30 June 1917

US Army Air Service WWI Recruiting Poster. Image in public domain.

• British troops on the Western Front capture more enemy territory south-west and west of Lens, as German forces attack on Chemin des Dames
• British and Portuguese soldiers in German East Africa drive German forces from Nyasaland
• Brigadier General William ‘Billy’ Mitchell assumes command of the American Air Service in France

29 June 1917

Italian medical staff dealing with the effects of shell fire on Italian soldiers on Monte di Val Bella, Asiago. Image courtesy Imperial War Museum © IWM (Q 65197).

• The Leader reports that Bertam Wenban of Millthorpe has had his arm amputated. The newspaper declares:

We well know that our young friend will say of his missing arm, “Gladly and freely given in honor of my native land’s great need. I shall never miss it.“

• The Orange Red Cross Society requests donations of fleece for spinning to make garments for soldiers at the front. Donations may be left at the Town Hall, where volunteers have a room equipped with three spinning machines. The Red Cross Workers
• Italians forces on the Southern Front evacuate advanced positions on the Asiago Plateau
• British troops continue their advance on the Western Front, advancing south of the Souchez river and entering Avion
• The Leader publishes the poem To the Women of Australia

There’s many a house in Australia
Where women watch and pray;
There’s many a home where women weep
In Australia to-day

Sad eyes your watch is keeping,
Yet brave, as well, we know,
When for the fame of Australia
You bid your loved one go.

Proudly you sent your dearest;
Gladly your best you gave;
The bugle call from England
Rose high above the wave.

It echoed o’er your homesteads.
And wak’d the great north-west;
It rang through farms and homestead,
And in your heart found rest.

Fearless and strong your soldiers
Set out for lands unknown,
Where flames of war are leaping.
And death comes to his own.

Oh! there, with dauntless valour,
They sprang to peaks of fame,
Nor time nor death shall tarnish
The lustre of their name.

We thrill with pride of kinship.
Telling those deeds of might;
We mourn with you heroes
Who fell in gallant fight.

We, In the old land, greet you
Sisters, though seas divide,
Our hearts are linked together,
Our men fight side by side.

28 June 1917

Field Marshal Viscount Edmund Allenby, 1917. Image in the public domain.

• Day 1065 of the war
• General Sir Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby succeeds General Sir Archibald Murray as commander of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force
• British forces on the Western Front advance south of the Souchez River as German troops attack north-west of Verdun and capture French trenches on Hill 304

27 June 1917

Why should we murmur, short-sighted and vain,
Since death to our loved one is undying gain

• Walter Higman’s mother and sisters publish a commemoration to him in the Leader. Roll of Honour
• The Red Cross confirms that Edmund Kension Augustine Hyland of Euchareena has been captured and is a prisoner of war in Germany. Euchareena
• The people of Millthorpe present Austin Herbert Edmonds with an inscribed gold medal and a purse of sovereigns prior to his departure for the front. Presentation to Trooper Austin Edmonds
• Harold Cassidy of Anson Street writes home to say that he been in France for twelve months now and has made a few £2 bets that the war will be over by the end of August

What, oh! for the time, when one can wash, bathe, shave, and shave daily. One does not appreciate these benefits in civilian life, but this war has taught us all wonders—how to appreciate things by finding out we never knew when we were well off.

• Mr AN White of the Victorian Field Artillery Brigade attends a recruiting meeting in Orange with a display of weapons from the Somme. The weapons include a German Cat-o’-5-Tails: “a brutal and criminal instrument of torture” and the Newton Pippin Rifle Grenade: “a remarkably accurate and terrible instrument which scatters the Huns in all directions”. Mr AN White at Orange Recruiting Meeting
• Eleftherios Venizelos returns to Athens and succeeds Alexandros Zaimis as Prime Minister. He severs diplomatic relations with Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey; a state of war is declared on the Central Powers.

Eleftherios Venizelos returns to Athens, 27 June 1917. Image courtesy Agence Rol – Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

26 June 1917

The first contingent of US troops arriving in France, 26 June 1917. Image courtesy 2nd-division.com.

• The first contingent of US troops arrives at Saint-Nazaire in France. Lieutenant General John Joseph “Black Jack” Pershing, Commander-in-Chief of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF), greets the 14,000 infantrymen as they step ashore, declaring: “They are sturdy rookies – we shall make great soldiers of them”. More than two million American soldiers would serve in WWI, 50,000 of whom would die in battle. The First US Infantry Troops Land in France
• British troops on the Western Front advance along the Souchez river, occupying La Coulotte
• Russian forces capture Serdesht in Persia

25 June 1917

• The headmaster of Sydney Grammar School, Mr A Giles, visits Orange to support an appeal for French war victims. France’s Day Appeal
• Millthorpe Girls’ Friendly Society hosts a social evening to raise gifts for the Soldiers’ Comforts Fund. Girls’ Friendly Society
• A Leader correspondent claims that less than five percent of returned soldiers are interested in becoming farmers and provides six reasons as to why returned soldiers should not be given land grants. Returned Soldiers on the Land
• The German armed merchant cruiser Wolf enters New Zealand waters and lays mines off the Three Kings Islands. The cruiser returns two nights later and lays mines off Farewell Spit. Two merchant ships would later be claimed by the mines: Port Kembla on 18 September 1917, and Wimmera on 26 June 1918.

24 June 1917

• French forces on the Western Front recover more ground near Vauxaillon
• British troops advance along a 2.5 kilometre front near Lens
• The German Air Force forms the Jagdgeschwader 1, a fighter unit comprising four fighter squadrons with flying ace Manfred von Richthofen, the “Red Baron”, as commander. The unit would become known as “The Flying Circus” or “Richthofen’s Circus” due to the bright colours of its aircraft.
• British and German delegates convene at The Hague to negotiate the treatment of prisoners of war
• Nikola Pasic forms the new Serbian Government

23 June 1917

• Day 1060 of the war
• Allied soldiers repulse German attacks near Vauxaillon and Filain on the Western Front
• The P&O passenger liner Mongolia strikes a mine and sinks in the Indian Ocean 80 kilometres off the coast of Bombay. Fourteen people drown.
• Greek Prime Minister Alexandros Zaimis resigns
• Ernst Seidler von Feuchtenegg is appointed Austrian Prime Minister

Ernst Seidler von Feuchtenegg, 1918. Image courtesy Bildarchiv Austria.

22 June 1917

• Annie and William Patteson of Lords Place receive letters from their sons George and William, who recently bumped into each other on the Western Front. William complains that the last shipment of mail from home was lost when the SS Mongolia was torpedoed:

This is very bad news for us, as the mail days are looked forward to with interest, more than anything else. We would sooner miss pay day than lose our mail.

• Edward Irwin writes home to his mother Nellie to tell her that:

A piece of shell took a liking to half one side of my nose, and took it straight off. It was the right side of my nose and top lip that got hit. It is nothing serious. About eight weeks in this hospital will do me the world of good.

• The Leader publishes the 312^th Casualty List
• The Orange branch of the Red Cross Society donates £100 to help soldiers at the front. From Orange for France
• French troops on the Western Front lose ground south-east of Filain and Germany launches a heavy attack on the Chemin des Dames front

21 June 1917

• French troops on the Western Front recover nearly all ground lost near Vauxaillon and advance near Mont Cornillet
• Allied forces repulse a German attack on the Teton in Champagne
• Sailors of the Black Sea Fleet stationed at Sevastopol Naval Base mutiny. They claim that naval officers are planning a counter-revolution and demand that they be disarmed.