30 December 1917
 

Western Front
Cambrai: South of Marcoing British regain portions of Welsh Ridge. However, a German attack at Cambrai retakes British lines on a two-mile front and captures several hundred prisoners, further reversing the gains the British had made there last month.
Canadian soldiers walking in the snow: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...813117815840768

Southern Front
Piave: Heavy snows in the Alps halt infantry actions at the front in Italy, slowing down the German and Austro-Hungarian offensive.
French 47th Division (259 casualties) recaptures Mt Tomba in 25 minutes with nearly 1,564 PoWs. Austrians forced to evacuate Zenso bend bridgehead, Lower Piave. And also storm Austrian trenches east of M. Grappa.
Salonika: Sir R Ross urges the minimum of 15,000 British malaria cases be sent home; 9,000 repatriated by April 30, 1918.
Padua again bombed.
Austro-Hungarian dressing station on the Italian Front: https://i2.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...front.jpg?ssl=1

Naval and Overseas Operations
Troopship H.M.S. Aragon torpedoed in Mediterranean, by SM UC-34 with the loss of 610 lives. British destroyer Attack mined and sunk off Alexandria by UC-34 while rescuing survivors of torpedoed troopship Aragon (610 lost). Fleet auxiliary Osmanieh sinks on another mine on December 31 (198 lives lost). https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...126406869286913

Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
British defence of Jerusalem ends (see 26th). British continue advance north; take Bethel, etc.
Turkish casualties since December 27: over 1,558 (558 PoWs) and 9 MGs vs British EEF of 1,360 soldiers, 1 armored car and 2 MGs. Total Turkish losses since October 31, 1917: 28,443.

Political, etc
United States: Tuskegee Institute releases report that 38 African Americans were lynched in the United States this year.

31 December 1917
 

Western Front
A limited British attack takes 1,018 PoWs and 4 guns. Renewed German attacks on Welsh Ridge repulsed.
183,896 AEF (American Expedition Force) personnel now in Europe.
An American troopship has docked in a French port: https://i1.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...reich.jpg?ssl=1
A British soldier looking at the ruins of the Ypres cathedral: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...201904584609793
British horses pulling a dummy tank near the front to fool German planes: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...520302887723008
Canadian soldiers having a meal outside their dugout: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...535375647506432

Eastern Front
Civil war raging in Russia; large numbers of officers have joined General Alexei Kaledin.

Southern Front
Austrians forced to abandon bridgehead in Zenson bend.
Austrians bomb Treviso, Vicenza, Castelfranco and Bassano.

Naval and Overseas Operations
North Sea: British 1917 Dutch convoys (1,031 ships) lose only 6 ships, but escorts lose 5 destroyers, 9 damaged, and 1 cruiser damaged in collision (520 lives lost).
Baltic: Russians have laid annual record of 13,418 mines.
Allied and neutral December shipping losses to U-boats: 160 ships (76 British, 520 lives lost) worth 382,060t (U-boat figure 411,766t including 148,331t in Mediterranean; 8 U-boats lost, only 2 in Mediterranean). 3,680 portable hydrophone sets now in British service.
Mozambique: ”Progress” reported in East Africa.

Political, etc
Russia: Bolshevik supporters in Petrograd march in the streets to celebrate the ongoing peace negotiations with the Central Powers.
Soviet Government issues a decree recognizing the independence of Finland. Finland declared independence from Russia on December 6th.
France: Elections postponed for duration. Stamp duty on purchases over 10 francs.
French artist Jules Arthur Joet’s painting an equestrian portrait of Field Marshal Douglas Haig, commander of the British Expeditionary Force: © IWM (Q 10195): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...505172426776577
United Kingdom: Lowest working days lost since April. Now 217,000 allotments in urban areas.
Lord Rhondda issues model rationing scheme. Sugar is also restricted to half a pound a week.
United States: (Listed for yesterday): U.S. Justice Department sets February 4 as the date when all German men of fighting age without US citizenship must register with the government and carry a special identification card.
Army strength 485,250; National Guard 416,031; National Army 480,000; Reserve 157,225.
Switzerland: Anglo-Turkish agreement for exchange of prisoners signed at Berne.

1 January 1918
 

Western Front
German raids near Loos, Mericourt, Beaumont and on other portions of front fail.
German troops again advance at Cambrai against British lines, taking 450 prisoners.
Flanders: BEF strength 1,907,906 (1,192,668 on January 3, 1917). British 4th Tank Brigade formed.
Verdun: French repulse raid at Beaumont, and Chaume Wood flamethrower attack (January 12 and 13), make successful raid to southeast on January 16. Max von Gallwitz in command of Army Group for duration of war.
In January RFC No 19 Squadron first to receive Sopwith Dolphin high-altitude fighter, No 141 Squadron at Rochford, Essex gets and crashes one but used only as day fighter.
Britain: Total air defences have 376 aircraft, 469 anti-aircraft guns, 622 searchlights, 258 height-finders and 10 sound locators.

Eastern Front
German soldiers toasting the New Years. The sign reads, “Comrades in the East already drink for peace.” © IWM (Q 88021): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...900254300573696

Southern Front
The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) in Salonika is re-equipped with Royal Aircraft Factory SE5As, Bristol Monoplanes and Sopwith Camels to replace the Nieuport 27s previously operating in this theatre. This marked the beginning of British air supremacy on this Salonika front.
Austrians bomb Bassano, Treviso and Mestre (Venice).
Successful British raid across Piave river.
Austrians driven from Zenson.

Naval and Overseas Operations
H.M.S. Arbutus and Grive (small vessels) reported torpedoed.
Britain: Depth charge production up to 4,647 per month, escorts armed with 30-40 each, use 1,745 per month from June.
Germany: Now 21 German MTBs in service, 14 in Flanders.
Channel: Vice-Admiral Roger Keyes takes over Dover Patrol from Admiral Reginald Bacon.
Biscay: Acting on Room 40 intercepts, armed boarding steamer HMS Duke of Clarence captures Spanish ship Erro Berro (sinks in tow) before she transfers wolfram (ore-producing tungsten) to 2 U-boats which are ambushed unsuccessfully.
Mediterranean: 2 U-boat Flotillas formed, 1st at Pola, 2nd at Cattaro, 7-8 boats on operations in January, including coastal subamrines UB-49 and UB-48 together.
Baltic: Estimated 40,000 sailors have left Russian Fleet for home or interior land fighting.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Arab forces begin Actions for Et Tafile (see 28th).
British advance continues north of Jerusalem.

Political, etc
Austria-Hungary: In January door locks and latches being removed for metal.
Poster calling on the population to support arms production by delivering metal objects: https://i1.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...cling.jpg?ssl=1
Germany: Kaiser Wilhelm in his New Year’s address: “Trusting in our righteous cause and in our strength, we face the year 1918 with firm confidence and iron will. Therefore, forward with God to fresh deeds and fresh victories!”
In January 2.3m exempted workers, half Field Army eligible.
During January Fokker wins first competition to find obsolescent Albatros fighter replacement.
Russia: Reported German peace term cause consternation in Russia and denounced as annexationist.
France: Inter-allied War Purchases Committee meets in Paris.
In January Seine freezes over for first time in 120 years.
Eastern France: Germans exact 92 million francs from Lille (until October 17).
United Kingdom: M. Litvinov appointed Bolshevik Plenipotentiary in London.
RFP 106%, up 10% during 1917. Sugar rationing (1/2 lb per person per week) plus compulsory
meatless day (two from January 25). Local lard rationing of 2 oz per person per week for 1.5 million people.
British government announces it will house the Air Board offices at the British Museum. This results in controversy and protests, as it would make the museum a military target.
India: Calcutta: All-India Moslem Association formed.
Turkey: 40,594 non-military 1918 deaths in capital (22,244 in 1914)
Belgium: M. Paul Hymans succeeds Baron de Broqueville as Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs (see August 4th, 1917).

2 January 1918
 

Western Front
British repulse raid near La Bassee.

Eastern Front
Brest-Litovsk: All-Russian Board formed for organizing Red Army. Kaiser in Berlin discusses new Russian frontier with Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff.

Southern Front
Austrians bomb Castelfranco, Veneto (west of Treviso); Italians claim they hit hospitals.

