Diary August 31, 1917

08-1917, Diary WWI, War Diary, Year 1917 / 1 minute of reading

German submarine detains a merchant vessel at sea.

World War One Diary for Friday, August 31, 1917:

Sea War

North Sea: Royal Navy Air Service raids Belgian coast airfields.
Allied and neutral August shipping losses to U-boats, 186 (84 British) ships worth 509,142t (U-Boat figure 472,372t including 79,549t in Mediterranean); 5 U-boats sunk. Best month of war for Austrian U-boats’ merchant ship sinkings: 38,823t claimed, more than in 1914-16 altogether.

Western Front

Ypres: Desultory British shelling of Menin Road Ridge defences begins. Germans capture some British advanced posts north of St Julien-Poelcapelle road.
Aisne: French gains near Hurtebise.

Southern Fronts

Salonika: British hospital cases c.18,000.
Italian Front: Italians claim 27,000 PoWs since August 19. Heavy fighting at key Mt San Gabriele northeast of Gorizia.

Secret War

Italian Front: In August Italian Commando Supremo Crittografico unit first completely reads Austrian radio signals.

About The Author

Kretaner

My name is Norman 'Kretaner' and since my childhood I am interested in history and strategy games. Later, I have learned programming and the development of computer games, and finally with the Internet, also web design. I'm in the fortunate position to combine all my interests with my work and to live on a place of my choice, on Crete. All information, figures, specifications and statistics used here had been compiled from a variety of sources and the large, over decades collected, library of the author about military history, WW2 and weapons.