Battle of Jutland – The British
Royal NavyGrand Fleet overcame massive losses in the opening of the battle to rout the
Imperial German NavyHigh Seas Fleet in the
North Sea during the night, forcing them to retreat back to home port. Although the British lost more ships, the Germans lost key ships that compromised their naval advantage. The result was tactically inconclusive but allowed the
Royal Navy to retain dominance of the North Sea.[1] British casualties were 6,094 and German casualties were 2,551.[2]
German cruiser
SMS Wiesbaden, sunk by a British barrage with 589 men lost including German poet Johann Kinau, better known by his pseudonym
Gorch Fock.[3]
German battleship
SMS Pommern was shelled and sunk by British barrage with all 839 crew killed.[4]
Battle of Verdun – German forces overrun the top of
Fort Vaux in northeastern
France but French defenders continue to resist from the underground garrisons.[18]
British sailor
Jack Cornwell, 16, died from wounds received while serving on
HMS Chester during
Battle of Jutland. He was awarded posthumously the
Victoria Cross for his actions, the third-youngest British serviceman to receive the honor.[19]
Battle of Mont Sorrel – The
Canadian Corps at Mont Sorrel scrambled to organize a counterattack after losing
Major-GeneralMalcolm Mercer, who died from wounds he received during the shelling the previous day, and
Brigadier-GeneralVictor Williams, who was wounded and taken prisoner. Organization delays forced the assault to occur in broad daylight, earning more heavy casualties with no lost territory recaptured.[21]
British passenger ship
SS Golconda struck a mine and sank in the
North Sea with a loss of 19 lives.[22]
Battle of Mont Sorrel – British commander
Julian Byng called in a British division to support the
Canadian Corps while it recovered from Germans attacks.[28] Canadian casualties were 8,430 after two days of fighting.[29]
Battle of Verdun – The last of the French defenders at
Fort Vaux surrender to the Germans. The Germans lost 2,700 casualties in taking the fort while the French only had 20 casualties.[18]
Battle of Mont Sorrel –
Major-GeneralArthur Currie reorganized the
Canadian Corps at Mont Sorrel for a renewed counterattack against the Germans supported by a British division. Artillery began shelling German positions over the 72-hour period to soften enemy defenses.[28]
Sinai and Palestine campaign — British army engineers drained cisterns and pools totaling five million gallons of water at Wadi Mukhsheib in the
Sinai Peninsula and sealed them to prevent refilling during the next rainy season. Without water supplies in the interior, the
Ottoman Empire was now only able to travel along the northern coast.[51]
Battle of Asiago –
Austria-Hungary failed to capitalize on its breakthrough in the
Italian Front as the Russian offence in
Galicia forced the empire to redirect military resources to the north. The battle has been catastrophic with heavy casualties on both sides, with
Italy enduring 12,000 dead, 80,000 wounded and 50,000 taken prisoner, while
Austria-Hungary had 15,000 dead, 75,000 wounded and 15,000 taken prisoner. The political fallout of the battle ended the administration of
Antonio Salandra as
Prime Minister of Italy, with
Paolo Boselli succeeding him.[54]
Arab Revolt – A force of 3,500 Arabs with support from British and French ships and aircraft, including the British sea carrier
HMS Ben-my-Chree, raided the
Red Sea port of
Jidda.[58]
Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition – British polar expedition leader
Ernest Shackleton chartered a tough trawler vessel from the government of
Uruguay in a second attempt to voyage to
Elephant Island and rescue the main body of the stranded expedition, but packed ice again prevented the vessel from nearing the island.[61]
Battle of Mont Sorrel – Canadian shelling of German positions reached its climax with an intense non-stop 10-hour barrage while Canadian and British troops prepared for assault on Mont Sorrel.[28]
Battle of Mont Sorrel – Canadian and British troops surprised German defenses following a morning barrage, forcing them to fall back to their original lines within an hour. Around 200 German soldiers were taken prisoner.[28][67]
Battle of Mont Sorrel – Canadian forces repulsed German counterattacks but made no further attempts to capture enemy ground, ending the battle.[28][67] German casualties from the artillery barrages and assaults numbered 3,436.[69]
Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition – After close to two months on
Elephant Island, the main body of the stranded British polar expedition party following the sinking of the polar ship Endurance in November were forced to amputate the toes of one of the expedition members due to gangrene. Stocks of seal and penguin meat were beginning to run low and tensions were high among the party, recalled main body expedition leader