Political, etc
Germany: Erich Ludendorff and Carl Hoffmann (effective Eastern Front commander as CoS) part company over latter’s plan to retain only small part of Poland.
Russia: Central Committee of Soviets meets to receive reports of Peace pourparlers. German conditions denounced.
United Kingdom: An Order in Council defines the composition and duties of members of the Air Council and a separate Air Ministry is formed in London.
In January Royal Flying Corps stops enlisting American citizens.
King gives Haig his Field Marshal’s baton at Buckingham Palace, latter urges clear war aims be announced to BEF.
Canada: Newfoundland: Sir E. Morris, Prime Minister, resigns.
United States: U.S.: Statement showing result of American War Mission in Europe issued; urges speedy troop dispatch and merchant ship building; first 100 of 1,500 US farm tractors en route to France.
Outlook magazine article denounces anti-German hysteria especially forced flag kissing.
Stars and Stripes: In the US war loans are provided: https://i2.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...ripes.jpg?ssl=1

3 January 1918
 

Western Front
Allied air raids on Metz district.
South of Lens British line is advanced slightly.
Alsace: French repulse attack near Anspach with heavy loss.
South African ace Lieutenant Beauchamp-Proctor scores first of 54 victories.
A Bristol Fighter prepares for a mission on a wintry day: https://i0.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...y-day.jpg?ssl=1
British soldiers marching through the destroyed village of Metz-en-Couture, France: © IWM (Q 8385): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...187165233643521
British soldiers practicing a pantomime of “Cinderella” at Bapaume: © IWM (Q 8378): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...247565094588417

Eastern Front
Brest-Litovsk: Ukrainian delegation arrives. Bolsheviks propose moving talks to Stockholm (Central Powers refuse on January 9).

Southern Front
Austrians bomb Treviso and Padua.
British and French troops in Italy successfully carry out raids across the Piave River, capturing Austro-Hungarian and German prisoners.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Palestine: Royal Flying Corps bomb airfields at El Afule and Jenin (until January 4).

Political, etc
Russia: Sir J. Buchanan, British Ambassador in Petrograd, granted leave of absence (that is, recalled).
France: French novelist Georges Lecomte proposes that the French families should adopt American soldiers for the duration of the war to forge closer ties between the two nations.
United Kingdom: (Listed for yesterday): Edward Burnett Tylor, English anthropologist who founded the subfield of cultural anthropology, passed away: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...172051088658432
The first Air Council is formed and Harold Harmsworth, Lord Rothermere is appointed the first Secretary of State for the Air Force (re-titled Secretary of State for Air from March 1918). Hugh Trenchard first Chief of Air Staff.
Man-power Conference between Government and Trades Unions addressed by Sir A. Geddes.
British Labour Party proposes that the national minimum wage, democratic control of industry, reform of national finance, and use of surplus wealth for the common good be instituted after the war.
Spain: King Alfonso of Spain signs a decree dissolving the government. Elections will be held on February 24.

4 January 1918
 

Western Front
Further British air raid on Metz district.
British naval aircraft bomb Ghistelles aerodrome near Ghent.
Flanders: U-boat Flotilla has 29 boats (loses 24 subs in 1918).
A German U-boat is leaving the base: https://i2.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...uboot.jpg?ssl=1

Southern Front
Austrians bomb Mestre, Bassano and Castelfranco.

Naval and Overseas Operations
British hospital ship Rewa sunk by submarine in Bristol Channel by U-55; 4 lives lost.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Palestine: Edmund Allenby telegram insists on consolidation and capturing Jericho as EEF advances another mile north of Jerusalem.

Political, etc
United Kingdom: British Government in message to the King of the Hejaz declare intentions with regard to future status of Palestine; i. e. that Palestine must have special regime. (see December 17th, 1917 and February 4th, 1918).
Lloyd George warns of food shortages, stating Britain must feed itself. Lord Rhondda, British Food Controller, says that compulsory rationing is necessary: “You have only to tighten your belt.”
Canada: The first group of Canadian men chosen by the draft report for military service.
Japan: A girl selling artificial flowers in Tokyo for victims of storms and floods: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...884239017218050
Finland: Russian Bolshevik Government and French and Swedish Governments recognise the independence of Finland (see 10th and December 6th, 1917).
Netherlands: Allied request for handing over of Dutch ships in Allied ports formulated (see March 7th).

5 January 1918
 

Western Front
Cambrai: A claims that strong German attacks on British positions east of Bullecourt repulsed; also two raids near Hollebeke.
However, another source says: On the Western Front, clear weather and frozen ground lead to resumptions of infantry attacks, with German troops capturing British lines east of Bullecourt.
Ypres: German raid repulsed.
British bomb Conflans station.
German stormtroopers undergo realistic training by advancing through a cloud of gas: https://i2.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...uppen.jpg?ssl=1
Germany: 5 Navy airships (L-46, L-47, L-59, L-58 and SL-20) destroyed by explosions and fire at Ahlhorn (petrol fire under L-59 rear gondola likely, or possibly sabotage), 15 dead.
Men of the 15th Battalion, Royal Scots manning a Lewis gun in the trenches at Croisilles, France: © IWM (Q 10609): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...005049501552640

Eastern Front
Negotiations again suspended on Russian front.

Southern Front
Artillery activity from Asiago to Adriatic and aerial activity on whole front.
Italy: 74 Royal Flying Corps aircraft serviceable, later 1918 strength varies from 65 to 91.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Palestine: Lt.-Col. R. Storrs made Governor of Jerusalem.
Aden: British make strong reconnaissance towards Hatum and Jabir and destroy the former.

Political, etc
France: Permits for U.S. soldiers in France to visit Paris are curtailed in the interests of “temperance and morality.”
United Kingdom: Mr. Lloyd George addresses Man-power Conference on War Aims. Envisages peace based on moral principle and League of Nations war alternative. No intention of molesting Turk homelands, Straits to be internationalized. (IOW, Turkey to be dismembered, despite claim of not ‘molesting’ Turkish homelands). The actual text is here: https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/P...tish_War_Aim s
Canada: Newfoundland: Mr. Lloyd forms new Cabinet.
Turkey: Turkey communicates peace terms to Russia.
Italy: (Listed for yesterday): The Pope protests the Central Powers’ bombing of Padua, Italy due to the loss of life and the damages caused to priceless works of art and architecture.
Finland: Germany also formally recognizes the independence of Finland from Russia. Then, Greece recognizes the independence of Finland from Russia, becoming the 5th government to do so.
Spain: Spain announces it has dismissed 1500 soldiers and officers from its Army for planning a coup.

6 January 1918
 

Western Front
British troops recapture lines near Bullecourt taken by the Germans yesterday, but German troops capture French trenches on the Aisne and Verdun fronts.
British soldiers using a collapsed water tower at Riencourt as their billet: © IWM (Q 8392): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...352333720375297
German fighter ace Walter von Bülow-Bothkamp, who has 28 aerial victories, is killed in action near Ypres: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...625372320071680

Southern Front
Patrol actions between Brenta and Piave rivers.
Austro-Hungarian patrols active north of Costalunga.
Albania: Italians repulse large Austro-Hungarian detachments on Osum river.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Arabia: Arabs raid Hejaz railway south of Maan; Nasir’s 300 Arabs with 1 gun capture Jurf-ed-Derawish Station with over 200 Turks 30 miles north of Maan.
Turkish Arab cavalry on the march: https://i1.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...b-cav.jpg?ssl=1

Political, etc
Austria-Hungary: Czech Prague Convention demands sovereign state.
Germany: German socialists denounce German government demands of territory from Soviet Russia. They instead urge no annexations and to uphold the principle of self-determination.
Russia: British agent Major Banting reports ‘On all sides German agents are appearing … buying up existing stocks’.
Lenin takes Finland holiday until January 11.
Finland: Independence of Finland recognized by France.

7 January 1918
 

Western Front
Cambrai: Germans raid British post near Flesquieres. Another raid near Ypres repulsed.
Meuse: French repulse German attempts at Bethincourt.
Britain: BEF GHQ Intelligence analysis ‘If Germany attacks and fails, she will be ruined.’
British soldiers enjoying coffee supplied by the YMCA near Ypres: © IWM (Q 8398): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...987752153636870

Eastern Front
Leon Trotsky and Russian peace delegates return to Brest-Litovsk and negotiations continue.

Naval and Overseas Operations
Channel: U-95 (Athalwin Prinz) rammed by sunk by steamer SS Breaneil after sinking 14 ships (37,930t) since mid-1917.
Mozambique: Main body Gold Coast Regiment (500 + 300 carriers) lands at Port Amelia. British column from Fort Johnston engages German-aligned force and drives it northwards.
German Askaris of the ‘Schutztruppe’. They have a wide mixture of uniforms and equipment: https://i1.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...karis.jpg?ssl=1

Political, etc
Germany: German mathematician Georg Cantor, known for inventing set theory, passed away: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...670674553016323
King Ludwig of Bavaria at his birthday reception declares, “Not an inch of German territory will be give up.”
United Kingdom: Lord Reading appointed High Commissioner to U.S.
British War Office claims a total of 114,544 Central Powers prisoners and 781 artillery guns on all fronts were captured in 1917. In turn, 28,379 British soldiers and 166 artillery guns were captured by the Central Powers.
Italy: Italy calls on all men aged 18 to 44 previously exempted from the draft to present themselves for examination again in order to conscript more manpower.
Portugal: Naval mutiny in Lisbon arrested.

