July 31, 1918*

Tags

1918, Ardre, Battle of Reims, Battle of Soissons, Bois de Courton, Cape Cod, Chateau-Thierry, Coitrin, France, Great Britain, Imperial German Navy, Italy, Marfaux, Marne, merchant shipping, prisoners of war, Reims, Second Battle of the Marne, sinking, SM U-156, Soissons, submarine, United States of America

French retake Château-Thierry and reach the Soissons-Château-Thierry road along almost its whole length; between the Marne and Reims British, cooperating with French and Italians, take the Bois de Courton and push down the valley of the Ardre, taking Marfaux, which they lose again, and Coitrin; 1,500 more prisoners. German submarine sinks three coal barges and a tug off Cape Cod.

*sic. The Times’ Diary mistakenly dated this entry for July 21, 1918.

May 23, 1918

Tags

1918, Allies, British Prime Minister, casualties, Edinburgh, Germany, Great Britain, HMS Moldavia, Imperial German Navy, Lloyd George, merchant shipping, Royal Navy, Scotland, sinking, submarine, United States of America

British armed mercantile cruiser Moldavia torpedoed and sunk; 56 American troops killed by explosion. Mr. Lloyd George at Edinburgh; Allies sinking more submarines than the enemy can build and building merchant ships faster than Germans can sink them.

March 20, 1918

Tags

1914, 1917, 1918, First Lord of the Admiralty, Imperial German Navy, merchant shipping, Netherlands, Royal Navy, sinking, Sir Eric Geddes, submarine, United States of America, William Pirrie, Woodrow Wilson

Sir Eric Geddes on the tonnage position; world tonnage from the beginning of the war to end of 1917 fallen by 8 per cent. net, British tonnage by 20 per cent. net; total tonnage sunk in first year of unrestricted submarine warfare 6,000,000, against German claims of 9,500,000; he announces appointment of Lord Pirrie as Controller-General of Merchant Shipbuilding. President Wilson authorizes seizure of Dutch ships in United States ports.

March 18, 1918

Tags

1917, 1918, air raid, Allies, Armentieres, British Prime Minister, Cambrai, food, Foreign Minister, France, French Prime Minister, Germany, Great Britain, Mannheim, merchant shipping, Netherlands, peace, Portugal, Reims, Russia, Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Triple Entente, United States of America

British and Portuguese raids on Armentières and Cambrai fronts. French raid near Reims. British air raid on Mannheim; 38 raids into Germany since October and 448 tons of explosives dropped. Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers of the Entente issue a note on German crimes against the Russian people; they refuse to recognize the Russo-German peace treaty. Holland accepts with certain reservations Allied terms for use of Dutch shipping in American and Entente ports in exchange for food.

February 8, 1918

Tags

1911, 1918, accident, casualties, Chemin-des-Dames, English Channel, France, Gaetano Giardina, Germany, Great Britain, HMS Boxer, Italy, Luigi Cadorna, merchant shipping, Royal Navy, sinking, Sir John Jellicoe, submarine, Supreme War Council, Woevre

French repulse German attacks north of Chemin des Dames and in the Woeuvre. General Cadorna succeeded as Italian member of Versailles Military Committee by General Gaetano Giardina. British destroyer, Boxer, sunk in Channel as result of collision; one boy missing. Lord Jellicoe on U-boat war; he hopes submarine will be killed by about August; he recalls Lord Fisher’s warning in 1911 that Germany would employ submarines against merchant shipping.

December 12, 1917

Tags

1917, Al-Midya, Battle of Jerusalem, bombardment, Budrus, Bullecourt, casualties, Edmund Allenby, England, France, Germany, Great Britain, HMS Partridge, HMS Pellew, Imperial German Navy, Jerusalem, Joppa, Madeira, merchant shipping, Midieh, North Sea, Ottoman Empire, Palestine, Portugal, Queant, Royal Navy, Sheikh Obeid Rahid, sinking, submarine, Turkey, Tyne

Enemy attack on mile front between Bullecourt and Quéant; small British salient captured with about 500 yards of British November gains of 5,000 yards. General Allenby reports line advanced between Joppa and Jerusalem and Budrus and Sheikh Obeid Rahid, north of Midieh captured. Convoy of five neutral vessels and one British vessel with escort of two destroyers and four armed trawlers attacked by four German destroyers; H.M.S. Pellew disabled, H.M.S. Partridge and all the armed trawlers and merchant vessels sunk. Two steam trawlers and two neutral vessels sunk off the Tyne by German destroyers. Funchal, Madeira, shelled by German submarine. One of H.M. destroyers sunk after collision; two men drowned.

