The Great War (1914-1918) in real time

Day 966 of the Great War, March 23rd 1917

YouTube (Kaiser Karl Wants Peace - The Sixtus Affair)



Western Front: Germans Flood Oise Valley

The Germans had been doing their utmost to make sure the Allies could not interfere with their retreat to the Hindenburg Line nor get much use out of the land they were ceding back to the French. As the Belgians had done to their own country in 1914, the Germans now did to the French; by damming a key canal, they caused the River Oise to flood, inundating the town of La Fère (which had been evacuated of all civilians by the Germans) and making the area generally impassable to the French. The next day, France would make its displeasure known diplomatically, protesting to neutral countries of Germany’s devastation of her land.

Photo: Flooding in Tincourt-Boucly, 1917



Eastern Front

Russians lose trenches west of Moinesci, near River Trotus (Romanian front).

Germans massing troops on Riga-Dvinsk front seriously menacing Petrograd.

United Kingdom

Britain announces that it will expand its mine zones to cover the mouths of the Weser and Elbe rivers of Germany.

United States/Russian relations

Telegram from Mr. Lloyd George to Russian Prime Minister.

United States

President Wilson and the Cabinet meets to discuss preparations for war.

Germany

Germany announces that bread rations will be cut by one-fourth starting on April 1st. Meat rations will be increased by 250 grams per week.

Russia: Russia’s new regime recognised abroad as reforms are implemented at home

In Russia the Provisional Government is struggling to contain the energies released by the recent revolution. Workers have been emboldened by the overthrow of the Tsar, leading to ongoing workplace militancy. Following negotiations brokered by the government, factory owners in Petrograd now agree with the city’s Soviet to accept the principle of an eight-hour working day, hoping thereby to avoid further industrial unrest. The eight-hour day now begins to spread from Petrograd to the rest of the country. The deal also includes the creation of forums comprising workers and managers in many factories, at which grievances can be discussed and hopefully resolved before they lead to strikes.

The Provisional Government has brokered these agreements in the hope of keeping the factories open to maintain production for the war effort. Its commitment to the war provides some reassurance to Russia’s allies, who today formally recognise the new regime in Russia. Some in Britain and France view the revolution as a positive development: the advent of a liberal government in Petrograd makes it easier to present the war as one of democracies against dictatorial empires. But some are more pessimistic, noting that war weariness was a significant factor leading to the revolt against the Tsar. They fear that anti-war sentiment will eventually overwhelm the Provisional Government, leading Russia into a separate peace with the Central Powers.

Aerial operations: Hutton Sight

The RFC has been for a while trying to develop an effective night sight for its night operations. The earliest night sights were ring and bead elements treated with luminous paint, but these were found to be either too bright or too dim, and failed to show up
when there was a moon. After trials with combat pilots at Martlesham Heath, a simple sight designed by Sergeant Albert Hutton, an armourer serving with 39 Squadron based at Hainault Farm, proved more effective than more elaborate designs by Royal Aircraft Factory scientists. Hutton had already been responsible for major improvements to gun mountings and ammunition feeds.

He devised an illuminated sight which could be used on both fixed and free-mounted guns.It consists of a tubular foresight containing a red bulb. At the top of the domed tube was a 0.5 mm (0.02 in) hole through which showed a minute point of red light. The backsight was similar, but had a hollow vee-shaped tube at the top. At the base of the two arms of the vee were holes which, when a green bulb was switched on inside the tube, showed as three green spots in the shape of a vee. The gunner simply aligned the red spot in the centre of the vee and on the target. The bulbs suffered severe vibration when the guns were fired, but they usually lasted long enough for what were often very short engagements. The bulbs were usually fed by batteries taped to the gun body.

Naval operations: English Channel

British destroyer HMS Laforey, 995 tons, hits a mine laid by Ernst Steindorff in UB-12 off Shorham. His score is now 3 ships and 1,619 tons.

Heinrich Küstner, in UB-39, sinks three ships near Beachy Head:
British coaster SS ACHILLE ADAM, 460 tons. travelling from Saint Valery to Newhaven.
British freighter SS CLAN MACMILLAN, 4,525 tons, carrying a load of coir matting from Chittagong to Clyde.
British coaster SS EXCHANGE, 279 tons.
Norwegian freighter SS O.A. KNUDSEN, 3,532 tons, travelling in ballast from London to Port Talbot, is also torpedoed, but makes port safely.
Küstner's score is now 46 ships and 48,897 tons.

Ralph Wenninger, in UC-17, sinks British freighter SS MAINE, 3,616 tons, carrying a load of chalk plus general cargo from London to Philadelphia. His score is now 59 ships and 85,694 tons.
British freighter SS Mexico, 5,549 tons, bound from Liverpool for Valparaiso with a general cargo, hits a mine laid by UC-17 off Beachy Head, but the damaged ship makes port safely.

Kurt Ramien, in UC-48, torpedoes British tanker SS J.B. AUGUST KESSLER, 5,104 tons, travelling in ballast from Rouen to Cardiff. The damaged ship reaches port safely.

Naval operations: North Sea

Ernst Hashagen, in U-62, scuttles Dutch trawler TRES FRATRES, 297 tons, raising his total to 19 ships and 19,738 tons.

Friedrich Crüsemann, in U-86, uses his deck gun to sink British trawler QUEENSOROUGH, 165 tons. Crew abandons vessel , but lifeboat not recovered. Listed as Missing. This is Crüsemann's first sinking.