Frank Wild.[76]
The prototype of the
Port Victoria aircraft first flew over
Isle of Grain,
England. Despite being planned as an interceptor fighter plane for German
Zeppelins, mass production of the aircraft never happened.[78]
Brusilov Offensive – A delayed assault by the Russian Western Army Group under command of General
Aleksei Evert, who had opposed the offensive plan made by General
Aleksei Brusilov, cost the
Russia momentum, as it gave time for the
Central Powers to pull soldiers and equipment from the other fronts to counter the offensive.[45] The initial successes of the campaign though caught the world's attention, with Brusilov being credited as the "hero of the hour" by The New York Times.[81]
Battle of Verdun – A large German assault covering 5 km (3.1 mi) of the
Western Front allowed its forces to advance within 5 km (3.1 mi) of the
Verdun citadel before they were stopped. The commune of
Fleury-devant-Douaumont was overrun but would change hands sixteen times during the course of battle over the next two months.[89]
Battle of Verdun – The joint British-French artillery barrage the German defense positions.[89]
The British military court found 16 British conscientious objectors guilty for insubordination and sentenced to be shot, but the sentence was immediately commuted to ten years in penal servitude. They were transferred back to
England to serve their terms in military prison located at
Richmond Castle, where they became known as the
Richmond Sixteen. All were eventually released in 1919.[63]
While flying en route to see a wounded comrade, French-American flight ace
Victor Chapman was attacked and shot down over
Douaumont by German fighter pilot
Kurt Wintgens, becoming the first American airman to die in
World War I.[90][91]
Australian soldier
William Jackson was awarded the
Victoria Cross for his actions in a raid near
Armentières,
France. Jackson had captured one German prisoner and rescued several wounded comrades in
no man's land before he was hit by a shell burst that blew his right arm off. Despite the loss of a limb, Jackson refused to return to the rear after receiving a
tourniquet and returned repeatedly to no man's land to search for more wounded comrades until all members of his unit were accounted for. Jackson did not learn of his commendation until he returned to
Australia on September 8, five days before his 19th birthday.[92]
Battle of Verdun – The German push towards the
Verdun citadel was halted.[96] German casualties were now at
c. 200,000 men while French casualties reached
c. 185,000.[97]
The
royal commission released a report on the
Easter Rising in
Dublin that was critical of the way the authorities handled the crisis, citing: "Ireland for several years had been administered on the principle that it was safer and more expedient to leave the law in abeyance if collision with any faction of the Irish people could thereby be avoided."[100] That same day,
Roger Casement appeared on trial at the Royal Courts of Justice on a charge of treason for his involvement in the Easter Rising and was stripped of his knighthood.[101]
Ross Sea party – British polar exploration ship Aurora was repaired and refitted to return to the
Antarctic and pick up the 10 marooned expedition members after the ship lost anchor and
drifted in the ice over a year ago.[103]
Since the start of 1916, 46 German
airshipsorties crossed the coast of
England, and German airships have attacked
London twice. British antiaircraft guns only shot down one German airship.[110]
The city of
Adelaide,
Australia received 217.9 millimetres (8.58 in) of rain, its highest monthly rainfall since records began in 1839.[112]
Born:Al Hake, Australian air force officer, member of the "Great Escape" from German POW camp
Stalag Luft III and executed by the
Gestapo, in
Sydney (d.
1944)
^Nasmith, Col. George (1919). Canada's Sons and Great Britain during the World War. Introduction by Gen. Sir Arthur W. Currie. Toronto: Thomas Allen. p. 261.
^Gröner, Erich (1990). German Warships: 1815–1945. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. p. 112.
ISBN0-87021-790-9.
^Staff, Gary (2010). German Battleships: 1914–1918 (1). Oxford: Osprey Books. p. 13.
ISBN978-1-84603-467-1.
^Campbell, John (1998). Jutland: An Analysis of the Fighting. London: Conway Maritime Press. p. 393.
ISBN1-55821-759-2.
^Tarrant, V. E. (2001) [1995]. Jutland: The German Perspective. London: Cassell Military Paperbacks. p. 298.
ISBN978-0-304-35848-9.
OCLC48131785.
^Gardiner, Robert; Gray, Randal, eds. (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. p. 13.
ISBN0-85177-245-5.
^Massie, Robert K. (2003). Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea. New York: Ballantine Books. pp. 642–44.
ISBN0-345-40878-0.
^Geoffrey Bennett (1964). The Battle of Jutland. p. 374.
