and Mr.Babington Smith representing the National Bank of Turkey to resolve an outstanding situation over oil concessions in Mesopotamia (regarded by Churchill as potentially vital in meeting RN future fuel supply needs) where the Turkish Oil Company holds a controlling stake. Even though the Turkish Minister of Mines has been 'sweetened ' and agrees in principle to a purchase by APOC the Grand Vizier (who may have been influenced by Germany) has not and feels that an open auction might raise more money. Britain is concerned that this could allow say, Germany, to obtain a holding. The talks peter out and the position is only finally settled by force of arms in 1918. As a result plans to survey what is today Saudi Arabia for oil in 1913 are cancelled. This is to have major geo-political ramifications post war and later.
  
• Five reports into the Navy Plan from a study group (initiated by Churchill in Dec 1912) headed by Rear Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly are ready. These outline the RN’s strategy for dealing with the German Navy in the event of war.
  
• A secret convention is signed in Vienna between Italy and the KuK under which on the outbreak of war (possibly as a result of the Scutari crisis – see On the Ground July 1913) the two fleets will rendezvous at Messina and destroy the French Mediterranean fleet before the Russians can get out of the Black Sea or the RN intervene. By August 1914 the Italians will have cold feet over this naval equivalent of a Schlieffen plan and renege on the agreement by declaring neutrality.
  
• SMS Markgraf, a König class battleship, is launched
  
• The battle cruiser SMS Defflinger is launched twice. On the first occasion she gets 15 inches down the slipway and jams
  
• Battle cruiser HMAS Australia and the cruiser HMAS Sydney are commissioned.
  
• The number of Australians in the Royal Australian Navy passes 2,500 (with a further 900 men seconded from the RN)
  
• The first RAN band is formed with 18 bandsmen under Chief Bandmaster Joshua Ventry
  
• George V reviews the Australian Fleet at Spithead. Rear Admiral George Patey takes command and is knighted on the quarterdeck of his flagship the battle cruiser HMAS Australia whilst the band plays.
  
• The Australian fleet of some 20 ships sets sail for the Antipodes
  
• French battleship Jean Bart is commissioned
  
• Battleship USS Pennsylvania is commissioned
  
• Battle cruiser SMS Hindenburg is laid down
  
• Greece orders the construction of a Dreadnought
  
• Prince Louis of Battenberg (later Louis Mountbatten) intervenes in a dispute with the Greek government over the secondment of senior British naval officers to the Royal Helenic Navy – the Greek navy. The RHN are concerned that they are only getting retired officers and want some from the active list. Churchill it appears had initially been less than diplomatic about the attractions of the RHN for ambitious naval officers, but eventually the appointment of Rear-Adm. Mark E F Kerr CB is suggested. Kerr is on the active list. He will take up duties with the Greeks in September
  
• The yacht Tamara built in 1898 is purchased by the Russian Naval Ministry and renamed Kolchida. Converted into a communications vessel she is attached to the Black Sea Fleet HQ. During conversion she will be fitted with an extremely powerful wireless telegraphy set that enables the Black Sea Fleet to communicate directly with St. Petersburg.
  
• A Russian flotilla, consisting of the gunboat Donets and the transport ships Tsar and Kherson, deliver the archbishop of Vologda, Nikon (Rozhdestvensky), and a body of troops to Mount Athos to intervene in a schism in the Orthodox church.
  
• Battle Cruiser HMS New Zealand re-joins home fleet after her visit to New Zealand
  
• King Edward VII class battleships HMS Africa, HMS Britannia, HMS Commonwealth, HMS Dominion, HMS King Edward VII and HMS Hibernia (all "wobbly eights" ) re-join the home fleet after participating in the blockade of Montenegro and the occupation of Scutari
  
• During exercises the battleship HMS Prince of Wales is in collision with the submarine C32 which losses its conning tower and other external structures. Fortunately the pressure hull remains intact and C32 is able to make it to port.
  
• Admiral Lord Fisher declares in a letter to Jellicoe (then Second Sea Lord) that “The most fatal error imaginable would be to put steam engines into Submarines”. Exactly 2 years later he will order the K class of steam submarines – he was right the first time.
  

[centurion]

June 1913

In the Air

• Zeppelin LZ 19 suffers irreparable damage in a forced landing and is scrapped.
  
• British Naval Airship no 3 Astra Torres purchased from France makes its first flight. A faulty gas valve causes a drop in pressure with a consequent loss of buoyancy and nearly results in a disaster with a crash narrowly avoided. The No 3 will not become operational until 1914.
  
• King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy makes a flight in semi rigid airship during which bombing is demonstrated.
  
