World War I Day by Day
Page 11
French tanks were first used in combat in 1917.
Tank stuck in a muddy ditch during Arras offensive, April 1917.
31
War at sea: Germany announces that all vessels in the war zone around British Isles are viable targets for sinking.
MAY
Pershing given command of AEF
May 1917
The French Army is demoralized and exhausted. Mutiny seriously threatens their war efforts. Between May and October the Italians fight the Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Battles of the Isonzo. All end in Italian failure. In America due to the Selective Service Act 2,800,000 U.S. citizens are drafted. 42 Divisions are sent to France, at this stage a total of 2,084,000 men.
1
United States: U.S. Army Expansion Act inflates the armed forces from 200,000 to 4,791,172. 32 new cantonments and camps are to be built, including Camp Kearny and Camp Fremont in California each designed to take 40,000 soldiers at a cost of $262m.
3
Western Front: Major British attack along a 12-mile front east of Arras, breaking through the Hindenburg switch at Quéant and taking Fresnoy.
4
War at sea: In the Mediterranean British transport ship Arcadian is torpedoed: 277 lost. Another British transport also torpedoed there: Transylvania with 413 lost.
The crew escape the fires on the lower deck during the last moments of the French liner Sontay, sunk by a torpedo in the Mediterranean on 16 April 1917.
5
Western Front: French force supported by British troops take the crest of Craonne ridge. At Chemin des Dames they capture 6,000 German prisoners.
8
Politics: Liberia breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany.
10
War at sea: Britain introduces the convoy system to protect shipping from enemy submarine activity.
11
Russian Revolution: Russian Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Delegates demands a peace conference.
14
Italian Front: Start of the Tenth Battle of the Isonzo.
15
War at sea: In the Adriatic the Battle of the Otranto Straits starts when Austro-Hungarian cruisers and destroyers attack the Allied Otranto Barrage. This is the largest surface action of the naval war in the Mediterranean.
Western Front: General Pétain succeeds General Nivelle as Commander-in-Chief of the French Western Front armies. General Foch is appointed Chief of Staff. Pétain becomes French C-in-C. Two days later Pétain announces a temporary French switch from offense to defense.
Well fortified German gun emplacement in Farbus Wood, (beyond Vimy Ridge) being checked over by two Canadian soldiers after its capture on 9 April 1917.
With its load of shells on the side of the road, Canadian troops manhandle a truck from a shellhole near Vimy.
Oppy wood, village and chateau were obliterated by British bombing — but remained in German hands. May 1917.
16
United States: U.S. Sedition Act, one of a number of pieces of legislation that curtailed civil liberties in order to enforce conformity to the war effort.
Western Front: Bullecourt captured by British in the Battle of Arras.
17
Politics: Honduras breaks diplomatic relations with Germany.
18
United States: Selective Service Act (Conscription bill) is signed by President Wilson. The act gave the President the power to draft soldiers. Nearly ten million men are listed and a lottery chooses the first 687,000 to serve. Eventually 3,000,000 men serve as draftees in the war.
19
Politics: Nicaragua severs diplomatic relations with Germany.
22
Italian Front: Italians advance on the Carso.
23
Italian Front: Great Italian advance from Kostanjevica to the sea.
24
War at sea: Japanese destroyers enter the Mediterranean.
Sir Jacob van Deventer took over from General Smuts in May 1917 and conquered German East Africa.
26
United States: First U.S. troops arrive in France.
War at sea: French Minister of Marine announces that German submarines have sunk 2,400,000 tons of shipping in the first four months of the year.
28
United States: General Pershing and his staff leave New York harbor for France aboard the Baltic.
30
Politics: The Lithuanian National Council is instituted in an attempt to form a German puppet state.
JUNE
British offensive at Messines
June 1917
The responsibility for attack on the Western Front goes to the BEF as French forces are too exhausted for constant assaults. Greece enters the war.
2
Politics: Brazil revokes her neutrality and seizes all German ships within her territorial waters.
3
Italian Front: Austria launches a great counter-offensive on San Marco, east of Gorizia. Leads to very heavy fighting as the Italians are forced back.
Politics: Albania proclaims her independence under Italian protection.
Anti-aircraft station manned by men from the Royal Naval Air Service, situated in the grounds of the Metropolitan Water Board, near Mount Pleasant, London
The course of the Isonzo river marked the chief battle ground on the Italian front in 1917.
4
Russian Revolution: General Alexei Brusilov is appointed commander in chief of the Russian Army by the Provisional Government.
5
United States: Registration day for new draft army in United States.
