November 1917

November

• 01

  • End of the Battle of La MalmaisonOn the night of 1–2 November 1917 the Germans quietly left the Chemin des Dames for the Ailette. The French found empty trenches up to Craonne.
  • Ministry of National Service takes over recruitingOn 1 November 1917 Geddes's Ministry of National Service took over army recruiting from the War Office; civilian medical boards began to examine recruits.
  • Hertling becomes ChancellorOn 1 November 1917 the Kaiser dismissed Georg Michaelis and appointed the 74-year-old Bavarian premier Georg von Hertling, a Centre politician, Chancellor.
• 02

  • Kattegat raidOn 2 November 1917 British destroyers broke into the Kattegat and sank the German Q-ship K and the eight or nine trawlers it was escorting.
  • Key eventBalfour DeclarationOn 2 November 1917 Arthur Balfour assured Lord Rothschild that Britain supported the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.
  • Lansing–Ishii AgreementOn 2 November 1917 Lansing and Ishii exchanged notes on China in Washington. The US recognised Japan's "special interests"; both upheld the Open Door.
• 03

  • French troops in ItalyOn 3 November 1917 the arrival of French troops in Italy was announced. After Caporetto France sent four divisions there at first, and then two more.
  • Tonnage agreement for the AlliesOn 3 November 1917 Britain, France and Italy agreed that ships to carry food for the Allies were a common burden, and divided it among themselves.
  • First American soldiers killed in actionEarly on 3 November 1917 the Germans raided the trenches of the 16th Infantry near Bathelémont. Three Americans died, the first AEF soldiers killed in combat.
• 04

  • British troops in ItalyOn 4 November 1917 it was announced that British troops were going to Italy. Lord Cavan's XIV Corps went from Flanders, and soon General Plumer took command.
• 05

  • Fighting at TikritOn 5 November 1917 the Anglo-Indian 7th Division took part of the Turkish trenches at Tikrit. At dusk the hussars charged. The British lost 1,800 men.
• 06

  • Canadians capture PasschendaeleOn 6 November 1917 two Canadian divisions took the ruins of Passchendaele, goal of the offensive since 31 July, in under 3 hours, and Mosselmarkt and Goudberg.
  • British occupy TikritOn the night of 5–6 November 1917 the Turks abandoned Tikrit on the Tigris, burning their stores. The British took the town but returned to Samarra days later.
• 07

  • British take GazaOn 7 November 1917 the British entered Gaza, abandoned by the Turks, and broke their front at Tel esh Sheria. The pursuit northwards began.
  • Rapallo ConferenceOn 5–7 November 1917 the British, French and Italian prime ministers met at Rapallo to save Italy after Caporetto and set up the Supreme War Council.
  • Key eventOctober RevolutionOn 7 November 1917 the Bolsheviks seized Petrograd and overthrew the Provisional Government. The Winter Palace fell at night; the Soviet Congress took power.
• 08

  • The Council of People's Commissars is formedOn 8 November 1917 the Congress of Soviets passed the decrees on peace and land and set up a Bolshevik government, the Sovnarkom, under Lenin.
  • Cadorna dismissedOn 8 November 1917 King Victor Emmanuel III removed General Luigi Cadorna after Caporetto. General Armando Diaz became the new Italian Army chief of staff.
• 09

  • Italians withdraw behind the PiaveOn 9 November 1917 the last Italian rearguards crossed the Piave and blew the bridges. The retreat from Caporetto was over, and the enemy stood on the river.
• 10

  • End of the Third Battle of YpresOn 10 November 1917, in pouring rain, the Canadians took the heights north of Passchendaele. This attack ended the Flanders offensive that had begun on 31 July.
  • United States recognises the Polish National CommitteeOn 10 November 1917 Secretary of State Lansing authorised the ambassador in Paris to recognise the Polish National Committee as an official Polish organisation.
• 11

  • Central Powers on the PiaveOn 10–11 November 1917 the Austrians and Germans reached the Piave from sea to mountains, and Conrad attacked at Asiago. The fight for a new line began.
• 12

  • Battle of PulkovoOn 12 November 1917 Red Guards and sailors repelled Krasnov's Cossacks on the Pulkovo Heights. Kerensky's attempt to retake Petrograd collapsed.
• 13

  • Charge at El MugharOn 13 November 1917 the Buckinghamshire, Dorset and Berkshire yeomanry took the ridge at El Mughar in a charge, and Scottish infantry took El Mughar and Katrah.
  • Fall of the Painlevé governmentOn 13 November 1917 the Chamber of Deputies refused Painlevé a postponement of interpellations on the scandals. His cabinet fell after just two months.
• 14

  • Kerensky escapesOn 14 November 1917 Kerensky, whom Krasnov's Cossacks were ready to hand to the Bolsheviks, fled the Gatchina palace disguised as a sailor and vanished.
• 15

  • Alsace and Lorraine a war aimOn 15 November 1917 Lord Robert Cecil assured the Commons that the return of Alsace and Lorraine to France had been a British war aim from the outset.
  • Japan refuses to send battlecruisersOn 15 November 1917 Tokyo rejected a British request for two Japanese Kongō-class battlecruisers to join the Grand Fleet in the North Sea.
  • Bolsheviks take MoscowOn 15 November 1917, after a week of street fighting and the shelling of the Kremlin, the Moscow Committee of Public Safety gave in. Moscow fell to the soviets.
• 16