• “Servizio Aeronautico della Regia Marina” the Italian naval air service is created
  
• German commercial airship "Sachsen" undertakes an international route proving flight from Leipzig to Vienna
  
• King Frederick Augustus III of Saxony inaugurates Mockau Airport for passenger airship flights. The World’s 1st airport hotel opens and the World’s first scheduled international airline service starts to Vienna
  
• World’s first four engine air liner the Russian Sikorsky Bolshoi (Grand) is renamed ‘Russkiy Vityaz' (Russian Knight), for patriotic reasons and is inspected by the Tsar. Days later the Vityaz is crushed by an engine that falls off another aircraft (a Morane) that is coming in for a landing.
  
• The Aerial Department of the Sir W. G Armstrong Whitworth & Company engineering group is established
  
• Pfalz-Flugzeugwerke GmbH is founded by Alfred Eversbusch in Neustadt an der Weinstraße
  
• Schwerin-Görries air field (German: Flugplatz Schwerin-Görries) opens northwest of Berlin. It will become the headquarters of Fokker’s German aircraft business - Fokker-Flugzeugwerken.
  
• Altenburg–Nobitz airfield is officially established under the patronage of Duke Ernst II of Sachsen-Altenburg (who is already an aviation enthusiast having first flown in an airship in 1909) - it will become a manufacturing centre for Albatros, DFW, and Rumpler aircraft
  
• German Army air corps orders 6 Fokker M4 s two seater monoplanes with features copied from both the Taube and the Bleriot XI-2 Artillerie
  
• Maurice Prévost sets a new World airspeed record of 111.69 mph (179.820 kph) in a Deperdussin Monocoque
  
• Marcel G. Brindejonc des Moulainais sets a world distance record by flying from Paris to Warsaw by way of Berlin, a distance of 1,500 kilometers, (approximately 933 miles,) in 13 hours,
  
• Lieutenant (jg) P. N. L. Bellinger, flying the Curtiss A-3 at Annapolis, sets an American altitude record for seaplanes, reaching 6,200 feet
  
• The second international aero meet is held at Wiener Neustadt. Roland Garros wins the precision landing prize in a Morane Type H monoplane. Pflaz are impressed and negotiate a license agreement to build the type. In 1915 one of these will be the first aircraft to fly with a synchronised machine gun. Anthony Fokker is also impressed and at Wiener Neustadt gains secret access to the aircraft making sufficient drawings to enable the production of a ‘pirate’ copy the M5. In 1915 this will be the first aircraft to enter service (as the E1 Eindekker) with a synchronised machine gun.
  
• French general Bernard oversees the conduct of trials at Villacoublay airfield of six different types of aircraft, armoured with 3 mm thick plates covering the pilot, engine and fuel tank.. Four prove so overweight that their pilots refuse to attempt a take off.
  
• Churchill receives a report from naval intelligence sources in Berlin that Germany is planning to spend £3,000,000 on military aviation in the next year. This greatly exceeds any British or French plans
  
• Mervyn O’Gorman the Superintendent of The Army Aircraft Factory becomes a CB.
  
• The US Secretary of the Navy approves the secondment of Assistant Naval Constructor J. C. Hunsaker to the Department of Naval Architecture - Massachusetts Institute of Technology to develop "a course of lectures and experiments on the design of aeroplanes and dirigibles, and to undertake research in that field ".
  
• Netheravon airfield is opened
  
• The second Sopwith Bat-Boat purchased by the Royal Naval Air Service is delivered to Calshot
  
• 3 Aeroplane Otdelenie of the Bulgarian army flies the first recce mission of the 2nd Balkan War
  
• Following up the Bulgarian retreat the Greek army capture a Duks (Russian) built Bleriot Bleriot XI-2 Artillerie monoplane of 3 Aeroplane Otdelenie of the Bulgarian air service
  
• In the USA Georgia Broadwick became the first woman to parachute jump from an aeroplane. This is also the first free fall jump using a back pack.
  

[centurion]

June 1913

On the Ground

• The German Army bill, which will increase its size by a third, finally clears the Reichstag despite last minute attempts by social democrats to block it. They argue that their opposite numbers in France have intimated that the French would not implement the increase in the size of their army if the Germans dropped their increase. A blocking measure is laid down in the form of an amendment to the effect that the increase in cost will be financed by a levy on the royal houses of Germany rather than from general taxation. However the German constitution would require the Royal Houses themselves to approve the introduction of this levy – no flights of pigs are observed over Berlin and the measure fails.
  
• The French Upper house approves the retention of time expired soldiers, effectively introducing “for the duration” service.
  
• A complete restructuring of the French counter intelligence organisation is put in place. This will remain unmodified until 1925
  
• William Bayard Hale a former Episcopalian clergyman turned reporter turned secret agent who is in Mexico on a mission for President Wilson sends a report of the activities of the US Ambassador (confusingly also called Wilson) who he accuses of having been directly involved in a recent military coup and of consistently plotting to undermine the Wilson administration's policy in Mexico. Wilson recalls Wilson to Washington.
  
• [sir] Basil Home Thomson is appointed Assistant Commissioner "C" (Crime) of London's Metropolitan Police, which will make him the head of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) at New Scotland Yard. When the war breaks out in 1914, the CID will find itself acting as the enforcement arm for Britain's military intelligence apparatus.
  
