Western Front
The so-called Battles of the
Hindenburg Line: Battle of the Beaurevoir Line (3-5 October 1918): British successfully attack on eight-mile front and take Le Catelet and 350 guns.
Elsewhere:
Germans withdraw from Lens-Armentieres line and past La Bassee..
British capture Gheluwe; French and Belgians reach Hooglede.
Champagne: French take Challerange. US 2nd Division storms key Blanc Mont Ridge (15 miles northeast of Reims) until October 4 to aid Henri Gouraud’s hitherto stalled advance for 5 miles (until October 10) taking c.2,000 PoWs for 6,300 casualties
Meuse-Argonne Offensive: Battle of Champagne and Argonne (see October 15th): Max von Gallwitz stalls US advance, after 7-mile gain, on Apremont-Brieulles line.
Western Front, Air: Allies claim successful air fighting, 55 German planes down.
The ruins of Villers-Bretonneux’s church: © IWM (Q 58389):
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...388325416452097
A crater created by a mine exploded under German positions at La Bassée, France:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...419757719441408
American cavalryman and a tank arrive in Bellicourt, France: © IWM (Q 103006):
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...480160319094784
Eastern Front
Northern Russia: Action near Pyavozero Lake (Murman front).
Southern Russia: The Ufa (southern Urals) loyal Government declare all Soviet treaties void and propose All-Russian Constituient Assembly.
Fighting in the Urals.
Southern Front
Serbia: 19,000 Bulgarians surrender to Italian 35th Division and French 11th Colonial Division at Sop; Allied forces in touch with Austro-Germans in southern Serbia; Serbs, in fighting against Austro-Hungarian forces, drive back Austrian 9th Division and also capture 7,000 Bulgarians, despite armistice.
Italy: Big British trench raid on Asiago front. Heavy fighting and 500 Austrian PoWs by October 11.
Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Syria: Edmund Allenby visits Damascus and meets Prince Feisal for first time, tells him France will be protecting power in Syria, but he can set up military administration Aqaba-Damascus east of Jordan. An exhausted and disillusioned Thomas Lawrence asks for leave and departs for Cairo on October 4.
T.E. Lawrence in Damascus after the entrance of King Faisal in to the city: © IWM (Q 46093):
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Siberia: Japanese reported to have joined Semenov at Ruchlevo; 1,500 Magyar prisoners.
Naval and Overseas Operations
North Sea: Royal Navy submarine
L.11 torpedoes and sinks German torpedo boat
S-33.
Political, etc
Germany: “Brutal” order by Ludendorff re: prisoners. Germans witholding ratification of Prisoners of War Agreement because of Germans interned in China.
Prince Maximillian of Baden (Kaiser’s second cousin) becomes last Imperial Chancellor, also replaces Paul von Hintze as Foreign Minister. Hindenburg writes to Chancellor ‘
As a result of the collapse of the Macedonian Front … there is no longer a prospect of forcing peace on the enemy’.
Prince Maximilian of Baden:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...495263789752322
France: General Charles Moiner appointed Governor of Paris.
United Kingdom: Sir G. Cave appointed Chairman of Inder-departmenal Prisoners of War Committee.
Bulgaria: Boris Klemens Robert Maria Pius Ludwig Stanislaus Xaver, ascends the Bulgarian throne as Boris III. Boris III signs decree demobilizing Army and issues peaceful manifesto on October 6. Former Tsar Ferdinand’s train told to leave Austrian territory on October 5, leaves for Coburg on October 6.
Romania: Provisional National Council forms National Council of Unity (France recognizes on October 12).
United States: Czechoslovak soldiers marching in New York City. The Allies have promised them their independence after the war:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...555661612163072