8 January 1918
 

Western Front
Cambrai: Strong German local attack near Bullecourt repulsed.
Woevre: French make successful raid on large scale near Seicheprey. Legion (141 casualties) brings back 188 PoWs, 16 MGs and 9 mortars.
Sir Douglas Haig's fourth dispatch published. This covers the Battles of Arras, ‘Lens’, Messines and Third Ypres in previous summer, makes the utterly fantastical claim of 131 German divisions defeated.
Philippe Pétain writes to Georges Clemenceau ‘In reality, the 1918 battle will be defensive…‘. He and Haig present strategy together on January 24 and 30, only choice until US arrives in strength.
British soldiers marching through the snow-covered ruins of Ypres: © IWM (Q 8413): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...371557842530305

Eastern Front
Brest-Litovsk: Talaat Pasha arrives to join talks.
German officers meeting with Soviet delegates at Brest-Litovsk to negotiate a peace treaty. The delegates, from right to left, are Leon Trotsky, Lev Karakhan, and Adolph Joffe. © IWM (Q 70777): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...078349749248000

Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Persia: Qasr-i-Shirin occupied by British forces (see July 8th, 1917).

Political, etc
Russia: Russian Bolshevik Government withdraw demand for transfer to Stockholm and resume negotiations at Brest-Litovsk (see 5th and 22nd).
Australia: Mr. Billy Hughes and Nationalist Cabinet resign.
United States: President Wilson delivers Message to Congress laying down the "Fourteen Points" (see February 11th). Office of Public Information distributes all over Europe. French Parliament adopts it on January 11. The Fourteen Points are to be found herer: http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1324.html
Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) attempted to invite the European nations into the League of Nations, but was no supported by the Congress, and was subsequently defeated in the 1920 elections: https://i1.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...ilson.jpg?ssl=1
Mississippi becomes the first state to ratify the 18th amendment, which establishes prohibition of alcohol in the U.S.

9 January 1918
 

Western Front
Successful raid by Canadians south of Lens.
British soldiers trying to get a car out of a snow-filled ditch: © IWM (Q 8407): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...401750967734272

Eastern Front
Brest-Litovsk: Russo-German negotiations at Brest-Litovsk.
South Russia: White Volunteer Army manifesto by Lavr Kornilov and Mikhail Alexeiev pledges resistance to Reds and Germans.

Naval and Overseas Operations
H.M.S. Racoon founders in snowstorm off coast of Scotland: all hands lost.
North Sea: Royal Navy destroyers Opal and Narbrough wrecked on rocky Pentland Skerries off Scotland (12 resp 1 survivor from 180).
Western Mediterranean: Convoy escort sloop HMS Cyclamen sinks coastal submarine UB-69 with high-speed paravane off Bizerta.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
War Office announces further Arab activity on Hejaz railway.
Mozambique: Hawthorn’s 3 KAR battalions drive Göring Detachment (3 coys) to east bank of river Lugenda and take Luambala from it on January 15.
A light field gun of the German Schutztruppe fires: https://i1.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...ruppe.jpg?ssl=1

Political, etc
Russia: Bolsheviks issue appeal for volunteers to march against "Bourgeoisie of the world".
United Kingdom: Beatty memo establishes new Grand Fleet strategy of containing Scheer in his bases rather than fighting at any cost (Cabinet approves on January 18).
Australia: Mr. Hughes forms new ministry.

10 January 1918
 

Western Front
Britain: Supreme War Council recommend BEF take over more of French sector, and creation of general Allied reserve (January 23). British War Office orders reduction in battalions per division from 12 to 9 thus disbanding 141 battalions and 2 cavalry divisions until March 10 to compensate for insufficient reinforcements (200,000 instead of 615,000 requested).
Somme: British Fifth Army relieves French in St Quentin sector (completed January 14).
Ypres: British trench raid takes prisoners and captures 2 machine guns.
Ammunition depot near Courtrai bombed.
British recruiting poster with the perished popular Secretary of War Kitchener: https://i2.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...t-you.jpg?ssl=1
(Listed for yesterday): German ace Max Ritter von Müller, who is credited with 36 victories and is the highest scoring Bavarian pilot, is killed in action over Belgium: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...764148161380352

Eastern Front
Brest-Litovsk: Central Powers and Bolsheviks recognize the Ukraine as separate state; latter to be represented at negotiations.
Don: Independent Republic declared under General Alexei Kaledin.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
General Stanley Maude's dispatch of 15 October 1917 issued.

Political, etc
United Kingdom: (Listed for yesterday): The British Air Board abandons plans to move its offices to the British Museum due to logistical difficulties and public protests that the move would make the museum a military target.
British Government assure Russian Bolshevik Government of their support in the creation of an independent Poland (see April 5th, 1917 and February 20th, 1918).
Board of Admiralty reconstituted, with Sir Eric Geddes as First Lord and Sir Rosslyn Wemyss as First Sea Lord.
House of Lords adopts Women's Suffrage clause.
Arthur Balfour’s Edinburgh speech: ‘the horrors of war… are nothing to... a German peace’,
Australia: Conscription Referendum: majority against - 165,000.
Italy: Italy bans the making and sale of cakes, pastry, and confectionery as a measure to conserve food supplies.
Romania: After request on January 6, 3 Romanian divisions cross river Pruth into Bessarabia, enter capital Kishinev on January 26.
United States: (Listed for yesterday): U.S. Cavalry engage with Yaquis warriors in the Battle of Bear Valley in Arizona, resulting in 1 Yaquis death and 9 captured. It is the last armed engagement between the US Army and Native Americans.
US War Cabinet at a meeting today: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...779251653070849
Finland: Danish and Norwegian Governments recognize the independence of Finland (see 4th).
Guyana: Arthur Chung (the 1st President of Guyana and first ethnic Chinese to become head of state in a non-Asian country) is born in Guyana.

Always those interesting little tidbits ... like Arthur Chung ... and the recognition of Finland by Denmark and Norway. This series is priceless. Thanks for all your work on it GG!

11 January 1918
 

Western Front
French raids in Argonne, Vosges and Champagne, German one fails south of Anmentieres.

Naval and Overseas Operations
Mozambique: Three columns of British troops pursuing Germans.

Political, etc
Russia: SOVNARKOM (Council of People's Commissars) orders all interest and dividend payments to cease.
France: Waiting for heating coal in Rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis in Paris: https://i2.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...lange.jpg?ssl=1
United States: U.S. Labor supports War Aims declarations.
The 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, which gives women the right to vote, passes the House of Representatives with the required two-thirds majority by a margin of 1 vote.

12 January 1918
 

Western Front
Northern France: British make successful raid at Loos and disperse four German raids south of Lens and east of Monchy.
Meuse: French repel flame attack on Chaume Wood.
The 1st Battalion of the Russian Legion in France, made up of members of the former Russian Expeditionary Force, head to the trenches of the Western Front.
British soldiers walking through the waterlogged fields near Ypres: © IWM (Q 8429): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...521717851250694

Eastern Front
Brest-Litovsk: (Listed for yesterday): Soviet Russia agrees to extend its armistice with the Central Powers for another month to negotiate a peace treaty at Brest-Litovsk.
(For today): Russo-German Peace Conference adjourns.

Southern Front
(Listed for yesterday): On the Italian front, German troops are forced to retreat from the area between the Piave and Brenta rivers due to heavy Italian artillery fire.

Naval and Overseas Operations
Pacific: First of three Japanese warships arrives at Vladivostok (Royal Navy cruiser Suffolk from Hong Kong on January 14) to ‘protect’ 600,000t of Allied supplies.
Couple of different sources claim that today, not 9 January is the date of the wrecking of British destroyers HMS Narborough and HMS Opal.
Mozambique: British column disembarks at Port Amelia, in what was then Portuguese East Africa.

Political, etc
Russia: Romanian Minister in Petrograd arrested by Bolsheviks.
Latvia: Latvia declares independence (see November 11th).
France: French War Department takes over all postal and telegraph services in the country.
United Kingdom: Officers pay put up to 10s 6d pd plus child allowances. Workers loot closed food shops in Leytonstone and Wembley.
An explosion occurs in the coal mine of Minnie Pit at Halmer End, England, resulting in 155 deaths: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...778359691837440
United States: (Listed for yesterday): US factories making corsets and covers for automobiles and carriages are ordered by the government to manufacture powder bags. This is the first time in the US during the war where factories are ordered to change production for war goods.
Employment Service organizes women’s division.
US Army institutes DSC (Distinguished Service Cross) and DSM (Distinguished Service Medal) decorations.
Read more at https://ww2-weapons.com/diary-janua...yf7ZcHL2vTzR.99 Medal of honor for the mothers of American soldiers: https://i0.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...medal.jpg?ssl=1

13 January 1918
 

Western Front
Raid by Canadians north of Lens.
British soldier using a mirror attached to his bayonet as a makeshift periscope: © IWM (Q 8434): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...900370913124354
British soldiers having a meal in a shell hole near Ypres: © IWM (Q 8441): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...144459998941184
U.S. soldiers in France are ordered not to swear at mules, as mules respond better to kindness than to “cusses.”

