Western Front
British troops make further gains at the Arras Battle, taking all of the commune of Roeux and advance north of Gavrelle.
A French soldier operating a listening device to detect German aeroplanes: © IWM (Q 70881): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...2104064/photo/1
King Albert I of Belgium and British Field Marshal Haig inspecting men of the 5th Dragoon Guards. © IWM (Q 2162): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...4380032/photo/1
Strong German reconnaissances north-east of Vauxaillon (Soissons), west of Craonne, Berry au Bac and in Champagne.

Southern Front
Tenth Battle of the Isonzo: Italian Gonzia Command and Third Army (28 divisions) vs Austrian Fifth Army (11 divisions). Italians attack at noon with main thrust north of Gorizia east of Plava, capturing Hill 383, and Zagora and Mt Santo. East of Gorizia Messina Brigade takes Hills 174 and 126 but forced out by heavy counter-attacks. Badoglio promoted Lieutenant-General (confirmed August 23).
Serbia: Serb Sumadija Division captures 2 spurs a mile from Mt Dobropolje.

Naval and Overseas Operations
German airship L-22 destroyed in North Sea by British warships. Another soruce says: Royal Navy Air Service ‘Large America’ H12 flying boat shoots down Zeppelin L-22 near Terschelling Light Vessel.
German submarine SM U-59 accidentally hits a German mine and sinks. 33 crew members are killed with 4 survivors.

Political, etc
Germany: First German tank (A7V) in workup trial at Mainz.
Russia: Petrograd Soviet proclamation appeals for end to fraternization. At STAVKA C-in-Cs discuss resigning en masse, decide to visit Petrograd. After the Russian revolution, the fraternities between German and Russian soldiers, who believed that the war had now come to an end, happens along the Eastern front: https://i2.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...erung.jpg?ssl=1
United Kingdom: King tours in industrial north. Merchant shipbuilding control reverts to Admiralty.
Sir John Jellicoe to be Chief of Naval Staff, Sir E. Geddes Controller.
British labour unrest; engineers on strike, ditto omnibuses in London, weavers in north threaten strike.
United States: Germans are banned from boarding any American ship heading to any Russian port.
U.S. Senate approves the Espionage Bill, which prohibits interference of the military and aiding the enemy, by a vote of 80 to 8. “Interference of the military” is quite vaguely defined, and the Espionage Act is widely used to suppress German-language newspapers & force striking workers back to work. Wikipedia has this to say:
“Among those charged with offences under the Act are German-American socialist congressman and newspaper editor Victor L. Berger, labor leader and four time Socialist Party of America candidate, Eugene V. Debs, anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, former Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society president Joseph Franklin Rutherford, communists Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, Cablegate whistleblower Chelsea Manning, and National Security Agency (NSA) contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden. Rutherford's conviction was overturned on appeal.[1] Although the most controversial sections of the Act, a set of amendments commonly called the Sedition Act of 1918, were repealed on March 3, 1921, the original Espionage Act was left intact.[2] “ and “The Act also gave the Postmaster General authority to impound or to refuse to mail publications that he determined to be in violation of its prohibitions.” This part of the act was the most widely-used section used to suppress the German-Lanugage newspapers in circulation in 1917.

__________________
On the kinkometer, my kink measures as a sine wave.

You get a feel from these reports how the stalemate of trench warfare (while not gone) is starting to crack a little and that the war is entering a final and climatic phase. Still a year and a half to go ... but the energy is picking up.

Western Front
France: NIVELLE DISMISSED AND REPLACED BY PETAIN as Commander-in-Chief of French Northern and North-Eastern Groups of Armies. Petain assumes command on May 17. FOCH APPOINTED Chief of the French General Staff of French Ministry of War in Paris.
Artois: Heavy fighting round Bullecourt (British secure May 17, advance northeast on May 19).
Aisne: Heavy fighting on Chemin des Dames.
Meuse: French trench raids in the Woevre and in Lorraine.

Southern Front
Tenth Battle of the Isonzo: Badoglio’s II Corps storms Mt Kuk (2004 ft) and Vodice ridge. Italians claim 4,021 PaWs so far, Austrians 2,000 on Carso.
Salonika: British 10th and 28th divisions capture 3 villages in 3 1/2 mile advance east of Struma on 9-mile front (until May 16), taking 89 PoWs from Bulgarian 7th Div, but prepare to withdraw to summer line from May 26.

Naval and Overseas Operations
Adriatic – Otranto Action (largest in Straits): 3 Austrian cruisers (including Horthy’s flagship Novara) and 2 destroyers with 13 aircraft and 3 U-boats support sink 2 destroyers (Italian Borea and French Boutefeu); 14 Royal Navy armed trawlers (72 PoWs) and damage 4 out of 47; 2 merchantmen plus 1 seaplane out of 13 aircraft. Vainly and chaotically pursued by Allies (21 ships) including cruisers Bristol and Dartmouth (latter torpedoed by UC-25 but eventually reaches Malta). New Italian flotilla leader Aquila disabled by shot through steam pipe. Horthy wounded and Novara taken in tow but operational again in 8 days.
Brindisi: Rear-Admiral Bolio superseded. Otranto Barrage restricted to daylight use.
U.S.A. destroyer-flotilla arrives in British waters.
British transport Cameronia torpedoed in Mediterranean, 140 men lost.