7
United States: U.S. General Staff issues plan to ship American forces at a rate of 120,000 per month beginning in August; in fact, this rate of dispatch is not realized until April 1918
General John J. Pershing, newly selected commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, arrives in England with his staff en route to France.
Western Front: Battle of Messines. British launch attack on Messines-Wytschaete ridge by exploding 19 large mines; they capture capture the position.
11
Politics: King Constantine of Greece abdicates his throne in favor of his second son, Alexander.
13
Western Front: Germany launches the first heavy bomber raid against London. 18 Gotha aircraft kill 162 people and injure over 400. The RFC fails to shoot any of the raiders down.
14
United States: President Wilson, in his Flag Day Address, declares that the initial American Expeditionary Force will be followed by more soldiers as quickly as possible, and that these soldiers will not be held in the US for training.
Tank park at Rollencourt in June 1917.
15
United States: U.S. Espionage Act passed – suspending normal constitutional freedoms for American citizens.
16
Russian Revolution: In Petrograd the first All-Russian Congress of Soviets is held.
20
United States: U.S. starts the first of five Liberty Loan drives: raises $23 billion of $32 billion cost of war: the rest is raised from new taxation.
25
United States: U.S. 1st Division troops began landing in France, they are the first American fighting contingent.
28 U.S. Bernard Baruch’s War Industries Board centralizes the nation’s economic output.
29
Politics: Greece breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany and Austria-Hungary and declares war on side of the Allies.
JULY
Arab Revolt takes Aqaba
July 1917
The final Russian Offensive on the Eastern front fails.
1
Eastern Front: Russia begins an initially successful offensive in Galicia under the personal control of Kerensky, Russian Minister of War. Heavy fighting leaves many Russians dead but they take 12,000 prisoners. The assault ends after a German counter offensive with a 150 mile retreat by the Russians on 23July.
United States: Pershing revises his estimate of the number of fighting men he needs: makes first request for an army of 1,000,000 men.
6
Politics: Canadian House of Commons passes the Compulsory Military Service Bill.
7
Politics: In the German Reichstag a peace resolution is tabled: passed on the 19th.
Western Front: 22 Gothas launch a second daylight air attack on London, killing 57 people and injuring 193. 108 sorties were launched in defence, and one Gotha was shot down, and three others suffered severe damage. Two defending aircraft were also shot down.
9
War at sea: British dreadnought Vanguard blows up in Scapa Flow while at anchor.
11
United States: On reflection Pershing says that 1,000,000 men is only the initial size and that his army will require upwards of 3,000,000.
14
Politics: German Imperial Chancellor Herr von Bethmann Hollweg resigns and is replaced by Dr Michaelis.
Greece joins the war after the fall of the monarchy, June 1917.
16
Eastern Front: Start of retreat of Russians on a front of 155 miles.
Middle East: T. E. Lawrence and Arab forces take Aqaba from the Turks by mounting a suprise attack after crossing the Nefu dessert.
17
Politics: King George V changes the royal family names from Hanover to Windsor and Battemgerg to Mountbatten.
19
Politics: Germany’s parliament, the Reichstag, passes a resolution calling for a negotiated peace with the Allies. General Ludendorff sets up a Patriotic Instruction Programme to counter such sentiments and bolster German morale.
20
Russian Revolution: Alexander Kerensky becomes Russian premier, succeeding Lvoff.
United States: Drawing of draft number for American conscript army begins.
25
Politics: Sir Thomas Whyte introduces the first income tax in Canada as a ‘temporary’ measure. The lowest bracket is 4 percent and highest is 25 percent.
31
Western Front: Third Battle of Ypres – better known as Passchendaele – starts with a huge artillery barrage as the precusor for a major British-French attack on a 15-mile front in Flanders. The initial thrust takes 12 villages and 5,000 prisoners. Third Ypres lasts until mid-November.
A loyal Russian soldier threatens two would-be deserters with his rifle butt in an attempt to restore order to the ranks.
Aleksandr Kerenski (centre), Russian premier after the Bolshevik revolution, watches the funeral of Cossacks killed during the July rising.
Arabia and the Red Sea, showing the area of the campaigns by Arabs to free themselves from the Turks.
31
War at sea: At Wilhelmshaven the German High Seas Fleet, bored and frustrated at their inaction since 1916, are ready for mutiny. Trouble started on the dreadnought Prinz Regent Luitpold but is quickly stopped.
AUGUST
Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele)
August 1917
The numbers of dead and wounded mount up as the battles for Ypres and Verdun are fought. China enters the war on the side of the Allies.