Hubert Aust, in UC-45, sinks Norwegian freighter SS BLOMWAAG, 695 tons, en route from Leith to Flæsland with a load of coal. His score is now 4 ships and 2,733 tons.

Naval operations: Bay of Biscay

Leo Hillebrand, in U-46, scuttles Portuguese sailing ship ARGO, 1,563 tons, travelling from New Orleans to London with an unspecified cargo. His score is now 19 ships and 31,008 tons.

Naval operations: Italy

Johannes Klasing, in U-34, sinks three Allied ships off Civitavecchia:
Greek freighter SS ARTEMIS, 528 tons, en route from Catania to Saint Louis du Rhône with a load of sulphur.
Norwegian freighter SS BELLATRIX, 2,568 tons, carrying a load of coke from Cardiff to Naples.
Italian freighter SS NOLI, 1,569 tons, travelling in ballast from Civitavecchia to Genoa.
Klasing's score is now 4 ships and 4,986 tons.

Naval operations: Mediterranean Sea

Robert Moraht, in U-64, sinks British freighter SS EPTALOFOS, 4,413 tons, bound from Malta for Jamaica with an unspecified cargo. His score is now 13 ships and 44,331 tons.

Day 968 of the Great War, March 25th 1917

Western Front

Hard fighting south of St. Quentin.

French reach neighbourhood of Coucy-le-Chateau.

395 shells on Reims.

Eastern Front

General Alexeiev, Commander-in-Chief Russian army.

German attack with gas in Dvinsk region repulsed.

France

French government protests German “acts of barbarism and devastation” in occupied-French territory.

Russia

Russian Provisional Government accepts responsibilities of former regime; all decorations (except St. George) abolished.

United States

U.S. Legation at Brussels removed to Havre; Belgian relief work to be undertaken by other neutrals.

U.S. Navy Secretary Daniels announces censorship rules that would prevent the press from criticizing the administration’s policies.

Germany: Ludendorff Agrees to Send Lenin to Russia

The revolution in Russia opened up hope for the Germans that Russia, no longer expecting a great imperial victory, could be removed from the war diplomatically. However, the first indications out of the Provisional Government were that they intended to honor their commitments to the Allies and continue with the war. In fact, some Germans incorrectly believed that the revolution had been organized by British agents to remove the unpopular Czar and put the war effort on a stronger, more democratic footing.

A Marxist revolutionary, Alexander Helphand (codename Parvus) was working for German intelligence in Copenhagen. He had been friends with Lenin since 1900, and thought that now would be the perfect opportunity to send Lenin back to Russia from exile in Switzerland. He told the German ambassador in Copenhagen that Lenin was “much more raving mad” than the leaders of the Soviet or the Provisional Government, that he would create “the greatest possible chaos,” seize power himself, and conclude a separate peace with Germany.

The German government was soon convinced, though they took little interest in Lenin or Bolshevism itself; copies of his articles sent to Berlin were never read. The question now was how to get Lenin to Russia, which would almost necessarily require transit through German territory. On March 25, after meeting with Parvus, Ludendorff agreed to send the Bolsheviks in Switzerland by train through Germany to the Baltic coast, from where they would then travel to Russia via Sweden. Lenin, however, still took some convincing, insisting that he be sent on a “sealed train” so that there would be a legal fiction that he never legally entered Germany and thus did not collaborate with the Germans; he ultimately agreed on March 31, and would depart Switzerland on April 8.

Aerial operations: 70 Squadron annihilated

Despite the losses yesterday, 70 Squadron was sent out again at dawn to reconnoitre Cambrai to determine the extent of the German withdrawal. Six Sopwith Strutters set off and one returned (A956) with engine trouble to report the rest were engaged over Cambrai by 9 enemy scouts from Jastas 5 and 6. In the end, they were the lucky ones as the other six were shot down and the 12 crew killed.

Those killed were:

Lieutenant Charles Stewart Vane-Tempest and 2nd Lieutenant Fred Allinson MC (7763) claimed by Leutnant Karl Deilmann from Jasta 6.
Capt Eric Joseph Henderson MC and 2nd Lieutenant John Moir Sim (A2986) claimed by Leutnant Heinrich Gontermann from Jasta 5.
2nd Lieutenant Harry Butler and Lieutenant Leslie Archibald Norris (A884) claimed by Vitzfeldwebel Häussler from Jasta 5
Lieutenant John Stephen Cooper and 2nd Lieutenant Alexander Norman MacQueen (A954) claimed by Edmund Nathanael from, Jasta 5
Lieutenant Leonard Stanley Ward-Price and Lieutenant Harry Athelstan Chuter (A958) claimed by Paul Hoppe from Jasta 5.

Naval operations: Irish Sea

Otto Steinbrinck, in UC-65, sinks four vessels north of St George's Channel:
British freighter SS ADANWEN, 3,798 tons, en route from Cienfuegos via Queenstown to Liverpool with a load of sugar; torpedoed, 10 casualties. Two years earlier ADANWEN survived an unsuccessful scuttling attempt by Otto Weddigen in U-29.
British barque BRANDON, 130 tons, carrying a load of slate from Portmadoc to Waterford; scuttled. All four crew lost.
French schooner FRINGANTE, 124 tons, en route from Troon to Treguier with a load of coal; scuttled.
Greek freighter SS POSEIDON, 2,589 tons, travelling with a load of iron ore from Les Falaises to Barrow.
Steinbrinck's score is now 145 ships and 132,603 tons.

