Western Front
Battle of St. Mihiel: Americans advance along west bank of Moselle. St Mihiel salient fully straightened out for 7,511 US and 597 French casualties (15,000 beds available), 15,000 PoWs and 450 (or 443) guns taken. Germans commit 4 reserve divisions. Metz fortress guns fire (September 15), but c.400,000 Americans now switched 60 miles northwest. Battle of St. Mihiel ends (see 12th).
The so-called
Battles of the Hindenburg Line: Battle of Havrincourt: French capture Vailly (north-east of Soissons) and Mt. des Singes.
Slight advance by British in neighbourhood of Ploegsteert and east of Ypres.
Western Front, Air: France: the overnight last raid on Paris resulted in 6 killed, 15 injured, 2 raiders brought down. RAF claim to destroy 8 German aircraft for loss of 4 over BEF Third Army but, overall, Germans claim 59 Allied planes for loss of 10.
Germany: 7 RAF Handley Pages lost on raids on Cologne, Saarbrücken and Trier etc, 6 of them lost to anti-aircraft guns (16,063 rounds fired and 173 searchlights in action, night September 16-17).
Soldiers from Britain and its Dominions compete in a log chopping contest near Pont-Remy. The Australian soldier won: © IWM (Q 7076):
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...994932952117249
A column of Germans prisoners being escorted by New Zealand soldiers through Havrincourt Wood:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...251629176168448
American soldiers hurl grenades at Austro-Hungarian troops on the Piave Front in Italy:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...280624961703936
Eastern Front
Archangel front; successful operation by naval units and Allied troops on the River Dvina; two enemy ships sunk, three guns captured.
Southern Front
Macedonia: Battle of the Vardar/Battle of the Dobropolje/Battle of the Moglenitsa: Franco-Serbian advance continued; the troops advance to a depth of five miles on 16-mile front in region of Dobropolje. Serb Yugoslav Division attacks Mt Kozyak all day (inside Bulgarian 3rd line) and finally takes it, but German 13th Saxon Jäger battalion covers breach. Friedrich von Scholtz cables Paul von Hindenburg, asking for German divisions from Western Front; request forwarded to Austrians, who hedge. Bulgarian 2nd Division withdraws to 3rd line without warning.
Italy: Italians makes successful trench raid north and north-west of Mt. Grappa; capture over 300 prisoners and some machine guns.
Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Trans-Jordan: 6 RAF D.H.9s raid Deraa for first time; 8 German planes from there cause Arab Army only 2 casualties thanks to B.E.12 (destroyed).
Naval and Overseas Operations
Great Britain: The world's first flush-decked aircraft carrier, HMS
Argus, is commissioned into the Royal Navy. She was the first example of what is now the standard pattern of aircraft carrier, with a full-length flight deck that allowed wheeled aircraft to take off and land.
Argus in harbor in 1918, painted in dazzle camouflage, with a
Revenge-class battleship in the background:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_A...rgus_(1917).jpg
Monitor H.M.S.
Glatton sunk by explosion in Dover harbor.
Channel: Coastal submarine
UB-103, sighted by British blimp
SS 21 (Pilot US Ensign NJ Learned), sunk by several Royal Navy drifters’ depth charges off Cap Gris Nez.
An SS class airship with twin ventral fins and a BE2c-type car for the pilot:
https://i0.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...rship.jpg?ssl=1
Political, etc
Germany: Count Georg von Hertling tells Conservative leader that Austrian peace move has prejudiced Dutch mediation.
Russia: Vladimir Lenin recovers from gunshots, attends meetings (until September 17), but moves to Gorki (September 24 or 25) to convalesced until mid-October.
United Kingdom: Balfour calls Austro-German offers unacceptable. King George V cables President Wilson with congratulations on St Mihiel salient removal.
Bulgaria: Tsar Ferdinand replies to General Lukov peacefeeler suggestion ‘Go out and get killed in your present lines’.
Japan: Recognition by Japan of Czechoslovakia as belligerent Allies.
United States: President Woodrow Wilson replies to the Austrian Note by rejecting suggestion for a peace conference (see 15th, and October 4th).
A map in front of the New York Public Library displays the “Czechoslovak Nation” in the territory of Austria-Hungary:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...312012213645313