6th October 1918
HMS Otranto is an armed troopship employed in ferrying American “doughboys” to the Western Front in Europe. It is during one such operation that she collides with HMS Kashmir, another liner turned troopship, in poor visibility in the rough seas between the North East coast of Ireland and the Western Isles of Scotland. She is holed on the port side forward and, in the heavy swell, begins to list. The stricken ship then hits rocks and becomes grounded. With the heavy seas pounding her continually against the rocks the ship eventually breaks up and sinks with the loss of 431 lives (351 American troops and 80 British crew members). A number of “doughboys” and crew are saved by a convoy escort, HMS Mounsey, and are taken to Belfast, Ireland. Captain Ernest George William Davidson (Royal Navy) true to the ancient traditions of the sea stays with his ship and goes down with her in the terrible sea as he salutes his men for one last time. Men in the raging sea cling to anything that will float. One man survived by grabbing a large tub of lard that was floating by him. In addition to her Captain, Petty Officer Henry James Greenwood killed at age 26. His father died on service last May.
Serving as the convoy flagship for Convoy HX-50, Otranto departed New York on 25 September. Six days later, on the evening of 1 October, the ship accidentally rammed the French fishing schooner Croisine off Newfoundland while the latter was returning home to St. Malo with a full load of cod. The fishing boat passed down the liner's port side and its masts destroyed some of the liner's lifeboats on that side. Captain Ernest Davidson, who was also commodore of the convoy, ordered the convoy to continue while Otranto stopped to rescue the 37 survivors. The derelict Croisine was now a menace to navigation and Davidson ordered his gun crews to sink her later that evening. The liner caught back up with the convoy by daybreak. The following day, the first death from the influenza pandemic occurred and the soldier was buried at sea. Only one other flu death aboard Otranto is recorded, but others may have occurred before she met her end.
The convoy encountered a strong storm on 4 October that got even stronger over the next several days; by the morning of 6 October it was assessed as a Force 11 storm on the Beaufort scale with mountainous seas. The storm forced the British destroyers that were to rendezvous with them back into port on 5 October and the last American escort departed at 06:00. The weather prevented accurate navigation and the convoy was forced to proceed by dead reckoning. The ship's officers were uncertain if they were off the northern coast of Ireland or the western coast of Scotland. When dawn broke it revealed a rocky coastline 3 to 4 miles (4.8 to 6.4 km) to their east, just ahead of the convoy. Most of the ships correctly thought this was the Scottish coast and turned south, but Otranto's Officer of the Watch thought that it was the Irish coast and turned north. HMS Kashmir, another liner turned troopship, was only about a half mile (0.80 km) to Otranto's north and the turns placed them on a collision course. Both ships attempted to avoid the collision, but their efforts cancelled out and Kashmir rammed Otranto on the port side amidships, a few miles off the rocky coast of Islay. The impact punched a hole some 20 feet (6.1 m) deep and 16 feet (4.9 m) wide in Otranto, from below the waterline up to the boat deck. The hole was right at the bulkhead between the fore and aft stokeholds (boiler rooms) and both instantly flooded, killing most of the crewmen in those spaces. When the engine room flooded shortly afterwards, Otranto lost all electrical power and began to drift towards the cliffs of Islay. The water pressure caused other bulkheads to collapse, quickly flooding other spaces below the waterline and giving the ship a massive list to starboard. The impact also damaged many of the remaining lifeboats on that side. The crew attempted to use collision mats to cover the hole in the ship's side, but it proved to be too large. Kashmir's bow was crushed by the impact, although she was able to steam off when a wave forced the two ships apart soon after the collision.
The high winds and heavy seas prevented the launching of any lifeboats and Davidson had decided not to abandon ship just yet in the faint hope that some passengers and crewmen might be able to swim ashore once the ship got closer. About a half hour after the collision, the British destroyer Mounsey appeared after searching for the convoy during the night. Despite Davidson's order to stand clear, Mounsey's captain, Lieutenant Francis Craven, positioned his ship on Otranto's lee side to allow the men aboard the liner to jump aboard. Several times the two ships struck and the destroyer's hull was holed, her bridge smashed, two of three boiler rooms flooded, and many hull frames were broken by the force of the impacts. Nonetheless Craven kept his small ship close and was able to rescue 300 American troops, 266 officers and crewmen from Otranto, one YMCA morale officer and 30 French fishermen, although many more men had been washed from the decks or crushed between the two ships. Despite the weight of the rescued men and the damage sustained during the rescue, Mounsey was able to reach Belfast safely although she was too badly damaged to return to her own home port against the storm. About three hours after the collision, a large wave dropped Otranto onto "Old Women's Reef", about three-quarters of a mile (1.2 km) offshore, near the entrance to Machir Bay, missing a sandy beach just north of the reef. The action of the enormous waves quickly broke the ship in half and then ripped her bottom out. Of the roughly 489 men aboard after Mounsey departed, only 21 (17 of these were American) were able to successfully swim ashore, although 2 of these, including 1 American, later died of their injuries. The islanders were able to rescue some of these men by pulling them up the coastal cliffs or from rocks just offshore. By the following morning, the liner had been completely demolished by the heavy seas and the coastline was strewn with wreckage and hundreds of bodies in piles up to 15 feet (4.6 m) deep. A total of 316 Americans were found and buried on Islay and the nearby island of Muck.