Southern Front
Italy: Italian Army has received 300,000 British gas masks.

Political, etc
Russia: Reds continue imprisonment of Romanian Ambassador Diamandi (released January 15 after diplomatic corps protest) and seize Rumanian gold in retaliation for Bessarabia takeover, also order King of Romania’s arrest on January 15.
Lenin and Stalin’s Decree No 13 in Pravda backs Armenian self-determination.
Estonia: Estonian Government issue declaration of independence (see November 28th, 1917 and February 25th and November 11th, 1918).
United States: Worst cold wave in 19 years hits the U.S., as well as multiple snowstorms, exacerbating the coal shortage plaguing the nation.
Norway: Sugar, coffee, corn and meal rationing.

14 January 1918
 

Western Front
British bomb successfully, by day, Karlsruhe, Thionville and Metz area.
French repulse attacks on Chaume Wood and make successful raid in Lorraine.
Canadian raid north of Lens, successfully destroying German positions and taking prisoners without casualties.

Eastern Front
Brest-Litovsk: Von Kuhlmann warns Russians that German terms have now reached extreme limit.

Southern Front
Italians advance east of Brenta Valley in Asolone District and to lesser extent in Piave Delta. Italian 22nd Infantry Division reaches Mt Asolone summit, taking 400 PoWs, but forced off until January 16.

Naval and Overseas Operations
German destroyers bombard Yarmouth (Norfolk); six killed, six injured.
Harwich Force (Reginald Tyrwhitt promoted Rear-Admiral today above 48 captains) sails within 90 minutes of shelling starting but unable to intercept until January 15.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Tafile, south-east of Dead Sea, captured by Hejaz troops.

Political, etc
Russia: Attempted assassination of Lenin at Petrograd, after he receives diplomatic corps, and speaks at departure of ‘first volunteers of the Socialist army’. Lenin is unhurt, but Fritz Platten, a Swiss Communist who forced Lenin to take cover from the fire, is slightly injured.
Soldiers of the socialist revolution. A relatively small party of 350,000 men should succeed in bringing a country with 150 million inhabitants under control: https://i0.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...ution.jpg?ssl=1
France: M. Joseph Caillaux arrested on treason charge of ‘peace intrigue’ with Germans during 1915 Argentina visit. Convicted on lesser grounds February 1920 and soon released.
United Kingdom: House of Commons reassembles. Sir A. Geddes introduces Man-power Bill. 420,000-450,000 men needed immediately.
Argentina: Allies sign wheat convention with Argentina.

15 January 1918
 

Western Front
Lorraine: US I Corps formed (General Hunter Liggett) at Neuf Chateau – 1st, 2nd, 26th and 42nd US Divisions.
US troops with Springfield rifles in front, probably from the ‘Rainbow’ division: https://i0.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...-1917.jpg?ssl=1
A British corporal manning a machine gun at night at Cambrai: © IWM (Q 6969): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...628907169189893

Eastern Front
Brest-Litovsk: Czernin receives Vienna’s appeals to make early ‘bread peace’.
British War Cabinet cables General Poole to destroy Allied military stores.

Southern Front
Austrian counter-attacks on new Italian positions are repulsed.
A small destroyed chapel on the Italian front near Romanziol: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...598709187039232
A church damaged by shelling at Tezze sul Brenta, Italy: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...930906624405504

Naval and Overseas Operations
Construction begins on the HMS Hermes, the first ship designed as an aircraft carrier, at Walker, England.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Considerable air and patrol activity in Palestine.
Amman (Hejaz railway) bombed.

Political, etc
Austria-Hungary: Strikes in Austria.
Russia: Bolsheviks issue 24 hours' ultimatum to Romania. Corps Diplomatique secure release of Ambassador. Arrest of King of Romania ordered by Bolsheviks
United Kingdom: Results of Cambrai enquiry published. British War Cabinet satisfied German counterstroke did not surprise BEF commanders, but admits ‘breakdown’.
Draft of compulsory rationing scheme issued to Control Committees.
Italy: Public schools in Venice, Italy reopen today. They were closed when the Austro-Hungarian and German offensive threatened the city last year.
United States: War labor administrator appointed.
Mexico: After January 15, US agent captures German spy Lothar Witzke (alias Russian Pablo Waberski) in Nogales. Sentenced to death in Texas, but commuted and freed 1923.
Egypt: Gamal Abdel Nasser (future President of Egypt) is born in Alexandria.

16 January 1918
 

Western Front
Verdun: Successful French raid.
British again bomb Metz.
Men of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers with their goat mascot near Sommes: © IWM (Q 10654): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...961112626036736

Eastern Front
Brest-Litovsk: Settlement in principle arrived at between Central Powers and Ukraine.

Southern Front
Austro-Hungarian attack on Italian positions at Cape Sile (lower Piave) repulsed with “heavy” loss.
A church damaged by shelling at Tezze sul Brenta, Italy: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...930906624405504

Naval and Overseas Operations
Spanish Commissioner guarantees all conditions were observed aboard Hospital ship Rewa.

Political, etc
Austria-Hungary: General strikes until January 21 over daily bread ration cut (7 1/2 oz to under 6oz) and Brest-Litovsk impasse involve nearly 100,000 workers in Lower Austria alone and Government taken by surprise. Spreads to Hungary on January 18.
Germany: Prussian Finance Minister Hergt declares sufficient American troops cannot reach Europe. Hindenburg letter removes Kaiser’s radical Civil Cabinet chief (for past 10 years) Graf von Valentini (who protests to Crown Prince).
Russia: CEC (Central Executive Committee of Bolshevik) adopts decree forming Red Army.
Soviet Russia sends an ultimatum to Romania demanding the release of detained Russians and punishment for Romanian officials who disarmed Russian troops.
United Kingdom: Committee of Enquiry into expenditure of Government Departments announced. Board of Trade and Munitions Ministry allowed to drill for oil.
United States: U.S. publishes documents referring to Caillaux case.
Fuel Administrator closes all non-war industry east of Mississippi for 5 days (January 18-22) plus nine Mondays to save moving coal.

17 January 1918
 

Western Front
(Listed for yesterday): French troops carry out a successful raid north of Badonviller in the Vosges, taking 40 German prisoners.
Canadian troops repairing a trench in Lens: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...320978381197317

Eastern Front
Brest-Litovsk: At Brest-Litovsk, Central Powers reject Soviet Russia’s proposal that armies of the Central Powers leave occupied areas before official peace is concluded.
Ukraine: Red Guard drive on Kiev begins, takes Poltava on January 18.

Naval and Overseas Operations
Light cruiser Köln II completed at Hamburg, first of projected 10-ship class, only 5 launched and one other, Rostock II completed on March 28.
Mozambique: British War Office announces progress in East Africa.

Political, etc
Austria-Hungary: Strikes and riots break out in Vienna due to reduced flour rations and the perceived lack of progress in the peace negotiations with Russia.
Emperor Charles cables Ottokar Czernin ‘If peace is not made at Brest-Litovks it will be revolution here, no matter how much there is to eat’.
Emperor Karl I and Empress Zita of Austria-Hungary with Crown Prince Franz Josef Otto: https://i2.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...-Zita.jpg?ssl=1
United Kingdom: House of Commons defeat a bill that would have extended conscription to Ireland by a vote of 136 to 48.
Romania: Romania ignores Soviet Russia's ultimatum from yesterday, heightening tensions between Romania and Russia soldiers still stationed in the country.

18 January 1918
 

Western Front
Major General Sir Hugh Trenchard is appointed as the first Chief of the Air Staff. He is succeeded as General Officer Commanding of the Royal Flying Corps in France, by Major General John Salmond.
German raids near Neuve Chapelle and Lens “repulsed”.

Eastern Front
Brest-Litovsk: Germany refuses undertaking to withdraw troops from Russia. Trotsky breaks off talks, envoys leave to confer at home on January 20.
A professional revolutionary heads for peace talks with a Prussian general. The Germans knew that Russia could not stop their armies, but Trotzky hoped for a revolution in Germany: https://i0.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...towsk.jpg?ssl=1

Southern Front
Italian patrols active on Asiago plateau.

Naval and Overseas Operations
HMS Cavendish (later HMS Vindictive), Royal Navy cruiser converted into an aircraft carrier, is launched. The ship later in the year after completion: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...714843428810752

Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Mesopotamia: Major-General Lionel Dunsterville arrives at Baghdad (left Karachi on January 6) to head British Mission to Caucasus.
Palestine: British advance at Dura, 12 miles north of Jerusalem.
British bomb Samaria.
Arabia: Arabs capture important Turkish convoy east of Medina.