Naval operations: Wales

His Majesty's Trawler EVANGEL, 197 tons, hits a mine laid off Milford Haven by Kurt Ramien in UC-48, bringing his score to 24 vessels and 40,665 tons.

Naval operations: English Channel

Hans Howaldt, in UB-40, sinks a small French fishing fleet in the Seine Estuary.
ETOILE DA LA MER, 43 tons.
FELIX FAURE, 37 tons.
LOUISE, 45 tons.
MARIE LOUISE, 34 tons.
SAINT JOSEPH, 35 tons.
Howaldt's score is now 18 vessels and 6,592 tons.

Erwin Waßner, in UC-69, scuttles two vessels off Beachy Head:
British sailing vessel HUNTLEYS, 186 tons, travelling from Bristol to Dieppe with a load of pitch.
British Schooner MARY ANNIE, 154 tons, en route from Glasgow to Tréport with a load of coal.
Waßner's score is now 35 ships and 31,272 tons.

Naval operations: North Sea

Raimund Weisbach, in U-81, scuttles three Norwegian freighters east of the Shetland Islands:
SS C. SUNDT, 1,105 tons, carrying a general cargo from Göteborg to Hull.
SS GARANT, 735 tons, travelling from Christiania to Aberdeen with a load of wood pulp.
SS LAY, 1,880 tons, en route from Fredrikstad to London with a load of timber.
In all three cases none of the lifeboats are recovered, and all three crews perish.
Weisbach's score is now 29 ships and 76,903 tons.

Johannes Lohs starts his career in U-75 with the sinking of four ships off northern Scotland:
British trawler INDUSTRIA, 133 tons; scuttled.
British trawler MEDIAN, 214 tons; scuttled.
British trawler ROSSLYN, 113 tons, deck gun.
Norwegian freighter SS MARSHALL, 1,123 tons, bound from Tyne for Tromsø with coal and passengers.

Reinhard von Rabenau, in UC-77, scuttles British trawler PRINCE OF WALES, 158 tons, off Girdleness, Scotland. His score is now 2 vessels and 1,596 tons.

Naval operations: Bay of Biscay

Gustav Buch, in UC-36, scuttles three vessels near Groix Island, near Lorient:
British freighter SS BAYNAEN, 3,227 tons, travelling from Tegal to Nantes with a load of sugar.
French fishing vessel ETOILE POLAIRE, 33 tons.
French brigantine LEOTINE, 201 tons.
Buch's score is now 10 vessels and 11,589 tons.

Naval operations: Mediterranean Sea

Otto Schultze, in U-63, sinks British freighter SS VELLORE, 4,926 tons, en route from Tyne and Malta to Alexandria with a load of coal. His score is now 20 ships and 55,456 tons.

Robert Moraht, in U-64, sinks two ships just off Catania, Sicily:
British freighter SS BERBERA, 4,352 tons, heading from Bombay to Marseille with a mixed cargo of grain, cotton and manganese ore.
Italian sailing vessel INMACOLATA, 137 tons.
Moraht's score is now 15 ships and 48,820 tons.

Karl Neumann, in UC-67, torpedoes British freighter SS QUEEN EUGENIE, 4,359 tons, carrying a general cargo from New York to Calcutta. His score is now 23 ships and 21,116 tons.

Day 970 of the Great War, March 27th 1917

Western Front: German Booby Trap Explodes in Bapaume, Kills French PMs, Australian Soldiers

While preparing their retreat to the Hindenburg Line, the Germans left behind all manner of hazards and traps to interfere with any Allied attempt to pursue. Some were straightforward: fouling of wells to prevent cavalry from obtaining sufficient water, destruction of bridges, setting up of mines that would explode when the Allies entered a building or tried to clear away rubbel. Others were set to trigger later, well after the front lines had passed over, in order to inflict the maximum amount of chaos and fear behind the lines. On March 27, after the Allies had been in Bapaume for nine days, acid finished eating through a steel wire serving as the trigger to a large mine under the Bapaume town hall. The resulting explosion killed several Australian soldiers who were using the building as a barracks, as well as two French members of Parliament who were visiting the newly liberated area.

Photo: Australian soldiers picking through the debris left over after the destruction of the Bapaume town hall



France

French Chamber votes for calling up of 1918 class in April.

France prohibits all foreign imports unless a special permit is received from the Minister of Finance.

United Kingdom

Blockade debate in House of Commons.

United States

The Cabinet offers President Wilson a plan of action for war, which will have 10,000 regular troops as the first U.S. units to go to France.

Russia: Russian Provisional Governments Lifts Legal and Social Restrictions on Jews

The Russian Empire gained a massive Jewish population in the 18th and 19th century when it took part in the partitions of Poland-Lithuania. By 1914 more than 5 million Jews lived in Russia, the vast majority on the western border in Poland, the Baltics, and Ukraine. Catherine the Great established this zone in 1791 as the Pale of Settlement, a restrictive area for Jewish settlement, with movement outside prohibited. Jews could live or work outside the Pale only with strict limitations, which cordoned them off into a number of jobs.

