Diary May 17, 1915

Group of British soldiers
Group of British soldiers wearing the ear-flapped ‘trench cap’ and the single-breasted infantryman’s greatcoat.
Diary for Monday, May 17, 1915:

Western Front

Ypern – Festubert: 450 Germans surrender during BEF shelling after which ‘Quadrilateral’ strong point captured, but rain and mist hamper exploitation. German reserves from north block British penetration.
Artois: ­Fayolle on Petain ‘… the best general I have met so far in the war’.

Middle East

Armenia: Russians occupy Ardjiche, lake Van. Turks leave town. Oganovski occupies Malazgirt.

Sea War

Black Sea: Russian destroyers launch blockade of Bosphorus, play havoc with coast-hugging Turk colliers.
Aegean: Coastal submarine UB8 arrives at Smyrna, sinks British SS Merion (dummy of battlecruiser Tiger) off Mudros.

Air War

Western Front: 9 RNAS aircraft from Dunkirk climb to intercept LZ38 but instead find LZ39. Pilots Grey, Warneford and Meddis attack, Meddis scores hits with 2 x 0.45-in incendiary bullets. Bigsworth’s Avro 504 air-to-air bomb attack damages LZ39 over Ostend (one of the crew killed, several wounded).
Gallipoli: Marix RNAS aircraft observes Turk reinforcements landing and making camp at Ak Bashi Liman. Later Samson and Marix in Breguet-Michelin bomb the camp (57 casualties), panicking work parties unloading boats.

Home Fronts

Russia: Bolshevik meeting in quarry near Odessa arrested.
Britain: Lloyd George persuades Asquith to form Coalition Government.
7,000 London tramway men lose strike for extra war bonus (until June 4).
Kitchener asks for another 300,000 men for the army.

Oval@3x 2

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