November 21, 1917

Tags

1917, armistice, Austria-Hungary, Battle of Cambrai, Battle of Nebi Samwil, Bourlon Wood, Brenta, British Empire, Cambrai, Cantaing, Commander-in-Chief, Craonne, Edmund Allenby, First Battle of Monte Grappa, First Battle of the Piave, Fontaine Notre Dame, France, German East Africa, German Empire, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Jerusalem, Juvincourt, Kitangani, merchant shipping, Mount Fontana Secca, Mouvres, Nikolai Krylenko, Nikolay Dukhonin, Noyelles, Ottoman Empire, Palestine, peace, Piave, prisoners of war, Russia, Russian Army, Russian Revolution, Scheldt, Tanzania, Turkey

British advance continues; ground on east bank of Scheldt Canal, Noyelles, Cantaing, part of Bourlon Wood, and Mouvres taken, and Fontaine Notre Dame, 2½ miles from Cambrai, entered; 8,000 prisoners to date. French carry a salient south of Juvincourt, Craonne Plateau, taking 400 prisoners. Enemy take Mt. Fontana Secca, between the Brenta and the Piave. General Allenby takes Nebi Samwil Ridge (Mizpeh), five miles from Jerusalem. German surrenders at Simba’s; Kitangani Valley, East Africa. Germany announces widening of the zone barred to shipping. General Dukhonin, Russian Commander-in-Chief, refusing to offer an armistice to the enemy, is relieved of his command by the Bolshevist Government, and Ensign Krilenko appointed in his place.

October 19, 1917

Tags

1917, air raid, bombardment, civilian casualties, Dago, Denmark, Dunkirk, England, Estonia, food, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hiiumaa, HMS Orama, Imperial German Navy, Latvia, London, Mediterranean, merchant shipping, Netherlands, Norway, Operation Albion, prisoners of war, Riga, Royal Navy, Russia, sinking, Sweden, United States of America, Zeppelin

Germans capture Island of Dagö, Gulf of Riga; 1,200 prisoners claimed. Raid by 10 or more airships on London and north-east counties; one drifts over London with engines shut off and drops three bombs; 27 killed and 53 injured; on return journey many of the airships drift over France; four brought down and one believed lost in the Mediterranean. Dunkirk bombarded from the sea. Armed merchant cruiser, Orama, torpedoed and sunk; no casualties. United States announces no supplies to be sent to Holland or Scandinavia until full particulars asked for of consumption, production, and requirements of all commodities, especially foodstuffs, are supplied.

September 7, 1917

Tags

1917, Battle of Passchendaele, Belgium, Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo, Flanders, Frezenberg, Germany, Gorizia, Great Britain, Italy, Latvia, law, merchant shipping, Moscow, Petrograd, prisoners of war, Pskov, retreat, Riga, Russia, Slovenia, St Petersburg, United States of America

British lose ground north of Frezenberg. Italian pressure north-east of Gorizia; prisoners now over 30,000. Russians still retreating on the Riga-Pskoff road, but south of that road resistance increasing. Russian Provisional Government reintroduces the death penalty both for soldiers and civilians; Petrograd and Moscow closed to foreigners. United States Government contemplating seizure of 400,000 tons of neutral shipping in American ports.

March 23, 1917

Tags

1917, Arras, Austria-Hungary, Bapaume, Cambrai, Canal de Saint-Quentin, Crozat Canal, Dvinsk, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hindenburg Line, Imperial German Navy, La Fere, merchant shipping, Mikhail Alekseyev, Oise, Riga, Romania, Russia, sinking, SMS Mowe, St Quentin

French defeat the Germans between St. Quentin and La Fère; Germans flood the Oise Valley; La Fère under water; further French advance on the Crozat Canal. Fighting on the British front between Arras and the Bapaume-Cambrai road. General Alexeieff reports great German concentration on Riga-Dvinsk front. Rumanians lose positions south of the Trotus Valley. Germans announce return of raider Möwe to port, and names of nine more victims.