• Wilhelm Klaie a German citizen is sentenced to 5 years for attempting to procure copies of British naval codes and obtaining technical papers concerning naval torpedoes. Klaie is a hunch backed dwarf and speaks English with a noticeable German accent and at that time is an obvious choice to be inconspicuous.
  
• Under pressure of an ultimatum from Vienna (and a naval blockade principally by Britain) the last Montenegrin forces leave Scutari and the International naval force takes over temporary control. Troops soon arrive from Britain, France, Italy, the Kuk and Germany and establish a new administration pending the transfer of the territory to Albania. This obviates the possibility of war between the KuK and Montenegro and Serbia which in turn would bring in Russia and France on one side and Germany and Italy on the other. There will be no Great European War starting in 1913 and many see this as a sign that the danger of one has receded for good.
  
• General Sir John French is promoted to Field Marshal. This is not greeted with unanimous joy in the British Army as some doubt that his ambition is matched by his energy and capability. Henry Wilson comments “thank goodness there is unlikely to be a war in the near future”.
  
• In the Balkans Bulgaria springs a surprise attack on Serbia and Greece. The 2^nd Balkan War begins. The Greeks are able to counter attack and the Bulgarian army is defeated at Kilkis-Lachanas and is forced to retreat north to Doiran where it attempts to establish a defensive position. Much equipment is lost during the retreat.
  
• Feldmarschall-Leutnant,Ignaz Freiherr Trollmann von Lovcenberg is appointed to command the 1st infantry division at Sarajevo. As such he becomes responsible for providing security during royal visits
  
• Churchill produces a confidential cabinet paper outlining the strategy and tactics to be adopted in the event of a German invasion
  
• The Australian engineer Lancelot Eldin le Mole is informed by the War Office that they have rejected his plans for an armoured rhomboidal tracked fighting vehicle but they do not return all his drawings. The German consul in Perth appears willing to purchase the design but although urged by friends to sell de Mole does not do so.
  
• A Field Grey Chaplains uniform is introduced to the German army
  
• Rebels in Oman capture Nizwa
  
• The Battle of Cena is fought in Morroco when a Moorish attack on the town is repulsed by the Spanish army, but not without Spanish losses.
  
• The President of France Raymond Poincare makes a state visit to Britain during which he enlarges on the necessity of the perpetual association of the two nations "for the progress of civilization and the maintenance of the peace of the world."
  
• The Kaiser celebrates his silver jubilee.
  

[Broznitsky]

Thanks Centurion, from British Columbia.

Peter

[Ian Riley]

Brilliant. I could read this for hours and surf the net to follow all these nuggets, most of which are news to me. Thank you very much.

Ian

June 1913: 'no flights of pigs are observed over Berlin' and the measure fails.

Very droll

[McCudden]

Thanks Centurion. The build up is feeling really tense and I'm beginning to understand the whole thing much better because of your efforts. The depth of detail you have accrued is really impressive

Alec

[centurion]

I see that a certain M Portillo starts a BBC steam wireless program next week "1913 - the year before"

[centurion]

July 1913

Naval Affairs

• The Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleets, Admiral Sir George Callaghan requests authorisation by the Admiralty of a substantial increase in the number of projectiles carried by all capital ships. There are some pressing tactical advantages such as reducing any dependence on ammunition supply ships, enabling rapid fire to be used without fear of subsequent shortage and allowing fire to be opened at long ranges without the fear of ammunition running short before a closer engagement is commenced. After some thought this request is accepted and an increase is made from 80 to 110 projectiles. Unfortunately the requisite additional storage and anti flash safety features made necessary by the extended number of charges in and between the magazines and the guns at any time could not be added easily to ships already built or under construction. This is thought to have been a significant contributory factor to the loss of some ships at Jutland.
  
• Annual naval exercises are held in the North Sea with the object of practising reactions to an attempted German invasion of the North East Coast of Britain. This is done in conjunction with territorial exercises on land but the assumption is made (and confirmed by the exercises) that the RN will be able to prevent any sizeable landings
  
• German High Seas Fleet cruises in Norwegian waters
  
• HMS Exmouth a Duncan class battleship experiences a magazine fire caused by an electrical fault. The magazine is accordingly flooded and the ship is grounded off the Nore before being refloated.
  
• Royal Navy Establishments in Australia are transferred to Australian control.
  
• HMAS Pioneer begins refitting at Garden Island as the RAN’s first sea going training ship
  
• The South African Division of the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) is formed
  
• The first naval volunteer force (albeit unofficial) in Canada is established with the formation of the Victoria Volunteers led by officers from the aging light cruiser HMCS Rainbow. At this time the Rainbow represents Canada’s total naval defence of the Pacific coast.
  
• The keel of the Greek dreadnought battleship Salamis is laid down in a German yard
  
• A proper launch of SMS Derfflinger is finally achieved
  
• Kaiser class battleship SMS König Albert is commissioned.
  
