April 1918

April

• 01

  • Russians leave EnzeliOn 1 April 1918 the last regular Russian troops left the Persian port of Enzeli. A Bolshevik committee still ruled it; the Jangalis held the area around.
  • Formation of the RAFOn 1 April 1918 the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service merged to form the Royal Air Force, independent of both the army and the navy.
• 02

  • Mirbach becomes ambassador in MoscowOn 2 April 1918 Count Wilhelm von Mirbach was appointed Germany's first representative to Lenin's government. He arrived in Moscow late in the month.
• 03

  • Germans land at HankoOn 3 April 1918 von der Goltz's German Baltic Division, about 9,500 men from Danzig, landed at Hanko. Red Finland began to crumble.
  • Germans take YekaterinoslavIn early April 1918 the Bolsheviks abandoned Yekaterinoslav on the Dnieper and German troops entered the city. The road to the Donbas lay open before them.
  • Beauvais ConferenceOn 3 April 1918 at Beauvais the French, British and US governments gave General Foch the strategic direction of operations on the Western Front.
• 04

  • Key eventFighting on the AvreOn 4 April 1918, in the rain, the Germans struck at Amiens. By evening they were at Villers-Bretonneux, but an Australian counter-attack threw them back.
  • Scuttling of British submarines at HelsinkiIn early April 1918 the British scuttled seven of their Baltic submarines off Helsinki to keep them from the Germans landing in Finland.
  • Steczkowski governmentOn 4 April 1918 the Regency Council appointed the government of Jan Kanty Steczkowski, a Galician banker, ending Ponikowski's five-week caretaker cabinet.
• 05

  • Key eventFighting on the AncreOn 5 April 1918 the Germans attacked on the Ancre. At Dernancourt the Australians lost the embankment but held the ridge. Ludendorff then ended Michael.
  • Landing at VladivostokOn 5 April 1918, after a Japanese was killed, Japanese and then British sailors landed at Vladivostok. It was the first step of the intervention in Siberia.
  • Turks retake VanIn early April 1918 Ottoman troops returned to ruined Van, held by the Russians and Armenians since 1915. The Armenians had left the town beforehand.
  • Turks take SarıkamışOn 5 April 1918 the Turks regained Sarıkamış, scene of Enver's defeat in 1914–15. The Armenians had left the town in the night, fearing encirclement.
• 06

  • Whites take TampereOn 6 April 1918, after three weeks of fighting, the last defenders of Tampere surrendered. Mannerheim's Whites took some 11,000 prisoners and broke Red Finland.
• 08

  • Germans take KharkovOn 7–8 April 1918 German troops entered Kharkov, capital of the Donetsk–Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic. Its government fled to Luhansk.
• 09

  • Key eventStart of the Battle of the LysOn 9 April 1918, in fog, the German Sixth Army struck on the Lys. The Portuguese 2nd Division broke, but the British held Givenchy and the line of the rivers.
  • Union of Bessarabia with RomaniaOn 9 April 1918 the Sfatul Țării in Kishinev voted by 86 votes to unite Bessarabia with Romania, subject to autonomy and land reform.
• 10

  • Key eventGermans take MessinesOn 10 April 1918 the German 4th Army attacked in fog north of Armentières and took Messines. In the evening the South Africans briefly retook the village.
  • Shelling of MonroviaOn 10 April 1918 the German U-cruiser U-154 shelled Monrovia, destroying the French radio station, having first sunk Liberia's only warship.
  • Third Military Service ActOn 10 April 1918 the Commons passed on second reading a bill raising the conscription age to 51 and allowing conscription to be extended to Ireland.
  • German-Turkish settlement treatyOn 10 April 1918 Germany and Turkey exchanged in Berlin the ratifications of the settlement treaty and nine other treaties replacing the capitulations.
  • Pact of RomeOn 10 April 1918 a congress of the nations oppressed by Austria-Hungary adopted a joint declaration in Rome and endorsed the Italian–Yugoslav agreement.
• 11

  • Germans take Armentières and MervilleOn 11 April 1918 the Germans entered Armentières, abandoned by the British, and broke into Merville that evening. The Lys front fell back towards Hazebrouck.
  • Sixtus affairOn 11 April 1918 the French government published Emperor Charles I's secret 1917 letter backing France's "just claims" to Alsace-Lorraine.
  • The "Backs to the Wall" orderOn 11 April 1918 Douglas Haig issued an order of the day telling his troops to fight "with our backs to the wall" and hold every position to the last man.
• 12

  • Key eventStart of the Battle of HazebrouckOn 12 April 1918 the German Sixth Army struck at Hazebrouck. It broke through at Pacaut and Doulieu, but the Guards and 5th Division held it at Nieppe Forest.
  • Last airship raid with casualtiesOn the night of 12–13 April 1918 five German airships bombed central England, killing seven in Wigan. It was the last airship raid to cause casualties.
  • United Baltic dietsOn 12 April 1918 in Riga a united council of Livonia and Estonia, dominated by Baltic Germans, asked for a monarchy in personal union with Prussia.
• 13

  • Key eventBattle of Bailleul beginsOn 13 April 1918 the Germans attacked the hills between Bailleul and Neuve-Église. The British gave up an exposed salient but held the Ravelsberg ridge.
  • Germans take HelsinkiOn 12–13 April 1918 the Baltic Division took Red Helsinki after street fighting. The White government declared the Germans had come to Finland at its request.
  • Protests against the union of BessarabiaOn 13 April 1918 the Little Rada in Kiev condemned the union of Bessarabia with Romania and refused to recognise it. Soviet Russia soon protested too.
• 14

