<– Part 126 – December 17, 1916 | Part 127 – December 24, 1916 | Part 128 – December 31, 1916 –>
Von Mackensen shortly after crossing the Danube into Romania one month ago
The German attacks at Verdun ended December 18 with the French holding their positions, bringing to a close one of the costliest battles in human history. Of nearly 2.4 million men, 1 million are casualties of war, slightly over half being French. With this end, US president Woodrow Wilson has asked for all major powers to release a statement of war objectives should peace be achievable.
On December 22, German commander Von Mackensen, in Romania, assaulted Râmnicu Sărat. There are rumors of a German memorandum calling for 600,000 tons of Allied shipping to be sunk each month, the quantity estimated at which Britain will sue for peace in 6 months.
Detail map of the Sinai peninsula, showing El Arish and Magdhaba
That night, several Austro-Hungarian destroyers attacked French destroyers in the Otranto Barrage. After damage to each side, the attackers withdrew.
Fighting erupted on the Sinai Peninsula December 23, with the British attacking entrenched Ottoman forces at the village of Magdhaba. With British supply and rail lines sufficiently developed to allow an advance to El Arish, on the coast, the British scouts found the village deserted, the Ottomans having withdrawn to Magdhaba. The 6,000 British forces engaged the 2,000 defenders at 6:30am, and through the use of broad, sweeping envelopments and extensive aerial reconnoitering, the final assaulted commenced at 4:30 that afternoon, the Ottomans surrendering 10 minutes later, having suffered 300 killed, 300 wounded, and 1,300 prisoners to the British 22 dead, 124 wounded. El Arish has now been secured by the British and fortified, the Royal Navy having arrived one day earlier in anticipation of the advance.
The Tirelis Swamp, site of the Christmas Battles
The German Wall, including bunkers
To the extreme north, a combined Russian/Latvian force attacked at Riga, in the Tirelis swamp. An advance by Latvian rifleman in white snow camouflage cut the German barbed wire and took the first German lines, before climbing the “German Wall” to get further behind the German lines. Many Latvians were unable to climb the wall and chose to lay still in the snow, freezing to death, rather than retreat back to their lines, risk being seen by other German lookouts, and thereby betray the presence of their comrades.
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