Western Front
Royal Flying Corps at Arras bombing starts with attacks against observation balloons (only 5 destroyed until April 8). No 100 Squadron RFC bombs Douai airfield (‘Richthofen Circus’ base), 4 hangars damaged (night April 5-6) repeated twice (April 7-8) with new 1-prd pom-pom strafing; Frankl in Albatros of Jasta 4 shoots down a BE2c in first planned night interception.
A German observation balloon is prepared for launching:
https://i0.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...tklar.jpg?ssl=1
RFC loses 75 aircraft (105 crew, until April 9), another 56 crashed or written off. Bristol Fighter two-seater flies first offensive patrol, 4 of 6 shot down by Richthofen’s 5 Albatros DIIIs.
British airman’s April life expectancy 23 days.
Somme: German withdrawal to the Siegfriedstellung (Hindenburg Line) completed. (Also listed for earlier last month). Another source reports: Allied pursuit of retiring Germans has been impeded by bad weather, collapse of roads, demolitions, booby traps and rearguards. But now most German outposts have been driven in and Allies face Hindenburg Line.
German troops counterattack French lines northwester of Rheims and claims the capture of 800 French prisoners.
A German dummy artillery gun captured by the French Army © IWM (Q 78878):
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...4359936/photo/1
Germans bombard French north of Urvillers.
Aeroplane raid on Kent and Ramsgate, no casualties.
Southern Front
Macedonia: KG 1 bombs and destroys munition train and dump at Karasuli by Lake Ardjan north of Salonika.
Political, etc
Russia: In Petrograd, the victims of the February Revolution are buried in the Field of Mars.
Manifesto of M. Guchkov (Russian War Minister) to soldiers to do their duty.
France: General Lyautey appointed to Morocco.
United Kingdom: British Government inform Russian Provisional Government of their adherence to the principle of an independent and united Poland (see March 30th and September 13th, 1916, and January 10th, 1917).
Rejected and some disabled men to be re-examined for military service. Assistant Chief Commissioner Thomson finds ‘a good deal of ignorant alarmism [about industrial unrest], especially among the generals present’.
Britain issues the “food hoarding order,” which prohibits anyone form hoarding food beyond what is needed for individual consumption.
Romania: King Ferdinand proclamation promises land and civic rights to peasants (and Army order on May 6).
United States: The U.S. Capitol is lit up as the Senate votes to declare war against Germany:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...1720576/photo/1
A military budget of $3.5 billion (about $66 billion today) is introduced in Congress as the U.S. prepares for war.
U.S. government states it will not sever relations or declare war on Germany’s allies for the time being unless they act first.
Simon N. Patten, economics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, is dismissed by the university due to his “pacifist activism”.
Netherlands: Dutch Note to British Government opposing armed merchantmen.