Government policy that restricted Jewish rights helped stir up constant ethnic unrest in Russia, leading to pogroms designed to terrorize and chase out Jews, events that plagued Russia’s 19th and early 20th centuries. New laws forbade Jews from settling in many cities, limited the numbers that could serve in the army, forbade them from conducting business on Christian holidays, and limited their political rights. An ultra-monarchist group called the Black Hundreds especially demonized the Jewish population and played a leading role in pogroms. During the war, the conservative Russian military suspected Jews of being spies, and mercilessly drove them away from the border. In 1917 thousands of Jews had been ripped from their homes and made refugees.

Thus the Tsar’s abdication probably caused few Jewish tears. A large segment of the Jewish population was politically active, engaged in either socialist labor Bunds or Zionist organizations. A number, mostly of youths, did join the Bolsheviks or other ultra revolutionary groups, but they represented both a minority of the Jewish population and a minority of Bolsheviks. The easy conflation of Jews and communism is reactionary nonsense.

Russia’s new leftist-liberal Provisional Government began reforming Russia’s Tsarist laws immediately, and on March 27 it began to life restraints on Russian Jews. They were allowed to move freely, to hold political office, to use Yiddish in business, among other things. Unfortunately, the reversal of repression on Jews only confirmed to monarchists and conservatives their conspiratorial link between revolution and the Jews, and over the next few years the Jewish population would suffer from more pogroms and harassment by the White Army during the Russian Civil War.

Aerial operations: Virtual expansion

Changes to wireless operations with artillery were implemented back in August 1916 and have proved successful. They have also shown that it was possible to employ a larger number of wireless aeroplanes on a given length of front.

To take advantage of this, RFC command has contemplated increasing the number of corps squadrons, but in the end, Major-General Hugh Trenchard decided that it would be more economical in personnel, especially of squadron and flight commanders, if the number of aeroplanes in each corps squadron was raised from 18 to 24, Given the shortage in personnel, this is the only practical solution. This was approved by the Army Council today.

In approving this increase the Army Council hoped that BE2 aeroplanes made surplus by the proposed re-equipment of five corps squadrons with RE8 aeroplanes could be used to bring the remaining BE2 squadrons in France up to the increased establishment. Very rapidly it became clear that delays in the RE8 replacement programme made this unlikely. On the 26 April, the War Office informed Sir Douglas Haig that it would be impossible to provide for a permanent increase of corps squadron establishments during 1917.

In the event only squadrons involved in the forthcoming offensive were expanded fully with others coming on stream piecemeal as aircraft became available.

Naval operations: Ireland

Carl-Siegfried von Georg, commanding U-57, sinks British freighter SS HOLGATE, 2,604 tons, bound from Almeria for Barrow with a load of iron ore; northwest of the Skelligs. His score is now 31 ships and 32,684 tons.

Naval operations: Irish Sea

British freighter SS KELVINHEAD, 3.063 tons, hits a mine laid by Otto Steinbrinck in UC-65 near the Mersey Bar Lightship off Liverpool. His score is now 146 ships and 135,666 tons.

Naval operations: Celtic Sea

Walter Remy, in U-24, sinks British freighter SS GLENOGLE, 7,682 tons, en route from London to Yokohama with a general cargo. His score is now 6 ships and 14,338 tons.

Thorwald von Bothmer, in U-66, sinks British auxiliary motor barque NEATH, 5,548 tons, carrying a load of sugar from Mauritius to Le Havre. His score is now 23 ships and 62,413 tons.

Naval operations: North Sea

On March 23rd German destroyers V44, G86 and G87 shelled Dutch freighter SS AMSTELSTROMM, 1,413 tons, travelling from Amsterdam to London with a load of margarine. The crew abandoned ship. Four days later, on the 27th, Erich von Rohrscheidt, in UB-10, finds AMSTELSTROMM drifting "derelict and badly damaged" near the Noord Hinder Lightship. He sinks the wreck with a torpedo. This is his first sinking.

Reinhard von Rabenau, in UC-77, sinks three vessels off northeast Scotland:
British fishing vessel GALATIA, 150 tons.
Norwegian freighter SS NOVA, 1,034 tons, carrying a load of coal from Blyth to Sarpsborg.
Norwegian freighter SS SANDVIK, 591 tons, travelling from Goole to Göteborg with a general cargo.
Von Rabenau's score is now 5 ships and 3,371 tons.

Naval operations: Bay of Biscay

Erwin Waßner, in UC-69, sinks three ships near Armen Rock:
Norwegian freighter SS AASTA, 1,146 tons, en route from Pomaron to Swansea with a load of copper pyrite.
Norwegian freighter SS GRIB, 1,474 tons, carrying a load of cork from Lisbon to Hull.
British freighter SS THRACIA, 2,891 tons, travelling from Bilbao to Ardrossan with a load of iron ore.
Waßner's score is now 39 ships and 38,226 tons.

Naval operations: Tunisia

Otto Launberg, in UC-37, sinks French gunboat Nr. 62, off Bizerta. His score is now 14 vessels and 25,919 tons.

Day 972 of the Great War, March 29th 1917

Western Front

British take Neuville-Bourjonval (seven miles east of Bapaume) after sharp fighting.

Photo: Captured German Albatross two-seater on a trailer being taken by a motor lorry to a British aviation depot. Aux-le-Chateau. Doullens road, March 1917



German retreat slackens.

Italian Front

Heavy Austrian attacks in the Carso repulsed.

