Western Front
"Battle of the Hills" ("La Bataille des Monts") also called the
Third Battle of Champagne (Champagne) begins (see May 20th) in worsening weather: French Fourth Army (7 divisions) fails to break through on east flank taking first line only in up to 1 1/2-mile push.
French forces made use of tanks in its offensive, but with limited effect. 150 tanks are lost the first day. The St. Chamond tank:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...1089537/photo/1
French Schneider CA1 tank is also used for the first time in the offensive:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...1079936/photo/1
Aisne: Germans evacuate and burn 4 villages south of Chemin des Dames.
Foch visited by General H Wilson at Senlis. Foch clear, notes Wilson ‘
that Nivelle was done, owing chiefly to the failure of the Sixth Army … Foch said he knew … positions which this army were … to attack were impossible … He thinks … Nivelle will be degomme (dismissed) and Petain, put in his place, who will play a waiting game until the USA come … say a year hence. I asked about a central organization of the Allies to really take hold and he was all in favour … would love to be the French representative.’
Heavy rain and snowstorms fall on the Aisne battlefields, grounding aircraft and limiting visibility.
Australian soldiers saluting as they march past King George V during a Royal Review:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...3098496/photo/1
FRENCH ARMY MUTINIES BEGIN with 17 men of 108th Infantry Regiment abandoning posts before an attack. By end of August 1917 46 divisions seriously affected with c.35,000 mutineers who call themselves strikers. 2,873 court-martial and sentenced, many suspended. 629 receive death sentences (of which 43 certainly suffer ultimate penalty).
Naval and Overseas Operations
Japanese flotillas join Allied forces in the Mediterranean (see February 8th, 1916 and November 15th, 1917).
British ambulance transports
Lanfranc and
Donegal torpedoed and sunk in English Channel, with a total of 40 casualties.
Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Second Battle of Gaza begins (see 19th and March 27th) (until April 19): 40,000 British soldiers, 170 guns, 8 tanks against 19,500 Turks, 101 guns and 86 MGs. British storm Samson’s Ridge but tanks and gas shells too few to retain gains. Dobell loses 6,444 casualties (272 PoWs) and 3 tanks to 2,013 Turks (200 PoWs).
Political, etc
Germany: Sixth German War Loan closed: 656,100,000 Marks.
United Kingdom: Thorneycroft depth charge thrower designed in 10 days (by Sir J Thorneycroft, marine engineer); 2,760 made and 28 U-boats sunk by it (6 in 1917) by end of war.
Jellicoe urges Salonika withdrawal to save shipping for 1918.
The Times & Daily Mail publish (false) stories that a “German Corpse Factory” processes fat from German war dead for industrial use.
United States: New York City revokes all night licenses for hotels and restaurants for the duration of the war. Dancing and Drinking must stop at 1 AM.
Measures of Senate (U.S.A.) to suppress export of food-stuffs, etc., to Germany.