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Battle of Kolubra River and the Battle of the Falkland islands. The early battles of The First World War - December 1914

The short war that had been expected by most parties was not happening. Trenches were dug and across Europe signs of a breakthrough were sought, in vain. December saw further offensives on all fronts. In the east there was the continued conflict around Lodz, in the West a new Allied offensive began and in the Balkans there was a further conflict between the Serbs and the Austrians.

The Battle of Kolubra river saw the Austrians finally driven from Serbian soil. On the 3rd December the Serbs mounted a major counter offensive against the Austrian occupiers. After 5 days of fighting the Austrians withdrew, by the 15th Belgrade had been liberated by the Serbs Serbian soil was once again controlled by Serbians. The cost had been high though. Over 200,000 Austrian and 170,000 Serbian soldiers lost their lives in this campaign.

Link: The battle of Kolubra.

At sea the British avenged the losses they suffered in November. On 7th December British reinforcements arrived at Port Stanley, the Falklands islands. Von Spee however wasn't aware of their arrival and upon learning from his advance guard that the supposedly small fleet now included two battlecruisers, the Invincible and Inflexible, he took flight at 11am of the 8th. By 1pm the British fleet had the Germans in their sights and major losses were incurred by the German fleet. The Germans lost the battleships, Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Leipzig and Nurnberg in a matter of hours during the battle of the Falkland islands. Over 2000 German sailors perished.

Link: The War at Sea, The battle of the Falkland Islands.

The Western Front saw an Allied attempt to break through the German lines as Joffre, the French commander, sought to bring an early end to the war. He launched an offensive on 20th December running from Verdun to Nieuport at the weaker German lines. The realities of warfare in trenches soon began to become obvious. Given the advantage of a raised defensive position, a trench and machine guns, the German forces were able to restrict French gains to a minimum whilst inflicting much loss on their ranks. The First battle of Champagne ended in March 1915 with fatalities on both sides reaching 90,000.

It was December of 1914 that also saw the introduction of Aircraft on the Western Front.

The Vickers FB5
The Vickers FB5 was the first British plane that was designed to mount a machine gun. In December 1914, the first of these planes arrived on the Western Front. The Vickers FB5 was withdrawn from front-line fighting duties a few months later. It was no match for the Fokker E which was much faster and better-armed.

The text relating to the Vickers FB5 is taken from Farah Chaudhary's work on the Aircraft of the First World War. Farah is a year 9 student at Laisterdyke High School. To read about another form of WW1 aircraft, the Albatros, click here.