About the Great War 'on this day'

The events listed in The Great War On This Day, and it's accompanying index, are deliberately concise to ensure that what you read is succinct. These events have been transcribed from two main sources contemporary with the war and immediate post-war period. Differences in spelling of some names, and the language used is evidence of the period from which these sources are dated. These are shown here at the top of our listing to separate them from the other sources used to compile these events. Each page has a source acknowledgement. Additional references are included where this is required and, notes are usually additional items of information that help describe the main subject it is referring to.

Sources used (Copyright expired)

• Lord Edward Gleichen (1918–1920). Chronology of the War. Volumes I, II & III. London: Constable & Company.
• Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence (1922). History of the Great War – Principal Events 1914-1918. London: HMSO.
• John Alexander Hammerton (ed.) (1933). A Popular History of The Great War Volumes I-VI. London: The Fleetway House.
• Various contributors (1914). The War Book-of-Facts. 2nd Edition. London: A.W. Shaw Company.
• Edward Fraser and John Gibbons (1925). Soldier and Sailor Words and Phrases. London: Routledge.

What are events?

An event is the term used broadly to describe a particular action or set of actions. In Chronology of the War, the events have been separated into several categories. These are:

• "Western Front" Comprises the Franco-German-Belgian front and any military action in Great Britain, Switzerland, Scandinavia and Holland.
• "Eastern Front" Comprises the German-Russian, Austro-Russian and Austro-Rumanian fronts.
• "Southern Front" Comprises the Austro-Italian and Balkan (including Bulgaro-Rumanian) fronts, and Dardanelles.
• "Asiatic and Egyptian theatres" Comprises Egypt, Tripoli, the Sudan, Asia Minor (include Transcaucasia), Arabia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Persia, Afghanistan, Turkestan, China, India, etc.
• "Naval and overseas operations" Comprises operations on the seas and in Colonial and Overseas theatres, America, etc.
• "Political, etc." Comprises political and internal events in all countries, including Notes, speeches, diplomatic, financial, economic and domestic matters. (These include mobilisations, declarations of war and similar semi-military matters. Diplomatic documents or despatches referring to definite active operations come under the column concerned, e.g., a Note on the sinking of the "Lusitania" would come under "Naval", but a Note on submarine warfare in general would come under "Political").