United kingdom

Speech by Mr. Bonar Law; 100,000 men needed.

Germany: Zimmermann admits to his telegram

The Germans knew that their escalated U-boat campaign risked antagonising the Americans. To manage this threat, they have attempted to form an alliance with Mexico. Zimmermann, the German foreign minister, sent a telegram to the German ambassador there, instructing him to promise the Mexicans arms, money and US territory in the event of war with the United States.

Unfortunately for Zimmermann, his telegram was intercepted by the British and decoded by their secret cryptography unit. Its public release has caused a sensation, hastening the Americans along the road to war.

Zimmermann could perhaps have tried dissimulation, claiming that the telegram was a forgery, another plot by perfidious Albion. This seems not to have occurred to him. Having already admitted to the telegram’s authenticity to a US journalist, he now addresses the Reichstag to explain why he sent it. He claims that Americans should not be alarmed by the telegram’s contents, as he was merely seeking a defensive alliance with the Mexicans.

Zimmermann’s speech does not go down well with the Americans. But it also plays badly in Germany. The public have been led to expect that victory is just round the corner thanks to the U-boat war. If so, why is the government trying to recruit Mexico as an ally? And given that Mexico is in the grip of an intractable civil war, how much help could it give Germany against the United States?

Meanwhile in Mexico, President Carranza wisely decides to keep the Germans at arm’s length. He does not want to be sucked into a war with the United States does all the fighting for Germany’s benefit.

Sweden: Swedish Government Resigns

Sweden had remained neutral during the war, but had been very friendly to Germany. Swedish diplomats helped Germany circumvent the cutting of Germany’s international telegraph lines. The Swedes had mined the Øresund to prevent British submarines from entering the Baltic. They were one of Germany’s last foreign trading partners, as the Baltic Sea was one of the few routes not closed by the British blockade. This had not gone unnoticed by the Allies, however, who from August 1916 had essentially included Sweden in the blockade of Germany until the Swedes could sufficiently guarantee that no goods exported to them would be re-exported to Germany.

This had severe consequences in the winter of 1917, which hit Sweden almost as hard as it hit the Central Powers. Food supplies dwindled, and prices skyrocketed. The Swedish foreign minister negotiated a deal with the British to allow more food to be imported, provided the Swedes reduced their exports to Germany. The Swedish Prime Minister, Hjalmar Hammarskjöld (father to UN Secretary General Dag), rejected the agreement. This caused a political crisis, and Hammarskjöld was forced to resign on March 29. This did not repair relations with Britain; an adequate trade agreement was not reached for over a year.

Spain

Spanish government suspends all constitutional guarantees in its provinces due to a threat of popular unrest and revolt.

Russia

In the Russian Duma, workers, soldiers, and politicians urge Germans and Austro-Hungarians to overthrow their monarchies.

Aerial operations: “Fighting in the Air”

The weather on the Western Front turned poor again today. With little chance for flying, perhaps some of the RFCs pilots took time to read the latest tactical manual issued by the General Staff.

Following on from “Notes on aeroplane fighting in Single Seater Scouts” issued in November General Staff have published a new memorandum drawing on the experience of air fighting dusing the Somme battle entitled “Fighting in the Air”.

It emphasised that concentration, mutual co-operation and support, and a system of command whereby the number of units under each commander is limited to what he can directly and effectively control, were the key to success.

It signalled the end of the era of lone wolf pilots and placed the emphasis firmly on developing the fighting unit not as a single aircraft but a group of three or more.

The memorandum also reaffirmed Hugh Trenchard’s doctrine of offense, stating at paragraph 3:

“Offensive tactics are essential in aerial fighting for the following reasons

(i) To gain the ascendancy alluded to above.

(ii) Because the field of action of aeroplanes is over and in rear of the hostile forces, and we must therefore attack in order to enable our machines to accomplish their missions, and prevent those of the enemy from accomplishing theirs.

(iii) Because the aeroplane is essentially a weapon of attack and not of defence. Fighting on land and sea takes place in two dimensions, but in the air we have to reckon with all three. Manceuvring room is therefore unlimited, and no number of aeroplanes acting on the defensive will prevent a determined pilot from reaching his objective.”

Naval operations: Ireland

Carl-Siegfried von Gerog, commanding U-57, sinks two British freighters off Hook Point, near Waterford, on the south coast:
SS GRISPIN, 3,965 tons, bound from Norfolk and Newport News for Avonmouth with a cargo of horses.
SS LINCOLNSHIRE, 3,965 tons, carrying a general cargo from New York to Le Havre.
Von Georg's score is now 34 ships and 44,588 tons.

Naval operations: English Channel

Hans Howaldt, in UB-40, sinks two ships just off Cap Barfleur, Normandy:
British schooner CONOID, 165 tons, travelling from Fowey to Rouen with a load of china clay.
French sailboat IRMA, 32 tons.
Howaldt's score is now 20 vessels and 6,789 tons.

Naval operations: North Sea

Karlgeorg Schuster, in U-60, sinks Norwegian freighter SS OS, 637 tons, en route from Llanelly to Kristiansand with a load of coal and aluminum oxides; off Noup Head, Orkney Islands. His score is now 9 ships and 23,757 tons.

Franz Walther, in UB-21, torpedoes British freighter SS BYWELL, 1,522 tons, carrying a load of coal from Shields to Rouen; off Scarborough. His score is now 4 ships and 3,382 tons.