Political, etc
Austria-Hungary: Hungary: Serious strikes in Budapest.
Russia: Bolsheviks send further two hours' ultimatum to Romania demanding passage of troops.
Constituent Assembly meets in Petrograd and denounces Bolsheviks.
United Kingdom: Mr. Lloyd George again addresses Man-power Conference.
Australia: Mr. Hughes' Government defeats "No confidence" vote.
United States: U.S. Senate votes to oppose a planned shutdown of factories tomorrow, which would temporarily put millions of Americans out of work. The shutdown is planned to conserve coal supplies.
Finland: Mannerheim, Army C-in-C since President Svinhufvud’s promise of no Swedish intervention on January 16, takes night train from Helsinki to West coast port of Vaasa.

Western Front
Raids and counter raids in Cambrai sector.
British soldiers stacking captured German helmets for disposal at Metz: © IWM (Q 8444):
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...956424547266560
Royal Field Artillery horses sheltered near a destroyed church in Ytres, France: © IWM (Q 8446): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...062126049619968
Squadron of British F.E.2b night bombers at Aire Aerodrome in France: © IWM (Q 11958): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...357806030782464

Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
British troops in Palestine advanced one mile on a four-mile front north of Jerusalem, taking Ottoman prisoners.

Political, etc
Austria-Hungary: Hungary: 86th Infantry Regiment mutinies at Szabadka, 2 other regiments likewise (February 11 and 14).
Hungarian War Loan appeal: https://i0.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...leihe.jpg?ssl=1
Germany: All passenger railroad traffic in Germany is reduced by 60 percent in order to free up capacity for the transport of soldiers and war-related materials.
Russia: Constituent Assembly forcibly dissolved by Bolsheviks.
United Kingdom: In Britain, it is announced that compulsory rationing will go into effect on February 25th.
Turkey: Mustaufi ul Mamalek succeeds Ain ed Douleh as Persian Prime Minister (see November 24th, 1917 and May 3rd, 1918).
Mushaver ul Mamalek succeeds Ala es Sultaneh as Persian Foreign Minister (see June 6th, 1917, and August 10th, 1918).

20 January 1918
 

Western Front
Two British officers struggling to get through the mud near Arras: © IWM (Q 10626): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...418233888657408

Eastern Front
Ukraine: French General Georges Tabouis vainly orders Czech Corps to cover Mogilev-Vinnitsa rail line against Germans.

Naval and Overseas Operations
Dardanelles: Naval action outside the Dardanelles. Turkish cruiser Midilli (ex-German Breslau) and British monitors Raglan and M28 sunk. Yavuz Sultan Selim (ex-German Goeben) strikes mines and is beached (see 27th). After 65 Royal Navy Air Service raids drop 180 bombs (2 hits), she is refloated and towed into Constantinople end of March. Admiral Calthorpe arrives at Mudros to direct operations on january 25.
SMS Goeben, before she was transferred to Turkish control at the beginning of World War I: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...659795407130625
English Channel: Sloop H.M.S. Mechanician torpedoed and sunk by UB-35.
North Sea: German torpedo boats A.73 & A.77 mined and sunk; destroyer S.16 likewise.

Political, etc
Austria-Hungary: (Listed for yesterday): General strike in Austria-Hungary grows, with hundreds of thousands of people stopping work to protest the continuation of war and cuts in rations.
(Listed for today): General strike in Austria-Hungary wanes, as people return to work. However, demonstrations continue in Bohemia and Moravia, fueled by rising Czech nationalism.
Russia: Russian politicians Fyodor Kokoshkin and Andrei Ivanovich Shingarev are murdered in a Petrograd hospital by pro-Bolshevik sailors. The Ministry of Justice later revealed that the murders had taken place with the connivance of the Bolshevik Red Guard and the Commandant of the Hospital, Stefan Basov, who justified the murder on the grounds that there would be 'two less bourgeois mouths to feed'. Basov was brought to trial and convicted, but none of the murderers was ever caught.

21 January 1918
 

Western Front
French trench raid in Argonne.
British bomb Thionville and Metz district. Royal Flying Corps bomb German Flanders airfields (and on January 23), Roulers (and on January 28), Menin, and Coutrai bombed (January 22).
Germany: Erich Ludendorff makes final decision to launch great spring offensive. D-Day to be March 14.
Lorraine: US 1st Division takes over 8 miles of trenches northwest of Nancy (first casualties January 30).
Flanders: Jan Smuts and Maurice Hankey visit GHQ (until Jnauary 26), find no alternative to Douglas Haig.
Paul von Hindenburg, Emperor Wilhelm II and Erich Ludendorff on the ordnance map: https://i2.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...dorff.jpg?ssl=1
German prisoners stacking trees in Eawy Forest, France, while members of the French Native Labor Corps watch over: © IWM (Q 10238): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...110264701177862

Southern Front
Salonika: 3 Royal Flying Corps aircraft fly to Mudros to share in bombing of battlecruiser Yavuz Sultan Selim (aka Goeben); 7 more aircraft sent on January 22 and 28, return on January 29.

Naval and Overseas Operations
Transport H.M.S. Louvain torpedoed and sunk in Mediterranean by UC-22, resulting in 224 deaths and 16 survivors.
Mozambique: War Office reports ‘further progress’ in East Africa.
British occupy Mwembe.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Mesopotamia: 12 Royal Flying Corps DH4s (1 lost to anti-aircraft guns) bomb German Kifri airfield. 2 German aircraft retaliate against Baghdad on January 24, Royal Flying Corps respond against Humr and Kifri airfields (night January 25-26).

Political, etc
Austria-Hungary: Strikes reported at an end, but 7 divisons permanently recalled from fronts and news leaks to Germany. Factory workers to get extra bread rations, at Army’s expense.
Germany: Germany announces agreement with Ukraine.
Emil Jellinek, an entrepreneur at the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (later Mercedes-Benz) who introduced the Mercedes 35hp car (named after his daughter), passed away: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...095162086215680
Russia: Lenin discusses German peace terms with 63 Red leaders, 32 vote for ‘revolutionary war’
France: Ex-Interior Minister Louis-Jean Malvy’s Senate trial (until August 6).
United Kingdom: Sir E. Carson resigns.
Daily Mail attacks General Staff for squandering Britain’s manpower.
Man-power Bill passes Committee stage.

I did not know where the name "Mercedes" came from. Just goes to prove that old saying, "Ya' learn something new every day!" Thanks.

22 January 1918
 

Western Front
German trench raids near St. Quentin and La Bassee.
Much British bombing at Roulers, Menin and Courtrai.

Eastern Front
Brest-Litovsk: Russian Bolshevik Government accuse Central Powers of falsification of reports of proceedings (see 8th and 23rd).
Battle of Galati: Romanian troops defeat Russian troops in the country, forcing them to surrender and disarm. The battle was the first time in this war where formerly allied countries purposefully fought each other.

Naval and Overseas Operations
Adriatic: German and arsenal workers at Pola strike (until January 27) worsening U-boat repair situation (up to 17 per day), although leaders sacked.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Samaria again bombed.
Hejaz Railway: Arabs repulsed from Mudauwara Station despite 3 Royal Flying Corps attacks by 3 planes.

Political, etc
Austria-Hungary: A claim that the resignation of von Seidler (Austrian Prime Minister) took place; but this makes no sense, as numerous other sources list Ernst von Seidler as serving until July, 1918, and giving his actual title of Minister-President of Cisleithanien.
Ottokar Czernin back in Vienna asks permission to make separate peace if necessary, Austria has only two months grain.
Germany: Food distribution to the German civilian population in the last year of the war: https://i2.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...sgabe.jpg?ssl=1
France: French government announces it will cut bread rations, starting on the 29th, due to the need to feed arriving U.S. soldiers.
United Kingdom: First meeting of Allied Naval Council in London, including Admirals Ferdinand de Bon and Paolo Revel; agenda including neutral waters and potential fear of Germans seizing Russian Black Sea Fleet.
Basil Thomson (Special Branch) reports ‘a decided increase in letters for an immediate peace’.
Japan: Prime Minister Count Terauchi warns Russia that Japan will intervene in Eastern Asia “if necessary.”
United States: U.S War Department announces it will introduce limited usage of the metric system on maps and on ranges for machine guns and artillery.

23 January 1918
 

Western Front
Germans occupy trenches east of Nieuport (Belgian Coast) after heavy bombardment. French restore position later.
British bomb aerodromes at Courtrai and Ghent.
Champagne: French trench raid east of Auberive.

