Over 100 Facts WW1 by Neil Michael O'Mara

Author:Neil Michael O'Mara
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: WW1, Great War, World War One, First World War, Trenches, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Lord Kitchener, Schlieffen Plan, British Empire, British Expeditionary Force, Kaiser, British Army, Somme, Gallipoli, Western Front, RFC, BEF, Dreadnought, Zeppelin, Armistice
ISBN: 9781783333868
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2013
Published: 2013-11-06T00:00:00+00:00

A Ration Party of the Royal Irish Riffles in a communication trench during the Battle of the Somme. The date is believed to be 1st July 1916, the first day of the Somme.

Royal Engineers No 1 Printing Company/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

1917

British naval intelligence intercepted a German telegram to Mexico on 19 th January. The ‘Zimmerman’ telegram was to encourage Mexico to make war with the USA. Germany offered financial assistance with the encouragement of retaking Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. The telegram caused outrage in the US when it was published on the 1 st March 1917.

Germany decides to resume an unrestricted (sink on sight) U-boat campaign on 1 st of February 1917. An estimated 15,000 British merchant seamen were lost.

Between February and April of 1917, the British merchant fleet lost 1,945,240 tons with a loss of only nine U-boats.

Mild weather over the 27 th and 28 th of February 1917 in the Russian capital of Petrograd (now St. Petersburg), brought large numbers of demonstrators on to the streets and was joined by the Petrograd garrison.

On reaching their RFC squadron in 1917, the life expectancy of a young pilot was just 11 days.

The Ukraine part of the Russian Empire, declared independence and made a separate peace treaty with Germany in February 1917. The Ukraine later became a Republic of the Soviet Union.

In 1917 the Germans bombed Britain with their twin-engine Gotha bomber aircraft. On 25 th May, 21 Gothas bombed Folkestone killing 95 civilians and caused injury to 260 more.

Tsar Nicholas II was undecided what to do but on the 2 nd of March 1917 he decided to abdicate. Alexander Kerensky became leader of the Provincial Government that was installed after the February Revolution.

The French offensive of April 1917 organised by General Nivelle on the Chemin des Dames ridge between Verdun and Paris cost tens of thousands of lives for a gain of just 500 yards. This led to the French ‘mutinies’ of May 1917. On the 15 th of May General Petain replaced Nivelle.

The USA declares war on Germany on 6 th April 1917.

The Admiralty wrestled with the idea for the introduction of escorted convoys and was not formally adopted until April 1917.

Victoria Cross winner Captain Albert Ball and Royal Flying Corps ace, having shot down 44 enemy aircraft was killed.

On the Western Front, more lives were lost from artillery than riffle or a machine-gun.

In June 1917, General Petain ordered mass arrests and 23,385 men were found guilty of mutiny. As an example to the French Army, 50 were shot. Petain hailed as a hero after the First World War but condemned as a collaborator after the Second.

Portugal despatched an expeditionary force to France to support the Allies.

In an attempt to break the stalemate of trench warfare, armies were always tunnelling and setting mines. At 03.20 hours on 7 th June 1917 the British detonated over one million tons of high explosive in 19 mines under the Wytschaete-Messines Ridge.

In June 1917 Von Richthofen took command of the first hunter squadron. This became ‘Richthofen’s Flying Circus’ flying his distinctive bright red DR-1 Triplane.

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