British coaster SS KATHLEEN LILY, 521 tons, en route from Shields to Rouen with a load of coke, hits a mine laid off Robin Hood's Bay by Otto von Schrader in UC-31. His score is now 17 ships and 12,974 tons.

Johannes Lohs, in UC-75, sinks Belgian freighter SS SCHALDIS, 1,241 tons, travelling from Dunston to Calais with a load of coal. His score is now 6 ships and 2,969 tons.

German destroyers V67 and G95 sink British freighter SS MASCOTA , 674 tons, en route from Treport to Newcastle. Seven crewmen are taken prisoner, the other seven lost.

Naval operations: Bay of Biscay

Erwin Waßner, in UC-69, sinks Norwegian freighter SS MORILD I, 1,354 tons, carrying a load of pit props from Oporto to Cardiff; off the mouth of the Gironde River. His score is now 41 ships and 42,044 tons.

Norwegian freighter SS ORIA, 1,845 tons, carrying a load of coal from Newport, Montreal, Canada to Marseille, hits a mine laid by an unknown ship off Peñas, Spain.

Day 974 of the Great War, March 31st 1917

Western Front

British advance north-east of St. Quentin.

Eight villages along the Hindenburg Line fall to British troops. French forces also gain north of Soissons.

Photo: A 9.2 inch howitzer of the Royal Garrison Artillery in action in the ruins of Tilloy-les-Mofflaines, 31 March 1917



Mesopotamian campaign

British occupy Deli Abbas (River Diala).

United States/Danish relations: Danish Virgin Islands Transferred to United States

There had been negotiations, off and on for the last half a century, for the United States to purchase the Danish Virgin Islands. These had failed for a variety of reasons, until the outbreak of war in Europe gave it new impetus. The Americans were concerned that the Germans might invade Denmark, seize her colonies, and have a submarine base in the Caribbean. Denmark’s economy was precarious due to the blockade (though they were better off than Sweden), and they had been convinced by local leaders that the Virgin Islands’ own economy was suffering greatly and would benefit from the possibility of lowering customs barriers with the United States.

The United States and Denmark signed a treaty in 1916 to sell the islands for $25 million. Denmark ratified the treaty in December after a national referendum (not including the residents of the Virgin Islands) approved the measure by a nearly two-to-one margin; the United States ratified in January. All that remained was for the formal handover to take place. With the United States apparently about to enter the war, the timing became sensitive; Denmark did not want to be seen as violating their neutral status by selling territory to a belligerent. On March 31, the Danish flag was lowered over the Virgin Islands for the last time, only two days before Wilson was expected to ask Congress for a declaration of war on Germany.

Some of the Danish fears were realized. Until the 1930s, the islands remained under administration of the US Navy, citizenship was not granted to their inhabitants, and customs barriers were not lowered with the mainland.

Photo: Dannebrog being lowered at the Governor's Mansion for the last time (31 March 1917)



Aerial operations: Canadian training expanded

Today, the Director of Air Organization, , wrote to Lieutenant-Colonel Hoare about the expansion of the training operation in Canada:

‘I should like you now to push on as far as possible, and in keeping with the progress of your recruiting, equipment, and building, with a complete system of training identical, except for local adaptation, with that obtaining at home, i.e.

a) A Cadet Wing on the lines of the Royal Flying ‘Corps Cadet Wing at Denham.
b) A School of Military Aeronautics on the lines of Oxford

In fact much of the work to put this inplace was already in train. Nine nucleus flights had arrived from England duriong march, and five of these are currently training at a base at Deseronto. The other four are waiting for the contruction of their base to be completed.

Back on 21 March Hoare had also agreed, in view of the demands for manpower at the Front to forgo the remaining nucleus squadrons and make up the balance from local recruits.

At that time, Hoare had also agreed to take on the “whole Training Brigade system of tests, gunnery, photography, aerial observation, etc., “ and arrangements for instructors, equipment, and full training schedules to be sent out from England have already been put in place.

Naval operations: St. George's Channel

Carl-siegfried von Georg, in U-57, sinks British coaster SS BREAFIELD, 427 tons, travelling in ballast from Cork to Cardiff. All 10 crew lost, ship posted as Missing. His score is now 35 ships and 45,015 tons.

Naval operations: English Channel

Wilhelm von Fircks, in U-59, torpedoes British freighter SS VALACIA, 6,526 tons, en route from London to Portland, Maine with a general cargo. The damaged ship is towed into port.

Max Viebeg, in UB-32, sinks two British ships and damages two more in the area between the Isle of Wight and Cap Barfleur:
Ketch BOAZ, 111 tons, travelling in ballast from Quistreham to Poole; scuttled.
Ketch GRIPPESWIC, 116 tons, travelling in ballast from Caen to Poole; scuttled.
Hospital ship GLOUCESTER CASTLE, 7,999 tons, torpedoed but grounded and later repaired.
Freighter SS QUEEN LOUISE, 4,879 tons, carrying steel billets and locomotives from Philadelphia to Dunkerque; torpedoed but survived.
Viebeg's score is now 9 ships and 1,922 tons.

Photo: The hospital ship GLOUCESTER CASTLE down by the stern after being torpedoed by the U-boat UB-32 off the Isle of Wight, 31 March 1917



Hans Valentiner, in UC-71, uses his deck gun to sink British schooner PRIMROSE, 113 tons, travelling in Ballast from Granville to Fowey. His score is now 34 ships and 18,248 tons.