The best estimate of the casualty toll from the disaster is a total of 470 men: 12 officers and 84 crewmen from Otranto, 1 officer and 357 American enlisted men, and 6 French fishermen. After the war, most of the American bodies were reinterred at Brookwood American Cemetery and Memorial in Surrey, England or repatriated to the United States. And a 80-foot (24.4 m) stone tower was built on the Mull of Oa by the American Red Cross to commemorate the men lost aboard Otranto and Tuscania (1914) which was sunk by a German U-boat nearby.
The Pursuit to Haritan
The country north from Damascus, with its grand mountains and fertile valley and slopes, was described as being more beautiful than that to the south of the city. The Nahr el Litani or Leontes river flowing south between the parallel ranges of the Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon enters the sea between Tyre and Sidon. Along the valley cattle, sheep and goats grazed and barley and wheat were grown with oats in the north. The only breaks in the north-south Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon mountain ranges occur from Damascus to Beirut and from Homs to Tripoli. On 5 October the advance north was resumed although supply would be difficult.[38] Allenby anticipated capturing the ports of Beirut and Tripoli, which would improve supplying rations to Desert Mounted Corps. "Nevertheless his decision [to continue the pursuit] was born of rare ambition and resolution." It would be a "bold move" as the British Empire troops would be well beyond range of support from the rest of the EEF.
Allenby briefed Chauvel on his Aleppo campaign plans at Chauvel's new headquarters in a former Yilderim Army Group building in the south–western suburbs during his day-trip to Damascus on 3 October. The Australian Mounted Division commanded by H. W. Hodgson was to garrison Damascus, while the 5th Cavalry Division commanded by Major General H.J.M. MacAndrew and the 4th Cavalry Division commanded by Major General G. de S. Barrow advanced to Rayak 30 miles (48 km) northwest of Damascus, to establish a new forward line to stretch east to Beirut.
'B' Battery AIF Heavy Artillery Group crossing the Leontes River during their march to Aleppo from Tripoli in February 1919
The 4th and 5th Cavalry Divisions left Damascus together on 5 October without wheeled transport and guns which rejoined at Khan Meizelun 15–18 miles (24–29 km) from Damascus and 3,500 feet (1,100 m) above sea-level after passing through the city. The Sherwood Rangers regiment which had been on the lines of communication at Kuneitra rejoined the 14th Cavalry Brigade, 5th Cavalry Division. The 12th Light Armoured Motor Battery and the 7th Light Car Patrol also joined the divisions. From Khan Meizelun the 4th Cavalry Division moved to Zebdani on the railway between Damascus and Rayak while the 5th Cavalry Division moved towards Rayak by the main road through Shtora. On the march towards Shtora, "A violent storm, lasting several hours, burst as soon as bivouac was reached and lasted the greater part of the night. This did not improve matters as regards the malaria outbreak, which was by then almost at its height."
Occupation of Rayak
They advanced next day to Rayak; towards the railway junction of the main railway from Constantinople with the railways from Beirut and Damascus which branched at Rayak 30 miles (48 km) away. Rayak was reported to be occupied by about 1,000 Ottoman and German soldiers. During the night of 5/6 October, a report was received that the Ottomans had withdrawn from Rayak. The 5th Cavalry Division arrived in Rayak on 6 October to find considerable destruction caused by an RAF air-raid on 2 October and captured some prisoners, railway rolling stock and military equipment. The 14th Brigade arrived at Rayak at 14:00 on 6 October where a great deal of damage had been caused by an RAF air raid on 2 October. Here the remains of 32 German aircraft were found, "including some of the latest type, [which] had been either abandoned or burnt by the enemy." Military equipment, engineers' stores, several locomotives and rail trucks were captured at Rayak. The 14th Cavalry brigade also captured 177 prisoners and some guns when they occupied Zahle a few miles north of Rayak, also without opposition.
MIDDLE EAST
Syria: DMC occupies Rayak and Zahle (177 PoWs), 30 burnt planes at former.
EASTERN FRONT
USSR: British Petrograd officials reach Swedish border.