• SMS Tegetthoff an Austro-Hungarian super dreadnought battleship is commissioned into the KuK fleet. She is the first battleship with triple gun main turrets. This addition to the KuK navy changes the balance of naval power in the Mediterranean.
  
• The French government is concerned that France is being outstripped in the Mediterranean and that, with the ‘loss’ of the Canadian battleship programme, the Royal Navy may not have sufficient resources to make up the difference so decides on an acceleration of the ship building programme so that four French battleships ships, rather than two, are to be laid down in 1913
  
• The Russian military transport Kherson, part of the flotilla at Mt Athos is converted into a prison ship and sails for Odessa with 628 Russian Orthodox monks on board. After interrogation 8 monks are allowed to return to the monastery. The rest are exiled or imprisoned. Greece starts to take steps to include Mt Athos as part of Greece or at least under Greek protection.
  
• The Southern Party of the Canadian Artic Expedition (1913 -1918) sets sail from Nome. Apart from making significant scientific discoveries the expedition discovers and claims (for Canada) a number of islands. In the short term this reinforces Canadian claims over those of Norway to territorial waters in parts of the Arctic Circle and in the longer view is important in current challenges between Canada and the USA over shipping lanes and control in the North West Passage.
  
• The petition for the introduction of the payment of hard lying money (hardship payments) for the crews of RN torpedo boats and torpedo boat destroyers is given the royal assent
  
• The Royal Naval Engineering College (later HMS Thunderer) reopens under the Selborne/Fisher revised officer training regime
  
• The German survey ship Planet makes the deepest ever sounding of 5,348 fathoms 40 miles east of northern Mindanao
  

[centurion]

July 1913

In the Air

• The first flight of an Avro 504 takes place at Brooklands. The 504 will serve throughout WW1, in various marks, in the roles of bomber, recce aircraft, long range fighter, night fighter, anti submarine patrol and, above all, as a trainer. It will be used (and built under licence in various names) between the wars by many nations and used in WW2 in the roles of trainer, communications (and squadron hack), night bomber and even as a suicide bomber. It will become one of the ‘greats’ of military aviation history.
  
• The Short Folder seaplane is successfully operated from HM Seaplane Carrier Hermes during naval manoeuvres. This is the first operational deployment of a folding wing aircraft.
  
• The new RE2 , piloted by the South African, Norman Spratt, make its first flight. During these initial trials it is found to have a top speed of 69mph carrying a passenger and sufficient fuel for six hours flight.
  
• The IJN’s air arm takes delivery of a modified Farman floatplane built at the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal -their first aircraft built in Japan.
  
• 12 Caudron G IIIs are delivered to the Chinese Republic forming the first Chinese air force.
  
• Franz Schneider the chief designer for the German L.V.G. company patents a working machine gun synchronisation gear. In 1915 this will be fitted to an LVG built version of the Pfalz monoplane but this crashes on its delivery flight leaving the field open to Fokker.
  
• George Prensiel, an Aviator Engineer, working at the London Aerodrome, Hendon submits a patent application for a compressed air parachute ejection system. This allows operation at ground level (zero feet) and is later successfully tested from a speeding car in 1914. However Prensiel is a German citizen and is interned in August 1914 and the ejection system impounded by the police as a German infernal device. The first successful operational use of an ejector seat in war will not take place until WW2 when one is used in a Heinkel 219 Uhu.
  
• Vickers test a 2 pounder gun in a Short pusher. The recoil effect proves so powerful that the aircraft loses flying speed and drops a hundred feet before recovering.
  
• The world’s first ever air traffic control agreement is signed between France and Germany covering the transit of military aircraft in either country’s air space.
  
• Seefliegerhorst Putzig -Marineflieger-Abteilung (Naval Air Arm) opens as per the Kaisers earlier edict. The location is now known as Puck and is 44 kilometers north of Gdansk in modern Poland.
  
• The first hangars, tents and buildings are erected at the recently designated Australian flying base at Point Cook. The first of the aircraft brought from Britain arrive at the base. These are a Bristol Box Kite and a pair of Deperdussin monoplanes.
  
• The station commander at Cromarty, Lt A M Longmore, supervises the erection of Bessoneaux (canvas on wooden frame) hangars which have come by sea from Sheerness. He has under his command a Maurice Farman seaplane (RFC No 117) powered by a 120hp Renault engine; a Sopwith HT seaplane (RFC No 59) with a 100hp Anzani engine; and a Borel monoplane seaplane (RFC No 85) with a Gnome engine of 80hp.
  
• No 5 squadron RFC is formed at Farnborough.
  
• A military Air field opens at Vitry-Brienne
  
• Military aviation is established in Hawaii The US Army sends two Curtiss seaplanes, with Lt. Harold Geiger and 12 enlisted technicians to Oahu. Fort Kamehameha (first known as Fort Upton). This location is later found unsuitable due to strong trade winds and the operation is moved to Pearl Harbour
  
• Oskar Bider, founder of Swiss military aviation, flies across the Alps from Berne to Milan.
  