Eastern Front
Brest-Litovsk: Negotiations between Russian Bolshevik Government and Central Powers once more suspended (see 8th, 22nd and 30th). M. Leon Trotsky declares policy of Central Powers to be "a monstrous annexation".

Southern Front
Otto von Below’s German Fourteenth Army headquarter closes.
General Otto von Below of the German 14th Arnym who led the attack against the Italians during the successful Battle of Caporetto. He is now needed on the Western Front: https://i2.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...Below.jpg?ssl=1

Naval and Overseas Operations
Action between a British submarine and three German submarines reported from Canary Islands.
Britain: Royal Navy convoy sloops and 20 PC patrol boats (based at Pembroke) no longer to be used as Q-ships (had sailed regularly with convoys but as Q-ships since October 1917).

Political, etc
Russia: Rioting with much bloodshed in Moscow.
Congress of Soviets meets in Petrograd.
British form Allied Petrograd Trade Barter Co to stop supplies falling to Germans. Kerensky reaches Helsinki from Petrograd.
Ukraine: Ukrainian Central Rada proclaims the complete independence of the Ukrainian People’s Republic from Russia: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...524242891837441
France:
United Kingdom: Public Meals Order issued.
Average daily expenditure: 7.5 millions.
Appointment of Sir H. Lawrence to be Chief of the General Staff, France, vice Sir L. Kiggell; other H.Q. appointments announced.
New Army officers to be employed more in staff and higher ranks.
Labour Party Conference meets in Nottingham.
Signor Vittorio Orlando, Italian Prime Minister, arrives in London.
United States: A 5-day shutdown of U.S. industries, caused by coal shortages, ends today, but the nation still faces fuel supply problems.

24 January 1918
 

Western Front
Great aerial activity in Flanders: Courtrai, Ledeghem and Douai bombed.
Air raids into Germany on Mannheim, Treves and Thionville.
French repulse trench raids north of Aisne river and at Caurieres Wood.
American Marines training to dig a trench in France: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...856437628063744
Men of the Indian Labour Corps carrying large saws at a forestry camp in Lyon, France: © IWM (Q 8497): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...871536384274432
Men of the Gordon Highlanders next the ruins of Arras Cathedral: © IWM (Q 7263): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...174800623472641

Eastern Front
Crimea: Red Guards take Feodosia and Yalta, suppress Tartar counter-revolt.

Southern Front
Italy reports that German and Austro-Hungarian troops have withdrawn from trenches around Monte Tomba. Italians occupy Austrian advanced post at Capo Sile.

Naval and Overseas Operations
Naval aircraft continue to bomb Yavuz Sultan Selim (aka Goeben).
Mozambique: German post at Pamuni Hill taken.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Mesopotamia: Turkish air raids on Baghdad cause slight damage (until January 25).
Arabia: Fakhri Bey’s 1,000 troops from Amman and Kerak surprise Arabs east of Tafila.
South Persia: Burma Mounted Rifles squadron cause c.105 casualties to robbers at Gumun northeast of Shiraz (and on January 27)
Arab infantry of the Turkish army on the march: https://i2.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...b-inf.jpg?ssl=1

Political, etc
General: Count Georg Hertling and Count Ottokar Czernin (German Imperial Chancellor and Austrian Foreign Minister) make public replies to statements of President Woodrow Wilson and Mr. Lloyd George on War Aims (see 5th and 8th).
Russia: Lenin’s immediate peace policy rejected 9 vs 7 for Trotsky’s ‘no war no peace’.
United Kingdom: Lieut.-General The Hon. Sir H.A. Lawrence appointed Chief of the General Staff, British Expeditionary Force, France [Did not take up appointment till the 27th.]
Mr. Lloyd George and Signor Vittorio Orlando confer.
Lord Rhondda outlines comprehensive scheme of national food distribution; rationing of meat, butter, and margarine will begin February 25.

25 January 1918
 

Western Front
East of Loos, Germans make trench raid after heavy bombardment.
Great Allied air activity: Courtrai, Tournai, Ghent and Douai districts heavily bombed by British and Thionville, Freiburg and Ludwigshafen by French.

Eastern Front
Fight between Romanians and Bolsheviks at Galatz.

Southern Front
Piave: British 5th Division relieves Italian VIII Corps (until January 27).
The new Italian commander-in-chief General Armando Diaz with a British divisional commander on the Piave: https://i0.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...it-co.jpg?ssl=1
German Südarmee disbanded.
American Red Cross ambulance drivers in Milan, Italy: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...205003282186247

Naval and Overseas Operations
Unsuccessful bombing of Yavuz Sultan Selim continues.
Mozambique: War Office report progress in East Africa.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Palestine: British bomb troops south of Shechem.
General Edmund Allenby's despatch issued.
Arabia: Battle of Tafila: Lawrence’s 600 Arabs (c.100 casualties) destroy Fakhri Bey’s force (over 200 PoWs, 2 guns, 27 MGs). Turks evacuate Kerak and retreat to Amman, Lawrence later awarded DSO. Turkish Fourth Army (Djemal Kuchuk) put under Falkenhayn with German CoS Major Papen.

Political, etc
Central Powers: Germany and Austria-Hungary rejects Allied peace conditions, particularly on the point that Alsace-Lorraine be returned to France.
Russia: Red Commissar of Military Affairs orders sailors to stiffen all detachments sent to the interior.
United Kingdom: 36th Meeting of Irish Convention considers letter from Prime Minister.

26 January 1918
 

Western Front
Germans report they stage air attacks on Dunkirk, Calais and Boulogne.
Germany: OHL publishes The Attack in Position Warfare, bible of 1918 offensives, stresses attack in depth with air support.
Somme: British Fifth Army relieves French Third Army from St Quentin south to Barisis, south of river Oise until January 30.
Flanders: Haig dines with Asquith (visiting his surviving son).
Funeral for a Canadian officer killed in action on the Western Front: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...552268131815424
Australian soldier in a flooded communications trench: © IWM (E(AUS) 1497): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...612681338904577

Southern Front
Austrian attempt at Capo Sile repulsed.
Austrians bomb Mestre and Treviso; Italians claim that they damage hospitals.

Naval and Overseas Operations
Submarines sunk Dublin steam packet S.S. Cork and Spanish steamer Giralda.
U-boats’ costliest day of the war.
Channel: Returning U-109 blown up in Dover Barrage (only 5 High Seas Fleet boats try it outward bound in January). Note: U-109 may actually have been lost two days later. Destroyer HMS Leven depth charges and sinks coastal submarine UB-35 north of Calais.
St George’s Channel: Royal Navy PC.62 rams and sinks U-84. The vessel responsible is sometimes listed as a United States patrol craft, but as far as I can tell, no US vessel was issued this hull number. There was, in fact, an HMS PC.62 . The US did use the PC-designation, but as a follow-on to the earlier SC, so any 62 hull numbers should have been under that category (there was in fact, an USS SC-62). HMS PC.62 however, was a modification of the British P-class patrol sloops, the PC-class sloops being those P-class that were modified as Q-ships.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Arabia: Battle of Tafila: Turkish attacks near Tafila and Maan repulsed by Hejaz troops.


Political, etc
Germany: With the popular Hindenburg war bonds are advertised in Germany: ‘Times are hard, but the victory is certain’: https://i2.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...leihe.jpg?ssl=1
Russia: Ukraine declares its complete independence.
Provisional Siberian Government elected by Regional Government at Tomsk.
Ensign Krylenko, acting Soviet Russian Commander in Chief, naval troops: “We are against the whole world. We shall fight for the revolution, and the revolution alone.”
Canada: 4,036 RFC airmen trained in past year (34 fatal accidents); 200 trained pilots per month sent to Britain in 1918.
United States: President Woodrow Wilson cancels all engagements today due to catching a cold.
Finland: Red Guards mobilize at midnight.

I got the message that the first photo ... a Canadian officer's funeral ... does not exist. Could the URL be incorrect? Just asking.

Series is excellent!

27 January 1918
 

Hm, that was an odd entry: it double-posted from the site I posted. Wonder if they fixed the "double" by eliminating that particular one. I'll see if I can track it down. In the meantime:

Western Front
Lieut.-General Sir L.E. Kiggell, Chief of the General Staff, British Expeditionary Force, France, resigns (see 24th, and December 22nd, 1915).
Treves bombed by British, Conflans and Metz district by French.
Naval aircraft bomb Aertrycke and Engel.
Royal Flying Corps Second Lieutenants Scholtz and Wookey (PoWs on October 17, 1917 near Cambrai when shot down in Bristol Fighters) sentenced to 10 years penal servitude for dropping anti-war leaflets behind German lines on Western Front.
A trench message dog waits for a British officer to complete writing a note: © IWM (Q 6476): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...976335624294400

Southern Front
Trentino: (Asiago) Sassari Brigade and 4 Alpini battalions surprise attack and recapture Cols del Rosso and d’Echele with Mt Carone (until January 29) provoking 4-division counter-attacks that yield 2,500 PoWs, 6 guns and 100 MGs for 5,240 casualties.

