Western Front
French Offensive stopped (see 16th):
Second Battle of the Aisne and "
Battle of the The Hills” end (see 16th and 17th). After 5 days Nivelle‘s main achievement is Sixth Army’s (Mangin) capture of 4-mile deep salient on Western flank. This Pyrrhic victory gives Germans a straighter line to defend. Captures include 16,300 PoWs, 140 guns and 300 MGs. The ludicrously sanguine Nivelle now forced to cease breakthrough attempts, having sacrificed 134,000 men (by April 25) now proposes to revert to local attacks.
Minor gains as the French occupy Sancy (north-east of Soissons), and the British capture Gonnelieu (eight miles south-west of Cambrai).
Lloyd George at Paris conference.
A French tomb at Vendelles ransacked by Germans for metal: © IWM (Q 2094):
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...7898880/photo/1
Naval and Overseas Operations
Second German destroyer raid on Straits of Dover (night 20th /21st). Action by the
Swift and
Broke (see October 26th, 1916 and February 15th, 1918).
British Antarctic explorer Captain Evans (later Lord Mountevans) with Dover Patrol destroyers
Broke (57 casualties) and
Swift (5 casualties) defeat 6 German 2nd Flotilla torpedo boats (night April 20-21) in complete darkness off Belgian coast.
Evans sinks
G42 by ramming and there is hand-to-hand fighting on
Broke‘s decks.
G85 also sunk, 140 of 180 Germans rescued.
Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
A disabled British tank at Gaza. Ottoman defenders incorporate the hull into a fortification:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...4204032/photo/1
Political, etc
United Kingdom: Flour Mills' Order extending powers of Food Controller.
Turkey: Turkey severs diplomatic relations with the United States of America. (Young Turks badly split over this).
Japan: General elections are held in Japan. The Rikken Seiyūkai under Hara Takashi wins the most seats with 165 out of 381.
United States: 60,000 people march in New York City to support war recruitment:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...7655298/photo/1
New York Yacht Club drops Kaiser Wilhelm and Prince Henry of Prussia as honorary members.
Portugal: Senhor D'Almeida resigns Premiership in Portugal.