Southern Russia: *Trotsky recalls Stalin from Tsaritsyn to Moscow (until October 11), returns till October 19.
AIR WAR
Western Front: US airmen Bleckley and Foettler posthumously awarded CMH (US Congress Medal of Honor) for suicidal supply-dropping mission to ‘Lost Battalion’ at Binarville on October 2.
Erwin Russell Bleckley (December 30, 1894 – October 6, 1918) was a United States Army aviator during World War I, and posthumous recipient of the Medal of Honor, killed in action on October 6, 1918, near the "lost battalion". Bleckley entered service as a member of the Kansas National Guard, was commissioned as an artillery officer, then volunteered for aviation training and duty. His was one of four Medals of Honor awarded to members of the Air Service.
On June 6, 1917, Bleckley, then a bank teller with the 4th National Bank of Wichita, enlisted as a private in the Kansas National Guard, joining Battery F, 1st Field Artillery, the second man to enlist, according to the unit commander. On July 5, 1917, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Field Artillery. A month later, on August 5, his unit was called into Federal service. The 1st Field Artillery was then reorganized into the 130th Field Artillery at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, as part of the 35th Division, National Guard. Bleckley had expressed a desire to become a pilot, but his family objected and he became an artilleryman. When he arrived in France in March 1918, the Air Service of the American Expeditionary Force, then organizing, announced a need for artillery officers to train as aerial observers. Bleckley volunteered, graduated from the observer school at Tours, France, and was attached to the 50th Aero Squadron on August 14, 1918. At that time the 50th, known as the "Dutch Girl" squadron from the commercial logo of a scouring cleanser painted on the sides of their airplanes, was based at Amanty aerodrome and had 14 pilots, nine observers including Bleckley, and 18 de Havilland DH-4 aircraft, which the crews called "Libertys" after their American-made Liberty engines.
On September 2, 1918, in preparation for the St. Mihiel Offensive, the squadron moved to Behonne aerodrome, near Bar-le-Duc to support the V Corps of the First U.S. Army. However a few days later they were shifted to Bicqueley aerodrome, to provide support to the 82nd and 90th Divisions of the I Corps. While arriving at their new base, the squadron lost a pilot and mechanic killed in a landing accident. Bleckley, known as "Bleck" and popular in his squadron, flew his first combat mission at 5:30 a.m. Of September 12, 1918, the first day of the offensive, which was the first coordinated, large-scale employment of Air Service airpower. Flying observer for flight leader 1st Lt. Harold E. "Dad" Goettler in aircraft number 2, the mission supported the advance of the 90th Division, and was the first of several that resulted in a recommendation for promotion to 1st lieutenant for Bleckley on September 17.
On September 24, the squadron again relocated, this time to Remicourt, aerodrome of the I Corps Observation Group. On September 26, 1918, supporting the 77th Division, the 50th Aero Squadron flew its first missions of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive with a complement of 15 pilots, 15 observers, and 16 Liberties. At the beginning of October, units of the 308th Infantry Regiment were cut off and surrounded by German troops. Able to communicate with division headquarters only by carrier pigeon, the battalion-sized force inadvertently supplied division headquarters with incorrect coordinates of its location. As early as October 2 the 50th Aero Squadron searched for signs of the cut-off battalion, and on October 5, the division commander, Maj. Gen. Robert Alexander, requested that the 50th Aero Squadron locate and resupply the "Lost Battalion" by air with ammunition, rations, and medical supplies. Four attempts to pinpoint the location were unsuccessful in increasingly bad weather. On October 6, the 50th flew 13 additional missions, ultimately having three aircraft shot down, in what the USAF has termed the first combat airlift in history. In addition to supplies, the 50th attempted to drop two baskets of carrier pigeons to the 308th, using small parachutes from flares to soften the descent. The first resupply mission, flown by Lt.s Floyd M. Pickrell and Alfred C. George, took off shortly before noon in poor visibility. The DH-4 of Lt.s Maurice F. Graham and James E. McCurdy returned from the last mission with McCurdy seriously wounded by a bullet through the neck, but also with confirmation that the location given by the lost battalion was incorrect and occupied by German forces.
In the early afternoon of October 6, 1918, flying again with Goettler, Bleckley took off to try to locate the "Lost Battalion". After completion of their first mission, they returned to Remicourt with numerous holes in the aircraft from small arms fire, and problems with their spark plugs that had been plaguing the DH-4s for several days. Warned by squadron commander Capt. Daniel P. Morse that a second sortie would be exceedingly more difficult and hazardous, Bleckley was quoted: "We'll make the delivery or die in the attempt!"
