Western Front
Third Battle of Ypres: Battle of Langemarck, 1917 ends (see 16th).
Allied forces at Ypres hold on to gains made the day before yesterday despite German counterattacks.
British soldiers duck for cover as a German shell lands near Boezinge, near Ypres: © IWM (Q 5889):
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...152535466364929
A 17-year-old German soldier captured by the Canadians:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...182763819479040
A British officer looks out from the trenches at Ypres as shells burst in the distance: © IWM (Q 2738):
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...485896739041285
Belgium – The Hollandflug: abortive Gotha bomber mission against London. 28 aircraft sent (8 or 9 lost) but recalled due to gale-force winds; 2 shot down in neutral Holland, 6 or 7 crash in Belgium, others ditch in sea.
Japanese-Canadian soldier posing for the camera:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...243369981411329
Verdun sector: French counter-attack on right bank of Meuse and recapture trenches lost on 16 August.
Eastern Front
Romanian front fighting less intense, situation unchanged.
Romanians retire towards Marasesti (20 miles north of Focsani).
Southern Front
Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo: (the Bainsizza, until September 12): After barrage from 0600 hours Italian Second and Third Armies (44 divisions; 3,566 guns, 1,760 mortars) on 30-mile front night attack Austrian Fifth Army (18 divisions with 248 battalions including 3 divisions from Eastern Front, 6 transferring) capture first line with 7,500 PoWs but only across 6 of 14 Isonzo bridges (more built night August 19/20) planned due to Austrian resistance.
Austro-Hungarian soldier on sentry duty in the fringe of a wood on the Isonzo front in August 1917:
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Italian Front: 85 Caproni bombers hit Austrian supply relief columns, ammo dumps and headquarters.
Salonika: Great fire begins in wooden old quarter with oil spilling from stove, brought under control on August 21 but 80,000 made homeless and nearly half city destroyed; British base HQ gutted on waterfront, but port not affected.
Naval and Overseas Operations
Western Mediterranean: Scout cruiser USS
Birmingham (Rear Admiral Wilson) arrives at Gibraltar as flagship US Patrol Force, 2 others and 7 gunboats to work on Atlantic side of straits.
Political, etc
Allies: British, French, and Italian Governments conclude provisional arrangement with regard to future policy in Asia Minor (Turkey) (see May 16th, 1916 and July 27th, 1917).
Germany: During Wilhelmshaven visit by Kaiser and Capelle, Scheer calls recent mutiny a ‘socialist plot‘ that necessitates a ‘few death sentences’; demands implicated USPD deputies be tried for treason. Capelle demurs, saying deputies enjoy parliamentary immunity. Kaiser has first sea voyage of war in new flagship Baden from Wilhelmshaven to Heligoland.
United Kingdom: Government proclamation forbids threatened rail engineers strike. Churchill replaces 50 Munitions Ministry Departments with 11-man Council (meeting weekly) and secretariat, his Munitions Bill passed on August 21.
United States: Forces total 943,141 men. Food Administrator Hoover asks each family to save 1 lb of flour per week.