News of the World for the month of May - Intrepid Fliers:

May 1
The leaders of the rebellion in Ireland surrendered to British forces.
Reichstag member Karl Liebknecht was arrested following a pacifist demonstration.
May 3
Patrick Pearse and two other Irish rebel leaders were executed by a British firing squad.
German forces began an artillery bombardment of Hill 304, northwest of Verdun.
May 4
The German Government pledged to the United States that they would not attack merchant ships without warning.
May 5
The German airship LZ85 was downed by British guns at Salonika.
German forces gained a foothold on Hill 304 at Verdun.
May 7 The verdict of the Court Martial was communicated to Irish rebel, Sean Heuston, that he had been sentenced to death and was to be shot at dawn the following morning.
May 8
White Star steamship SS Cymric was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20 in the Atlantic Ocean.
May 9
The British and French Governments concluded the Sykes-Picot agreement regarding the eventual partition of Asia Minor. The agreement took its name from its negotiators, Sir Mark Sykes of Britain and Francois Georges-Picot of France.
May 10
Lord Wimborne resigned as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.
May 11
A German attack west of Vaux Pond was repulsed during the Battle of Verdun.
May 12
Irish republican and socialist leader James Connolly was executed by a British firing squad because of his role in the Easter Rising.
May 14
An Austrian offensive against Italy began with an artillery barrage in the province of Trentino.
May 15
In northern Mesopotamia Russian forces occupied Rowanduz.
The Allies began a blockade of the Hejaz coast to assist the Arab revolt under Sharif Hussein bin Ali, Emir of Mecca.
May 16
The House of Commons passed an extension to the Military Service Act bringing married men into the scope for conscription.
Austrian forces captured the Italian trenches at Soglio d'AspiO.
May 17
Earl Curzon of Kedlesron was appointed as President of the Air Board in Great Britain.
May 18
Austrian forces captured Zugna Torta and Unz from Italy.
May 19
The Austrian offensive stalled in the Trentino when Italian troops held Monte Pasubio but the Italians then retreated from Monte Toraro and Monte Campolon.
May 20
German forces attacked Le Mort Homme and captured the summit of Hill 295 at Verdun.
May 21
Adolf Tortilowicz von Batocki-Friebe was appointed president of the newly created German food control board.
May 22
French forces launched an assault and gained a foothold in Fort Douaumont at Verdun.
May 23
British troops occupied the capital city of El Fasher in Darfur.
May 25
The Second Military Service Bill became law in Great Britain.
May 26
German and Bulgarian forces occupied Fort Rupel on the Greek border with Macedonia.
May 27
US President Wilson proposed a "universal association of nations" to settle future disputes.
May 28
German forces bombarded the British line between La Bassee Canal and Arras on the Western Front.
May 29
The first Despatch of Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, Commander in Chief of the British Armies in France and Flanders, was printed in the London Gazette. It covered the fighting at the Bluff, St Eloi and other actions of early 1916.
May 31
The Battle of Jutland began between Britain's Grand Fleet and Germany's Hochseeflotte in the North Sea.

(From The Great War - Unseen Archives by Robert Hamilton)


"Take the cylinder out of my kidneys,
The connecting rod out of my brain, my brain,
From out of my arse take the camshaft,
And assemble the engine again."