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We live in a terrible epoch of the human story.

Winston Churchill.

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The purpose of these pages is to tell the story of Churchill's life - not to give a detailed account of the wars he was involved in, for that is a vast subject.

 It is important to remember that heavy censorship of news took place throughout them, and therefore knowledge of many of these events was not available until long after they happened - or until after the wars had ended.

Explanatory notes are given against some of these dates, but to read about particular battles or political events please go to Bibliography

1917	Admiralty Map showing Allied Shipping losses to date by German U Boats.
JANUARY 1917	A serious food shortage in Berlin.
1st	Cunard Liner sunk by Germans in the Mediterranean with heavy loss of life.
FEBRUARY 1917
	Women's Land Army founded.
24th	British retake Kut.
25th	HMS Laurentic sunk by German U Boat with loss of 350 lives.
MARCH 1917
	Women's Army Auxiliary Corps founded.
8th	Commission of Enquiry lays part of the blame for the Dardanelles campaign failure on Lord Kitchener.
11th	British take Bagdad.
15th	Tsar Nicholas II of Russian abdicates.
18th	Ramsgate and Broadstairs shelled from the sea.Three US ships sunk without warning by German U Boats. President Wilson calls a Special Congress to debate US relations with Germany.
26th	Second Battle of Gaza.
APRIL
5th	Food Strikes in Germany.
6th	America enters the war on the side of the Allies.
14th	Battle of Arras. US Congress votes $7,000 million War Loan.
17th	German U Boats sink British Hospital Ships HMS Donegal and HMS Lanfranc.
19th	250,000 workers in Berlin end strike when promised better rations and a say in running of the Food Councils.
24th	US Government lends UK £200 million.
26th	German Naval Raid on Ramsgate.
27th	Convoy system for merchant ships introduced.
MAY 1917
4th	HMS Transylvania torpedoed and sunk by German U Boats killing 413 persons.
23rd	French Army mutinies and strikes at factories in protest at the war.
26th	German air raids kill 76 civilians in bombing raids along the south coast.
JUNE 1917
7th	Winston Churchill re-enters government as Chairman of the Air Board.
17th	Nineteen huge mines exploded under German lines.
19th	330 majority in House of Commons in favour of votes to wives over the age of 30 years.
28th	German air raids kill 76 civilians in bombing raids along the south coast.
30th	King orders all German Titles to be dropped and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to become Windsor, and Battenburg to become Mountbatten.
JULY 1917
7th	37 die in German Air Raids on UK.
17th	Winston Churchill appointed Minister of Munitions.
23rd	Lloyd George says"peace can only be negotiated with the German people - not their leaders".
31st to November 10th	The Battle of Passchendaele begins. 31st July to November 10th. "The endless rain competed with the guns - and the rain won". The total battle loss of lives were 568.250 men. 300,000 British lives 8,250 French lives 260,000 German lives. Nothing in history compared.
AUGUST 1917
20th	French break the German lines at Verdun and take 4,000 prisoners.
25th	German Court Martial sentences to death five sailors for mutiny.
SEPTEMBER 1917
3rd	German submarines shell Scarborough. 108 die in German Air Raids in Thames Estuary.
6th	Battle of the Marne begins. German planes bomb Allied Hospitals killing many Americans.
13th	Battle of Aisne begins.
17th	Nine penny Loaf Order brought into force. German government asks for boys of 15 to join the army.
22nd	Sinking of three Cressy Class Cruisers
	Women's Hospital Corps Founded
	Some of the War Poets. Lawrence Binyon, Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves and Edward Thomas. "Does it matter? - losing your sight; There's so much work for the blind; And people will be kind . . . ".
OCTOBER 1917
19th	Burying the dead.
24th	German violinist Fritz Kriesler refuses to play until the war is ended.
NOVEMBER 1917
25th	The Battle of Caporetto (In the Italian Alps and lasted into to November) with the Italian retreat. US 'Rainbow' Division (representing every State) arrives at the Western Front under Colonel Douglas MacArthur.
31st	Third Battle of Gaza.
	Naval Mine Sweeping Crew
DECEMBER 1917
9th	British capture Jerusalem.
6th	Canadians capture Passchendaele.
7th	The Russian Bolshevik Revolution
17th	£350,000,000 War Loan Bonds issued
20th to December 7th	First World War Tanks. The Battle of Cambrai. An eight mile wide attack with Tanks.
	Wife of the poet Edward Thomas Authoress of one of the most moving testimonies of civilian life during the war.
DECEMBER 1917
22nd	British Indian Force occupies Basra.
16th	German Air Attacks on North Eastern Britain
21st	Began 3 days of German Sea Plane Air attacks on Dover.
25th	Royal Naval Auxiliary Sea Planes raid Cuxhaven Zeppelin sheds

A brief summary of 1917.

Revolution took Russia out of the war and brought Communism into the world.
French forces mutinied and British influence in strategy became more important. The appalling failure to win the battles of Ypres - known now as Passchendaele - its objective - was to cause great suffering despondency.

1917 saw the Americans enter the war - but to little immediate effect. But by July 1918, 1,200,000 American soldiers were to be in Europe.

Bagdad fell to the Allies in March. In June the famous explosion of 19 enormous mines under the German lines proved a morale booster - as did the seizure by the British and Canadians of Vimy Ridge.

The Italians were forced back to the River Piave by the Germans.

In Cambrai, the British won a spectacular - but unexploited - battle with Churchill's new tanks and this caused the Church Bells to be prematurely rung in London.

Jerusalem fell to the Allies in in December.

 

The purpose of these pages is to tell the story of Churchill's life - not to give a detailed account of the wars he was involved in, for that is a vast subject.

Month by month factual and photographic calendars of the Ist World War

1914. 1915. 1916. 1917. 1918.

It is important to remember that heavy censorship of news took place throughout them, and therefore knowledge of many of these events was not available until long after they happened - or until after the wars had ended. Morevover, the experiences of the soldiers were so terrible, that of the the few who returned, none spoke of them for many many years.

Explanatory notes are given against some of these dates, but to read about particular battles or political events please go to Bibliography

1914. The causes of the Gt War.	1914. Unfolding events in the summer.	1914. Autumn and early winter
1915.	1916.	1917.
1918. Armistice.	1919. The aftermath.	The 1920's

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