  • British take JaffaOn 16 November 1917 New Zealand mounted riflemen entered Jaffa unopposed. The Turks fell back behind the Yarkon river, and only a handful of residents remained.
  • Clemenceau governmentOn 16 November 1917 Georges Clemenceau, 76, became French prime minister and war minister, promising war until victory and a reckoning with "defeatists".
• 17

  • Battle of Nabi Samwil beginsOn 17 November 1917 Allenby prepared to march into the Judean Hills, to bypass Jerusalem to the north and cut the Nablus road without fighting for the city.
  • Second Battle of Heligoland BightOn 17 November 1917 British cruisers surprised German minesweepers in the Heligoland Bight. The chase was ended by minefields and two German battleships.
• 18

  • Death of General MaudeOn 18 November 1917 General Stanley Maude, the conqueror of Baghdad, died of cholera in the city. Command in Mesopotamia passed to General William Marshall.
• 19

  • Ain od-Dowleh again prime minister of PersiaOn 19 November 1917 the aged Prince Ain od-Dowleh replaced Ala al-Saltaneh as Persian premier. Famine was spreading and Russian troops were falling apart.
• 20

  • Key eventBattle of CambraiOn 20 November 1917 hundreds of British tanks, with no preliminary bombardment, broke the Hindenburg Line at Cambrai. Over 4,000 prisoners were taken.
  • Proclamation of the Ukrainian People's RepublicOn 20 November 1917 the Central Rada in Kiev issued the Third Universal. It proclaimed the Ukrainian People's Republic as part of a federal Russia.
• 21

  • Bolsheviks propose an armisticeOn 21 November 1917 Lenin's government told the high command to offer the enemy an armistice, and the Allied embassies got Trotsky's note. Dukhonin refused.
  • Flight of the airship L 59On 21 November 1917 the airship L 59 left Bulgaria with supplies for Lettow-Vorbeck. Recalled over Sudan, it returned after a 95-hour flight.
• 23

  • Lebrun becomes minister of blockadeOn 23 November 1917 Albert Lebrun succeeded Charles Jonnart as French Minister of Blockade and the Liberated Regions. Jonnart left after a week.
  • Fighting for Bourlon WoodOn 23 November 1917 the British 40th Division with tanks broke into Bourlon Wood near Cambrai and took the ridge. Bourlon and Fontaine villages were not taken.
• 24

  • End of the Battle of Nebi SamwilOn 24 November 1917 the Scottish 52nd Division attacked El Jib near Jerusalem in vain. Allenby halted the advance in the hills until fresh troops arrived.
• 25

  • Lettow-Vorbeck crosses the RovumaOn 25 November 1917 Lettow-Vorbeck forded the Rovuma into Mozambique and overran the Portuguese camp at Ngomano, capturing weapons, ammunition and medicines.
  • Elections to the Constituent AssemblyOn 25 November 1917 Russia began electing the Constituent Assembly. The SRs won; the Bolsheviks took about a quarter of the vote and both capitals.
• 26

  • Kucharzewski governmentOn 26 November 1917 the Regency Council made Jan Kucharzewski president of ministers, charging him with forming the first government of the Kingdom of Poland.
  • Death of Elsie InglisOn 26 November 1917 the Scottish doctor Elsie Inglis died in Newcastle. She founded the women's hospitals that treated the wounded in France, Serbia and Russia.
• 27

  • Permanent military representatives of the Supreme War CouncilIn late November 1917 the military advisers of the Supreme War Council at Versailles were settled: Wilson, Cadorna, Bliss and Foch, who was replaced by Weygand.
  • Russian envoys cross the German linesNear Dvinsk three envoys of Krylenko crossed the front to the Germans. On 27 November 1917 they returned with consent to armistice talks set for 2 December.
• 28

  • Surrender of Tafel's columnOn 28 November 1917, on the Rovuma, Captain Tafel's column, which had failed to reach Lettow-Vorbeck, surrendered. About 1,300 men gave themselves up.
  • Maapäev assumes power in EstoniaOn 28 November 1917 Estonia's provincial assembly, the Maapäev, declared itself supreme power until a constituent assembly met. The Bolsheviks dispersed it.
• 29

  • Great Inter-Allied conference in ParisOn 29 November 1917 the great Inter-Allied Conference met in Paris, with the Americans taking part for the first time. Clemenceau's watchword was "to work".
  • The Air Force ActOn 29 November 1917 the British Air Force Act received royal assent. It paved the way for merging the army and navy air services into the RAF.
• 30

  • German counter-attack at CambraiOn 30 November 1917 the German Second Army struck the British salient at Cambrai. In the south it took Gouzeaucourt and 158 guns; at Bourlon it was repulsed.
  • Allied Naval CouncilOn 29–30 November 1917 an Allied naval conference in Paris decided to set up a permanent Allied Naval Council to co-ordinate the war at sea.
  • Austria-Hungary accepts the offer of negotiationsOn 30 November 1917 Czernin informed Lenin's government by telegram that Austria-Hungary would join armistice and peace talks due to start on 2 December.