Political, etc
Sweden: German Socialists are refused passports for Stockholm.
Spain: (Special, 1793): Inventor Diego Marín Aguilera, the "father of aviation" in Spain, flew one of the first gliders for about 300 yd (270m).

__________________
On the kinkometer, my kink measures as a sine wave.

Western Front
Artois: Battles of Arras end BEF has regained 61 sq miles, taken 20,834 PoWs and 252 guns in 38 days. British repulse counter-attacks north of Gavrelle.
British hold on Siegfried line, north-east of Bullecourt, extended.
King Albert I of Belgium inspecting Australian troops in the ruined town of Albert, France: © IWM (Q 3125: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...8623233/photo/1
French make appreciable advance east of Craonne.
French soldier reading a map of the area of Mont Sans Nom: © IWM (Q 78893): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...7503488/photo/1

Southern Front
Tenth Battle of the Isonzo: Italians claim 4,021 prisoners in last two days' advance in Carso and on Vodice. Austrians claim 2,000 prisoners in the Carso.

Naval and Overseas Operations
Adriatic: Austrian U-5 mined and sunk off Pola but raised and reused.
General Van Deventer succeeds General Hoskins in East Africa.

Political, etc
Austria-Hungary: CoS Arz (to Czernin) believes Russian Army collapse will obviate need for armistice talks.
Germany: German Chancellor indicates lines of peace with Russia.
Russia: Cabinet reshuffle admits 6 Petrograd Soviet Menshevik members. M. Aleksandr Kerenski succeeds General Aleksandr Guchkov as Russian Minister for War (see March 15th and November 8th). M. Mikhail Tereshchenko succeeds M. Pavel Milyukov as Russian Foreign minister (see March 15th and November 8th). Kerensky, as War Minister is visited at Petrograd by all the C-in-Cs.
Trotsky arrives in Petrograd (from April 3 internment in Canada). Lev Davidovich Bronstein, called Trotsky: https://i0.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...otzki.jpg?ssl=1
France: (Listed for yesterday): 2000 French women clothing workers go on strike in Paris, calling for increased pay and a 5-day workweek. Strike spreads to other industries.
United Kingdom: Suffrage bill is introduced in the House of Commons to give women over the age of 30 the right to vote.
Mr. Lloyd George proposes Home Rule (for Ireland) at once and suggests Convention.
United States: Aircraft Production Board set up.
A “portable hospital” designed by the Rockefeller Institute for use near the front is revealed: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...6490240/photo/1

__________________
On the kinkometer, my kink measures as a sine wave.

Western Front
France: Belgian King Albert tours British Somme, Aisne and Arras battlefields. Petain’s Directive No.1 rejects breakthrough aim ‘for the moment.’ King Albert I inspecting a Belgian heavy artillery armored train near Saint-Pol: © IWM (Q 2202): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...7903746/photo/1
French Army Mutinies: On 16–17 May, there were disturbances in a Chasseur battalion of the 127th Division and a regiment of the 18th Division. Two days later a battalion of the 166th Division staged a demonstration and on 20 May the 128th Regiment of the 3rd Division and the 66th Regiment of the 18th Division refused orders; individual incidents of insubordination occurred in the 17th Division. Over the next two days spokesmen were elected in two regiments of the 69th Division to petition for an end to the offensive. By 28 May mutinies broke out in the 9th Division, 158th Division, 5th Division and 1st Cavalry Division. By the end of May more units of the 5th, 6th, 13th, 35th, 43rd, 62nd, 77th and 170th divisions mutinied and revolts occurred in 21 divisions in May. A record 27,000 French soldiers deserted in 1917; the offensive was suspended on 9 May.

Eastern Front
Intense Central Powers’ fire on Russian trenches near Kukhary (Kovel).

Southern Front
Tenth Battle of the Isonzo: Italians hold gains with British 6-inch howitzer help despite repeated Austrian counter-attacks. Cadorna orders medium and heavy artillery fire only for attacks or enemy counter-attacks due to shell shortage, guns being moved south to Carso.
Italian troops take the town of Duino on the Adriatic coast, and claim total Austro-Hungarian prisoners taken reach 4,021.
Behind the Austro-Hungarian lines potatoes are peeled: https://i0.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...aelen.jpg?ssl=1
Serbia: Last French attacks in Crna bend and north of Monastir fail against German counter-attacks with 1,113 casualties. Serrail fails to get Serb First Army (Misic) into action.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Picture of an Arab fighter riding a camel taken by T.E. Lawrence: © IWM (Q 59183): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...9425280/photo/1
Kurds attack Russian rear near Khanikan.
Mesopotamian Commission's report presented.

