Diary March 20, 1916

03-1916, Diary WWI, Year 1916 / 1 minute of reading

German flame-throwers going into action.

Diary for Monday, March 20, 1916:

Western Front

Verdun, West bank: 11th Bavarian Division captures Avocourt Wood and 2,825 French PoWs, with flamethrowers, but Germans are repulsed on Poivre Heights (East bank).

Eastern Front

Russian strength now total 1,670,928 infantryman (in 130 divisions); 178,123 cavalry troopers (39 divisions); 6,180 guns: 6,224 MGs; 500 armoured cars against 86 Austrian and German divisions.

Middle East

Armenia: Yudenich meets Admiral Eberhardt at Batumi to plan operations against Trebizond; Lyakhov reaches Humurgan (March 28-30) 20 miles east against Major Hunger’s Turk troops.

African Fronts

East Africa: Five German moonlight charges against 1st Division (33 casualties) fail.

Sea War

Channel: 4 Royal Navy minelayers at work on Thames and Dover Straits approaches. Royal Navy seaplane carriers Riviera and Vindex attack German seaplane base on Zeebrugge Mole, escorts (destroyer HMS Lance hit) beat off 3 German destroyers.

Air War

Occupied Belgium: 19 British, 19 French and 16 Belgian aircraft drop 4 1/2 t bombs on Zeebrugge floatplane base.
Western Front: 10 indecisive Anglo-German air combats.

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.