^Mason, D. (2000). Verdun. Moreton-in-Marsh: Windrush Press. pp. 150–159.
ISBN1-900624-41-9.
^Edmonds, J. E. (1993) [1932]. Military Operations France and Belgium, 1916: Sir Douglas Haig's Command to the 1st July: Battle of the Somme. History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Vol. I (Imperial War Museum & Battery Press ed.). London: Macmillan. p. 242.
ISBN978-0-89839-185-5.
^Murphy, David (2008). The Arab Revolt 1916–18 Lawrence sets Arabia Ablaze. London: Osprey. pp. 34–5.
ISBN978-1-84603-339-1.
^Heathcote, Tony (1999). The British Field Marshals 1736–1997. Barnsley (UK): Pen & Sword. p. 197.
ISBN0-85052-696-5.
^"Over 100 lives lost in Southern storms". The New York Times. June 7, 1916. p. 11.
^Friedman, Norman (2009). British Destroyers: From Earliest Days to the Second World War. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. p. 309.
ISBN978-1-84832-049-9.
^Mallett, Ross.
"Engineers". First AIF Order of Battle 1914–1918. Archived from the original on 28 February 2015. Retrieved 31 October 2016 – via Internet Archive.{{
cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (
link)
^Falls, Cyril; G. MacMunn (1930). Military Operations Egypt & Palestine from the Outbreak of War with Germany to June 1917. Official History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Vol. I. London: HM Stationery Office. p. 178.
OCLC610273484.
^Franks, Norman; Bailey, Frank W.; Guest, Russell (1993). Above the Lines: The Aces and Fighter Units of the German Air Service, Naval Air Service and Flanders Marine Corps, 1914–1918. Grub Street. pp. 134–35.
ISBN978-0-948817-73-1.
^Samuels, M. (1995). Command or Control? Command, Training and Tactics in the British and German Armies 1888–1918. London: Frank Cass. p. 126.
ISBN0-7146-4214-2.
^Franks, Norman; Bailey, Frank W.; Guest, Russell F. (1993). Above The Lines: The Aces and Fighter Units of the German Air Service, Naval Air Service, and Flanders Marine Corps, 1914–1918. London, UK: Grub Street. p. 124.
ISBN978-0-948817-73-1.
Battle of Jutland – The British
Royal NavyGrand Fleet overcame massive losses in the opening of the battle to rout the
Imperial German NavyHigh Seas Fleet in the
North Sea during the night, forcing them to retreat back to home port. Although the British lost more ships, the Germans lost key ships that compromised their naval advantage. The result was tactically inconclusive but allowed the
Royal Navy to retain dominance of the North Sea.[1] British casualties were 6,094 and German casualties were 2,551.[2]
German cruiser
SMS Wiesbaden, sunk by a British barrage with 589 men lost including German poet Johann Kinau, better known by his pseudonym
Gorch Fock.[3]
German battleship
SMS Pommern was shelled and sunk by British barrage with all 839 crew killed.[4]
Battle of Verdun – German forces overrun the top of
Fort Vaux in northeastern
France but French defenders continue to resist from the underground garrisons.[18]
British sailor
Jack Cornwell, 16, died from wounds received while serving on
HMS Chester during
Battle of Jutland. He was awarded posthumously the
Victoria Cross for his actions, the third-youngest British serviceman to receive the honor.[19]
Battle of Mont Sorrel – The
Canadian Corps at Mont Sorrel scrambled to organize a counterattack after losing
Major-GeneralMalcolm Mercer, who died from wounds he received during the shelling the previous day, and
Brigadier-GeneralVictor Williams, who was wounded and taken prisoner. Organization delays forced the assault to occur in broad daylight, earning more heavy casualties with no lost territory recaptured.[21]
British passenger ship
SS Golconda struck a mine and sank in the
North Sea with a loss of 19 lives.[22]
Battle of Mont Sorrel – British commander
Julian Byng called in a British division to support the
Canadian Corps while it recovered from Germans attacks.[28] Canadian casualties were 8,430 after two days of fighting.[29]
Battle of Verdun – The last of the French defenders at
Fort Vaux surrender to the Germans. The Germans lost 2,700 casualties in taking the fort while the French only had 20 casualties.[18]
Battle of Mont Sorrel –
Major-GeneralArthur Currie reorganized the
Canadian Corps at Mont Sorrel for a renewed counterattack against the Germans supported by a British division. Artillery began shelling German positions over the 72-hour period to soften enemy defenses.[28]
Sinai and Palestine campaign — British army engineers drained cisterns and pools totaling five million gallons of water at Wadi Mukhsheib in the
Sinai Peninsula and sealed them to prevent refilling during the next rainy season. Without water supplies in the interior, the
Ottoman Empire was now only able to travel along the northern coast.[51]
Battle of Asiago –
Austria-Hungary failed to capitalize on its breakthrough in the
Italian Front as the Russian offence in
Galicia forced the empire to redirect military resources to the north. The battle has been catastrophic with heavy casualties on both sides, with
Italy enduring 12,000 dead, 80,000 wounded and 50,000 taken prisoner, while
Austria-Hungary had 15,000 dead, 75,000 wounded and 15,000 taken prisoner. The political fallout of the battle ended the administration of
Antonio Salandra as
Prime Minister of Italy, with
Paolo Boselli succeeding him.[54]
Arab Revolt – A force of 3,500 Arabs with support from British and French ships and aircraft, including the British sea carrier
