Diary May 3, 1917

05-1917, Diary WWI, War Diary, Year 1917 / 1 minute of reading

The new British Mark IV tank has been in operation since March 1917 and its 12 mm reinforced armor can no longer be penetrated by armor piercing bullets from the German infantry weapons.

World War One Diary for Thursday, May 3, 1917:

Western Front

Artois – Third Battle of the Scarpe (until May 4): British attack on 16-mile front east of Arras with 14 divisions; 2,685 guns (vs 1,429 German pieces) and 16 tanks before dawn at 0345 hours with few Third Army gains although Canadians (1,259 casualties) storm Fresnoy, capturing 500 PoWs.
Artois – Battle of Bullecourt (until May 17): 6 British-Australian divisions with 12 tanks of Fifth Army break into strongly fortified village 14 miles west of Cambrai and break through Hindenburg Line switch at Queant.
Aisne: Colonial division and 2 French infantry regiments (21st Division) affected by mutinies (until May 4).

Politics

France: Anglo-French Paris War Conference (until May 5).
USA: US loans Italy $100 million, France also on May 8 and Russia on May 16.

Neutrals

Brazil: Foreign Minister Müller resigns as German name hampers his neutral policy.

Home Fronts

Russia: First demonstration against Provisional Government, Foreign Minister Miliukov defends policy to Petrograd crowds. Provisional Governments just wins Petrograd Soviet confidence vote (on May 4).

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.