Western Front
Kaiserschlacht: Unternehmung Georgette, known in the west as
Battles of the Lys or the
German Lys Offensive: Violent artillery fire from Avre river to Albert, followed by heavy infantry attacks at Albert and in region between Somme and Avre.
US 1st Division enters line opposite Cantigny (west of Montdidier) between French IX and VI Corps.
Paris raided by one aeroplane, which is brought down.
Naval aircraft bomb docks at Zeebrugge and Ostend.
Paul Frank Baer becomes the first American serving in the U.S. military to become a flying ace:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...407170319421440
Special dispatch from Sir Douglas Haig mentions 14 divisions: 102 German divisions employed against British alone during great offensive.
Eastern Front
Finish Civil War: Finnish Western White Army reported to have reached Russian frontier.
Southern Front
Albania: Durazzo bombed by British Naval aircraft:- only one warship seen in harbor.
Naval and Overseas Operations
North Sea: LAST GERMAN HIGH SEAS FLEET SORTIE (until April 24). Vain bid from 0500 hours, initially undetected (Scheer eliminates radio traffic), to attack British Norwegian convoys (81 ships off Forth nowhere near Norwegian waters). Hipper finds nothing, sends back battlecruiser
Moltke with engine trouble (40 miles southwest of Stavanger). Distress signal (April 24) alerts Room 40 and Grand Fleet’s 35 capital ships (including 4 US battleships) plus 111 cruisers and destroyers put to sea from Rosyth in record 1 1/2 hours. Battleship
Oldenburg takes
Moltke in tow but she is torpedoed by British submarine
E.42 on April 25 before she and whole fleet of 17 battleships re-enter harbor.
A late sortie by the German High Seas Fleet as the ‘
Bayern’ class battleship on the right has a mainmast and all have landed their torpedo nets. The Germans successfully preserved the greater part of their battle fleet as a ‘fleet-in-being’, tying down the superior strength of the British:
https://i1.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...lasse.jpg?ssl=1
Kaiser Wilhelm inspecting a Mole at Zeebrugge, Belgium damaged by British submarine
C.3:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...346766327275520
Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Palestine: War Office reports progress in Hejaz.
Armenia: Bayazid occupied by Turks.
Political, etc
Austria-Hungary: Hungarian Prime Minister Dr Sandor Werkerle says Emperor’s peace letter had German agreement.
Russia: Russian Bolshevik Government issue protest against union of Bessarabia and Rumania (see 9th and 16th, and December 10th).
United Kingdom: Major-General Tom Bridges, appointed to Military Adviser to Lord Reading in U.S.
Canada: Newfoundland: Conscription Bill introduced.
Ireland: Ireland launches a general strike to protest the British government’s decision to extend military conscription to the Irish.
Minor Allies: Guatemala declares war on Germany (see April 27th, 1917).