World War I Day by Day
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General: Finnish Airforce founded.
11
Caucasus: In Armenia Turkish forces reoccupy Erzurum.
12
Far East: Fighting between Japanese and Chinese troops on the Russian Manchurian border.
13
Caucasus: The Central Powers occupy the Black Sea port of Odessa in south Ukraine.
A wounded British soldier is carried back over a support line in the Somme. French troops man machine guns in the trenches beneath.
21
Western Front: Start of German Spring Offensive aka the ‘Kaiserschlacht.’ Von Ludendorff launches a major series of offensives along a 50-mile front south of Arras between the rivers Sensée and Oise in an effort to gain a decisive victory before the arrival of American troops on the Western Front. Major successes are reported. The first attack made against the British – the Michael offensive – develops into the Battle of Picardy. Eventually there are five major offensives against Allied forces. This massive offensive became possible when Germany shifted 40 divisions from the Eastern Front to West. Thousands of British troops were captured on the first day as others were pushed back to the Crozat Canal. By nightfall 17 RFC squadrons were forced to evacuate airfields in danger of being overrun by oncoming enemy forces.
22
War at sea: Sloop Gaillardia mined in Northern Barrage.
Allies inform the Dutch government that they intend to seize all Dutch ships in Allied ports.
Western Front: British lines west of St Quentin are broken and Allies lose 40 miles. Germans claim 16,000 prisoners.
German forces reach the Somme.
23
Middle East: In Transjordan British forces attack.
Western Front: German offensive redirects towards Amiens and Paris. They capture Péronne and Ham and reach the line of the Somme. German forces attempt to capture Amiens, an important link in the French rail network. Paris comes under long range attack from Big Bertha, a 43-ton mobile howitzer, firing from 74 miles away.
Air activity intensifies with up to 70 aircraft involved in a single air combat. RFC and RNAS squadrons carry out low level attacks against German targets causing great disruption. By the end of the month this continued pressure causes the German advance to falter – the first time large scale use of air power had had a direct influence on the outcome of a battle.
German troops advance in Spring 1918.
Allied battery of 18-pounder guns moving towards Mailly-Maillet three days after the German offensive in March 1918.
Men of the London Scottish, part of the 56th Division, move back from the line, March 30, 1918.
25
Western Front: After fierce fighting around Bapaume the Germans take the town in a night attack. Claim to have collected 45,000 Allied prisoners since the start of the Spring Offensive.
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Western Front: Allies hold a crisis conference at Doullens to discuss unity of command. The Doullens Agreement gives Marshal Ferdinand Foch ‘co-ordinating authority’ over all Allied troops on the Western Front.
Heavy fighting both north and south of the Somme. British lose Albert and Bray.
Noyon, Lihons, Chaulnes, and Roye are lost to German attacks.
The British use Whippet tanks in action for the first time.
A quarter of a million American troops are now based in France and a further 250,000 will arrive every month until the end of the war.
28
Western Front: An intense German attack along a wide front on the River Scarpe fails with heavy losses and the German advance is checked. This, the first AEF success, proves to be the turning point of the war.
Marshal Foch was appointed chief of the Allied forces in March 1918.
April 1918
The success of the German Spring Offensive brings new unity and resolve among both civilians and the military.
1
General: In Britain, the Royal Air Force and Women’s Royal Air Force are formed from the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service.
4
Western Front: The Germans make the final Kaiserschlacht attack towards Amiens.
5
Western Front: The German offensive is halted outside Amiens by a combined British and Australian force. Ludendorff calls off the Michael Offensive.
8
Politics: In Rome the Conference of Nationalities Oppressed by Austria opens.
9
Western Front: The Second Spring offensive, codenamed ‘Georgette’, starts with the Battle of the Lys as Germany launches its attack with a heavy bombardment at Ypres in the British sector of Armentières. The very heavy fighting along a line from La Bassée Canal to Armentières forces British and Portuguese troops back.
9
Politics: French premier Clémenceau publishes Kaiser Karl’s 1917 attempts to make peace.
British Whippet tanks came into service in March 1918. The one shown was used by Brig-Gen V.W. Odium of 11th Canadian Infantry Brigade, part of 4th Division, on reconnaissance duties. It is on the Arras–Cambrai road; alongside are Canadian infantry.
43rd Casualty Clearing Station at Frévent 20 miles east of Arras, seen on April 8, 1918.
Long train of cattle trucks containing Allied infantry reinforcements at St Eloi on 1 April 1918.
14
Politics: General Foch is appointed Commander-in-Chief of all Allied forces on the Western Front in France.
15
Caucasus: In Transcaucasia Turkish forces take Batum.
Politics: Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister Count Czernin resigns and is replaced by Count Istvan Burian von Rajecz.
Western Front: Bailleul and Wulverghem captured by the Germans. Very heavy artillery action on the Somme.
