Thursday 5 December 1918.

Germany hands back to Russia the reparations they extracted under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March.

The cruiser HMS Cassandra, part of the Royal Navy's intervention fleet in the Baltic, sunk by an uncharted German mine.

Friday 6 December 1918.

British troops enter Cologne which will be the Headquarters for the Allied Occupation Zone 3.

Attempted Left Wing coup in Berlin suppressed by Freikorps units.

I wonder how many lives were lost after the first war due to unexploded mines shells etc. France and Belguim is still  finding them.

 When you put it in respective with how much ordinance was used and buried in that 4 year period you can see why there would be so many injuries after.

Sunday 8 December 1918.

Clash between British and Bolshevik naval vessels on the Caspian Sea.

The Turkish garrison at Lehej in Yemen surrenders to the British.

Not just the British. The Allied Army of Intervention to combat the Bolsheviks involved several countries with GB, Japan and the USA sending the most men and equipment. The British were the most widely spread seeing action in the Arctic, the far east and the Caspian Sea. The US sent around 13,000 of which about 430 died.

The British Caspian Sea Flotilla comprised ten Russian coastal steamers captured and converted by the British and 12 motor boats brought in by rail from Batumi on the Black Sea.  

Ultimately the effort proved unsuccessful and most countries withdrew in 1920, although the Japanese stayed in Vladivostok until 1922.

Monday 9 December 1918.

US troops reach the river Rhine. The French occupy Mainz.

Tuesday 10 December 1918.

The Bolsheviks enter Minsk ending the brief rule of the Belarusian People's Republic which had been established in March as a German puppet state. 

Wednesday 11 December 1918.

The Americans occupy Koblenz.

Thursday 12 December 1918.

Carl Mannerheim, the victorious C-in-C of the Finnish Army in the civil war with the Reds, is appointed Regent of Finland under the titular absentee King Friedrich of Hesse, brother-in-law of the former German Emperor.

Friday 13 December 1918.

The 11 November Armistice is prolonged to 17 January.

President Wilson lands in France for the Peace Conference.

The Bolshevik advance into Estonia is halted with the aid of a Royal Navy bombardment at Wesenberg.

The last battle between the British and the Turks (seven weeks after the Armistice) as the British attack Hodeida in Yemen.

Saturday 14 December 1918.

General Election in the UK. Victory for the wartime coalition (see main page).

The British occupy Hodeida in Yemen, end of the fighting between the British and the Turks.

Friedrich Karl of Hesse, titular King of Finland for just seven weeks, abdicates having never set foot in the country. The Regent Carl Mannerheim, appointed only two days earlier, assumes full powers.

The pro-German ruler of Ukraine, Pavlo Skoropadski, overthrown in a coup,   

Monday 16 December 1918.

The Allies complete the occupation of the Rhine bridgeheads.

The Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Councils convenes in the Reichstag in Berlin, this is an attempt to establish a Soviet style government in Germany.

I never fully understood until recently how close Germany came to turning to Communism in the winter 1918/19. The Freikorps (see post #7) played a major role in the suppression of the Communist uprisings.

It was supposedly the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George who said he feared a weak Germany almost as much as he did a stong one.

Tuesday 17 December 1918.

Following the Russian invasion of Latvia on 1 December the Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic is proclaimed under Peteris Stucka. The legitimate government under Karlis Ulmanis is restricted to the coastal area around Libau.

Wednesday 18 December 1918.

The Provisional Government in Germany announces Elections to be held on 19 January.

Thursday 19 December 1918.

Following the collapse of the pro-German government of Ukraine Volodymyr Vynnychenko is appointed head of the new Directorate of Ukraine.

Field Marshal Haig and five victoruis commanders from the Western Front (Generals Birdwood, Plummer, Rawlinson, Horne and Byng) return to England and take part in a carriage procession to Buckingham Palace.

Sunday 22 December 1918.

Nikola Pasic, Prime Minister of Serbia since 1912 and first Prime Minister of the Yugoslavia since 1 December, resigns under pressure from the Regent Prince Alexander; replaced by Stojan Protic.

British troops from the Salonika Front arrive at Batumi in Georgia on the eastern Black Sea with the aim of linking up with the British garrison to the east at Baku in Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea which is to be evacuated. They arrive however in the middle of the Georgian-Armenian War. 

Monday 23 December 1918.

Violence erupts in Berlin as mutinous sailors storm a Cabinet meeting to demand 80,000 marks Christmas bonus. 

Tuesday 24 December 1918.

Clashes on the streets of Berlin between government troops and mutinous sailors, around 70 killed before the government forces force the sailors to withdraw. The incident is seen as the beginning of the more serious revolt in January 1919 known as the Spartacist Uprising.

The Whites and men of the Czech Legion seize the regional Siberian centre of Perm and with it vast amounts of military and industrial material including 43,000 tons of coal, 1.2 millions tons of ore, 350,000 tons of manufactured metals, 297 locomotives, 20,000 rifles, 10,000 shells and 10 million rifle cartridges.   

The Japanese had already taken over Korea in 1910; the colonial land grab was over by 1914, all that was left was the former German colonial empire to distribute among the victorious powers, it was divided up between GB, France, Belgium, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The Ottoman outposts went to GB and France to be guided towards independence.

True though that the peace settlements in 1919 settled nothing and stored up trouble for the future. It must also be remembered that the USA was also a signatory to the peace treaty with Germany, it's not all our fault.