• The first flying school in South Africa is established at Alexandersfontein
  
• Count Zeppelin celebrates his 75th birthday and receives a card from the Kaiser. The Count celebrates by taking a new airship being completed for the German Army on a trial flight.
  
• The annual report of the Zeppelin Airship Company shows it as having made a loss of about £75,000 and the price of a typical Zeppelin as having risen from £25,000 to £50,000
  
• LZ 13 Hanza enters airline service and charter flights are introduced
  
• Winston Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty, approves the construction of two rigid airships and the acquisition of six other airships. The rigid airships are intended to be built by Vickers at Barrow-in-Furness. Three of the others are to be of the German Parseval non rigid type and rest the Italian Forlanini semi rigid type.
  
• The Turkish army makes its first flight of a Parseval non rigid airship from its air base at Yesilköy (then known as Santo Stefano)
  
• Planning and fund raising starts for an Anglo German airship expedition (Luftschiffexpedition) to New Guinea. This is scheduled for October or November 1914 but for obvious reasons is cancelled in August 1914
  
• A recently delivered Shutte-Lanz German Army airship the Schuettelanz breaks loose in a storm from its moorings killing one crew member and severely injuring another. They were holding mooring ropes and carried aloft, one not letting go in time and falling from 600 feet.
  
• Major A. W. Hewetson is killed whilst flying a Bristol monoplane solo at Larkhill, Salisbury Plain. The enquiry surmises that he over banked the aircraft at about 100 feet on a left-hand turn and having no straps slid across the transverse pilots seat so that his feet could no longer reach the controls. The aircraft went into a steep dive and he fell out.
  
• Francis L. Theyer is is killed in parachute jump from an aeroplane over Seattle
  

[centurion]

July 1913

On the Ground

• The 2nd Balkan War runs its course. The Bulgarians, whose less than successful surprise attack on Serbia and Greece started the war in June, fail to hold a defensive line against the Greek army and are forced to retreat through the Kresna Pass being defeated at the first battle of Doiran. The Greek army breaks through the pass and the retreat comes close to a rout and much equipment is lost. Although the Bulgarians are more successful in some defensive actions against the Serbs their fate is sealed by the Rumanians who cross the Danube and advance into Bulgaria. Before the end of July the Rumanian artillery is a day’s march away from being within range of the Bulgarian capital Sofia and the Bulgarians are forced to ask for an armistice under the auspices of Russia begging the Tsar for his mediation at Belgrade and Athens. The war proves a disaster for Bulgaria which will be forced to cede much territory at the subsequent peace talks. The desire to recover this will colour Bulgaria’s approach in WW1 including her decision to throw her lot in with the Central Powers.
  
• A Turkish force under Enver Pasha is able to reoccupy Adrianople (Edirne,) the largest Ottoman city after Constantinople, which had been lost after a siege in the first Balkan war. The city is now all but deserted and in ruins and little or no opposition is encountered.
  
• Turkish troops under General Fahri begin to sack and burn Greek villages on the Gallipoli peninsular.
  
• Albania is formally recognised as an independent nation by the Great Powers (Britain, France, Germany, KuK, Russia and Italy).
  
• Agreement is reached between Turkey and Britain over recognising Kuwait as an autonomous kaza with only a nominal membership of the Turkish Empire (much as is the case with Egypt). Political unrest and general Ottoman government incompetence delays ratification before the outbreak of WW1. This has serious long term consequences including providing a legal fig leaf for subsequent Iraqi claims to Kuwait.
  
• An Anglo-Ottoman "Convention relating to the Persian Gulf and surrounding territories" defining the borders of Qatar, Bahrain and Yemen is signed, but it is never ratified by the Turkish government (as the Young Turks were opposed to it). This lack will be used much later by Saudi Arabia to provide pretexts for claiming suzerainty over a number of Gulf states and becoming involved in their internal affairs.
  
• Increases approved in the size of the French Army by 1/6th to about 700,000 men permit the adoption of War Plan XVII which is of an increased offensive nature. When implemented in 1914 it will create the Battle of the Frontiers.
  
• There are riots in Eastern French garrison towns over the increase in length of military service from two to three years.
  
• Cooperation between French and Russian high commands is increased and wireless communications between Paris and Bobruisk are opened each day between 0600 and 0800 and 2000 and 2400 hours with a backup between Sebastopol and Bizerta from midnight to 0200 hours. Unfortunately these signals do not appear to be encrypted.
  
• The French government is alarmed by projections of French and German birth rates indicating that by the late 1930s Germany will be able to field larger forces than France. Accordingly on Bastille day financial incentives are announced for larger French families. France is embarking on a breeding race with Germany.
  