HMS Ben-my-Chree, raided the
Red Sea port of
Jidda.[58]
Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition – British polar expedition leader
Ernest Shackleton chartered a tough trawler vessel from the government of
Uruguay in a second attempt to voyage to
Elephant Island and rescue the main body of the stranded expedition, but packed ice again prevented the vessel from nearing the island.[61]
Battle of Mont Sorrel – Canadian shelling of German positions reached its climax with an intense non-stop 10-hour barrage while Canadian and British troops prepared for assault on Mont Sorrel.[28]
Battle of Mont Sorrel – Canadian and British troops surprised German defenses following a morning barrage, forcing them to fall back to their original lines within an hour. Around 200 German soldiers were taken prisoner.[28][67]
Battle of Mont Sorrel – Canadian forces repulsed German counterattacks but made no further attempts to capture enemy ground, ending the battle.[28][67] German casualties from the artillery barrages and assaults numbered 3,436.[69]
Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition – After close to two months on
Elephant Island, the main body of the stranded British polar expedition party following the sinking of the polar ship Endurance in November were forced to amputate the toes of one of the expedition members due to gangrene. Stocks of seal and penguin meat were beginning to run low and tensions were high among the party, recalled main body expedition leader
Frank Wild.[76]
The prototype of the
Port Victoria aircraft first flew over
Isle of Grain,
England. Despite being planned as an interceptor fighter plane for German
Zeppelins, mass production of the aircraft never happened.[78]
Brusilov Offensive – A delayed assault by the Russian Western Army Group under command of General
Aleksei Evert, who had opposed the offensive plan made by General
Aleksei Brusilov, cost the
Russia momentum, as it gave time for the
Central Powers to pull soldiers and equipment from the other fronts to counter the offensive.[45] The initial successes of the campaign though caught the world's attention, with Brusilov being credited as the "hero of the hour" by The New York Times.[81]
Battle of Verdun – A large German assault covering 5 km (3.1 mi) of the
Western Front allowed its forces to advance within 5 km (3.1 mi) of the
Verdun citadel before they were stopped. The commune of
Fleury-devant-Douaumont was overrun but would change hands sixteen times during the course of battle over the next two months.[89]
Battle of Verdun – The joint British-French artillery barrage the German defense positions.[89]
The British military court found 16 British conscientious objectors guilty for insubordination and sentenced to be shot, but the sentence was immediately commuted to ten years in penal servitude. They were transferred back to
England to serve their terms in military prison located at
Richmond Castle, where they became known as the
Richmond Sixteen. All were eventually released in 1919.[63]
While flying en route to see a wounded comrade, French-American flight ace
Victor Chapman was attacked and shot down over
Douaumont by German fighter pilot
Kurt Wintgens, becoming the first American airman to die in
World War I.[90][91]
Australian soldier
William Jackson was awarded the
Victoria Cross for his actions in a raid near
Armentières,
France. Jackson had captured one German prisoner and rescued several wounded comrades in
no man's land before he was hit by a shell burst that blew his right arm off. Despite the loss of a limb, Jackson refused to return to the rear after receiving a
tourniquet and returned repeatedly to no man's land to search for more wounded comrades until all members of his unit were accounted for. Jackson did not learn of his commendation until he returned to
Australia on September 8, five days before his 19th birthday.[92]
Battle of Verdun – The German push towards the
Verdun citadel was halted.[96] German casualties were now at
c. 200,000 men while French casualties reached
c. 185,000.[97]
The
royal commission released a report on the
Easter Rising in
Dublin that was critical of the way the authorities handled the crisis, citing: "Ireland for several years had been administered on the principle that it was safer and more expedient to leave the law in abeyance if collision with any faction of the Irish people could thereby be avoided."[100] That same day,
Roger Casement appeared on trial at the Royal Courts of Justice on a charge of treason for his involvement in the Easter Rising and was stripped of his knighthood.[101]
Ross Sea party – British polar exploration ship Aurora was repaired and refitted to return to the
Antarctic and pick up the 10 marooned expedition members after the ship lost anchor and
drifted in the ice over a year ago.[103]
Since the start of 1916, 46 German
airshipsorties crossed the coast of
England, and German airships have attacked
London twice. British antiaircraft guns only shot down one German airship.[110]
The city of
Adelaide,
Australia received 217.9 millimetres (8.58 in) of rain, its highest monthly rainfall since records began in 1839.[112]
Born:Al Hake, Australian air force officer, member of the "Great Escape" from German POW camp
Stalag Luft III and executed by the
Gestapo, in
Sydney (d.