16
Western Front: Wytschaete and Meteren lost to the Germans and retaken within the day.
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Middle East: In Arabia the Arab Army besiege Maan.
Western Front: Wytschaete and Meteren lost again.
21
Western Front: Baron Manfred von Richtofen, aka ‘The Red Baron’, is shot down and killed near Corbie. The top scoring fighter pilot of World War I with 80 kills, his kill was variously claimed by Australian gunners and by a Canadian pilot.
Hall 3 at the zeppelin base of Ahlhorn after British bombing.
22–23
Western Front: During a night raid the Allies attack Zeebrugge and Ostend harbors being used as German naval bases. Zeebrugge harbor entrance was blocked by obselete cruisers Thetis, Intrepid, Iphigenia which were filled with concrete and blown up, along with submarine C.3 which was exploded on the Mole. The destroyer North Star was hit by a shore battery and scuttled. At Ostend the cruiser blockships Brilliant, and Sirius, were run ashore and blown up and fail to block the entrance as planned.
23
Politics: Guatemala declares war on Germany.
War at sea: Last sortie for the German High Seas Fleet.
Western Front: Heavy German attacks gain Villers-Bretonneux.
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War at sea: German Battlecruiser Moltke of the High Seas Fleet loses a screw while out on a sortie to attack Scandinavian convoy routes. As the Fleet returns, Moltke is torpedoed by E.42.
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Eastern Front: In Finland the Red Army is defeated at the Battle of Viborg.
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Western Front: End of the Battle of the Lys: in spite of heavy German artillery three British divisions hold off 13 German infantry divisions who sustain heavy losses.
Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the ‘Red Baron’. He destroyed 80 Allied planes before being shot down on 21 April 1918, behind Australian lines near the Somme.
Australian troops present arms as von Richthofen’s coffin passes by carried on the shoulders of RAF officers.
British troops man “Archies” (anti-aircraft guns), near Armentiéres.
30
Middle East: Start of the second British attack in Transjordan.
May 1918
American troops join the fighting on the Western Front for the first time as Paris comes under direct threat of German attacks and occupation.
1
Western Front: American troops join the front line on the Amiens front.
7
Politics: The Peace of Bucharest is signed between Romania and the Central Powers.
Romania cedes territory and immediately demobilizes the army.
Nicaragua declares war on Germany.
10
Western Front: British attack on Ostend when the cruiser HMS Vindictive was filled with concrete and sunk in the harbor entrance. German cruisers were from then on unable to use the harbor and other shipping greatly inconvenienced.
11
Politics: Kaiser Karl I of Austria accepts economic and military union with Germany.
19–20
Western Front: Germany mounts its largest (and ultimately last) aircraft raid on Britain, killing 49 and injuring 177 people. From a total of 43 bombers dispatched, 33 actually carry out the raid. Six were lost – two to intercepting fighters, three to anti-aircraft fire and one due to engine failure over Essex.
A line of disabled soldiers at a dressing station at Béthune. They have been temporarily blinded by lachrymatory gas deployed by the Germans during the Lys offensive.
25
Politics: Costa Rica declares war on Germany.
War at sea: German U-boats appear in U.S. waters for first time.
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Caucasus: Armenia signs the Treaty of Batum with Turkey.
27
Western Front: Third German Spring offensive – codenamed ‘Blucher’ – launched in the French sector along Chemin des Dames on the Aisne. Starts the Third Battle of the Aisne. The French are pushed back to the Marne as the Germans try to get to Paris.
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Western Front: U.S. forces – 28th Regiment of the 1st Division – are victorious in their first major independent operation at the Battle of Cantigny.
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Western Front: German troops advance to the Marne but are stopped by U.S. Divisions.
French driven back across Aisne, and Germans capture Soissons.
30
Western Front: Germans reach the Marne.
31
War at sea: Destroyer Fairy lost ramming and sinking UC75 off Flamborough Head.
June 1918
From June to October Anglo-American forces started laying the 69,000 mines known as the Northern Barrage which was designed to stop U-boat traffic between the Orkneys and Norway.
On the Western Front the German advances are halted while on the Southern Front the Italian forces manage to hold off the Austro-Hungarian attacks.
Dressing station in the Bois l’Abbé during the German attack on Amiens, May 27, 1918.
US troops of 1st Division’s 28th Infantry in an ambush position at Bonvillers on May 22, 1918.
Map showing the blockships of the Zeebrugge raid.
2
Western Front: End of the Second Battle of the Aisne. Heavy fighting at Ourcq and the front moves backward and forward as attacks are successful or repulsed. American forces stop German attempt to cross the Marne River at Château-Thierry.
4
Politics: Baron de Broqueville resigns as the premier of Belgium after losing the support of his own party.