• President Poincaré presents colours at a parade at Longchamp to twenty-five French colonial regiments, from Algeria, Morocco, Senegal, Indochina, Madagascar, Chad, and Gabon
  
• Gen Erich von Falkenhayn becomes the Prussian Minister for War
  
• Oberleutnant Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist is detached to the War Academy in Berlin for General Staff training
  
• George V accompanied by the Queen and Princess Mary, reviews the two London divisions of the Territorial Force in Hyde Park
  
• In Britain the annual summer camps of territorial and volunteer units begin. Typical is that held in Redcar, N Yorkshire for the Durham and York Brigade. The camp occupies the local race course and some 80 acres of land at Ings and Wheatlands Farms. Local landowners give permission for manoeuvres on their land. Many special trains are laid on to bring in men from the 4th and 5th Battalions of the Yorkshire Regiment and the 5th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry, the 3rd Northumbrian Field Ambulance, the Army Service Corps and the Ordinance Corps. All in all some 3,000 men are assembled. The camp lasts 3 weeks and practices repelling an invasion from the Humber area and at the mouth of the Tees (a naval exercise is held in parallel). A good time is had by all then everyone goes home. Their next assembly will be immediately before Britain goes to war. The numbers involved are miniscule compared to the size of continental armies. However the results of the naval exercise confirm in the mind of the British government that any invasion can the thwarted by the Royal Navy and it will be possible to down play the territorials intended role as home defence and use them to supplement any future BEF
  
• The Government is accused in the House of Lords of cost cutting in relationship to a major reorganisation of the RHA by disbanding batteries of older and experienced gunners (drawing maximum pay) and replacing them with younger, less experienced but cheaper men.
  
• Roger Casement publishes ‘Ireland, Germany and the next war’.
  
• The South African Coast Defence Force is embodied as are the Active Citizen Force (ACF) and the Rifle Association
  
• In Australia Monash takes command of the 13th Infantry Brigade
  
• Revolution starts in China as Jiangxi and six other provinces led by Sun Yat Sen declare independence. It will be put down within six months.
  
• The 50th Anniversary of Gettysburg is celebrated in the USA. 55,000 surviving veterans of the Civil war from both sides attend staying in 5,000 tents, covering 280 acres in the middle of the original battlefield. There is a huge out door dinner (ie a barbecue). There are many speeches and toasts and the event is reported as having been most convivial.
  
• In Breslau the centenary of the German 23 Infantry Regiment is celebrated. Over 3,000 former soldiers attend many of whom are veterans of the Austro Prussian War of 1866 and the Franco Prussian War of 1870/71
  
• The Royal Artillery beat the Royal Engineers at Lords by one wicket on the last ball of the last over
  

[Ian Riley]

Thank you very much. Following from these posts and googling varipous references, I have just enjoyed 90 minutes of reading when I really should have been doing something else.

• The Royal Artillery beat the Royal Engineers at Lords by one wicket on the last ball of the last over. A paradigm for the Great War perhaps although perhaps not won in the very last over
  

Ian

PS ... and am still here. I will never finish the exam marking!

Edited 1 July , 2013 by Ian Riley

[centurion]

Thank you very much. Following from these posts and googling varipous references, I have just enjoyed 90 minutes of reading when I really should have been doing something else.

• The Royal Artillery beat the Royal Engineers at Lords by one wicket on the last ball of the last over. A paradigm for the Great War perhaps although perhaps not won in the very last over
  

Ian

PS ... and am still here. I will never finish the exam marking!

You could always take a quantum view that everyone is in a super state of having both failed and passed at the same time (much like a well known cat)and it's impossible to determine which

[Ian Riley]

Clearly what comes of going to Glastonbury and listening to too much of Brian Cox.

[sneakyimp]

Centurion, this is excellent! I've been doing a similiar day-by-day on twitter (https://twitter.com/OldGreyHorror) and would love to steal some of your material.

[Old Tom]

In 1913 Churchill invited Sir John Cadman to join the Admiralty Fuel Oil Commission the body ordered by Churchill to find the oil to allow Britain to convert its fleet. Cadman went to Persia and the commision's conclusion that the Persian oil supply was reliable enough, formed the basis for the governments decision to switch to oil and to take a controlling stake in the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. This led to the occupation of Basra by the British army when the war broke out.

This action is mentioned in James Barr's 'A line in the sand' - Brfitain, France and the struggle that shaped the Middle East. The date in 1913 is not quoted, but it is a contender for Centurions admirable listing.

Old Tom

[centurion]

August 1913

Naval Affairs

• The International Institute of International Law established as a result of the Second International Peace Conference at The Hague adopts the Oxford Manual of the Laws of Naval War which codifies such matters as rights of capture, use of torpedoes, mines etc. This now becomes binding on all signatories of the Hague Convention.
  
• Churchill produces detailed memorandum laying down British policy on commerce protection
  
• The German High Seas Fleet begins its autumn manoeuvres off Helgoland .
  
