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Great War events that took place on 19 August.
1914 (Wednesday)
| Western Front | ▶ Belgium: Germans reach Dinant-Neufchateau line and occupy Louvain. | ▶ Belgians, defeated at Aerschot, fall back towards Antwerp. | ▶ Alsace: French re-enter Mülhausen and push on in Lorraine. |
| Eastern Front | Poland: Austrians' advance checked near Kyeltsi. | ||
| Southern Front | End of Battle of the Jadar; defeat of Austrians. | ||
| Political | Kaiser's alleged order for the destruction of "General French's contemptible little army".[a] |
1915 (Thursday)
| Western Front | Germans retake trenches on Ablain-Angres road. | |||
| Eastern Front | ▶ Fall of Novo Georgievsk. Russians driven back between Augustovo and Osovyets (Northern Centre). | ▶ Germans progress beyond the Niemen east of Tykocin. | ▶ Mackensen reaches Piszcza and gains ground towards Brest-Litovsk. | |
| Asiatic and Egyptian Thewatres | Turks prevent Italians leaving Smyrna. | |||
| Naval and Overseas Operations | ▶ USA liner Arabic (White Star) torpedoed and sunk. Americans on board. | ▶ German force landing at Pernau (Riga) destroyed by Russians. | ▶ Norwegian mail steamer Haakon VII stopped by Germans and mails seized. Norwegian Government protests. | ▶ British submarine HMS E13 shelled when aground at Saltholm in neutral Danish waters. |
| Political | ▶ Reichstag opened; speech by Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg.[b] Bulgarian Foreign Minister resigns. | ▶ British forces total 3,825,000, including Colonial troops. |
Notes
- ↑ Extract from Order reported issued by the Emperor, 19 August, 1914, H.Q., Aix-la-Chapelle:- "It is my Royal and Imperial Command that you concentrate your energies....to exterminate first the treacherous English, and to walk over General French's contemptible little army."
- ↑ Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg accuses the Allies of having caused the war and of seeking to deceive the people as to the real situation.
Sources: Various material contemporary with the war have been used to compile The Great War On This Day and its associated Compendium.
Compendium entries form the central hub of (a) An index-like collection of places, people, ships, battles, political events, etc., and (b) Words and phrases of the Armed Forces of Great Britain during the Great War. The majority of these have been transcribed from Chronology of the War (1918-1920) and Soldier and Sailor Words and Phrases (1925) respectively, the later which is reflected in the language used and some may seem derogatory by today's standards.
Images come from scans or photographs of original sources, Wikimedia Commons, and the Imperial War Museum's online collections under the IWM Non-Commercial Licence. Attribution is given separately to the latter and does not come under the general licence of this site. Please be aware that some images, although very few, may depict distressing scenes.
Advisory note: The information in these sources may not accurately represent updated histories, present-day spellings, or geographical borders. It is also written from a British perspective, and words such as "enemy" are used extensively. For further details and a full list of sources, click here.