Western Front
Second Battle of the Somme: Second Battle of Bapaume (until September 3): Battle on 23-mile front; Canadian Forces of First Army, supported by tanks, break through Drocourt-Queant "Switch" line, (Wotan sector of Siegfried (Hindenburg Line)) in 4 hours from 0500 hours: 1st and 4th Divisions (7 Victoria Crosses won) break through and reach open country except on extreme left, 57 tanks in support. Advance defeats 11 German divisions south of Scarpe, capture Cagnicourt and Villers, encircle and take Queant by nightfall; 10,000 prisoners.
In Lys sector British also gain ground, and north of Peronne, where Sailly-Sallisel and whole of St. Pierre-Vaast Wood re-taken.
General Mangin continues advance north of Soissons, captures Neuilly and Terny Sorny.
Ludendorff issues order for second phased retirement to 4 armies shortly after 1400 hours – in south to main 10-mile deep Hindenburg position, in north behind and along Canal du Nord (average fall back of 13 miles). BEF has advanced average of 14 miles on 26-mile front since August 21, taken 46,241 PoWs for c.89,000 casualties, defeated 66 German divisions (c.115,600 casualties in total). Foch, Petain and Pershing meet.
Canadian troops march forward to attack the Hindenburg Line:
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Western Front, Air: JG3 destroys 26 Allied aircraft without loss, but up to 90 RAF single-seaters strafe ahead of Canadian Corps. British lose 36 aircraft (including 4 Sopwith Camel fighters of US No 148 Squadron) and 13 balloons, claim 8 German. Germans claim 50 Allied aircraft for loss of 6.
Germany: 5 Handley Page bombers inflict damage of 400,000 Reichsmark on Saarbrücken’s Burbach works (night September 2-3).
A chaplain conducts service in the nacelle of a F.E.2b night bomber: © IWM (Q 12109):
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The ruins of Bailleul after it was recaptured by the Allies:
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German workers, including women and children, inside an airplane factory: © IWM (Q 110343):
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British soldiers shave inside a shell hole near Kemmelberg, Belgium: © IWM (Q 72619):
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American artillery in action at Beaumont, France:
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Canadians on the advance as German artillery lands nearby:
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Eastern Front
Russia: Red Terror declared (Petrograd Cheka announce 512 executed). Red Revolutionary Military Council formed with Trotsky Chairman. SOVNARKOM accuse anglo-french representatives of plotting.
North Russia: Italian battalion lands at Murmansk.
North Caucasus: Bicherakov occupies Petrovsk. Muslim Chechen overthrow Shura Soviet on September 3.
Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Siberia: Czechs from Lake Baikal join Semyonov at Manchuria Station. US Major-General Graves lands at Vladivostok.
Naval and Overseas Operations
North Sea: Kurt Beilzen ‘
the man who killed Lord Kitchener’ killed when his U-102 is sunk by mines off Northern Barrage.
Britain: Weymss indicates to Beatty that new German naval cipher broken.