• Battleship SMS Bayern is laid down
  
• HMS Queen Mary the Battle Cruiser held up by industrial action is finally delivered to the RN
  
• HMS Audacious a King George V-class Battleship is commissioned (will be sunk by mine off Ireland 27 October 1914)
  
• SMS Prinzregent Luitpold a Kaiser Class Battleship is commissioned
  
• IJMS Kongo is brought up from Battle Cruiser to full Battle Ship standard and commissioned
  
• Battle Cruiser SMS Goeben enters drydock at the KuK naval base at Pola and is found to need turbine and boiler repairs.
  
• To meet increases in the KuK naval capacity the RN Mediterranean Fleet is reinforced by 2 battle cruisers HMS Indomitable and HMS Invincible based at Malta. These form the 2nd Battle Cruiser squadron.
  
• HMS Triumph, formerly Libertad of Chile, a modernised Swiftsure class battleship is transferred to the Far East Fleet and put in reserve at Hong Kong
  
• HMS Hermes arrives at Scapa Flow to provide air cover for the Fleet. She has two aircraft a Caudron (with blue wings) and a Short Folder (with white wings)
  
• HMS Swordfish an Italian designed steam submarine is ordered from Scotts shipyard.
  
• British, German and Japanese warships support the Chinese government by shelling rebel positions and forts on the Yangtse. One of the ships involved is SMS Emden
  
• A Netherlands Royal Commission on defence reports back. It is recommended that the Koninklijke Marine (Dutch Royal Navy) acquires nine dreadnought-type battleships - 4 for home waters and 5 for the Dutch East Indies. Argument immediately breaks out over who is going to pay for them.
  
• The Tsar visits the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
  
• Russian destroyer Novik is commissioned, at this time she is the world’s fastest destroyer. In WW1 she will be used as a fast mine layer. In this role she accounts for two German cruisers , two destroyers and five merchant ships sunk.
  
• The US Navy abandons its facilities in Honolulu and begins to concentrate on developing Pearl Harbour.
  

[centurion]

August 1913

In the Air

• The Naval wing of the RFC begins to be referred to as the Naval Air Service the title first being used by Murray Sueter (Not officially referred to as the RNAS until July 1914)
  
• The first vertical loop is performed by Lieutenant Piotr Nesterov of the Imperial Russian Army while flying a Nieuport Type IV monoplane over Kiev.
  
• Flieger Battaillon 2 takes part in manoeuvres in East Prussia rehearsing possible operations against Russia.
  
• Servizio Aeronautico della Regia Marina – the Italian Naval Air Service - opens the Scuola di Aviazione della Marina its first flying school.
  
• The first military flying training course in Australia begins at Point Cook
  
• Cody's Cathedral Mark VI breaks up in the air killing Cody and his passenger former Oxford and Hampshire cricketer W H B Evans
  
• Brig. Gen. George P. Scriven, Chief Signal Officer of the US Army gives evidence on air defence to a House of Representatives committee and suggests an enemy aerial force could bomb the US Fleet, strategic dams and the Panama Canal with nitro glycerine bombs. However having made the committee’s flesh creep he offers no real solutions to deal with this.
  
• Construction of Sikorsky's Ilya Mourometz the first 4 engined strategic bomber begins
  
• Captain Longcroft of no 2 squadron flies a specially modified long range BE2 from Farnborough to Montrose 450 miles non-stop in seven hours and forty minutes – an average speed of 60 mph
  
• Aircraft from No 2 squadron cross the Irish sea to take part in exercises near Limerick. One Maurice Farman M7 Longhorn and 5 BE2s are involved. Floatation gear is fitted for the crossing
  
• An attempt to fly around Britain by Hawker and Kauper in a Sopwith Hydroplane ends after 1,043 miles when a broken oil pipe results in a crash in the sea near Dublin
  
• British Army airship Delta flies over London
  
• British Army airship Eta makes first flight
  
• British Naval airship no 2 looses power over Odiham and has to be towed back to Farnborough by Army airship Eta
  
• Turkish Parceval airship PL9 makes its first flight in Ottoman service under the command of the German Airship pilot, Herr Hachstetter who has been hired with a small German crew.
  
• First operational sortie is flown from RN station Immingham
  
• Hugh (Stuffy) Dowding is promoted Captain – he takes up flying lessons at Brooklands at his own expense
  
• Adolphe Pégoud makes the first successful parachute jump from an aircraft over Europe. He bales out from his Bleriot monoplane which then crashes. This was an intentional test of his parachute system not as some sources erroneously suggest an emergency bailout.
  
• Eugene Gilbert becomes the first man to fly over 1,000 miles in a single day. He leaves Paris at 4:45 am, flies seven hours non-stop to Vittoria in Spain , then on to the Portuguese town of Pejabo arriving at 8:00 pm
  
• A flight from no 3 squadron RFC forms no 5 squadron under Major J. F. A. ("Josh") Higgins
  
• The prototype Bristol T.B.8 flies. This is the first British aircraft to be specifically designed as a bomber and fitted with racks and a bombsight. T.B.8s will serve with both the RNAS and the RFC until 1916 but, after a single attack on German gun batteries at Middelkerke in Belgium, as a trainer being too slow for operational duties.
  