  • Key eventFoch becomes Allied commander-in-chiefOn 14 April 1918 Foch became commander-in-chief of the Allied armies in France. That day at Abbeville he refused to relieve Haig's British divisions.
  • Turks take BatumOn 14 April 1918 the Turks took Batum, the main Transcaucasian Black Sea port. The fortress surrendered after a few hours, and Constantinople celebrated.
  • Czernin resignsOn 14 April 1918 Count Ottokar Czernin resigned as foreign minister of Austria-Hungary. He was brought down by the Sixtus affair, which he himself had set off.
• 15

  • Germans take BailleulOn 15 April 1918 the Germans took the Ravelsberg ridge east of Bailleul. That night the British left the town, which in later months was reduced to ruins.
  • End of the Battle of HazebrouckOn 15 April 1918 the front before Hazebrouck settled at Nieppe Forest. Artillery broke up German attempts to attack the 5th Division and the Australians.
  • Second Kattegat raidOn 15 April 1918 British light forces again broke into the Kattegat and sank ten German armed trawlers. Their crews were rescued.
• 16

  • Germans retake PasschendaeleOn 16 April 1918 the Germans took the Passchendaele ridge unopposed. The British gave up their 1917 gains to shorten the front and free troops for the Lys.
  • Burián becomes foreign ministerOn 16 April 1918 Baron István Burián succeeded Czernin, becoming foreign minister for the second time. He was to rebuild Berlin's trust after the Sixtus affair.
• 17

  • Key eventStart of the First Battle of Mount KemmelOn 17 April 1918 the Germans attacked the Flanders hills near Kemmel and the Belgians at Merkem. British, Australians, French and Belgians beat off the attacks.
  • Wekerle resignsOn 17 April 1918 Sándor Wekerle's Hungarian government resigned after failed talks with Tisza's party on electoral reform. The king soon reappointed him.
• 18

  • Key eventFighting at BéthuneOn 18 April 1918 six German divisions attacked Givenchy, Festubert and the La Bassée canal. The British repulsed the attack and Béthune stayed in their hands.
• 19

  • Germans enter the CrimeaOn 18–19 April 1918 German troops broke the Reds' defences on the Perekop Isthmus and entered the Crimea. Their goal was Sevastopol and the Black Sea Fleet.
  • End of the First Battle of Mount KemmelOn 19 April 1918 the French 28th Division took over Mount Kemmel. The Germans halted their attack on the Belgians and prepared a new, methodical assault.
• 20

  • Milner becomes Secretary of State for WarIn April 1918 Lord Derby left the War Office to become ambassador in Paris. On 20 April Lord Milner took over his post.
• 21

  • Death of the Red BaronOn 21 April 1918 Manfred von Richthofen, the ace with 80 victories, was killed over the Somme valley, most probably hit by an Australian gunner on the ground.
  • Italian–Czechoslovak conventionOn 21 April 1918 Orlando and Štefánik signed in Rome a convention creating a Czechoslovak army in Italy under the authority of the national council.
• 22

  • Transcaucasia declares independenceOn 22 April 1918 the Transcaucasian Sejm in Tiflis proclaimed the independent Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic, the Turks' condition for new talks.
• 23

  • Key eventZeebrugge raidOn St George's night, 23 April 1918, the Royal Navy attacked Zeebrugge and Ostend to seal the Germans' exits from Bruges. Two blockships were sunk at Zeebrugge.
  • Key eventGuatemala declares war on GermanyOn 23 April 1918 President Estrada Cabrera promulgated a decree by which Guatemala adopted towards Germany the same belligerent attitude as the United States.
  • Motono resignsOn 23 April 1918 Japan's ailing foreign minister Ichirō Motono resigned. He was replaced by Shinpei Gotō, also a supporter of intervention in Siberia.
• 24

  • Key eventFighting at Villers-BretonneuxOn 24 April 1918 the Germans took Villers-Bretonneux with tanks, and at Cachy tanks fought tanks for the first time. That night the Australians retook the town.
• 25

  • Key eventGermans take Mount KemmelOn 25 April 1918, after a gas bombardment, the Alpenkorps took the French-held Kemmelberg in just over an hour. The British held the flank at Ypres.
  • Ottomans occupy KarsOn 25 April 1918, on orders from Tiflis, the Armenians gave up Kars fortress to the Turks without a fight, with its guns and stores. Russia took it in 1877.
• 27

  • Italians on the Western FrontBy 27 April 1918 General Albricci's Italian II Corps, about 25,000 men, had arrived in France. It assembled at the Mailly-le-Camp camp in Champagne.
• 29

  • Key eventFighting for the ScherpenbergOn 29 April 1918 the Germans attacked the Scherpenberg and Mont Rouge. The French and British repulsed them, and that evening Ludendorff halted the offensive.
  • Skoropadskyi proclaimed hetmanOn 29 April 1918 a congress of landowners in Kiev proclaimed General Pavlo Skoropadskyi Hetman of Ukraine. With German backing he overthrew the Central Rada.
  • Whites take VyborgOn 29 April 1918 the Whites took Vyborg, the last capital of Red Finland. After taking the city they shot hundreds of prisoners and several hundred Russians.
• 30

  • Start of the second raid on Es SaltOn 30 April 1918 Australian horsemen raced north up the Jordan valley and galloped into Es Salt in the evening. The infantry was held up at Shunet Nimrin.