Western Front
Alsace: Stiff fighting at Harmannsweilerkopf.
British troops struggling to push up a horse-drawn cart up a snow-covered road in Hesdin, France: © IWM (Q 8351):
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...508815839760384
British soldier kissing a French woman while holding up a sprig of mistletoe: © IWM (Q 8354):
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...569225150615552
Southern Front
First Battle of the Piave (until December 30): Italians recapture whole of M. Asolone.
Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Palestine: Battle of Jaffa (until December 22): 54th (East Anglian) Division crosses the Yarkon River in darkness. The attack completely surprised the Ottoman defenders, and all Ottoman resistance was overcome by British troops using their bayonets and no shots were fired. and their front line were forced back 5 miles (8.0 km). By dawn the British held a line from Hadrah to Tel el Rekkeit, around 2 miles (3.2 km) north of the river.
Political, etc
Germany: Special offer in Germany to send gifts for Christmas 1917 to the front:
https://i2.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...-feld.jpg?ssl=1
Russia: Vladimir Antonov, People’s Commissar for War, made C-in-C ‘for the struggle with counter-revolution’.
France: Lucien Petit-Breton, French cyclist who won the Tour de France twice, is killed when the French army truck he was driving crashes into a cart:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...539030905573376
United Kingdom: British Government issue Order in Council instituting the Air Council (see November 29th, 1917, and January 3rd, 1918).
Mr. Lloyd George appeals for increase of agricultural cultivation. Local rationing schemes authorized. Munitions Ministry empowered to restrict lighting.
Italy: Italian war industry establishments number 3,500 as against 125 in 1915.
United States: A train wreck occurs in Shepherdsville, Kentucky, resulting in 49 deaths:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...624609517178880