• The prototype BE 8 flies. This is a rotary engined development of the BE2. BE 8s will serve in the RFC until 1916 but mainly as trainers being too slow and prone to spinning for operational use.
  
• Design of the FE 2a two seat pusher fighter is completed, however construction of the prototype will not be authorised until August 1914.
  
• Aviation pioneer Armand Deperdussin is arrested and charged with forgery, fraud, and breach of trust. Millions of Francs are involved. He has friends in high places and will receive a suspended sentence but will be banned from company directorships. Louis Blériot will buy his company and rename it Société Pour L’Aviation et ses Dérivés (SPAD)
  
• The Admiralty orders the construction of coastal air stations for land based aircraft for home defence
  
• A “sea plane station” opens at Felixstowe
  
• A storm destroys all the hangars and damages many of the aircraft at the US naval air station at Annapolis, Maryland. Up to this point the US Navy has used portable hangers on the grounds that permanent ones would limit its flexibility. A recommendation is now made that permanent hangers be constructed.
  
• Lt. Joseph E. Carberry US Army introduces a system of classifying and marking landing strips on military maps. Lt. Thomas Bowen starts to implement this on new maps.
  

[centurion]

August 1913

On the Ground

• The Treaty of Bucharest is agreed and signed ending the Second Balkan War, Bulgaria, already militarily defeated, as an aggressor state is diplomatically isolated with only weak support from the Dual Monarchy and Germany. She is forced to agree to very unfavourable terms and humiliated. All gains in Macedonia from the1st Balkan War are negated and in addition Bulgaria looses the districts of Ochrida and Monastir. Her only remaining gain is a meagre strip of coast with an inferior port. This comes to be regarded in Bulgaria as the "First Calamity" (the second is the peace treaty in 1919) and will affect Bulgarian foreign policy until 1944. Bulgaria will join the Central Powers in WW1 seeking to regain its lost territory.
  
• A 10 month conference on the Balkans between the great powers breaks up with no final conclusion. The British foreign secretary Grey blames Germany for deliberate obstructionism. Relationships between the two governments reach a new low.
  
• In negotiations with France the Tsar promises a Russian offensive against Germany within 15 days of a declaration of war.
  
• Generals Jilinski and Joffre, heads of the Russian and French General Staff respectively, hold several meetings at St Petersburg and Tsarskoe Selo. A military convention is signed formalising arrangements in case of war.
  
• France provides very large military subsidies to Russia.
  
• The French 3 year law increasing the length of military service comes into effect.
  
• Foch is given command in Nancy of the XX Army Corps which protects the Lorraine frontier.
  
• In Vancouver the formation of the 11th Regiment is authorized. This later became The Irish Fusiliers of Canada (Vancouver Regiment). The 50th Regiment is authorized as a Highland regiment for the citizenry of Victoria
  
• Miss Hester MacLean, Assistant Inspector General of Hospitals is gazetted Matron in Charge New Zealand Army Nursing Service (but the NZ Cabinet will not endorse her appointment as MiC until 15 February 1915)
  
• The Northern Rhodesia Police are restructured to provide a military (Fighting Force) and a civil police.
  
• The TF/Volunteer annual camp for N Wales assembles at Ty Bricks farm Porthmadog.
  
• Sir George Richardson, a retired Indian Army Officer, is appointed commander of the UVF.
  
• The Irish Transport and General Workers' Union forms the Irish Citizen Volunteers (to protect pickets)
  
• Whilst developing new rifle barrel material, Harry Brearley of the Firth and Brown Research Laboratories produces the world's first stainless steel. Initially no one is interested in the material.
  
• The Lithgow Small Arms Factory begins production of SMLEs for the Australian army (and by July 1918 will have delivered over 100,000).
  
• The first of the two 14inch guns for the US coastal position Battery Randolph on Waikiki Beach arrives. No adequate provision has been made for this and there are no cranes big enough to handle it and no barges able to move it. As a result it will take a further two months to emplace.
  
• The Italian army commences a colonial campaign for the subjugation of Fezzan (S Libya). Although officially completed in Aug 1914 it will sputter on until the arrival of the British 8th Army in 1942.
  
• The British Army Didinga Expedition, to supress the Didinga in Uganda, ends. The Didinga remain unsuppressed.
  
• US army announces that it intends to give up its control of Alcatraz Island (in fact they convert it to a military detention centre).
  
• Military Hospital in Ostend opens. It will be taken over by the Germans in 1914 and used until 1918 when bombs falling in the harbour cause so much damage that it is closed for nearly 12 years.
  
• The Peace Palace, home to the Permanent Court of Arbitration, opens in The Hague. It is intended to bring an end to major European wars by replacing armed conflict with diplomatic resolutions of international disputes