Western Front
British troops collecting mistletoe near Hesdin, France: © IWM (Q 8341):
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...969612707090434
British soldiers sliding on top of a frozen pond near Ypres: © IWM (Q 8369):
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...030024626524161
Eastern Front
Rostov occupied by Bolshevist troops.
Southern Front
First Battle of the Piave (until December 30): Italians surrender Col Caprile (Valstagna, Brenta river); but shell shortage postpones exploitation. Otherwise Austro-Hungarian attacks repulsed.
Naval and Overseas Operations
Ionian Sea:
UC-38 (Wendlandt) sinks French cruiser
Chateaurenault (10 lives lost, 1162 saved including 985 troops for Salonika) in Gulf of Patras off Cephalonia.
UC-38 (also sinker of 36 merchant ships worth 52,525t) then depth charged and sunk by convoy escort destroyers
Mameluk and
Lansquenet.
Naval Allied Council to be formed (ministers and Chiefs of Naval Staffs).
Political, etc
United Kingdom: Mr. Lloyd George speaks at Gray's Inn on "
No halfway house between victory and defeat".
Home Office and MI5 decide not to prosecute in 41 subversion cases. Local butter and margarine rationing begins. In December local tea rationing begins (1 1/2 oz per head per week), affects 17.5 million people.
Turkey: Single members of ‘Society for Finding Employment for Women’ (c.15,000 members) must marry or lose job (those eligible listed in press see February 9, 1918).