1944)
^Nasmith, Col. George (1919). Canada's Sons and Great Britain during the World War. Introduction by Gen. Sir Arthur W. Currie. Toronto: Thomas Allen. p. 261.
^Gröner, Erich (1990). German Warships: 1815–1945. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. p. 112.
ISBN0-87021-790-9.
^Staff, Gary (2010). German Battleships: 1914–1918 (1). Oxford: Osprey Books. p. 13.
ISBN978-1-84603-467-1.
^Campbell, John (1998). Jutland: An Analysis of the Fighting. London: Conway Maritime Press. p. 393.
ISBN1-55821-759-2.
^Tarrant, V. E. (2001) [1995]. Jutland: The German Perspective. London: Cassell Military Paperbacks. p. 298.
ISBN978-0-304-35848-9.
OCLC48131785.
^Gardiner, Robert; Gray, Randal, eds. (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. p. 13.
ISBN0-85177-245-5.
^Massie, Robert K. (2003). Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea. New York: Ballantine Books. pp. 642–44.
ISBN0-345-40878-0.
^Geoffrey Bennett (1964). The Battle of Jutland. p. 374.
^Mason, D. (2000). Verdun. Moreton-in-Marsh: Windrush Press. pp. 150–159.
ISBN1-900624-41-9.
^Edmonds, J. E. (1993) [1932]. Military Operations France and Belgium, 1916: Sir Douglas Haig's Command to the 1st July: Battle of the Somme. History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Vol. I (Imperial War Museum & Battery Press ed.). London: Macmillan. p. 242.
ISBN978-0-89839-185-5.
^Murphy, David (2008). The Arab Revolt 1916–18 Lawrence sets Arabia Ablaze. London: Osprey. pp. 34–5.
ISBN978-1-84603-339-1.
^Heathcote, Tony (1999). The British Field Marshals 1736–1997. Barnsley (UK): Pen & Sword. p. 197.
ISBN0-85052-696-5.
^"Over 100 lives lost in Southern storms". The New York Times. June 7, 1916. p. 11.
^Friedman, Norman (2009). British Destroyers: From Earliest Days to the Second World War. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. p. 309.
ISBN978-1-84832-049-9.
^Mallett, Ross.
"Engineers". First AIF Order of Battle 1914–1918. Archived from the original on 28 February 2015. Retrieved 31 October 2016 – via Internet Archive.{{
cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (
link)
^Falls, Cyril; G. MacMunn (1930). Military Operations Egypt & Palestine from the Outbreak of War with Germany to June 1917. Official History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Vol. I. London: HM Stationery Office. p. 178.
OCLC610273484.
^Franks, Norman; Bailey, Frank W.; Guest, Russell (1993). Above the Lines: The Aces and Fighter Units of the German Air Service, Naval Air Service and Flanders Marine Corps, 1914–1918. Grub Street. pp. 134–35.
ISBN978-0-948817-73-1.
^Samuels, M. (1995). Command or Control? Command, Training and Tactics in the British and German Armies 1888–1918. London: Frank Cass. p. 126.
ISBN0-7146-4214-2.
^Franks, Norman; Bailey, Frank W.; Guest, Russell F. (1993). Above The Lines: The Aces and Fighter Units of the German Air Service, Naval Air Service, and Flanders Marine Corps, 1914–1918. London, UK: Grub Street. p. 124.
ISBN978-0-948817-73-1.