Diary December 23, 1917

12-1917, Diary WWI, War Diary, Year 1917 / 1 minute of reading

Austrian 10.4cm Langrohrkanone on the Italian Front firing gas shells. The crew wears gas masks.

World War One Diary for Sunday, December 23, 1917:

Southern Fronts

Italian Front: French Tenth Army C-in-C Fayolle informs Foch that Italians ‘had recovered their spirit and wanted to fight’.
Trentino: Conrad’s final attempt to break through before winter snows, promises soldiers winter at Bassano in plains below and Christmas Mass in Venice. After hurricane shelling including gas (by 550 guns) Austrian Eleventh Army captures Col del Rosso (4183ft), Mt Melago and 3 other features in 2-mile advance, claims 9,000 PoWs until December 24.

Sea War

Irish Sea: Armed boarding steamer HMS Stephen Furness (101 lives lost) sunk by U-boat.
North Sea: 3 Harwich Force destroyers on Dutch convoy duty (Torrent, Surprise and Tornado) sink on German minefield north of Maas Light Buoy, 252 lives lost. Flotilla leader Valkyri gets home with broken back. Surviving destroyer Radiant rescues survivors.

Politics

Germany: Kaiser, visiting Second Army on Western Front, says 1917 proof that God an ally of German people.

Secret War

France: Anglo-French Paris Convention on spheres of influence in Southern Russia (British War Cabinet approve on December 26).

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.