Late in the afternoon, the pair flew a second resupply mission in aircraft number 6, borrowed from Lt. Pickrell when their own was not serviceable. A history of Wichita, Bear Grease, Builders, and Bandits by Beccy Tanner (1991), gives eyewitness descriptions of what followed: "Goettler skidded his plane, he made turns, he side-slipped a little occasionally, he climbed and then dived. Each time the plane turned and its great mottled belly flopped back into normal position, the men of the lost battalion expected to see it tumble from the sky... But on its way it went like a charmed thing, roaring up and down and across, rocked occasionally by the ash of big shells that had just passed... the plane finally crashed into the French terrain."
The DH-4 flew low, just above the tree tops, cresting hilltops and descending into a ravine in which the Germans could shoot down at the aircraft. The attempt to draw fire to pinpoint German positions would help find the battalion by the process of elimination. By flying low the attempts to drop supplies into an area 350 by 50 yards where the battalion was believed to be dug in would be more precise. Even so, much of the resupply was recovered by German troops, and the aircraft came under intense and accurate fire from German machineguns and rifles. Goettler was struck in the head by a bullet and killed. The DH-4 crashed inside Allied lines, and Bleckley was thrown from the plane and severely injured. Unconscious, he was rescued by French soldiers, and rushed by automobile to a hospital, but died en route of internal injuries suffered in the crash. Morse successfully recommended both men for the Distinguished Service Cross, two of the six received by aviators of the squadron. The awards were upgraded to the Medal of Honor by the Decoration Board in 1922. The medal was presented to Bleckley's parents at the Wichita Forum on March 23, 1923. Maj. Gen. C. B. Duncan, commander of the 7th Corps Area, pinned the medal on the lapel of Bleckley's father, Col. Elmer E. Bleckley, a former railroad agent with the Missouri Pacific Railroad and Vice President of the 4th National Bank. The Kansas National Guard was presented with a painting of the DH-4 and Bleckley moments after the crash, which depicts him as conscious but near death, handing a bloody paper containing the location of the Lost Battalion to French soldiers. However the version appears to be part of the Lost Battalion mythology with no evidence to date to support it.
Today also saw the death of the American ace 1st Lieutenant Harold Goodman Shoemaker 17th Aero Squadron. He was flying a Sopwith Camel having recently transferred from the SE5a of 74 Squadron RAF
The son of Mr. and Mrs. R. Elmer Shoemaker of Bridgeton, New Jersey, Harold Goodman Shoemaker answered the call for volunteers in the summer of 1917. On 14 July 1917, he and several other candidates were sent to Toronto, Canada for training with the Royal Flying Corps. To gain combat experience, he was attached to the Royal Air Force, joining 74 Squadron on 3 July 1918. After scoring five victories as an S.E.5a pilot, he was reassigned to the 17th Aero Squadron on 29 August 1918. Less than two months later, Shoemaker and another American pilot went down over German lines when their Sopwith Camels collided. Reported missing on 5/6 October 1918, the International Red Cross later reported that Shoemaker died in a prisoner of war camp in Germany. He was buried in the cemetery at Bony.
The Royal Air Force established air squadron No. 269
On 6 October 1918, No. 269 Squadron was formed from Nos. 431 and 432 Flights at the seaplane station based at Port Said which had been established there since January 1916, under the command of Major P.L Holmes, RAF. No. 269 was part 64th Wing, and it operated seaplanes from the harbor, plus land-based flight of B.E.2e and Airco DH.9 aircraft. The squadron conducted maritime patrols until the Armistice, and on 15 September 1919, its seaplanes were moved to Alexandria and merged with No. 270 Squadron as its landplane flight had been disbanded in March 1919. The squadron continued as No. 269 until it was disbanded on 15 November 1919.
The following claims were made on this day
In total the RAF lost 23 men today including...
HOME FRONTS
India: Record of 768 flu deaths in Bombay today.
Captain Tunstill's Men: Starting out at 9.30am, the Battalion marched five miles south-west, via Tavernelle to new billets at Montecchio Maggiore. This move was intended to allow the Battalion, along with the rest of the Division, to carry out more training for projected future operations; appropriate training having been difficult in the heavily-cultivated areas around Creazzo. The opportunity for more training was made all the more urgent by a change of plan which meant that the remaining units of 23rd Division would no longer return to France as had been planned, but would instead be prepared for offensive operations on the Piave front. In the words of the Divisional History, “The strictest secrecy was to be maintained; no hint was to be given that the move to France had been cancelled. The training that would be necessary would be in conformity with the idea that it was in preparation for the fighting on the French front, but it needed to be strenuous as little time would be available. The troops were to be prepared for the long marches it was anticipated would follow initial success on the Piave, and the direct co-operation between the smaller units of artillery and infantry was to be practised”.
Armistice Countdown 37 days
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