1
Politics: Pope Benedict XV makes plea for peace on the basis of no annexation, no indemnity influences and impresses President Wilson.
2
War at sea: First ever landing by an aircraft on a ship under way when a Sopwith Pup landed on the deck of the converted light cruiser HMS Furious. Five days later the pilot was killed attempting the same maneuver.
7
Politics: Liberia declares war against Germany.
8
Politics: Canadian Conscription Bill passes its third reading in Senate. The Compulsory Military Service Bill ends the promise of no conscription made by Prime Minister Borden.
14
Politics: China declares war on Germany and Austria-Hungary.
Austrian officers at battle HQ after the capture of the Austro-German fortress of Czernowitz in August 1917 — the 15th and last time the town changed hands during the war.
15
Western Front: Big British assault on a wide front northwest of Lens. Canadian troops capture Hill 70, dominating Lens. Five German counter-attacks are successfully repulsed.
15
War at sea: British Q-ships trawling smacks Nelson and Ethel & Millie are sunk by UC63.
16
Western Front: Allies attack on a nine-mile front between Lens and the Menin Road and crossing the Steenbeek River. They advance half a mile and take Langemarck.
19
Italian Front: Start of the Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo when the Italians cross the river and take Austrian positions. They attack on a 30-mile front between Carso and the sea. They push forward 25 miles and take 7,500 Austrain prisoners.
20
Western Front: Third Battle of Verdun starts as the French advance 1.25 miles as they assault an 11-mile front.
26
Italian Front: On the Southern Front almost the entire Bainsizza Plateau is held by Italians.
28
Western Front: At Verdun the French have resumed all the ground they have lost since the great German attack in February 1916.
Unarmed workers in Petrograd being mown down by machine-gun fire during the abortive workers rising, ‘The July Days’, of 1917.
British gunners try to pull an 18-pounder field-gun stuck in the thick mud near Zillebeke, during the British offensive in Flanders in 1917.
American troops marching down Piccadilly, London, 14 August 1917.
29
Politics: Pope Benedict’s peace plea is finally rejected by President Wilson.
SEPTEMBER
Germans take Riga in the east
September 1917
The Russian Army is beaten into submission as the Germans inexorably advance toward Russia. Political crisis erupts in Russia as the republic is declared. The fighting at Ypres resumes in intensity.
1
Eastern Front: Germany takes the northernmost end of the Russian front in the Riga offensive. Captures Riga by using new tactics based on lightning assault.
Western Front: Pershing establishes his general headquarters at Chaumont.
2
Western Front: Start of numerous German air-raids on London and south-east England that last all month.
3
Eastern Front: Riga captured by Germans as the Russians are finally forced to evacuate the city blowing up bridges and forts as they go. The Germans claim to take many thousands of prisoners.
10
Russian Revolution: Kerensky becomes dictator of Russia.
An Australian Lewis gun team and a trench mortar enjoying a period of comparative quiet during the third battle of Ypres.
14
Politics: Paul Painleve becomes French premier, succeeding Ribot.
15
Russian Revolution: A Provisional Council of five proclaim Russia a republic led by Kerensky and a new war cabinet is formed.
20
Politics: Costa Rica breaks with Germany.
21
United States: General Tasker H. Bliss named Chief of Staff of the United States Army.
26
Western Front: East of Ypres the positions of Zonnebeke, Polygon Wood, and Tower Hamlets are taken by British.
29
Mesopotamia: Turkish Mesopotamian army, under Ahmed Bey, is captured by British.
OCTOBER
German Caparetto offensive on Italian Front
October 1917
The Battle for Ypres still continues. The final battle of the Isonzo sees the Italian fighting spirit broken as the Austro-German forces overwhelm their lines.
3
United States: U.S. War Revenue Act authorizes graduated income tax.
6
Politics: Peru breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany.
7
Politics: Uruguay breaks o
ff diplomatic relations with Germany.
During the night of 4 September 1917 a German bomb dropped on the Embankment, London, chipped and damaged Cleopatra’s Needle and Sphinxes.
Durham Light Infantry signallers in the line near Veldhoek in September 1917. They are equipped with a telescope and Morse signalling apparatus.
9
Africa: In East Africa Belgian troops occupy the German HQ of Mahenge.
Middle East: The Sultan of Egypt Hussein Kamel dies and is succeeded by his youngest brother Ahmed Fuad.
Western Front: Third phase of the Third Battle of Ypres. Poelcapelle and other German positions captured in Franco-British attack.