March 18--Belgians repulse German raids in the region of Nieuport,
Dixmude, and Mercken.
March 19--French penetrate German line near Rheims; British carry out
successful raids in the neighborhood of Villers-Guislain, La Vacquerie,
and Bois Gienier.
March 20--German airplane drops balls of liquefied mustard gas on
American lines northwest of Toul; Americans shell Lahayville, causing a
heavy explosion and forcing the Germans to retreat; French repulse
violent raids in the Souain sector of Champagne.
March 21--Germans open terrific drive on British lines on a fifty-mile
front from southeast of Arras as far as La Fère; French lines bombarded
north and southeast of Rheims as well as on the Champagne front; Paris
bombarded by long-range guns.
March 22--Germans claim 16,000 prisoners in big drive; General Haig
reports them gaining at some points and repulsed at others; American
artillery fire destroys German first and second line trenches east of
Lunéville; violent gun duels in the Aisne and Champagne sectors; French
repulse three German raids near Souain.
March 23--Germans smash British front, win victories near Monchy,
Cambrai, St. Quentin, and La Fère, and penetrate into second British
positions between Fontaine les Croisilles and Moeuvres; British evacuate
positions in the bend southwest of Cambrai; Germans penetrate third
British position between the Omignon stream and the Somme; Paris again
shelled by gun seventy-five miles away; ten persons killed and fifteen
or more wounded; fierce artillery fire on the French front from the
Oise River to the Vosges Mountains.
March 24--Germans capture Péronne, Chauny, and Ham, and cross the River
Somme at certain points south of Péronne; assaults further north
repulsed; Paris again bombarded by gun located in the Forest of St.
Gobain.
March 25--Germans take Bapaume, Nesle, Guiscard, Biaches, Barleux, and
Etalon; French take over sector of British battlefront south of St.
Quentin and around Noyon; General Pershing announces that two regiments
of American engineers are on the Somme battlefield; long-range
bombardment of Paris continues; one long-range gun explodes, killing ten
men; American gunners shell St. Bausant and the billets north of
Boquetau.
March 26--Germans take Noyon, Roye, and Lihon, and cross the battleline
of 1916 at many points; Americans in the Toul sector drive Germans out
of Richecourt.
March 27--British, reinforced, beat back German attacks, capture
Morlaincourt and Chipilly, north of the Somme, and to the south of the
river advance their lines to the village of Proyart; Germans announce
the capture of Albert and the crossing of the Ancre north and south of
the city; French forced to yield ground east of Montdidier, but check
assaults near Lassigny and Noyon.
March 28--British repulse all-day attacks at Arras; Germans capture
Montdidier and push their lines as far as Pierrepont, and regain some
ground south of the Somme which they lost in 1914; French advance at
Noyon for a mile and a quarter on a six-mile front.
March 29--British line south of the Somme pushed back to a line running
west of Hamel, Marcelcave, and Demuin; German drive slackens in the
north; French in the Oise Valley retake Monchel; seventy-five persons
killed and ninety wounded in church near Paris by shell from long-range
gun.
March 30--Paris again bombarded by long-range guns; eight killed,
thirty-seven wounded; Germans wrest six villages in the Montdidier
sector from the French, and Demuin and Mézières from the British, but
are repulsed in the Boiry-Boyelles region.
March 31--Germans lose ground near Feuchy; British advance near Serre;
French recapture Ayencourt and Monchel and gain considerable ground near
Orvillers; American Army starts for the battlefront; Paris again
bombarded; one person killed, six injured.
April 1--French repulse German attacks against Grivesnes; Germans mass
troops near Albert for renewed drive; bombardment of Paris resumed.
April 2--British carry on successful minor operations between the Avre
and the Luce Rivers and in the neighborhood of Hébuterne; French
repulse Germans southwest of La Fère and shell enemy concentrations east
of Cantigny.
April 3--British occupy Ayette, check Germans near Moreuil; French
extend their lines north of Plémont and take over another sector of the
line, extending their holdings northward to Thennes; Americans heavily
gassed in a sector other than Toul.
April 4--Germans deliver terrific attack against the French along a
front of nearly nine miles, from Grivesnes to north of the Amiens-Royes
road, and occupy the villages of Mailly-Raineval and Morisel; British
lose ground north of Hamel and in the direction of Vaire Wood.
April 5--French forces, by vigorous counterattacks, improve their
positions in the region of Mailly-Raineval and Cantigny; Germans attack
British lines from the Somme northward to a point above Bucquoy and
reach the Albert-Amiens railway, but are driven back.
April 6--Germans attack at several points along the French front from
the region of Montdidier eastward to the east and south of Chauny, but
are repulsed everywhere except on the left bank of the Oise in the
Chauny sector.
April 7--Germans push on south of the Oise and take Coucy Wood and
Pierremande and Folembray; British retake Aveluy Wood and repel attacks
opposite Albert and south of Hébuterne.
April 8--British lines around Bucquoy heavily shelled; Germans drive
French back to the western bank of the Ailette River and take Verneuil
and the heights east of Coucy-le-Château; Americans rout German patrol
northwest of Toul; French airmen locate and bombard the gun that fired
on Paris.
April 9--Germans force back the British-Portuguese centre on the River
Lys between Estaires and Bac St. Maur, and take Richeboucq-St. Vaast and
Laventie; British repulse attacks at Givenchy and Fleurbaix.
April 10--Germans cross the River Lys at several points between
Armentières and Estaires; British forced back north and south of
Armentières; French repulse Germans in the Hangard region; first
American troops reach the British front.
April 11--Germans hurl troops at British front from La Bassée to the
Ypres-Comines Canal, and force the British to give ground at some
points, notably at Estaires and Steenwerck.
April 12--Germans launch heavy attacks against the French in the
Hangard-en-Santerre sector, penetrate Hangard, but later lose half of
the village to the French; Americans help to repel an attack in the
Apremont Forest; British forced back west and northwest of Armentières
to Neuve Eglise; Merville lost.
April 13--French advance northwest of Orvilles-Sorel and repulse attack
near Noyon; British regain Neuve Eglise, but beat off German attacks
southeast of Bailleul; Americans repulse two attacks in force in the
Toul sector, winning the first all-day battle in which they have been
engaged.
April 14--British hold Neuve Eglise against repeated German assaults;
Germans attack near Bailleul and Merris; Americans repulse attacks north
of St. Mihiel; bombardment of Paris by long-range gun continues.
April 15--Germans take Neuve Eglise, and hurl huge forces toward
Bailleul and Wulverghem; British straighten out their salient around
Wytschaete; definite announcement made of the appointment of General
Foch as Commander in Chief of the allied armies in France, with enlarged
powers.
April 16--Germans take Wytschaete and Spanbroekmolen, after forcing the
British out of Bailleul; sixteen killed, forty-five wounded in
long-range bombardment of Paris.
April 17--British re-enter Wytschaete and Meteren, but are forced out;
Germans occupy Poelcappelle, Langemarck, and Passchendaele.