Naval operations: North Sea

Franz Walther, in UB-21, takes Norwegian frieghter SS NORDEN, 776 tons, carrying a general cargo from Rotterdam to Christiania, as a prize; off the Dutch island of Terschelling. His score is now 5 ships and 4,158 tons.

Hans Ewald Niemer, in UB-23, starts his career with the sinking of two ships off the Dutch coast:
Dutch motor tanker MV HESTIA, 989 tons, travelling in ballast from Rotterdam to London; sunk with deck gun.
Norwegian freighter SS LISBETH, 1,621 tons, travelling in ballast from Rotterdam to Swansea.
Niemer's opening score is 2 ships and 2,580 tons.

His Majesty's Drifter FORWARD III, 89 tons, hits a mine laid off the Shipwash lightship by Werner von Zerboni di Sposetti in UC-6, bringing his score to 3 ships and 2,185 tons.

British sloop HMS CARNATION, 1,210 tons, hits a mine laid at Strosay Forth by Otto Tornow in UC-42. The damaged ship is later repaired.

British schooner ENTERPRISE, 168 tons, carrying a load of coal from Boston, Lincolnshire to Valéry Sur Somme, is wrecked at Haisbrorough Sands, off Norfolk.

Norwegian freighter SS FEIISTIN, 2,991 tons, en route from Philadelphia to Rotterdam with a load of wheat, hits a mine laid by an unknown ship near the Terschelling lightship.

Naval operations: Bay of Biscay

Erwin Waßner, in UC-69, sinks Norwegian freighter SS FARMAND, 1,387 tons, hauling a load of coal from Cardiff to Lisbon. His score is now 44 ships and 48,195 tons.

Naval operations: Tyrhennian Sea

Alfred Klatt, in UC-38, sinks British freighter SS BRODNESS, 5,736 tons, travelling in ballast from Genoa to Port Said. near Anzio, Italy. His score is now 16 ships and 16,381 tons.

Naval operations: Adriatic Sea

Friedrich Fähndrich, in Austro-Hungarian submarine U-30, sets out from Cattaro, Montenegro (modern Kotor) and is not heard from again.

Naval operations: Mediterranean Sea

Otto Launburg, in UC-37, torpedoes French freighter SS GALATEE, 3,062 tons, carrying a load of phosphate from Susa to Oran, off Cape Corbelin, near Algiers. The sinking ship is grounded at Sidi Kralem, then refloated and towed to Algiers.

Naval operations: German East Africa

HMFM TRENT, after spending the night anchored off Dar-es-Salaam, if finally able to proceed into the harbor.

Naval operations: Indian Ocean

German raider SMS WOLF stops and scuttles British barque DEE, 1,169 tons, 400 miles southwest of Cape Leeuwin, Australia.

Day 976 of the Great War, April 2nd 1917

Western Front

British advance west and north of St. Quentin; to west, capturing three villages; to north between Arras and Bapaume-Cambrai road, taking Croisselles and five other villages; and to north-west, at Templeux.

Mesopotamian campaign

British and Russians in touch at Kizil-Robat.

Photo: Group of British and Russian cavalry officers at Kizil Robat, which was reached by Allied troops unopposed, 2 April 1917



United Kingdom

British Government give Barrow strikers 24 hours to resume work.

United States: Wilson Asks Congress to Declare War on Germany

After the sinking of American merchant ships and the loss of American lives on board, Wilson, with the unanimous backing of his Cabinet, called for an extraordinary session of Congress, to hear “a communication concerning grave matters of national policy.” On April 2, addressing a joint session in a thirty-six minute speech, Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany. Selections from the speech follow.

The present German submarine warfare against commerce is a warfare against mankind.

It is a war against all nations. American ships have been sunk, American lives taken, in ways which it has stirred us very deeply to learn of, but the ships and people of other neutral and friendly nations have been sunk and overwhelmed in the waters in the same way….

I thought that it would suffice to assert our neutral rights with arms….But armed neutrality, it now appears, is impracticable. Because submarines are in effect outlaws when used as the German submarines have been used against merchant shipping, it is impossible to defend ships against their attacks….The intimation is conveyed that the armed guards which we have placed on our merchant ships will be treated as beyond the pale of law and subject to be dealt with as pirates would be….

I advise that the Congress declare the recent course of the Imperial German Government to be in fact nothing less than war against the Government and people of the United States; that it formally accept the status of belligerent which has thus been thrust upon it, and that it take immediate steps not only to put the country in a more thorough state of defense but also to exert all its power and employ all its resources to bring the Government of the German Empire to terms and end the war.

What this will involve is clear…. It will involve the immediate full equipment of the Navy in all respects but particularly in supplying it with the best means of dealing with the enemy’s submarines. It will involve the immediate addition to the armed forces of the United States already provided for by law in case of war at least 500,000 men, who should, in my opinion, be chosen upon the principle of universal liability to service…

We have no quarrel with the German people. We have no feeling towards them but one of sympathy and friendship. It was not upon their impulse that their Government acted in entering this war. It was not with their previous knowledge or approval. It was a war determined upon as wars used to be determined upon in the old, unhappy days when peoples were nowhere consulted by their rulers and wars were provoked and waged in the interest of dynasties or of little groups of ambitious men who were accustomed to use their fellow men as pawns and tools….