Naval and Overseas Operations
The Yavuz Sultan Selim refloated inside the Dardanelles (see 20th).
Cunard liner S.S. Andania torpedoed off Ulster coast by U-46. The passengers are saved, but 7 crew are killed.
Argentine S.S. Ministro Iriondo torpedoed by Germans.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Palestine: Turkish Dead Sea Flotilla seized by Arab camelry at El Mezraa.
Mesopotamia: General Dunsterville's Mission leaves Baghdad for North-West Persia (see February 17th).
British soldiers of the mission of General Dunsterville on the march through northern Mesopotamia towards the Russian oil fields of Baku in the Caucasus: https://i0.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...-Baku.jpg?ssl=1

Political, etc
Russia: Bolshevik Government breaks off diplomatic negotiations with Romania, latter’s legation leaves Petrograd on January 28.
Grand Duke Nicholas Konstantinovich of Russia, the grandson of Tsar Nicholas I, died of pneumonia: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...915937948598273
France: French Food Minister Victor Boret says France will stop importing coffee to free up ships for the transportion of troops and other materials.
United States: U.S. government bans the production of white bread. Instead “Victory Bread,” containing 5-20% of other cereals, must be produced.
Finland: Fighting breaks out in Kämärä, Finland between the Communist Reds and the Whites, resulting in a Red victory. The Finnish Civil War begins.

Indeed, there is only one of the double-post from yesterday See if this is the correct link:
Funeral for a Canadian officer killed in action on the Western Front:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...582471260364801

That worked ... thank you! Hard to believe there's only a bit more than 9 months left in this titanic struggle.

28 January 1918
 

Western Front
Britain: Airplane raid on London: 67 killed, 166 injured; one enemy machine down. A 660lb bomb from the Giant R 12 hits London Odhams Press, Long Acre (118 casualties of night’s total 233). This raid carried out by 3 Gothas and 1 Giant actually reaching London; overall, 13 Gothas and 2 Giants were dispatched, 7 Gothas and 1 Giant attacked somewhere in England, and 3 Gotha & 1 Giant reached London. Record 103 defence sorties (1 Bristol Fighter lost to Giant R 12, 1 Sopwith Camel shot down by own anti-aircraft fire). The first unqualified air combat victories at night against another airplane takes place, when two Sopwith Camels of No.44 Squadron, piloted by Hackwill and Banks, shoot down a Gotha bomber, and the loss of the Bristol Fighter during this raid. Banks’ Camel is special (3-gun) model with illuminated Neame ringsight.
Western Front: All British aircraft leaflet-dropping stopped (until October 31); balloons instead.
French make two small attacks in Champagne and one in Upper Alsace.
Air attacks by British on Roulers and other aerodromes.
German trench raid “repulsed” between Lens and Arras.
Chinese Labour Corps members in Crecy Forest, France put on a sword display: © IWM (Q 8515): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...331150023938049
British soldiers fishing over the Yser Canal in Belgium. One is using his rifle as a fishing rod: © IWM (Q 10637): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...668360325681152

Eastern Front
Finish Civil War: (until May 15): 9 Red Guard battalions take Helsinki but Mannerheim seizes Vaasa and Russian garrisons (5,000 PoWs, 37 guns, 34 MGs, 8000 rifles for 20 casualties until January 31).
Kullervo Manner is appointed Prime Minister of the Finnish Socialist Workers’ Republic, a rebel state: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...653262387372032
Ukraine: Heavy fighting between Bolsheviks and Ukrainians at Lutsk.
Don: Cossacks mutiny and depose Alexei Kaledin.

Southern Front
Italians attack between Asiago and Brenta Valley and capture Col del Rosso and 1,500 prisoners.
“Suspicious” Italian civilians are escorted by Austro-Hungarian troops across a field in Veneto: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...592863004594177

Naval and Overseas Operations
Further naval air attacks on Aertrycke and Engel.
Submarine Depot Ship (converted from a torpedo-gunboat) H.M.S. Hazard sunk in collision in Channel.
Dardanelles: HM Submarine E.14 (11 survivors PoWs) mined (another source says accidental internal explosion, forcing it to surface, and subsequently shelled and sunk) and sunk off Kum Kale in vain attempt to torpedo Yavuz Sultan Selim. (Lieutenant Commander G S White posthumous Victoria Cross in only Royal Navy vessel to have 2 captains with VC).
Picture of the crew: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...576514077421568
The British submarine E.11, sister to the E.14, operated since 1915 in the Dardenelles and managed to sink the already obsolete Turkish pre-dreadnought Barbaros Hayreddin.
Spain: U-boat torpedoes SS Giralda, Government protests on February 6.
Mozambique: Ankwalu occupied by British.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Battle of Tafila: Actions for Et Tafile by the Arab forces end (see 1st).
War Office reports further operations near Hejaz railway.

Political, etc
Germany: Great strikes in Berlin, (until February 4). More than 100,000 people demonstrating in the streets of Germany to protest food shortages and the continuation of the war.
Russia: Romanian Legation ordered to leave Petrograd.
Lenin orders ‘Send grain, grain and again grain! Otherwise Petrograd will starve to death … for God’s sake!’
Council of People’s Commissars in Soviet Russia issues a decree forming the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army.
Estonia: Baron Eduard Dellinghausen invites Germans to occupy Estonia.
Romania: Ion Bratianu Cabinet resigns.
United States: Secretary of War Mr. Newton Baker makes statement on strength of Army.
(Listed for yesterday): U.S. government fires all lobbyists and lawyers employed by the railroads. American railroads were nationalized last December.

29 January 1918
 

Western Front
Another airplane raid on London: bombs dropped in outskirts, 10 killed, 10 wounded. This raid is carried out by 3 of 4 Giants sent; defences misidentified them as 15 Gothas. Major Murlis Green (No 44 Squadron Commander) attacks R 25 (hit 88 times) from close range but discovers new RTS ammo explodes prematurely; 4 other fighters (out of 73 sent up) also attack without success (night January 29-30).
Five engined Zeppelin Staaken ‘Giant’ (Likely the R-V, of which only one example was built): https://i2.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...XV-02.jpg?ssl=1
Cambrai: Successful British trench raids and patrol encounters near Havrincourt and Bullecourt.
Royal Naval aircraft bomb Coolkerke aerodrome (Bruges).
Allied air raid on Zeebrugge.

Eastern Front
Ukraine: One report says Red troops take Kiev and Odessa. A separate report says: Ukrainian-Soviet War heats up, with Soviet Russian troops attacking a smaller Ukrainian force, made up of mostly students, near Kruty. While the Ukrainians lose the battle, they slow down the Russian advance towards Kiev.
Pro-Soviet workers in the Kiev Arsenal launch an armed uprising in the Ukrainian capital: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...016930010615811

Southern Front
Italian attack continues, Monte di Val Bella captured.
Surrendered Austro-Hungarian soldiers being escorted by the Italians after they were captured at Monte di Val Bella: © IWM (Q 65285): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...970358187020289

Naval and Overseas Operations
Mozambique: German-aligned native forces driven down Lujenda Valley towards Mtarika.

Political, etc
France: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, Canadian poet and physician known for writing the poem “In Flanders Fields,” passed away at the front due to pneumonia: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...683464668635136
United Kingdom: Signor Vittorio Orlando's visit to London; official communique records “complete understanding.”
Switzerland: Enver Pasha and Basil Zaharoff hold fruitless talks, former says Kaiser has told him ‘the future of Mesopotamia and Palestine would be decided on the French front’.

30 January 1918
 

Western Front
The Victoria Cross is awarded to Captain J.B. McCudden of No.56 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, for "conspicuous bravery, exceptional perseverance, keenness and very high devotion to duty.": https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/images...mbs/p004061.jpg
France: First of 31 Gotha raids on Paris (259 casualties), 267 bombs (14t) dropped by 30 Gothas in 30 minutes (1 shot down).
BEF now deployed from Houthulst Forest, northeast of Ypres, to Barisis, northwest of Laon.

Eastern Front
Brest-Litovsk: Negotiations between Russian Bolshevik Government and Central Powers again resumed (see 23rd, and February 10th).
Royal Navy Air Service Armoured Car Squadron rear party sail from Murmansk (until February 1).

Southern Front
Battle dies down on Asiago plateau; Italians gain ground along Frenzela Gorge and at Val Bella and Rosso, claiming an additional 1,100 prisoners.
Church in Enego, Italy, currently occupied by the Austro-Hungarians, after it suffered artillery damage from the Italians: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...318924466147328

Naval and Overseas Operations
Brazil to send naval squadron to Europe.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
British line advanced near Arnutiya, 12 miles north of Jerusalem.

