Western Front
Several Gothas thwarted in raid on southeast England by bad weather (1 Gotha emergency lands south of Margate, burnt by crew), 3 Giants (1 diverts to Boulogne) merely drop bombs in sea off Kent.
Germans drive in British advanced posts on Ypres-Staden railway.
The town of Ypres, its houses ruined and deserted, pitted by huge water filled shell craters:
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Lieut.-General Sir R. C. Maxwell, Quartermaster-General, B.E.F., France, resigns (see 23rd, and January 27th, 1915); succeeded by Lieutenant-General Sir T Clarke.
General Marie-Eugène Debeney in command of French First Army for duration of war.
British soldiers guarding German prisoners as they clear a road of snow: © IWM (Q 11553): British soldiers guarding German prisoners as they clear a road of snow: © IWM (Q 11553)
Eastern Front
Peace negotiations between Russian Bolshevik Government and Bulgaria, Central Powers and Turkey opened at Brest-Litovsk (see 15th, and January 5th, 1918).
Romanian troops occupy Bessarabia. Independent Moldavian Republic proclaimed there on December 23.
Bolshevik Red Guard forces in the Ukraine occupy the city of Kharkov.
Southern Front
First Battle of the Piave (until December 30): Austro-Hungarian massed attack carries hills near Valstagna.
General Adolphe Guillaumat appointed Allied Commander-in-Chief at Salonika (see 14th, and June 6th, 1918). He reads Milne his instructions on December 30 to protect Greece, then use her army in offensive.
Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Palestine: Battle of Jaffa (until December 22): Battle of Jaffa ends. British advance north and east of Jaffa.
Arabs under Sheikh Feisul capture Turkish troop train on Hejaz railway.
Political, etc
Russia: Bolshevik peace proposals; Austrian Ottokar Czernin rejects most on December 25.
Leon Trotsky, the Bolshevik Foreign Minister, says Russia will reject “offensive” German peace terms, declaring that, “We did not overthrow Czarism to kneel before the Kaiser.”
United Kingdom: Lord Rhondda's scheme for rationing by localities comes into force; main cause of queues removed.
Belgium: Flanders proclaimed independent.
United States: U.S. Army during the past two months has court-martialed over 100 American soldiers at Camp Merritt, New Jersey, for pro-German views and activities.
China: Chinese government at Harbin orders Russian Bolshevik headquarters in the city to disarm within 48 hours.