<– Part 15 – November 8, 1914  | Part 16 – November 15, 1914 |  Part 17 – November 22, 1914 –>

Cruise of the Emden, 1914. The battle of the Cocos took place in the bottom center of this map.

HMS Sydney

Luck ran out for the SMS Emden on November 9. Having achieved notoriety raiding Allied shipping & facilities in the Pacific, she attempted to destroy the Australian communications station on Direction Island in the Cocos Islands, but not before a distress call was sent. A nearby convoy of RAN ships escorting a convoy dispatches the HMAS Sydney to investigate. Sydney came under fire at a farther range than was expected, but here superior guns forced Emden to beach herself, after which the collier Buresk was attacked and scuttled. Emden refused to take down her battle flag, so several rounds were put into her hull. After investigating the station, Sydney returned the next day, having suffered 20 casualties. Emden lost 200, and a further 160 have been taken prisoner. The Pacific is now free of any Central Power naval presence.

SMS Emden

On November 11, the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet V declared jihad on the Allies, while several actions were taken against the Ottoman Empire. Marching from Fao, British troops were attacked in their camp, repulsed the attack, and right now 8,000 British soldiers are assaulting defensive Turkish positions manned by 4,500 Turks. In South Arabia, following the mutual declarations of war, a British force landed at Cheikh Said on November 10, protected by the armored cruiser HMS Duke of Edinburgh, and assaulted (with help from the sailors) the Turkish fortifications in the area, which were destroyed by British engineers the following day. They then reboarded the ships and sailed north, as an inland assault was deemed too risky.

The Russian Army, preparing for an assault into Silesia, was surprised November 11, when the German Ninth Army, aware of the impending attack, was transported by rail to the Russian flank. A single Russian corps was on the Western side of the Vistula and was completely routed, 12,000 captured. A 31-mile gap has formed between the Russian First and Second armies, while a third is moving to the area. The right flank of 500,000 Russians is crumbling before half as many Germans.

Fighting between Germany and Russia on the Eastern Front.

The troubles in French Morocco continued November 13, when the commander of the French garrison as recently-captured Khenifra, Lt-Col Rene Laverdure, disobeyed orders and decided to attack the Berber Zaian Confederation. Although he was initially successful, on the march back his rearguard was overpowered and destroyed, and his force of 1,200 suffered 800 casualties, including Laverdure himself, who was killed in battle. The remainder of the garrison has returned to Khenifra only because the tribesman halted their pursuit to loot the corpses, but the severely-undermanned garrison is now under assault.

The fighting at Ypres continues, with German assaults having minimal success in some areas, and losing ground in others, as corps-sized assaults continue on each side. Hundreds of thousands of Europe’s young men have died so far. Temperatures have dropped below freezing, and frostbite is setting in within the water-filled trenches. In some areas, the front lines are only 100-yards apart, taking a toll psychological, as men drift off to sleep and are picked off by snipers.

The Bermann offensive by the Russian Caucasus Army has come under intense counter-attacks by the Turks and have been pushed back to lines from one week ago. Russian reinforcements arrived earlier today.

In German East Africa, the hunt for the SMS Konigsberg continues in the Rufiji Delta, as she has been camouflaged and successful shooting down airplanes searching for her. It is unlikely that she will be found for many months.