Western Front
Kaiserschlacht: German artillery active on Lys and Somme battlefields; heavy rain throughout day.
Local fighting north of Kemmel.
It is announced that an Independent Air Force (IAF), under the command of Major General Sir Hugh Trenchard, will be formed from 6 Jun 1918. This is the first time that an Air Force had been formed for the express purpose of conducting a war, without reference or subordination to Army or Navy Commands.
The IAF is to operate by day and night against industrial targets in Germany and enemy aerodromes. In five months, the nine squadrons of the IAF, equipped with de Havilland DH4, DH9, and DH9A, Handley Page 0/400 and Royal Aircraft Factory FE2b bombers, with one squadron of Sopwith Camels for escort work, drop a total of 550 tons of bombs, 390 tons by night.
British soldier talking to French children in a ruined shop in Abbeville, France: © IWM (Q 3265):
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...330283384852480
British Machine Gun Corps practicing shooting at aeroplanes: © IWM (Q 3284):
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...604607920459778
British, French, and American military policemen in front of a wrecked shop at Amiens: © IWM (Q 11142):
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...634841247940608
Southern Front
Increased raids and bombing activity on Balkan front.
11 Austro-Hungarian planes claimed destroyed on Italian front.
Naval and Overseas Operations
Adriatic: Italian tracked naval torpedo motorboat (like a ‘tank’)
Grillo (foiled May 6-7) crawls into Pola harbor, is discovered and scuttled to avoid capture, but Austrians raise her and build 2 similar craft (unfinished at Armistice). Early pair of Italian naval ‘tanks’ scuttled similarly (April 13).
Italian
Grillo tracked torpedo motorboat:
https://i1.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w...oboot.jpg?ssl=1
MAS raid on Trieste also fails (night May 14-15). British destroyer
Phoenix sunk by Austrian
U-27 in Otranto Straits.
Black Sea: On Moscow’s orders 14 Soviet destroyers sail from Sevastopol for Novorossisk, escaping Germans as do 4 more and 2 dreadnoughts (night May 14) under fire but Germans seize predreadnoughts and smaller vessels including ex-Turkish cruiser
Medjidieh.
Political, etc
France: To unions’ surprise 40,301 Paris munition workers strike against war, 105,131 in 53 factories by May 14. Government impose news blackout, back to normal on May 21.
United Kingdom: Government announce policy denouncing all commercial treaties which contain "most favoured nation" clauses.
United States: War labor Policies Board appointed.
The Faith, the largest US ship made out of concrete, undergoes trials in San Francisco Bay. It is made of concrete to preserve steel:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...574425587154944
French “Blue Devils” (Chasseurs Alpin) visiting the White House and meeting President Wilson:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...665088823603200
L. Frank Baum releases “The Tin Woodman of Oz,” the 12th book in the Land of Oz series:
https://twitter.com/CenturyAgoToday...695239758319618