Warbirds Rising News of the World for January 1917:

January 1
The Cunard troopship Ivernia was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-47 off the Greek coast in the Mediterranean Sea.
General Sir Douglas Haig was promoted to Field Marshal.
January 3
German forces captured Focsani in Romania.
January 4
The Russian battleship Peresvet sank off Port Said, Egypt, after hitting a mine laid by German U-boats.
January 5
A conference was held in Rome between representatives from the British, French and Italian Governments.
January 6
The last Russian and Romanian forces evacuated Dobrudja in Romania.
January 7
The Allied Conference in Rome closed.
January 9
The day long Battle or Rafa completed the recapture of the Sinai Peninsula when Ottoman forces were driven back by British troops during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign.
The Royal Navy battleship HMS Cornwall was sunk by German submarine U-32 in the Mediterranean.
Prince Nikolai Dmitriyevitch Golitsyn replaced Alexander Trepov as Prime Minister of Russia.
January 10
The Allied powers replied to US President Wilson's Peace Note of December 1916 outlining their peace objectives.
January 11
Germany and Turkey signed a Settlement Treaty in Berlin.
German and Austro-Hungarian Governments issued a Note repudiating responsibility for continuance of the War.
January 14
A provisional Council of State was set up in Warsaw, Poland.
The Japanese battle cruiser Tsukuba was sunk while in port at Yokosuka after an internal explosion.
January 16
The German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann sent a telegram to his ambassador in Mexico, instructing him to propose an alliance against the United States with the Mexican government. Zimmermann believed that a war between Mexico and the United States would prevent American involvement in the European war.
January 17
An Inter-Allied conference convened at Petrograd to discuss war policy, finance and cooperation.
January 19
The Zimmermann telegram was intercepted and deciphered by the British.
A massive explosion in East London occurred when a large quantity of TNT exploded at a munitions factory in Salvertown.
January 20
General Reginald Hoskins succeeded General Jan Smuts in command of British forces during the East African Campaign.
January 22
US President Wilson addressed the US Senate and appealed for a settlement of the conflict in Europe on the basis of "peace without victory".
January 23
Royal Navy destroyer HMS Simoom was blown up by gunfire from German destroyers during action off the Schouwen Bank near Zeebrugge.
January 24
The Greek Government formally apologized to Allied Governments for refusing the Entente demands in December 1916.
January 25
German destroyers shelled Southwold and Wangford on the Suffolk coast in England.
A British attack on the Turkish salient at Hal met initial success but was beaten back by a Turkish counterattack.
January 26
British and Indian troops recaptured the trenches lost on 25 January at Hal.
January 27
The British steamer SS Artist was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-55 west of The Smalls near Newport in Wales.
January 31
The German Government announced that it would resume unrestricted naval warfare from the 1st February.

(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."