Political, etc
Germany: Austro-German Kreuznach Agreement (until May 18): Austria to get Balkans territory for letting Germany have Poland and Baltic gains (Czernin’s peace effort thwarted).
United Kingdom: The British Admiralty appoint a Committee, in conjunction with the Ministry of Shipping, to draw up a plan to convoy merchant ships (see June 14th and July 2nd). [ed note: there is a lot of controversy surrounding this decision. Lloyd George claims it was as a result of a visit to Whitehall; others in Parliament claims it was the result obtained following on a Cabinet decision; the records seem to show that the decision to appoint such a committee was taken by the Admiralty a few days to a week prior to Lloyd George’s visit to Whitehall.]
(Listed for yesterday): Philip Snowden, Socialist Member of Parliament, declares if peace does not come soon, Allied countries will be threatened by revolution.
British Director of Food Economy defends the continued brewing of beer in the country, stating it counts as food and is necessary.
Annual meetings of Imperial Cabinet announced.
Serbia: Radomir Putnik, former Serbian Field Marshal and Chief of the General Staff, passed away: https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...8138880/photo/1
United States: U.S. National Confectioners’ Association adopts a resolution proposing a 2-cent coin, as “penny candy goods” have risen in cost.
U.S. Secretary of War says that due to the lack of supplies, the U.S. will not be able to mobilize 500,000 men until September 1st. [Ed Note: remember the “wild promises” mentioned earlier ?]
U.S.A. Minister in Belgium issues damning report on German deportations.
Minor Allies: Honduras severs diplomatic relations with Germany (see July 19th, 1918).

__________________
On the kinkometer, my kink measures as a sine wave.

Western Front
French Army Mutinies: A battalion of the 166th Division staged a protest demonstration against further futile offensives.
France: Haig meets Petain at Amiens, latter says British Flanders plans too ambitious, former’s diary finds Petain ‘businesslike, knowledgeable and brief of speech’.
British officers training on horseback near Arras: © IWM (Q 2155): https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...9606784/photo/1
Aisne: French easily repulse slight attacks on Chemin des Dames California plateau (until May 19). Germans regain 200 yards on May 20.
Artillery activity near Fresnoy.

Southern Front
Tenth Battle of the Isonzo: Italians extend their hold on Vodice and Hill 652.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Mesopotamia: 918 British river craft and 148 on order from India.
Palestine: EEF begins offensive patrols in Gaza sector.


Political, etc
Russia: The Duma urges loyalty to Allies on Provisional Government.
United Kingdom: John Buchan reports on poor ‘public feeling’, urges more domestic propaganda. Cabinet agrees on May 22 to a campaign to ‘counter-attack the pacifist movement’.
Several labour leaders in Sheffield, England are arrested under the Defense of Realm Act for organizing a strike in defiance of their unions.
United States: Selective Conscription Act for men aged 21-31. 500,000 to be mustered in September. A blindfolded volunteer draws out the assigned numbers of some of those Americans to fight on the Western Front: https://i0.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...n-act.jpg?ssl=1
US Base Hospital No 4 (243 staff) reaches Britain (first US soldiers to do so).
Minor Allies: Nicaragua severs diplomatic relations with Germany (see May 8th, 1918).

__________________
On the kinkometer, my kink measures as a sine wave.

Western Front
French Army Mutinies: Several mutinies a day now reported in French Army. When Nivelle’s offensive yielded only a few miles of ground at a cost of 200,000 casulaties the grumble became a mutiny in the French Army: https://i0.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...umble.jpg?ssl=1
German attack French trenches along the Chemin des Dames with flamethrowers and gain ground.
British soldiers salvaging a statue head from the ruins of the Chateau at Caulaincourt: © IWM (Q 2252): https://t.co/zQH39qGtVp
German prisoners are made to reassemble captured German guns for the Allies: https://t.co/OpP6w35QSo
British push forward beyond Bullecourt.

Eastern Front
Russian Army at the front remains passive.

Southern Front
Tenth Battle of the Isonzo: Italians evacuate temporary Bodrez Isonzo bridgehead and repulse Austrian night attack on Vodice (night May 19-20).

Naval and Overseas Operations
Baltic: 4 Russian submarines sail from Reval on year’s first patrol, Bars sunk on May 28 either mined or depth charged off Norrkoeping, Sweden. Second group also has no success. Kerensky speaks at Helsinki naval base (May 23).

Political, etc
Russia: Russian Provisional Government issue declaration repudiating a separate peace but general one to be without annexations or sanctions.
United Kingdom: Settlement with Amalgamated Society of Engineers agreed on.
United States: United States Government announce decision to send a Division of the United States Army to France at once (see June 25th).
Former President Roosevelt asks the White House for permission to raise 2 divisions to fight in Europe.

__________________
On the kinkometer, my kink measures as a sine wave.