A steadfast concert for peace can never be maintained except by a partnership of democratic nations. No autocratic government could be trusted to keep faith within it or observe its covenants. It must be a league of honor, a partnership of opinion.

One of the things that has served to convince us that the Prussian autocracy was not and could never be our friend is that from the very outset of the present war it has filled our unsuspecting communities and even our offices of government with spies and set criminal intrigues everywhere afoot against our national unity of counsel, our peace within and without our industries and our commerce…. That it means to stir up enemies against us at our very doors the intercepted Zimmermann note to the German Minister at Mexico City is eloquent evidence….

We are glad, now that we see the facts with no veil of false pretence about them, to fight thus for the ultimate peace of the world and for the liberation of its peoples, the German peoples included: for the rights of nations great and small and the privilege of men everywhere to choose their way of life and of obedience. The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. We are but one of the champions of the rights of mankind….

I have said nothing of the governments allied with the Imperial Government of Germany because they have not made war upon us or challenged us to defend our right and our honor…. I take the liberty, for the present at least, of postponing a discussion of our relations with the authorities at Vienna….

It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts – for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free. To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything that we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those who know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has treasured. God helping her, she can do no other.

The speech was greeted with widespread acclaim from both parties in Congress. Chief Justice Edward White (a Taft appointee) leapt to his his feet in the middle of the speech, his eyes full of tears, as the room “cheer[ed] at the top of their lungs.” Some were unconvinced; after the speech, Bob La Follette had “his arms folded tight and high on his chest, so that nobody could have an excuse for mistaking his attitude; and there he stood, chewing gum with a sardonic smile.”

Photo: President Woodrow Wilson asking Congress to declare war on Germany



Aerial operations: 57 Varieties

This morning, 4 aircraft from 57 Squadron RFC were on patrol east of Arras when they were attacked by 8 aircraft from Jastas 2 and 11. After a short tussle lasting no more than 15 minutes, the scores were even at 2-2.

Lieutenant Edward Ernest Pope and Lt William Ramsey Nasmyth claimed shot down two enemy scouts – Leutnants Erich König and Hans Wortmann – both from Jasta 2. Both were killed.

In the confusion, two aircraft broke for the lines and fought their way back. The other two were harried by Jasta 11 and eventually shot down. First, Vitzfeldwebel Sebestian Festner shot down Lieutenant Hubert Pelham Sworder and 2nd Lieutenant Alfred Henry Margoliouth in FE2d A1944. Both men were killed.

Then, Captain Hugh Tomlinson MC and Captain Norman Carlton Denison In FE2d A5151 were shot down by Leutnant Constantin Kref. Tomlinson was badly wounded in the crash and died later. Denison was luckier and escaped with minor injuries at the cost of bring taken prisoner.

Also killed today were:

2nd Lieutenant Patrick Alfred Russell from 22 Squadron in FE2b 6953 who was shot down by Edmund Nathanael from jasta 5. His observer Lieutenant Henry Loveland was taken prisoner.

2nd Lieutenant Vaughan Floyer Williams from 60 Squadron in Nieuport 23 A6763 – claimed by Leutnant Fritz Otto Bernert from Jasta 2.

Lieutenant P J G Powell and 1st Class Air Mechanic P Bonner from 13 Sqn. Their BE2 was found crashed into a barn with both crew killed. Manfred von Richthofen from Jasta 11 claimed this victory but ut seems very unlikely that this is the case.

Finally 2nd Lieutenant Albert Porter Warren was taken prisoner and Sergeant R Dunn was killed when their 43 Squadron Sopwith Strutter was brought down also by Manfred von Richthofen.

Naval operations: Celtic Sea

Wilhelm von Fircks, commanding U-59, uses his deck gun to sink Norwegian freighter SS SNESPURVEN, 1,409 tons, bound from New York to Dublin with a load of refined oil off southern Ireland. His score is now 10 ships and 15,869 tons.

Naval operations: North Sea

Volkhard von Bothmer, in U-54, sinks Norwegian freighter SS HAVLYST, 532 tons, travelling in ballast from Sandefjord to Hull; south of Lindesnes. His score is now 9 ships and 23,605 tons.

Otto Dröscher, in U-78, scuttles British barque SAGITTA, 1,981 tons, carrying a load of Cotton and oilcake from Savannah, Georgia, USA to Kalundborg. His score is now 10 ships and 16,802 tons.
His Majesty's Armed Boarding Steamer TITHONUS, 3,463 tons, hits a mine laid by U-78 on the west side of Scotland, between Mull and Coll Island, on February 12. The ship is only damaged, and is later prepared.

Rudolf Gebeschus, in UB-35, stops and scuttles British trawler Lord Scarborough, 158 tons, off the Firth of Forth. His score is now 4 ships and 4,662 tons.

Naval operations: Tyrhennian Sea

Italian navy tug FILICUDI, 257 tons, hits a mine laid off Trapani, Sicily, by Alfred Klatt in UC-39. His score is now 18 vessels and 20,347 tons.

Naval operations: Mediterranean Sea

Hermann von Fischel, in U-65, sinks British freighter SS BRITANNIA, 3,129 tons, carrying a general cargo from Alexandria to Liverpool; off Patelleria Island in the Straight of Sicily. His score is now 11 ships and 29,451 tons.