One side (left) shows ‘The great steamer Lusitania sunk by German U-boat, 7th May 1915 – No contraband !’. The other side of the medal shows Death selling tickets in the Cunard office under the motto ‘Business before everything’.
Politics
Britain: German Lusitania medal published in Britain; photos sent to US, published 7 May, propaganda replica later sold for duration.
Germany: Government replies to US Sussex note, will submit the case to mixed tribunal.
Western Front
Flanders: German attack on British trenches on YpresÂ-Pilkem road.
Southern Fronts
Trentino, west of lake Garda: Italian 5th Division attacks towards Mt Fuma in Adamello Range at over 10,000ft in a blizzard, gains objective on April 17 after Alpini battalion storms AlbaÂ-Poson di Genova ridge.
Middle East
Turkey: Stotzingen’s German 8-man mission reaches Damascus.
Mesopotamia: British 3rd Division gains c.1 mile on south bank for 400 casualties, floods affect both sides on north bank.
East Persia: General Dyer‘s 200 men defeat 2,000 Sarhad tribesmen and secure submission (until April 30).
African Fronts
South Algeria: 500 French soldiers retake Djanet border post but Senussi escape (until April 16).
Sea War
Mediterranean: Allied navies under Admiral Gueydon (including 6 French destroyers, 24 Royal Navy drifters) convoy 125,000 Serb troops from Corfu to Salonika (until May 31).
Air War
Britain – Lord Montagu warns in speech at Birmingham: ‘There is no part of industrial England to which a Zeppelin cannot fly and rain destruction’. He demands end to ‘intersÂervice and inter-departmental jealousies’ and a Ministry of Aviation to galvanize aircraft production as Ministry of Munitions has transformed shell and gun deliveries.
Neutrals
Mexico: Carranza troops attack US cavalry entering Parral, 400 miles south of frontier. Carranza demands US pull-out.