Western Front: Chateâu-Thierry retaken – the first battle that AEF forces play a decisive role. U.S. forces also check German advance at Veuilly Wood.
6
Western Front: US 3rd Division captures Bouresches and southern part of Belleau Wood. American forces suffer heavy losses but defeat Germans.
8
Great Britain: The British Independent Air Force was formed for strategic bombing.
War at sea: U.S. steamer Pinar del Rio sunk by German U-boat off Maryland.
The first mines are laid in the Northern Barrage. The new proximity triggered American magnetic mines only claimed three known submarines as German sub commanders easily found ways through the barrier.
Map of Britain showing hostile air raid and naval bombardments between 16 December 1914 and 17 June 1918.
9
War at sea: In the Adriatic the Austro-Hungarian dreadnought Szent Istvan is torpedoed.
Western Front: Start of the First Battle of Lassigny as Germans launch a new offensive toward Compiègne on a line between Noyon and Montdidier. German Eighteenth Army launch the Fourth Spring Offensive, Battle of the Matz – aka Battle of Noyon – in the French sector between Noyan and Montdider.
German forces attack towards Compiègne – the Gneisenau offensive.
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Western Front: German advance checked.
13
Western Front: End of the First Battle of Lassigny.
14
Western Front: The German offensive on the Western Front ends.
15
Italian Front: Start of the Second Battle of the Piave River starts with a massive Austrian attack stretching from Lagarina Valley to the sea. They are eventually defeated by a combined Anglo-French and Italian force and sustain very heavy losses.
May 28, 1918: British troops retreat through Passy-sur-Marne.
American troops rush to the front in May 1918. They are passing through Montmirail.
German troops advance in Spring 1918.
16
Politics: Alexander Malinov replaces Vasil Radoslavov as prime minister of Bulgaria.
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Italian Front: The flooded Piave river foils Austrain attempts to get across.
23
Italian Front: End of the Second Battle of the Piave as the Austrians retreat in disorder from Montello to the sea.
27
War at sea: Southwest of Fastnet the hospital ship Llandovery Castle is torpedoed. 244 lives are lost.
July 1918.
The Allies start to get the upper hand on the Western Front and begin to intervene on the Eastern Front in Russia. In the west German submarine undersea warfare completely fails to stop U.S. soldiers being moved across the Atlantic to join the war effort against the Central Powers. The first cases of influenza start to appear in the German trenches.
2
Politics: Allied Supreme War Council supports intervention in Siberia.
United States: President Wilson announces that a million American soldiers have been sent to Europe.
4
Politics: Ottoman Emperor Mehmed V (Resad), Sultan of Turkey dies and is succeeded by Mehmed VI (Vahid-ed-Din) as Sultan.
Western Front: Battle of Le Hamel. Successful small Australian offensive east of Amiens.
Carrier tank passes a Scottish working party.
6
United States: U.S. President Woodrow Wilson agrees to American intervention in Siberia.
8
Politics: German Foreign Minister Richard von Kühlmann is dismissed for his ‘defeatist’ political views.
12
War at sea: While at anchor in Tokuyama Bay the Japanese dreadnought Kawachi explodes: 500 lost.
15
Western Front: Final phase of Great German Spring push starts the Second Battle of Marne. Von Ludendorf’s final offensive – the Friedensturm – is on a front 50-miles long east and west of Reims. In reply the Allies start amassing a major strike force in northern France to hit back.
16
Russian Revolution: Former Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, and children, are shot and murdered by the Bolsheviks at Ekaterinenburg the capital of the Red Ural, by order of the Ural Regional Council.
18
Western Front: Massive Allied counterattack including nine U.S. divisions hit back against German forces south-west of the Marne. The Allies attacked along a 27-mile front between Fontenoy and Belleau and seized the strategic initiative.
June 15, 1918: the German High Command clebrate the 30th anniversary of the Kaiser’s accession. Left front is Ludendorff; central are Hundenurg and Prince Henr
y of Prussia; behind him the Kaiser.
Stokes mortar set up in a captured trench, July 9, 1918.
The Tsar and 11-year old Tsarevich both in Cossack uniform.
19
Politics: Honduras declares war against Germany.
Western Front: German forces start to retreat at the Marne – having failed to make the key breakthrough – back to the Hindenburg Line.
24
Politics: Baron Hussarek becomes premier of Austria, succeeding Count von Clam-Martinic.
30
Eastern Front: In Kiev the German military dictator Field Marshall Hermann von Eichorn commander of occupying forces in the Ukraine and the Crimea, is assassinated by nationalist rebels.
31
Arctic: Anglo-French soldiers take the strategically import port of Archangel on the White Sea and capture the defenses.
August 1918
‘Spanish Flu’ influenza, becomes pandemic; over twenty-five million people will die in the following six months (three times as many as died during the war). Despite influenza among the troops Allied counter-offenses are begun on the Western Front.