Political, etc
Germany: German strikes spread to Kiel, Munich and Hamburg.
Poster of the German War Office against strikes: ‘What Hindenburg thinks about strikes!’: https://i0.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...eiken.jpg?ssl=1
Russia: White politicians form Constitutional Council at Rostov.
Lenin orders 25,000 rifles and 30 MGs for Russian troops in Finland.
France: Allied War Council meets at Versailles.
France announces it will increase the rights of Algerians fighting in the French Army, such as by opening up all ranks and decorations for Algerians, equaling pay, and giving pathways for naturalization.

31 January 1918
 

Western Front
Western Front: In January Record of 18 Jastas (including 48-63) formed after 7 in December 1917; 14 new airfields opposite BEF Fifth Army.
Germany: In January monthly aviation fuel delivery 6,000t only 50% of target.
Britain: During January 3 National Aircraft Factories begin production (5 more by July).
British soldiers trying out a pillory they found in Bapaume, France: © IWM (Q 10646): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...394435154432000
Australian soldier at a mine rescue station at Hulluch, France. The apparatus helps him breath in the tunnels underneath the trenches: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...712778948333571

Eastern Front
Ukraine: (Listed for yesterday): The city of Kiev, Ukraine is paralyzed as the Bolshevik uprising strengthens and many other workers also go on strike.

Southern Front
Strong Austro-Hungarian counter-attack on Monte di Val Bella defeated.

Naval and Overseas Operations
North Sea: U-boat minelayers attempt until late September to seal off Forth to Grand Fleet and Norwegian convoys with batches of 36 mines at 10-mile intervals in a semi-circle, but after third batch British locate and sweep without Germans realizing.
‘Battle of May Island’: In sortie with 5 battlecruisers from Rosyth 2 K-class submarine flotillas suffer record disastrous night collisions in which K.4 and K.17 are lost (103 die); 2 others damaged along with battlecruiser Inflexible and cruiser Fearless (night January 31 to February 1).
Admiral Frederick Sturdee leaves Grand Fleet to be C-in-C the Nore, Vice-Admiral Sir M Browning takes over 4th Battle Squadron.
Allied and neutral shipping lost to U-boats: 123 ships (57 British with 291 lives) worth 302,088t (British 179,973). U-boat figure 160 ships worth 295,630t including 61 ships of 141,166t in Mediterranean (7 of 26,020t to Austrians); 10 U-boats sunk (3 unknown cause).
Germany: World’s largest destroyer S-113 launched at Elbing (Baltic) by Schichau, 2415t and 347ft overall with 4×5.9in guns, 4 torpedo tubes and 40 mines. Top speed 36 kts but poor seakeeping prevents her and 6 others launched by Armistice from being operational.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Two Royal Flying Corps Spads shoot down German two-seater near Falluja but crew escape. RFC loses 4 aircraft to engine failure in month.

Political, etc
Austria-Hungary: Colonel-General Boehm-Ermolli made Field Marshal.
Germany: Martial Law in Berlin, Hamburg, etc.; Trade Unions refuse strike pay. Several factories militarized, many workers drafted. OHL prepares divisions for home use.
Russia: Third Soviet Congress adopts ‘Fundamental Law of Land Socialisation’ (decree published on February 19) and replaces Julian with Gregorian Calendar.
Red 1st Northern Flying Column (including 400 sailors) takes Orenburg (Urals) from Ataman Dutov.
Lenin as a hero of the revolution: https://i2.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...ution.jpg?ssl=1
France: Gare de Lyons ticket offices ‘besieged’ following German air raid on Paris.

1 February 1918
 

Western Front
Royal Flying Corps: The 41st Wing is renamed VIII Brigade.
France: In February 3 Italian Caproni bomber squadrons arrive (until February 19), fly 68 operations for 22 casualties by Armistice. Royal Flying Corps 41st Wing becomes 8th brigade. 4 Gotha bomber squadrons raid Paris, 45 die.
During February the French Army adopts lighter, more comfortable ARS gas mask (5 million made).
A funeral for a French officer at the front: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...758076491976704
Britain: Prince Albert (future King George VI) joins RNAS HMS Daedalus at Cranwell, Lincs, becomes OC No 4 Squadron Boy Wing (Captain in RAF from April 1). RFC fighter squadron aircraft establishment increased from 18 to 24; Sopwith Camel squadrons thus by March 21.
Germany: JG 2 (Captain Adolph von Tutschek) formed from Jastas (each 14 aircraft) 12, 13, 15 and 19 plus JG 3 (Captain Bruno Lorzer) from Jastas 2, 26, 27 (Goering) and 36. Another 12 Jastas including Nos 68-75 formed in February.
North Sea: US Air Service takes over Dunkirk seaplane station.
Artois: New German Seventeenth Army formed under Otto von Below.
Occupied Belgium: At Charleroi Bavarian Captain Bomschlegel restores during February 30 British Cambrai Mk IV tanks to an operational state for German use.

Eastern Front
5 German divisions transfer to Western Front during February.
Russia: Yeremeyev forms Soviet I Corps at Petrograd.

Southern Front
During February new high-speed Italian Ansaldo SVA5 two-seater introduced (1,200 built), improves long-range and photo reconnaissance work.
An Italian SVA5 flies a reconnaissance mission: https://i1.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...-flug.jpg?ssl=1
Salonika: During February RFC now have up to 8 SE5as enabling it to destroy up to 4 German aircraft (January 31 and February 5).

Naval and Overseas Operations
Sir E. Geddes (inaccurately) states submarines being sunk as fast as Germany can build them.
Channel: From February High Seas Fleet U-boat flotillas abandon Dover Straits route due to mine barrage, but 29 Flanders boats use route in February.
North Sea: Royal Navy minelayers lay a deep minefield off the Skaw (Kattegat).
France: In February physicist Langevin begins sea test of quartz transducer off Toulon, detects submarine for first time at up to 5 miles-this is what was later known as ASDIC or active sonar.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Extension of the British East Persia Cordon into Khorasan begins. [In relief of Russian forces withdrawn by Bolshevik Government.] (see July 29th, 1915)

Political, etc
Austria-Hungary: Austrian Naval mutiny at Cattaro. Initial demands for better treatment were soon replaced by political demands and a call for peace. Sailors initially demand better living conditions, then peace without annexation, and demobilization, but fail to win army garrison or German U-boat personnel. Mutiny collapses on ultimatum and arrival of 3 battleships from Pola. 3 leaders flee to Italy in seaplane, c.800 men removed from ships, 40 tried and 4 executed. Emperor Charles sends Archduke Admiral Stephen to conduct inquiry.
Germany: German strikes die down.
Ukraine: Central Powers recognise the Ukraine Republic (see 9th, and November 20th, 1917).
United Kingdom: British Foreign Office rejects Centrobalt idea of Britain paying Russian fleet.
United States: U.S. currently spends $39 million a day on the war, of which $15 million is used as loans for the Allies.
Greece: Mutiny of Greek troops at Lamia suppressed; M.M. Skouloudhis and Lambros arrested. King Alexander visits, refuses clemency to ringleaders and orders shooting of 2 who plunder a village.

2 February 1918
 

Western Front
France: End of Supreme War Council meeting. Supreme War Council sanctions Allied General Reserve for Western, Italian and Balkan Fronts. Foch submits plan for 17 divisions behind Western Front and 13 on Italian on February 6. On February 12 Petain and Haig oppose then compromise on a 12-mile extension of BEF line.
U.S. troops reported in front line.
Men of the Kite Balloon Section rearing rabbits at Biefvillers: © IWM (Q 12143): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...111648660410370
Telegraph wires weighed down by heavy frost in Albert, France: © IWM (Q 6483): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...368322377797632

Naval and Overseas Operations
The HMS K.4 beached, after the disastrous operation known as the “battle” of May island: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...013488252391424
East Africa: Last 6 Royal Flying Corps planes withdrawn by February 9.
One of the British Voisin planes in East Africa, which was used for reconnaissance and for connecting flights. In addition there were also some Caudrons: https://i1.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...frika.jpg?ssl=1
An ammunition train destroyed at Ytres, France: © IWM (Q 8450): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...458931625086976

Political, etc
Austria-Hungary: (Listed for yesterday): Sándor Wekerle, the Prime Minister of Hungary, states: “Our readiness for peace is sincere and earnest. We never strove nor do we strive for conquests.”
Germany: Strikes and antiwar demonstrations in Germany continue, but dwindle in intensity, as workers are threatened with punishment if they do not go back to work. Several socialist and labour leaders have been imprisoned.
Russia: Russia issues a decree separating the church from state and school.
France: National Office of Disabled and Discharged Soldiers formed.
Netherlands: The Netherlands bans the serving of tea in cafes, restaurants, hotels, and other establishments due to lack of supplies caused by the war.