World War I

E

3

Submarine Warfare

In 1917 not only did the United States enter the war, but also the Germans failed in their attempt to drive Great Britain to surrender through the destruction by submarine of the British and Allied shipping on which it depended for food and other supplies. At the outset the German submarine campaign seemed likely to succeed. Towards the end of 1916 German submarines were destroying monthly about 300,000 tons of British and Allied shipping in the North Atlantic; in April 1917 the figure was 875,000 tons. Because the Germans had calculated that the destruction of 600,000 tons monthly for six consecutive months would be sufficient to force Great Britain to capitulate, they were doubly certain of victory after April. Great Britain, however, roused itself to unprecedented efforts to fight the submarine menace. By the adoption of a convoy system of screening fleets of merchant vessels with warships, especially destroyers and submarine chasers, and by the use of hydroplanes for spotting submarines and depth charges for destroying them, Great Britain, as the summer advanced, rendered the German submarine campaign less and less effective. By the autumn, although large numbers of Allied ships were still being sunk, the Germans were sustaining heavy losses in submarines. At the same time the Allied nations, especially the United States, were rapidly building new shipping. By the outset of 1918 the Allies were turning out more new ships than the Germans were destroying, and the German effort to end the war by submarine warfare had clearly failed.

E

4

Russia Withdraws

On the eastern front the dominating influence on the fighting during 1917 was the outbreak in March of the Russian popular uprising against the imperial government, which resulted in turn in the establishment of a provisional government and the abdication, in March, of Tsar Nicholas II. The provisional government continued the prosecution of the war, in July, under General Aleksey Alekeseyevich Brusilov, the Russians staged a moderately successful 2-week drive on the Galician front, but then lost much of the territory they had gained. In September the Germans took Riga, defended by Russian forces under General Lavr Georgiyevich Kornilov, and in October occupied the greater part of Latvia and a number of Russian-held islands in the Baltic Sea. The Bolshevik party seized power by force on November 7. A cardinal policy of Bolshevism was the withdrawal of Russia from the war, and on November 20 the government that had just come into power offered the German government an armistice. On December 15 an armistice was signed between the Russian and Austro-German negotiators, and fighting ceased on the eastern front.

E

5

Italian Setbacks

The Allies suffered disaster on the Italian front in 1917. During the first eight months of the year, despite deficiencies in troop strength, artillery, and ammunition, the Italian forces under General Luigi Cadorna continued efforts to break through the Austrian lines on the Isonzo River and to attain Trieste. The Italian drives of 1917, which resulted in the 10th and 11th battles of the Isonzo, did not attain their objective. The latter part of the year (October-December) was marked by a determined Austro-German offensive carried on by nine Austrian and six newly arrived German divisions. Attacking on the upper Isonzo near the town of Caporetto, they succeeded in breaking the line of the Italians, who fell back in confusion from the Isonzo to positions on the Piave River. In the disastrous Battle of Caporetto the Italian forces lost 300,000 men as prisoners alone and, the morale of the army broken, approximately the same number as deserters. In November British and French troops arrived to reinforce the Italians on the Piave, and a new Italian commander in chief, General Armando Díaz, was appointed in place of General Cadorna.

E

6

Greece Enters the War

On the Balkan front in 1917, after the Allied troops had fought several inconclusive engagements at Monastir, at Lake Presba, and on the Vardar River, the Allies initiated an effort to oust the Greek king, Constantine, claiming that his pro-German sympathies and his aid to the Central Powers made it impossible for the Allies to conduct successful operations in the Balkan region. In June the Allies began an invasion of Greece, and at the same time exerted diplomatic pressure on Constantine to abdicate. He did so on June 12; Venizelos became premier of the government formed under Alexander, the son of Constantine; and on June 27 the Greek government declared war on all four Central Powers.

E

7

The Middle East

In Palestine during 1917 the British made two unsuccessful attempts (March and April) to take the city of Gaza. Under a new commander, General (later Field Marshal) Sir Edmund Allenby, the British broke through the Turkish lines at Beersheba (November), compelling the evacuation of Gaza; and on December 9, Allenby's troops took Jerusalem. The year also witnessed the beginning of the brilliant leadership of British Colonel T. E. Lawrence, known as Lawrence of Arabia, in the Arab revolt against Turkey. Arab troops led by Lawrence took the Turkish-held port of Al'Aqabah in July, and during the remainder of the year executed many forays against the Turkish-held Hejaz railway. The year 1917 was also marked by British successes in Mesopotamia; they took Baghdad in March and by September had advanced to Ramadi on the River Euphrates and Tikrit on the Tigris.