Diary March 20, 1917

03-1917, Diary WWI, War Diary, Year 1917 / 1 minute of reading

British soldiers with French children in the newly-liberated village of Vraignes on this day. In the background the German goodbye ‘God punish England’.

World War One Diary for Tuesday, March 20, 1917:

Western Front

Aisne: Germans demolish irreplaceable medieval castle of Coucy-le-Chateau, 10 miles north of Soissons, to remove potential observation post.
Artois: BEF preparatory bombardment for Arras offensive opens.

Eastern Front

Russia: Ex-Tsar reviews troops at STAVKA, urges loyalty to Provisional Government and war’s continuation.
Rumania: CoS General Iliesca blames Russia for autumn 1916 disasters.

Sea War

Germany: Raider Moewe returns to Kiel.
China: Chinese Navy takes over 2 interned German river gunboats before declaration of war (on August 14, 1917); 20 interned steamers (21,000t) already seized on March 14.

Secret War

Austria: Princes Sixtus and Xavier in Vienna until March 25.

Politics

Britain: Imperial War Cabinet first meets (14 meetings until May 17).

Neutrals

USA: US Cabinet agree war inevitable, Wilson summons Congress for April 2, 1917.

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.