Western Front
Battle of the Selle (see 25th/26th): French advance between Rivers Serre and Oise; stubborn fighting north of Verdun.
Belgians three miles from Ghent, across Derivation Canal to Eede (Dutch frontier).
British push on; stubborn resistance.
Sir Douglas Haig's despatch of 20 July, on March and April withdrawal, published.
Exhibition in Paris display captured German helmets:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...693607692169216
American soldiers and French children at the village of Vaubecourt, France:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...904985388470272
German howitzer knocked over by Canadian artillery:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...965392669040642
A funeral for an American soldier at La Rochelle, France:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...995594480582656
Southern Front
Italy: Italians fighting on Asiago and Grappa fronts.
Armando Diaz’s final orders for upcoming offensive stress aim ‘to separate the Austrian forces on the Trentino from those on the Piave’.
The new Italian C-in-C General Armando Diaz (right), appointed after the defeat of Caporetto, succeeded in reorganising the Italian Army and improving morale by making various concessions to the soldiers:
https://i1.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...-Diaz.jpg?ssl=1
Serbia: Battle of Paracin (until October 23): French capture convoy of lighters at Lom Palanka (Danube). (Duplicate notice from yesterday?)
Bulgaria: British 26th Division arrives by rail (until October 23) at Mustapha Pasha on Bulgarian-Turkish frontier west of Adrianople where garrison of only 1 battalion with 2 guns.
Naval and Overseas Operations
Irish Sea: Last merchant ship (coaster Saint Bareham, 8 lives lost) sunk by U-boat in British home waters.
German light cruiser SMS
Frankfurt accidentally collides with the U-boat SM
UB-89, sinking the submarine and killing 7. The SMS
Frankfurt:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...010693941379073
Political, etc
Austria-Hungary: German Austrians declare independence at Vienna and form National Provincial Assembly (2nd mtg passes fundamental laws October 30).
The Ban of Croatia refuses offer of Military Governor of Agram to suppress the Yugoslav National Council (see 5th and 29th).
Germany: Erich Ludendorff approves Reinhard Scheer’s U-boat plan, including release of skilled workers from front. Kaiser meets Reichstag at Berlin Bellevue Palace, ISP leader says ‘
Crowns are rolling about the floor’.
France: The Le Matin newspaper’s ‘
Panorama of the Battle of Liberation’ map posted up in Paris.
United Kingdom: King George receives Inter-Parliamentary delegates.
David Beatty insists to War Cabinet meeting on German Fleet’s surrender as well as all U-boats and Heligoland.
Lord Beaverbrook resigns as Information Minister (ill-health). Labour Minister reports that Special Branch and GHQ Home Forces preparing supply of auxiliary labour. Thomson (Special Branch) writes that working-class morale ‘
Probably at its highest point’, but warns of union strike plans.
Belgium: German Governor-General of Belgium pardons Belgians and neutrals convicted by Court Martial.
Belgian Bill for German damage already nearly 400 million pounds.